Update

Trav went in Tuesday to meet with a
pain specialist.
The Dr. was able to give him a shot and burn the
nerves that were causing all the pain.

So far it seems to have helped quite a lot.
He is able to move around a lot more and
it's not near as sensitive.
He still hurts in the morning an isn't sleeping
as well as he would like,
but I think will improve.

It's nice to see him laugh without
wanting to cry out in pain again!

We meet with a Dr. at Huntsman
in February so we are taking it easy
until then and enjoying what might be our
last few weeks of normalcy for a while.

We are both still very nervous
for what's to come,
but also so grateful that we have options.

Options are good.

I'm hoping we have nothing to
report till we meet with him.
Thanks again to everyone.
For everything.

One Wish Cache Valley

This past week we were given
a lovely gift
from
One Wish Cache Valley.

Read about it here.
It was such fun!

And link to their website here.

New Blood

Trav went in for his infusion yesterday
and got a few bags of
new, healthy blood.

It is absolutely amazing to watch
his color brighten
as the blood drips into his veins.

I know, that sounds pretty gross,
but really, it's so amazing to
see his color look
SO
healthy again.

I like new blood.
Trav does too.
He says he feels like he has
a little more energy.

That being said he still doesn't have enough.
He tires very easily right now
and his appetite isn't 100% just yet.
His rib pain is still there, but
it's not nearly as acute as it was before.
Hopefully Tuesday the pain specialist
will be able to straighten him out
so he can get some sleep at night.

We both feel like if he starts to sleep,
he will feel about a million times better.

Thank you all so much for your concern,
texts, e-mails, phone calls, delicious dinners,
and mostly your prayers.

We feel really very blessed and lucky
to have such great friends.

I am really hoping he will get some energy back
this week and be able to go back to work.
It's good for him to be there with his work friends,
and be busy.
And routine would feel so nice
compared to this awful week of
watching t.v. and trying to find a little normalcy.

Mostly we are ready to know exactly what the next
year of our life will look like
and ready to ask the new Dr. all the questions brewing
in our minds.

We have no idea what the timeline is like
for IL-2. No idea how he will feel when he is
there getting treatment, how he will feel afterwards.
How much it all costs, how often it is administered...
you get the drift, right?

Anyhow, just wanted to let everyone know
that Trav is doing better today then before,
and we both feel like he will continue to improve.
Thanks again to all for everything!

I will update again Tuesday when we come up
with a plan to battle this pain.

Results

We were able to meet with Trav's
Doctor today and figure a few things out.

The scan came back showing some growth
in his rib area, and also in the mets to his lungs.
It's minimal, but still growth.

The Doctor is concerned that maybe our time with
our current drug is running out.
And we knew that would happen eventually.
For most people 4 years on one drug is unheard of.

But man, we love that drug.
It's left us able to live a very normal life,
and has worked for SO long in terms of RCC,
and more importantly, it's tolerable.

We have options.
There a a few drugs we can choose from,
but the Dr. is leaning towards one that we've read
a bit about.
IL2.

I've done research about it before
and it terrifies me.
From what little I know,
he will have this done at the U
with a Dr. that our Dr. speaks highly of.
He will have to be in the ICU for a solid week
while they inject the medicine
because it is so hard on your heart.
Which is scary.
Very.

He would have to do the treatment
more then once.

But, younger people seem to do well
with this drug and if it works,
the long term effects are well worth it for us.
Sadly, the Dr. used 5 years as long term-
and it's just not long enough.

There are a very few people who have quite
a good response to this drug,
and have no evidence of disease.
It's very rare, but if we end up doing this
medicine, that's what I'm shooting for.

The Dr. did say that we can continue with the
drug he is currently taking for the next 2 months
while we think about his and see what his scan looks like.

In my dream world his current drug would start to
work well again and his next scan would look good
so we could continue on, but I think I need to face the
odds that that option is unlikely.

So we will go 2 months.
And fast and pray really hard
that his next scan will look good.

And if it doesn't then we will face that when we get there.

In the meantime,
he has to get a blood transfusion tomorrow
because his iron is so low.
That will help him feel a little better.

And the Dr. was going to talk to an pain specialist
about giving T and injection on his rib so the pain
will subside.

I'll keep you all posted.
Thanks again.
We sure appreciate you all.

{A little Update}

Ugh.
The past week has been
long.
And kinda awful.

Trav's pain got pretty unbearable
for a few days
leaving us,
and him especially,
living in a fog.

He hasn't been back to work
since last week
and we have watched
a really gross
amount of TV.

He's having the same rib
pain, night sweats-giving me
a great opportunity to make
male menopause jokes,
and has absolutely NO
appetite.

I'm not gonna lie.
It's been an awfully hard week.

I'm very confused as to why
the pain just all of the sudden
started, and just plain sick of it!

Our hope was that it would go
away this week.
And while the pain has
lessened a bit,
he still feels very tight.
It makes it very hard for him
to sleep and he doesn't move
around a whole lot.

Tomorrow he is going to
get a CT scan so we can see
where the problem lies.

I'm praying that the cancer
hasn't spread, and this is just
another fluke in the story of Trav's cancer.
He's had plenty!

We've been in awe of
how well taken care of we have been.
Like seriously people,
stop feeding us so much!
Your gonna have to roll me around soon!

We are both sooo grateful!
It seems that with everyone taking
such good care of us we are able
to focus on making the girls
lives 'normal'.

Thank you to all.
Really, lots.

I'll keep you all posted on results.
Hoping to have them Thursday.

Pain

The past month has been
really hard on Trav.
He's been in a lot of pain.
A lot.
It started in his back, pain he is sure
is stemming from the kidney.
Pretty much each night he is
MISERABLE.

He had an ultrasound a few
weeks ago to see if anything has changed
because the pain is so new, and so different then
what he has had previously,
but the ultrasound showed nothing new.
Which is good.
And bad.
Because it doesn't help us fix the problem.

That pain has started subsiding a little bit,
but now the rib pain is back.
And he is miserable again.
Really, really miserable.

I can't say how hard it is to watch him feel
so terrible.
And I wish so much that he could just have a break.
My heart hurts for him.

And I wish so much he could just
have one day where he felt normal again.
I do love that husband of mine
and each time he goes through
something like this I am in awe
of how he continues to work so hard,
be such a great, fun dad,
and such a fabulous husband.

I got so lucky.

Please pray for him.
He really deserves a day
where he is pain free!

Love to all
and hoping your Holidays were fabulous!