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!

{4 Years}

Today marks 4 years since we learned
that T's cancer came back.

4 years!
Holy.
Moly.

I'm always so grateful this time
of year that we are able to reflect
on how we've made it through the past 4 years.

When we learned that it was back,
we also learned some pretty ugly
statistics that made us wonder if
4 years was a dream.

And here Trav is,
still fighting weekly.
I'm pretty thankful for him.
He never complains,
even though he really never feels well.
And he continues to support our family
and be a fantastic hubs and father.
I love him.

We are so grateful for our
family, friends, neighbors, ward members,
and random strangers who are always here
to support us.

We are ready for 4 more!
Leave T some love today and tell him how stellar he is.

Side Effects

I realized when I posted last that I have
failed to write about a few things
that Trav has been experiencing.

This post is mostly for our memory sake,
and for others with RCC who may
be using the same drug as T.

I wont feel bad if you don't read it...
in fact, I wont even know.
:)

For a while T was experiencing his hands and feet
falling asleep and being really numb.
Yet another fun side effect of the drug...
So he has now added yet another medicine
to his regiment and it has seemed to help.

His pillbox keeps getting fuller.

Some other side effects that have worsened over
the past few months are his brittle, brittle nails.
He gets really bad ingrown toe nails and his fingernails
keep breaking. They are just so thin.
We decided to get some nail strengthener
and let the ladies apply it when needed.

They really love this side effect because it
results in them painting Daddy's nails...
they just wish it was pink polish.
So if you see a sheen on his nails, that's why.

His hair has started growing in about 100
different directions. I include this mostly so
you all know that his hair stylist (um, that's me),
really doesn't suck. His hair just is doing it's own thing.

He could do without the breakouts the meds cause.
I think they are just keeping him young....

His Iron levels have been really low.
They check them every week and have said
they may need to do an injection of some sort to pull
it back up, but it somehow rises just enough
by the next week that they haven't had to do it yet.
And then it falls...
and rises..
and falls.
We are hoping it stays up for good now.

Other then that he is just dealing with
the normal.
Chest pains, exhaustion,
and he still gets his back pains.

Such a good man, that Travis,
he never complains.

I'm hoping nothing blog worthy comes
up till the next scan,
after the Holidays.

So...Happy Holidays to you all!

Results

Another day of
nail biting,
binge eating,
dt. coke drinking,
snappy mothering..
over.

The scan went well.
Nothing has changed.
Trav said to the Dr.
"Looks great then!"
And the Dr. (in jest) replied
"If it looked great, you wouldn't be here."
We love that Dr. of ours, and Trav's quite
happy he got him to crack such a funny joke.

And now we can move into the
Holiday season without even
thinking about cancer.

We love to live in blissful denial!

I keep thinking that we shouldn't get
so worked up each and every time,
but it's awful.
Every time.

And I've been wondering if anyone actually
reads this old blog,
but today I had SO many of you
send e-mails and texts.
I just wanted to express our gratitude,
once again.

We have very, very dear friends.
See ya in January.

Thursday.

It's scan time again.
Thursday.

We are feeling the usual nerves.
It's a big one.
If you remember,
last time we had some
growth in one of the
tumors in the kidney...
so we really need that to be
stable,
or were gonna have to
change our treatment
plan.

As always, we can't express
our gratitude in how much we
appreciate your prayers,
and everything you all do for us!

I'll keep you posted on Thursday!

Also, I keep getting random e-mails from people
wanting me to let them guest post on this blog and
people wanting me to contact them about this blog.
I really only use this blog so people can keep up on T.
I'm sorry for not responding, but it's really only
so people can keep up on my man. ;)