Friday, December 27, 2013

Liberty and Justice for All, Y'all

I hope you all had a great Christmas, etc. (seriously, I am WAY too lazy to write out all the many things you may have celebrated, so I give you an etc. with all my love).  Speaking of differences and awesomeness, gay marriage (read: marriage) is now legal in Utah.  Several appeals have been denied.  Of course, our Governor is appealing to the Supreme Court, but that will take time, which means that there is time to get married.  This is a HUGE breakthrough.  Y'all this is UTAH.  UTAH.  This is HUGE.  So, congratulations to all my friends and to every couple in love.  It was definitely a Marry Christmas (pun!) in this ol' red state.  I was especially thrilled to see that the reverend who married my husband and me out performing marriages like crazy.  You go, Rev. Curtis Price!  


So, let's get to the updates on sweet Guy.  He is doing really well.  I am going crazy right now.  We had vincristine yesterday, which we have not had a problem with in past rotations.  However, as a precaution advised by our oncologist, Guy is now getting half a can of pumpkin puree in his meals after this medication.  This is one giant hell of a mess.  Especially since I started letting Coops lick the bowl at the end (this is the ONLY way to keep him calm while I feed Guy).  Little pumpkin face.  

Speaking of Coopsies, he had a terrible infection from the pollution here.  Congrats, LA.  Your air is better than ours.  At any rate, he seems to be pretty much cleared up after a course of antibiotics.  Guy had the same thing last year.  Geeze... I thought I could never handle seeing him as sick as he was then.  Thanks, cancer.  My husband also got us a HEPA filter for the bedroom, which has been great for all of us since I am allergic to the puppies.

Chemo has now been changed to every other week rather than weekly.  While this is good news as far as Guy getting closer to remission, I have been struggling with it.  I mean, our critical care vet and his technician have become a big part of my support system and it will be hard not to have that as frequently.  But, you go, Guy!  You brave little soldier!  I still don't know how long we will be in chemo.  I think it will be at least a couple more months.  I really don't know how all this works, nor did I ever hope to. 



We are wishing you all a very happy new year!  Please send your prayers, positive thoughts, wishes on stars or eyelashes, what-have-you to our sweet boy.  I am also selling some gorgeous clothing to help pay for chemo, so leave me a reply if you're interested.  I'm a size xs/0/25 and I have a knock-out pair Betsey Johnson stilettos that I have never worn in size 6 (fits like 6.5).

All our love from my family to you and yours.
xoxox

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Guy Update

So, I know I haven't been present on this blog for a long time and I am basically using this URL- for the time being- to update those concerned about Guy.  If you are not a Facebook "friend", or a personal friend then here's the short of it: Guy was given a death sentence called lymphoma.  We are trying to defy that sentence as long as we can (we are fighting 0-2% chance of actually being cancer-free), which means that currently we are immersed in chemo.  That is my life right now.  Cancer is my life.  Don't get me wrong... life is still wonderful, but it's shit as well.  A whole new brand of turd.  Cancer is cancerous.

Some of you may know that in late October Guy received his first dose of doxorubicin, which is one of the medications he was supposed to receive with his chemo.  He had a severe and life threatening reaction to the drug that left our babe in the ICU for ~30 hours and mama still hasn't fully recovered.  But he's a tough little bug and he bounced back like magic.  Within a few days of the reaction his white blood cell count was back to 100% and, a week after that, so were his platelets.

This past Wednesday we were scheduled for another dose of doxorubicin, but we consulted with our oncologist about giving a lower dose, or using an alternate drug.  After I posed the question whether we would be lowering his chance of actually kicking the cancer (as opposed to temporary remission) with the alternate drug, we decided on a third medicine and he has been handling it gorgeously.

We have had to keep him on a "bland" diet to avoid serious nausea.  My attempts at re-introducing his dry food in small doses was not going over well.  I alternate brown rice with boiled chicken and half a can of "bland" wet food (the latter is necessary to get his veggies, calcium, etc... the former two are mainly for fiber and weight gain) with plain oatmeal, boiled chicken and the other half of the wet food.  He has to be fed by hand to control the pace and thereby controlling his nausea.  I strongly recommend this diet to anyone who is, or who will go through this hell.  It has kept our babe stable and comfortable.  He is almost always happy as evidenced below.


Guy gave mama his dreamiest smile during a visit to the ICU


The kids in their Christmas sweaters in front of the tree.  Guy tolerates his and Cooper LOVES his.

Happy Holidays, y'all.