So Behind

So my last post was about me going to Texas back in September. I had a fantastic time in Texas, but I came home to some not so fun news. First of all, after I had booked the trip, we found out that Jon would be having a chemo treatment while I was gone. I was so stressed about his treatment and me being gone. He assured me everything would be fine and I needed to go enjoy myself with my sister. I called his sister, Janene, to see if she could get him to his treatment and take care of everything. I also was telling a lady in my ward about me going but being worried about the family, and she arranged dinners, every night I was gone. She has really just been there for Jon and I through everything. Her name is Paxie, and I don't know what I would do without her. Well I got home so late Sunday night that Jon was in bed already, then he woke up early that next morning to go to work so I didn't see him until the next afternoon. When he finally came home from work he said "I've been having a pain in my chest and I've started developing this rash" I looked at the rash which went across his chest and around to his back. I immediately knew it was shingles because we had learned about shingles in one of my classes just weeks before. It was too late to get him to the doctor that day, so I got him in the next day. He went to Dr. McDonald who immediately put him on medication, which is much better if you start it immediately upon the symptoms. But Jon didn't want me to worry about him on my vacation so didn't say anything. He started the medication, but a few days later developed a fever. It was 101.6 when I first checked it. I gave him tylenol then half an hour later checked him and his temperature was 102.7. I called Dr. McDonald who said I needed to take him to the ER immediately. Jon didn't want to go and started arguing with me and told me to call Dr. Stinnett and see what he said. They told me I should take him to the ER as well. Jon was fighting with me and said he refused to go to the hospital. I called my mom to come over for the girls and finally threatened to call his dad if he wouldn't go. He finally agreed. We went to the ER and they examined him and ended up admitting him. They found out that he had a urinary tract infection which he couldn't fight off because of the chemo. He later told me the only reason he was fighting me about going to the hospital was because he didn't want to get up off his chair. Whatever. Anyway he ended up being in the hospital for another three days until they made sure the antibiotics were working and the fever was gone. The shingles were so painful for him and then the infection on top of that really took him down. He did get through it. I have posted pictures below, but some of them are graphic, just a fair warning.



He caught up on every episode of The Mentalist when he was sick. It's one of his favorite shows now.



Trip to Texas

I told you guys that I was soooo behind! In September, I went and spent the weekend in Texas with my sister and her family. With all going on in our lives, I needed to see my sister. I got to meet her baby for the first time and see Faye since she was out of the hospital. We went to Houston and went shopping, we played games, we laughed, and we just hung out. It was what I needed!

Stacey and me-- if our faces look shiny, it's because they are. Texas is soo hot!

Three of the cutest, and sweetest kids ever!



They fed the baby cereal for the first time when I was there.




He loved his cereal!



Faye painted my nails!

We played games.

Our mom was also there.

It was fun hanging out with this kid! He cracks me up!

Staycation

It's funny how plans can change so quickly. At the beginning of the summer we had awesome plans to have a great summer and do lots of fun things since Jon graduated in April. Our plans included taking a vacation to Texas to see Nick and Stacey’s family and the new baby, taking some camping trips, visiting some water parks and maybe Lagoon and just having all out fun! Our plans didn't include a hospital stay, illnesses (Jon and Faye), and an accident which caused us to only have one vehicle for the remainder of the summer. Nope. Not our plans. It is making me question if making plans is really worth it?? I think when you make plans is when they change.

Well, since we were unable to do anything over the summer because Jon was SOOO sick, and due to all of this, we no longer had funds to do anything big. So, we decided to take a day and do a staycation. We woke up on Saturday morning and decided to head to Salt Lake. It was just a very sporadic, last minute decision. We talked about going to the zoo. But then we decided it would be too tiring for Jon and he can't handle the sun right now. So we did some brainstorming and decided to go to the gateway and take the girls to Discovery Gateway and Clark Planetarium. The girls said the only reason they would want to go to the zoo is to ride the train, but they really wanted to go to the children’s museum. So we thought, "why not take the train to Salt Lake?"

On our way down, I called my sister, Emily, who lives in Salt Lake to see what they were doing. She told me they were on their way to the farmers market. So we decided to take a trip there. The farmers market was awesome! There was so much stuff and so many people! It was kind of overwhelming, but really neat.

From there, we went to Discovery Gateway. We were planning on spending a few hours there, but once we got there the kids didn't want to leave. We spent a few hours then decided to go get lunch, so we went to Jason’s Deli. Then the girls wanted to go back to Discovery Gateway, so back we went and spent a few more hours there. They loved it. And it was nice that Jon could just sit and watch them and not overdo it. After Discovery Gateway we went and spent an hour at Clark Planetarium. The girls had so much fun! It was nice to have a day to spend as a family without having to worry about anything!!!

I posted a few of the pictures. I took a ton! I am not a professional photographer or anything like that, but enjoy!

The train ride down.

Kenzie loved playing in this area! She was having a "ball!"


  


Cute Abbie!

Kaylee was the mail lady, she went to deliver the mail.

Abbie was very excited to iron. She doesn't get that from me. I absolutely HATE to iron.

Kaylee loves being "the mom", she kept that apron/dress thing on most of the time we were there.

Kenzie also loved this swan. She kept wanting to sit on it.

She also liked the cars!

Kaylee was nice enough to let her sisters drive. She just wanted to chill in the backseat.

She jumped right on this horse. Do you notice she had to be "in costume" for everthing.

Kenzie loves horses. She couldn't wait to hop on this one.



Abbie was a cow riding a horse??





The Life Flight helicopter. They enjoyed this as well. They had to check everything out!



They were doing a news "special report" They loved being on TV!

They also had to put on their bird/butterfly play. They made it up as they went along.

They also got to do a science project while we were there.

They talked about and made tornadoes.

This is my favorite picture of all! I loved that they posed for me!

They are on mars.

Then they went over to the moon.

Daddy joined them on the moon.

Everytime I put Kenzie down, she took off running back to the moon and mars. That is all she wanted to do was play on them.

Back on mars.

The train ride home after a long day!

First Grade

Kaylee started first grade this week. She was so excited. Last year she rode the bus to school on the first day and I went to the school to make sure she got to where she needed to be. This year, I had school, so I couldn't go to her school. I was so worried that she would get lost (I knew she wouldn't, because she is very independent), she actually told me not to worry about it, that she would do just fine without me. (I am having a hard time knowing that she doesn't need me anymore---she is growing up too fast!) She did just fine. She made it to school and made it home. What else can you ask for? She is going to have a great school year. She has a great teacher and great friends!

Another treatment down

Jon had his third chemo treatment today of six, he is over halfway done. The chemo went really well today. He has been feeling a little bit better than his last treatment, but is still a little nauseous and quite light headed. His blood counts are still only around a 9, so he still has absolutely no energy. He physically can't do very much at all. In fact, I wont let him do very much. I don't want him to burn out, so I am making him take it very easy. It has been hard that he is not capable of doing the things he did before. Jon is an amazing guy, he is a rock climber, mountain biker, scuba diver, snow boarder, and hunter. As of now, he can't do any of those activities. It is hard for him. Jon is also very handy, he has always been able to fix anything and work on anything. He was a mechanic, so he knows cars well. He hasn't been able to do the repairs on our vehicles that I know he wants to do so badly (like an oil change and such). It is hard for Jon not to be able to do these things right now, but he is determined to get better so he can do the things he loves and enjoys once again. It will be a while, but Jon is awesome and strong. He can do anything he puts his mind to. My job right now is to make sure he ISN'T doing those things. I want him better more than anyone else! I can promise you that! We finally got our car back yesterday, after almost two months, just in time for school to start. Our blessings are definitely still flowing. As promised (I know.... forever ago) here is a picture of his shaved head. He is looking pretty good, don't ya'll think so?

Appointments

Jon had two appointments this week. One was with Dr. Stinnett, the other with Dr. McDonald.
Dr. Stinnett just wanted to follow up on the chemo to see how Jon responded to it. Jon did very well with the chemo. His white and red blood cells were both very low at his appointment. That is normal for chemo. The counts go up and down. Other than the low blood count, everything looked good. The doc just said because of the low blood counts he is more susceptible to catching illness so if he got a fever we would need to call immediately. Jon woke up early this morning saying his whole body was hurting. So I took his temperature, it was 99.7 which is a little high. Since it was so early I told him to take a tylenol, to see if that helped anything. His temperature went down and didn't come back up. I talked to Dr. Stinnetts nurse and she said it was nothing to worry about especially since it went back down and that it wasn't above 100.4. So hopefully it was just a minor thing that wont come back. The next chemo will be in two weeks.

The appointment with Dr. McDonald also went well. His kidney function is still not normal, but is way better. His protein levels were extremely high before, but have gone down a ton, so that's good news. The swelling is also way down, almost non-existent. Jon has lost 40 pounds since he has been out of the hospital. None of his clothes fit him, they all keep falling off. Also, the lupus had caused a lot of his hair to fall out, he wasn't bald or anything but very thin up top, I went to take a test last week and when I got home he had shaved his whole head. I should take a picture, I will do that.... sometime.

Some more good news is that I finished up summer semester! I even got good grades in my classes. I was taking 15 credits over the summer so I am very proud of myself. I'm not trying to brag or anything, I am just so happy to be done and finally on summer break, for two whole weeks! Then back to school....

We still appreciate everyone and the support they have given us. It feels really good to be getting back to a semi-normal life.