Yes, I still have a blog!

My excuse for not blogging #47: I’m sure most everyone that reads my blog is also my friend on Facebook, so therefore there’s really no need to blog.

I don’t really talk about my cancer treatment on Facebook but in any case, there’s not much to report.  I still get IV chemo once  month…

And I take a handfull of pills on Tuesdays…

I go in every other week to get blood work done and only meet with Dr. Ellis every other month.  If all goes according to plan, I should only have 6 more months, finishing up at the end of November.

In non-cancer related news, nothing much has changed since my last blog post at the end of January.  I turned 30, which only sucks because I’ve moved up an age bracket on those forms where you have to select your age range.

We went with my parents to Biloxi, MS, for a long weekend trip to the beach and to celebrate my Mom’s 60th.

Ryan is still going to pre-school a few days a week and learning something new everyday.  He’s playing t-ball and we joined a gym by our house so we can take him to the pool.  Our library is awesome and we are doing a summer reading program that has some pretty cool prizes.  We try to stay pretty busy!

January 2012 Recap

I’m not sure I can call myself a blogger anymore as I haven’t done a post since December 8th.  This blog started off as an account of my treatments,  thankfully treatments have been not as often, and I guess I’ve felt that I shouldn’t post as much.  I might just start doing some random blog posts here and there, but as far as updates on my health go, I think I’ll stick to a monthly update.

I met with Dr. Ellis on the 3rd of this month.  He said my counts  have been looking great and so we’re going to shoot for me only having to come into the office every other week.  I had chemo on the 3rd, went in for labs on the 17th, then back in again today for more chemo.  I haven’t posted my counts in a while either, so here were todays:

WBC:  5.1

Hbg:  12.8

Platelets:  233

All of those are normal, and even on the really good end of normal!  I had thought I’d be finished in December of this year,  but I found out it should be the end of October!  I couldn’t remember when I started this last year of maintenance, I guess December stuck in mind because that’s when I got the hickman taken out.  So that means, only approx. 10 months of treatment left!!  Next month, on the 25th, marks two years of this.  I was going to try to assemble my “stats” so when I’m done, I can say that I had x number of doctors appointments, x number chemo treatments, x number of spinal taps, x number of bone marrow biopsies, shots, pills, etc…  I think that’s pretty well near impossible, but it might give me a good project to work on.

To recap on the Winstead Family since the beginning of December…

We had a great Christmas.  This was the first year we didn’t go to my parents house for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, and I have to say,  it was nice waking up in our own beds Christmas morning and watching Ryan go bananas over all of the stuff Santa brought him.  We did visit my parents the weekend before Christmas, and John’s grandparents in Memphis the week before that.  Ryan must have been a pretty good little dude this year:

And a pretty funny one too, here’s a link to a YouTube video of some of his best material:  Funny Man

On the 5th of this month Ryan fell off the playground at school and broke his arm!  That was a Thursday, we didn’t take him to urgent care until Saturday.  Yes, that’s right, I was going for Parent of the Year as early in the year as possible.  In my defense, he didn’t complain about it, it wasn’t swollen or bruised right after he did it.  That Saturday morning it had started to bruise just a little so we decided to get it checked out.  Prognosis:  a broken radius (buckle fracture) and on top of that, strep throat.  Absolutely no signs of that until we were in the waiting room.  Way to save us a co-pay Ry-Guy!

Right now he’s in a smaller velcro cast (purple, after compromising from him wanting a pink one) that can be taken off at bath & bed time.  We go back tomorrow and hopefully it can come off altogether.

Apart from Ryan’s cast, we also have nephew, mom-in-law and father-in-law in various casts as well.  It’s been a rough go for the Winstead bones as of late.  John’s parents take care of Shannon’s 4 month old baby girl and needed a little extra help this week, so my (saint of a) mother is staying with us and helping them out during the day.

What else… we are going to STL the weekend of Feburary 11th to celebrate my big 3-0!  No solid plans for that Saturday yet, but consider this an open invitation to anyone who would like to partake in the festivities.  Keep your calendar open and let me know if you can make it and I’ll pass on the details.

I read The Fountainhead this month and am about half way through The Great Gatsby.  I started off the year with the longest book on my list so the other classics would seem to be short in comparison.  I’m going to have a hard time reaching my goal of 50 books this year if this pace continues.  I’ve also been trying to stay on top of music news and updating playlists.  Have I told you to go get a free Spotify account?  Go now, I’ll wait:  http://www.spotify.com   I did get around to making a best of 2011… which you hear using your new Spotify account:  2011  I have lots of other playlists on there are well.

One more thing… Did you click on that link above to watch the YouTube video of Ryan telling jokes?  No, well you better go ahead and do it because it’s pretty awesome.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 8,400 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

Guess I haven’t been much in a blogging mood since it’s been nearly a month since I’ve had a post.  I guess it’s just the time of year when things start getting busy.  I’ll start with a quick overview of Thanksgiving.  My Mom, Dad and niece Brandi came down for a couple nights.  We had the big traditional dinner and had a nice time just being lazy and spending time together.  That evening John’s parents came over with dessert and to spend some time with us, it was very nice.

  

Rowdy has gone to the vet a couple times in the past month, nothing is wrong with him, but I’ve been completely slacking on taking him at all since I’ve been sick.   With as much as we’ve had to spend with shots, blood work, teeth cleaning… I don’t think he’ll be getting much for Christmas.  However, we’ll be getting better dog breath.

Sara and Takara came down this past Sunday for our second annual Branson Christmas shopping excursion!  Sara had to work the next day so unfortunately they didn’t spend the night, but it was still a great day with a couple of my best friends.  We had dessert for dinner at Aviary Cafe and Creperie in downtown Springfield and it was nothing short of heavenly.

Speaking of dessert for dinner, I had been seriously slacking on the Weight Watchers since my Nashville trip.  Before that I was down 15 lbs, but gained all but about 5 of that back as of the beginning of the week.  Just to time to help me get back on counting the points, the WW app will soon be able to scan bar codes and tell you how many points are in a serving.  Sweet!

I don’t think I’ll be getting around to posting my top music picks for 2011.  My cousin Drew did a post on his blog about a playlist I made on Spotify, so if you’re in the mood for music, check it out.  And if you don’t have Spotify, you should!  Here’s the link:  http://earbook.blogspot.com/2011/11/dare-i-say-favorites.html

Tonight I have my book club meeting and I’m excited because we wrap a book we’re finished with and do a fun little game.  I need to get a picture of my book club gals!  This weekend we are thinking about spending Saturday night in Memphis visiting John’s Grandparents.  The weekend after Ryan and I are going to my parents house (John has to work that Saturday) for our Christmas festivities.  We have decided that we want to wake up Christmas morning in our own house, start our traditions.  Busy, busy!

As far as treatment goes, I’m still doing my maintenance rounds.  I had my monthly IV chemo on Tuesday and  I’ve been feeling good.  I really can’t complain.

Terrible 3′s?

Last week my sister Pam and niece Torie came in town so she could tour Drury University and they stayed with us for a couple nights.  I don’t really get to see either of them that often, or at least for that long at a time, so it was nice to have them here.  They got in late on Thursday night, then were at Drury all day on Friday whilie Ryan stayed home with me, then Friday night we all went out for pizza.  Torie’s bedtime is about the same time as Ryan’s so after they were in bed, my sister and I went to a karaoke bar so she could sing.  Not me,  I love music and singing, but not in public.  Plus, the kind of music I like they don’t have in karaoke books.   They stayed until around 2 on Saturday before they had to head back.

We spent the rest of the weekend trying to keep Ryan in line.  They should call it the “terrible 3′s” because he wants to challenge everything we say.  I don’t want to raise a little brat and have been hearing “I don’t like my Mommy, my Mommy is mean!” a lot lately when it’s time for him to spend a few minutes in time-out.  Hopefully this a phase that will end soon!

On Wednesday’s our library has story time in the early afternoon, so last week and today Ryan & I attended.  It lasts about an hour; they read books, sing songs, dance, play instruments & more.  Ryan is sooo shy, he sits on my lap until the last few minutes before he finally gets into it.  He gets a sticker and we check out a few books, he even got his own library card!  It’s a great (free!) activity to do together so if you have little ones and haven’t been, you should go check it out!

Here is a video of Ryan reading a book “I Was So Mad!”  Don’t be worried, I can’t understand half of it either

In treatment news, yesterday I had my monthly IV chemo and stared the steroids.  Seems like I just did it!  Counts are looking up again, but still have to go every week until after the first of the new year.

Halloween & World Series Champs!

We had Halloween mania these past few days,  5 days in a row to be exact.  Last Thursday night we went to Spooktacular at the Zoo with Shannon, Kevin and little baby Ali.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Yo Gabba Gabba!, Ryan is a character from that show named Brobee.

Friday night we went to Truck or Treat at our church, again with Shannon, Kevin & Ali.  Afterwards we all headed to our hosue to watch the Red Birds win it all!  I have been a Cards fan my whole life; I grew up sitting on my Dad’s lap listening to Jack Buck on the radio, I worked as an usher at the old Busch for 5 seasons, so it was awesome to see them win 11 in 11!  I’m sort of sad that Tony retired, but I guess I’d like to leave on a high too.

Saturday afternoon we went to a Halloween party given by our friends Doug & Erin.  They had inflatables, about 70 pizzas and even a balloon artist!  It was a lot of fun and great to see lots of old friends.

Sunday afternoon we had another Halloween party; there were lots of games, crafts and yummy chili.  Ryan is just so shy with crowds of kids he doesn’t know.  He’s the little green one standing a foot away from all the other children.

Monday was, of course, Halloween!  John’s parents and I went to his Halloween party at his school.  (We call is school, it’s the learning center at Prime)  He gets such a kick of me showing up there  We then trick or treated around the building and got lots of candy.

Ryan always talks about Claire at school, he says she is his girlfriend.  I finally met her and her Mom, both of whom are very nice.  Last night we went trick or treating around John’s parents neighborhood and ours before heading home to hand out some treats to about 10 kids.  It was a very fun, but hectic, Halloween!

Nashville & World Series

This past weekend was a blast!  Thursday Ryan and I headed up to my parents house.  We got my favorite pizza from home, Pogolinos, and watched the World Series game with Mom & Dad.  Friday morning I headed to Nashville to spend the weekend with my college roommate Karen.

I got in town around 1 on Friday and we headed to this little burger joint.  The line was out the door and for good reason, awesome burger and fries.  (ps.  I didn’t count any points for Weight Watchers this whole weekend…. really for like the past week but I’m back on it)  We did some shopping for the rest of the afternoon including my first visit to a Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods.  I wish Springfield were just a little bit bigger then we might get some cool stores.  We had dinner at my favorite restaurant- P.F. Changs.  Kung Pow Scallops, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Saturday we went to an area that had lots of booths set up with art, jeweler and what-not.  It was a beautiful day, live music and lots of cool things to look at.  We had lunch at Taco Mamacita, a neat restaurant with different tacos.  From there we went to Centennial Park and walked around for a while.  It’s right next to Vanderbilt and there was a game going on so it was pretty crowded.  There is a place in the park where they do live music every Saturday so we grabbed a blanket and sat and listened to music for a couple hours.  Danny Goeke from American Idol was right in front of us, I don’t listen to country but I do watch Idol so it was kind of neat to see him.  Of course, Karen is used to “celebrity” sightings, her boss had seen Taylor Swift at Starbucks that morning.

That evening we toured a little brewery, Yazoo.  Karen doesn’t like beer so we had to be creative in finding places to pour out her samples  I picked up a growler of their stout as a gift for John then we moved on to find a place for dinner and to watch the World Series game.  We FINALLY found a place to watch it at the 7th place we went to.  Ridiculous.  It’s not like it’s June and I’m asking to watch a Cardinals game…  it’s the WORLD SERIES!  We ate and watched the until about the 6th before we headed back to her house to watch the rest.  We were both pretty tired so we hit the sack pretty early (at least compared to our old days).

Sunday we had what I thought at the time was an awesome brunch.  I told her I’d require a trip to this place every time I was in town.  Turns out, she must have gotten food poisoning and missed a couple days of work.  We blame the eggs benedict.  It’s the only thing she had that I didn’t.   With a full belly and sleepy eyes, I started the 5.5 hour drive back to my parents house.  All in all, not a bad drive at all.  I was very, very happy to see Ryan!!  He did great for Mom & Dad, she said he only teared up once when he was talking to me on Saturday, that’s a good amount to miss his Mama.  We had dinner with my parents, sister and niece Brandi,  I watched most of the game and turned in early.

Ryan & I headed back home and Monday afternoon.  That night Ryan was very glad to see his Daddy and even Rowdy too.  I spent Tuesday morning at the doctor (counts are doing good), the grocery store and getting the house back in order.   Cleaning, laundry, and a little bit of relaxing.

It was a very fun trip and I want to thank Mom & Dad for keeping Ryan, I know they loved having him but I just hope they are not too tired.

Wednesday morning we had our Parents as Teachers visit and asked about some concerns we have about Ryan’s speech.  We can understand what he says, but most others have a hard time.  She will send the test in and we should hear something in a couple weeks to see if he qualifies for the free state speech therapy.  If he doesn’t, we may look into some programs for him at Missouri State.  If there is something we can do to help with his development, we want to do it early.  Other than that concern, he’s doing awesome!  He can count to 14 & knows most of his upper case letters.

I will be blogging about Halloween after all of our festivities… something Halloween related 5 days in a row starting last night.  Tonight I’m pretty concerned about game 7.  After thinking we were out of the race earlier in the season, it will be heartbreaking to get this far and lose.  At least they have been awesome games to watch… and David Freese… Amazing!

Fall Fun

In treatment news, last week I had chemo on Tuesday and started my round of dexamethasone (steroids) for this month.  The chemo makes me tired, but not really nauseous; it’s the steroids that take it’s toll on me.  Night sweats, really bad body aches, grinding my teeth in my sleep, hunger…  Yesterday morning was my last dose so by tomorrow morning I should be feeling more like normal.

Dr. Ellis had been letting me skip a week or two of coming in to have blood work done to check my counts, but this past week my white count was a little low for the second week in a row.  I’m now back to having to go in every week for labs just so he can monitor if my WBC was low because of a virus (which I was thinking was allergies) or if it’s the daily and weekly chemo pills slowly dragging it down.  If the latter is the case, we might just pause treatment for a week or two to let them recover a bit, but I highly doubt it comes to that.

So far this month has been both fun and busy!  Ryan and I have spent a few mornings at the park, I’ve had a chance to catch up with some old friends over coffee, book club, open house at Ryan’s daycare… seems like there’s always something going on.

This past weekend was especially fun.  I went to the Cards game on Friday night with Sara and it was a blast.  Having been to countless games at the old Busch, this was only my second game in the new stadium.  We had good seats, the first row of the upper deck right behind home plate.  And now after last night’s win… World Series here we come baby!!

Saturday afternoon we went to our little friend Gabe’s birthday party at the Discovery Center.  It has been forever since we’ve been there and Ryan is now big enough to do a little more (it’s like a smaller scale Science Center) so we had a really good time!

This week is super busy! Today is my cousin Dustin’s birthday and he is having a gathering this evening, my other cousin Brian will be in town for work and staying with us a couple nights (he’s Ryan’s BFF), this weekend Ryan is staying with his Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw while I make my way down to Nashville to see my college roomie Karen.  I’m so excited!

Heather’s Married!

Last weekend one of my best friends in Springfield got married!  Heather and Dan had a beautiful wedding and a really fun reception. Mom & Dad came down for the weekend to stay at our house with Ryan since it was a hectic weekend.  We had to the rehearsal dinner on Friday night, John had to work Saturday morning, wedding Saturday evening and we stayed the night at the Oasis, where they had the reception.   Congrats to the happy couple!

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This past week was pretty uneventful, again I got to skip going to the doctor for the weekly blood work!  I have had allergies or a cold or something on and off for a few weeks now, it’s mostly just annoying.  Otherwise, I’m feeling really good!

Ryan, as always, has been keeping us busy.  The other day I gave him a time out and, as he often does, he ran to his room and closed the door.  I usually let him stay in there until he comes back out on his own, when he then tries to bargain with the time of his standing in the corner.  John’s mom and I were sitting at the kitchen table talking and I realized he’d probably been in his room about 15 minutes.  I went to check on him… He had dumped all of his clothes out of the basket in front of the door and fell asleep on top of them.  :)

Happy 5th Anniversary

Today marks 5 years of marriage and I still don’t think there’s a better guy out there.  He’s my best friend and has stuck by me through the tough times, all without complaint.  He makes me laugh. He makes me feel loved, secure and safe.  I’m a lucky girl.