Not without your helmets

We've been reserching 4-wheelers (quads) or motorcycles and what is safest for our boys. Well, motorcycles won for our family (others may have a different opinion).
Callum is on a Honda 50 and Daniel is on a Yamaha 50. Now we need to get helmets, goggles, chest proctectors, gloves and boots before they can ride, sooooo hard to wait.

It looks like we are ready for summer time fun. Mom and Dad have 4-wheelers to keep up with these little 50's. Central Oregon here we come.

Pictures for my mom

Lana and Callum. (photo by Cameron)
OK mom, here's my current haircut. (photo by six year old Callum)

Granddad doesn't ask for much, but...

Granddad doesn't ask for much, but when he calls and says. I am in Kansas, 2000 miles away and I want to see a photo of my daughter with hair. OK...will do!!

I thought I would also throw in a photo of the grandsons: growing muscles and teeth.

No worse for wear...

I snapped this photo on the way out of the radiation ward after Lana's FINAL treatment.

Except for having a greatly reduced breast count (50%) and being short on ovaries, I think she looks great!

I'll sneak a photo in the next few days to show you how her hair do is going.

202 days...

It's all over (for the most part).

Today was Lana's final radiation treatment. This marks the end of Lana's 202 day trial that included 16 weeks of Chemo, the removal of her breast, the removal of her ovaries and 33 days of radiation.

And today we were told, though the statement was not as strong as we would have hoped for, that Dr. C's (radiology) best guess is that Lana no longer has cancer.

Only time will tell.

So with the exception of some medications that she needs to take, and a body that needs to heal up, Lana is done. Now she can rest. (which is why she is napping right now).

We are very grateful.

Goodbye ovaries, we barely knew you...

Well, Lana is out of surgery and according to Dr. P, everything went great. She has 3 small incisions just like he promised. He made some really cool (and gross) pictures of Lana's inside. I think that those are pretty neat to have. I have no idea what my innards look like, but now Lana has a whole set of photos of things like her liver and her doohickeys and stuff.

The surgery was about 2 hours late. Lana was about to eat her own arm.

I should be able to see Lana is about a half hour, but I wanted to get the update on the web.

The photo is of Dr. S (anesthesiologist) taking her in to the operating room. Dr. S was cool...West Point grad and former Army Ranger (get your hands off my wife). I assume that he also went to med school, but we never got past the cool Army details.

Only three more trips to the hospital...

So we are just about to load up in the car and head to the hospital for Lana's surgery (scheduled for 2:30pm) I will post another update when Lana is out of surgery and at home.

The procedure is pretty minor for a surgeon like Dr. P (though for me it would be quite complicated). The surgery is supposed to take 30 minutes. Wit prep and recovery, we should be at the hospital for 4 or 5 hours.

The most difficult part of the whole thing is that Lana has not been able to eat since last night. My job is to be waiting in the recovery room with a big mac. If Dr. P knows what is good for him, he will not make Lana wait....she is not fun when hungry. She keeps looking at me as if I were a steak.

The procedure is a laparoscopic ooferectomy. In other words, they use a small scope and some small tools inserted into 3 small incisions in her belly. They fill her tummy up with gas (CO2) so that they make some room to work in there. Then they locate the ovaries, snip the places where they are connected and then bring them out through the small incisions that they used to put the scope and tools into.

The Dr. promises me that she should be up and ready to go in time to make me my dinner.

My folks are watching the boys so Lana can go home and sleep.

The good news is that we have only three trips to the hospital left. 1 for surgery and 2 for her last radiation treatments.

More info in a few hours.

If you are going to get cancer, do it in January...

So, today we got word that we can schedule Lana's next surgery for December 27th ....so we did.

This surgery is to have her ovaries removed (an Ooferectomy). As it turns out, Lana's cancer is fed by hormones (estrogen and progesterone) so Dr. K want's us to have the ovaries out so that the hormones that would feed any remaining cancer won't be present in Lana's body. The surgery takes about 30 minutes under a general anesthesia and is done laproscopically without any incisions (use your imagination).

You may be wondering, why push so hard and screw up your holidays with surgery and the answer is...INSURANCE. See, if we don't do the surgery in 2007, we have to start over with our deductibles and out-of-pockets.

We picked the 27th because Dr. P (the OB/GYN/Surgeon) says that he is usually past the egg nog fog by then.

So, here is a word to the wise: if you are going to get cancer, do it in January and enjoy the more relaxed treatment schedule.

Chemo is way more fun than radiation...

I know it may sound like a silly thing to say, but Lana would much rather do chemo than radiation.

Chemo has many advantages...you get to sit for long periods of time in a very social setting (the chemo lounge), with your clothes on, talking with nurses and other patients, eating anything you want (and can keep down) taking your medicine once every two weeks. Not to mention that there are really hip side effects like losing your hair that let every one know that you are sick and they should be nice to you.

Radiation on the other hand is a real drag. You have to rise every morning early and drive to the hospital, usually alone. You have to put on one of those hospital gowns and then be ushered into a room where no one can go with you because you are about to be zapped by a nuke. If the little machine didn't hum for 30 seconds, you would think that it was all a cruel joke. Then the guy in the control room tells you over the little microphone thingy that you are done and the big lead door opens and....see you tomorrow. And, even though you go home and fall asleep and probably puke anyway, your hair is growing back so people think that you are on the mend.

Yes, chemo is way more fun than radiation.

33.33% done!

Today is Lana's 11th radiation treatment and that means that she is one third of the way done (11/33=.3333). Daniel was so excited about the development that he decided a holiday movie was in order. I don't know about you, but he makes me laugh.