End of Birthdays

 We wrapped up our 4 week birthday bonanza with 2 more birthdays in September.

Mike's ice cream birthday cake with Texas Pralines and Coffee!  Yummm ...

And last but not the least, Hannah turned 14!  She had her favorite Berry Chantilly Cake. 

It was great being able celebrate everyone's birthday!

Chemo was on Sunday and it took about till Thursday until I had my energy back.  The weekend was good and then on Monday, I had some diaharea in the morning.  Thankfully, Imodium worked and I'm feeling much better today.  Next week is a little busy week for me with my next round of Chemo on Sunday, Endoscopy on Tuesday and Paracentesis on Weds.  Please pray for a smooth procedure for the Endo.  They are going to check to see if they see if the bands worked from the last time and also, if more bands are needed.

Thank you!

Blood Test #19 & Chemo #19

After skipping one around of chemo and postponing one week of chemo, I felt pretty good.  As expected my CEA count went up from 1600 to 2400.  My energy left seemed to be on and off during the off week.  I was hoping for full of energy during the last week before Chemo but I was still pretty tired on some days.  I was able to squeeze in some weeding, planting some herbs and gong out to a movie to see Top Gun II.

Chemo went pretty smoothly yesterday, just tired.

I'll have another endoscopy in the next week, just to make sure no more bands are needed.  This is to try to stop my veins from rupturing again, which caused my last hospital visit.

My mom had her colonoscopy today and it went really well.  My sister from CA will be staying with me this week, while my mom recovers.  Hope my mom would get some rest and, thankful, my sister is here to help!  We had a small get together with my other sister and my brother, who drove down for the weekend.  It was a good time.

Thank you for all your prayers, support and concern for us.  We really do appreciate it!

Blood Test #18

I met with my oncologist today and we decided to post pone the chemo for a week and start again on 9/18.  That means no chemo for another 10 days!  Wohoo!  He also moved the blood test from tomorrow to today, so that I wouldn't have to come back again.  

I really thought my CEA score would go up, since I skipped one round of chemo during my hospital stay.  However, it went DOWN!!!  Small miracle!  The last CEA score was 1850 back in beginning of August.  Today, it came back at 1347!!

I was also told by a good friend that more energy = less blog posts and more energy = faster text responses too.  😂 

Grateful for the small miracles everyday!!

What a difference a week makes

What a difference a week makes!  Last week on Weds morning, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to go home before Labor Day, let alone if I would make it to my birthday dinner on Saturday.  I was on liquid diet waiting on my endoscopy and wasn't even allowed out of bed unless I called a nurse.

Today, in the morning, I gardened - i.e. pulled weeds but I really loved doing it, then went shopping at a Chinese grocery store, Walmart and Daiso.  Then had lunch, then drained 2 liters during my paracentesis and just had dinner with my family.

I have so much more energy now that I an actually do some gardening - something I really enjoy doing.  I'm eating better and eating more of different kinds of foods too!

I have a doctor's appointment with my oncologist tomorrow to discuss future treatment plan and schedule.  Please pray for wisdom for the doctor's, for us and that my high energy level with continue.  I really haven't felt this good in a long time!  

Thank you for your continued prayers.  I know there's many of you who are praying for me because there's no way that I could be where I am at without your love and prayers.  God has really given me small miracles - more energy, more appetite, no mouth sores, being able to go out to eat and much more!  My son complained to me the other day that I am "meaner" now.  Which translates to "I have more energy to parent again" - i.e. "Pickup your toys.", "Pickup your socks!", "Don't play with your food", "No you can't have candy before dinner", etc. - I don't let things slide like I used to when I had no energy 😁.

Thank you for being on this journey with me and supporting us!  We really appreciate it!

Small Miracles

 We celebrated my belated birthday this weekend with my parents, my baby sister's family and my brother.  My  baby sister made this gorgeous cake for me.  It was a delicious Chiffon cake with fruit on the bottom with a tower of cream cuffs covered in caramel with a vanilla pastry cream with a hint of Bailey's Irish Cream.  It was so delicious! 

When I was in High School, cream puffs were "my desert" that my mom taught me.  I would make for guests and also Kasutera which I would use as a sponge cake with fruit too.  However, my baby sister took it to another level.  Her cream puffs are so delicious with her Baily Irish Cream filling and the caramel on top!  He Chiffon came is so much more moist and fluffier than mine and I never tried to do all these beautiful decorations with the fruit!  She's really not the baby anymore!

Afterwards, Mike took us out to a Japanners Fusion place, where they serve sashimi style fish with a twist.  That was delicious too!  Mike's parents didn't join us, since, raw fish isn't their thing.  The next day, they came over for some steak and lobster that Mike made!  Lots of great food during the weekend.

My daughter Hannah gave me a Totoro crochet by her and my son Nathan gave me a clay sculpted Totoro.  It's my favorite anime character!  (If you can't tell already 😁)

Mike had planned this about a month ago.  When I was at the hospital, I wasn't sure if  I would be able to get out in time.  Small Miracle.

I wasn't sure if I would have enough energy to go out to eat.  Small Miracle.

I wasn't sure if I would be able to eat .  Small Miracle.

My grandma and my mom calls these small miracles from God.  Very grateful for these small miracles that allowed me to enjoy this weekend!

Discharged! Wohoo!

It was quite a week to say the least.  On Daniel's birthday, Nathan and I started to make Focaccia bread together.  After we had put all the dry ingredients together, all of sudden felt nauseated.  Then I threw up and it was red.  I had gone to the dentist that morning, so I thought maybe it's just blood from dental cleaning and had swallowed some blood from my bleeding gums.  An hour later, I threw up again and with more blood.  By this time, we decided it was time to go to the  ER where I threw up again. Once, they saw the blood, I was fast tracked into the triage room.  From there, they did a endoscopy and put a breathing tube down my throat for the procedure.  Having a breathing tube in your throat while you are conscious and waiting for 3 hours for them to take it out, was the worst part.  If all possible, I don't ever want to do that again!

On my birthday (Sun), they moved me to a regular room.  They wanted to do another endoscopy before I went home, so I was waiting for them to try to squeeze me in for the second endoscopy.  Nothing happened on Monday.  Monday night, I was told I cannot have anything to eat or drink after midnight because they were planning to do the endoscopy in the morning.  Weds morning, the nurse comes in, tells me I've been scheduled for 12pm.  Then at 11:30 am, the nurse comes and tells me it's been cancelled and that they want to do a paracentesis before they do the endoscopy.  I also had to stay on a clear liquid diet until the endoscopy.  By this time, I was hungry and losing hope that I would get to go home anytime soon.  I was discouraged.  I already had missed both Daniel's and Nathan's birthdays.  

I cried. 

I pleaded to God that I wanted to go home.  I pleaded that he would spare me from another breathing tube down my throat.  Once I started down this path, I thought of everything I wanted.  My taste buds to be normal again, I would be able to go to Japan, I would be able to take my kids to skiing this Christmas, my stomach would stop collecting water and I wanted to see my kids grow up.

I also grieved because I wouldn't be able to see my kids get married, be able to help when my kids had their kids and be there for Mike, as he becomes a single father.  Over flowing emotions came over me.  Then I felt better.  

 I felt better because I also knew how much blessing God had given to me.  Great friends, co-workers, family members and even strangers that have been praying for me, making meals for my family, visiting me and checking up on me.  You all have shown me what it really looks like to love people.  Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart.  God has also given me three great kids, gift of each day,  wonderful supporting and loving husband that I've been married too for 17 years and the Holy Spirit to give me strength every day.

Then Wednesday morning.

The nurse comes in and let's me know that endoscopy had been scheduled for the morning  and para for the after.  I tell him that the doctor's told me that they want para first before endo.  He goes back to make a few phone calls to  check with the doctor.  This was around 7:30am and I thought, here we go again, I'm not going to get this done today either.  However, by 8am, the nurse comes back and tells me, they scheduled my para for 9am and they rolled me out of the room by 8:10am.  They took 6 liters out.  Then the endoscopy took place at 12pm.  The nurse tells me that if I hadn't done the para first, then I would have needed a breathing tube again!  I'm so thankful that they were able to do the para first. I woke up around 1:15pm and they were able to clamped 6 blood vessels to decrease the chance of it bleeding again.  At 4pm, my lunch/dinner finally arrives and I just needed to show them that I can keep foods down for me to be discharged.  I ate some chocolate pudding first and threw that up 15 min later.  I waited for  30 min and tried again.  This time, I was able to keep it down for 15 minutes.  (I did eventually threw up again that night but I was already at home and no blood!).  I was discharged around 6pm and wasted no time to get in the car and go home.  

Today, I feel much better!  I have no nausea after taking the meds and I have much more energy.

Thank you everyone for all your prayers and encouragement! I'm so glad to be at home again!