Simply Love

finke five:

we promised the kids that we would take them to the black hills this summer. but brain cancer had other plans and our summer wasn't all that enjoyable. a couple weeks ago, kaden asked us "when can we go to the black hills?" so we decided in an instant that we would go the following weekend, over labor day. initially i was quite hesitant. i mean, we've been driving so much lately, the last thing i wanted to do was get in the car and drive. again. but cody felt strongly about this. he said he needed to do it for himself. who knows if he will ever feel this good again, and this would be the perfect time. i was convinced. when i was growing up, my family went out to the hills every single summer. we made memories that i will never forget. i was excited to give my kids that same opportunity.

 

pacman:

i'm still having a rough time with this, but paxton started preschool on tuesday. he was so excited saying "this is gonna be so much fun!" he had a good first day.

 

kaden & kenley:

these two started their second year of preschool on wednesday. they were old pros.

me:

i can't get over how blessed we are every morning i wake up. we are so thankful for every good day we have. i'm not sure i fully understand my emotions though. there are days where i can't make the tears stop. other days, i feel numb and couldn't make myself cry if i wanted to. it frustrates me. not the fact that i think i should be crying more or less, but because i have absolutely no control over it. if you haven't noticed yet, i like control.

 

cody:

honestly, couldn't be doing better. he is tolerating his treatments well. i'm finding that there may be some confusion with this, so hopefully i can clear some of that up. cody gets radiation every (week-day) of the week. we drive to sioux falls monday-friday, every afternoon. we met with the radiation doctor yesterday. he said as far as side effects, cody probably won't be able to tell they've done anything to him when his treatments are complete. because he is only getting 18 treatments, the side effects will be less significant. the first time cody had radiation, his only side effects included fatigue and hair loss in the spots where the radiation hit his head. maybe this time he won't have any of that. the dr. gives him only about a 5% chance that the radiation could cause vision damage.

 

the chemotherapy cody is taking is called temodar. and just because cody takes this in an oral pill form and hair loss is not typically a side effect, doesn't make it any less of a chemo drug. we've had people say to us "but that's not real chemo, right?"  i guess i'm not sure what "real" chemo is vs. "fake" chemo, but yes temodar is a REAL chemo drug. we don't know if people think that "real" chemo has to be done through an infusion, cause hair loss, or make people violently ill...but we consider cody a lucky one. he does take pretty strong anti-nausea drugs before taking the chemo and takes it right before bed making any nausea less intense. blood work is also checked weekly to monitor complete blood counts as well as the function of other organs, such as his kidneys and liver.

 

please don't hesitate to ask questions if you are unclear about something. chances are, if you are questioning it, so is someone else. i would be more than happy to clarify anything for anyone :)

 

cody's seizures have also decreased. since adding another seizure medication and steroids, he has not had another one. we are currently working on weaning him off of the steroid, so let's pray that we don't see an increase in seizure activity once this happens.