It's been a little while since I updated this. My life has fallen into a serious routine. School, Cardinals, Sleep, School, Cardinals, Sleep, rinse and repeat. Hopefully once summer comes, the intensity of this internship won't seem so large. With finals upon all of us still in school, I can almost guarantee I am not the only one struggling to find the needed focus for all the studying I need to do. I am choosing instead to update this.
Missouri seems to be plagued with rain lately. Rain, rain, rain, and more rain. It will be gorgeous for 2 or 3 days (insert the last few days of gorgeous sun) and then the downpour will return. The last homestead of Cardinals game was 8 games long, an eternity at best. 7 of 8 games had rain delays, 2 of which ended up being completely rained out and cancelled, a double header with a 2 hour rain delay, and an exhausting week of late nights and too much rain at the ball park. But regardless of how tired I was, I enjoy being there. Definitely a good sign that I am doing what I really want to be doing.
About a week ago, Keith had another scan just to make sure his treatments continue to work. So the MRI showed no change, or that his cancer is stable for now. Kind of goes along with the saying "no news is good news". We continue to be happy with the results of stable. Now this doesn't mean that his cancer is gone, it just means that the treatments he's doing are keeping the cancer from spreading anywhere else.
Keith is on a tumor starving or "anti-angiogenic" therapy called Avastin. Every 2 weeks, my parents go down to the cancer center and they hook him up to a machine that delivers this cancer fighting medicine. It is very similar to chemotherapy, except that its not chemo. Chemotherapy attacks all cells and cannot distinguish between the good and the bad cells in a person's body. Thus the reason behind the hair loss, extreme fatigue, nausea, and many other terrible side effects of chemo. Anti-angiogenic therapies attack the blood supply of the tumor and cut it off completely, starving the tumor of the necessary blood to grow larger and spread.
The hope is eventually this treatment will completely kill off the tumor. We are still awaiting this result but like I said will continue to be happy with the result of stable. We continue to be happy about the results of treatment and live each day and enjoy it as much as possible. I try to wake up and put a smile on my face every day knowing that we are simply blessed to have it. There are so many terrible things happening all over the world that sometimes we lose sight of what it is to truly be happy. Even through the hard times, I encourage everyone to put a smile on their face and just figure it out as they go along. It's not always easy, but it seems to be working for me.
As much as I enjoy writing this blog and delaying my studying, it is time for me to do so before another sure to be fun and adventure filled evening with the Cardinals. Happy studying to all.
""If you don't get happy where you are, you will never get to where you want to be." ♥
It seems that in the light of all the saddness of the Joplin tornadoes, there is still hope. This rainbow popped up after it poured rain on us at the game on Thursday. It's the little things in life that matter most. As of right now, I don't have much going on besides Cardinals. Keith has another treatment tomorrow, and starts chemo again on Friday. But I miss my family, I hate being away from them. But I will continue to figure it out. Until next time. xox
