A Super-fun Thanksgiving

Drew, the kids and I traveled to the Houston area to visit with his side of the family over the Thanksgiving.  We had such a great time of fellowship!   Also, the weather was just gorgeous.    We have truly been blessed with some awesome family time during his time off over the past month.  Luke, Abbey and I craved it so much since we missed our family time while Drew was working crazy hours this past year or so.

We celebrated our Thanksgiving with the whole family on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving.  So, what do you do on Thanksgiving day when you have already celebrated your Thanksgiving?  Why, you go to the Zoo, of course!

We visited the Houston Zoo on Thanksgiving day.  The weather was gorgeous, there weren't many people there.  It was absolutely the most perfect time to go!  Here are some (a lot) of pictures from our time there.

getting a lift from papa so he could see the elephants better

I liked this monkey....he was like, "what are you looking at?"

Our special Zoo navigator

Always happy to be in Papa's arms!

Oh---and we got to feed a giraffe!  There was no line--such a special opportunity that the kids will remember forever.  Thank you, Mimi and Papa!

The zookeeper told us as we were feeding the giraffe that his head alone weighed between 200-300 lbs!  That is a big head!

Abbey was a tiny bit shy at first.  You can see here how big the giraffe's head is in comparison to Abbey's and Drew's.

After Abbey saw the giraffe wasn't going to eat her, she thought the experience was really neat!

Luke finally got brave enough to try with Mimi's assistance.  

Here, Drew and Abbey and the giraffe are in the same plane.  Look how big that head and neck is!

Had to include this...this is what Abbey has always done when she feels she does not have your attention--she grabs your face and turns it towards her.  

I guess she just needed a sweet eskimo kiss from daddy.

eagerly waiting in line for the carousel!

Mimi and Luke.  Luke was talking about cheetahs the whole day.  He really wanted to see one.  So, when he saw the cheetah on the carousel, he picked it out and made sure he could ride on it.

Abbey, on the other hand, was a bit indecisive.  She started on a panda.

after relocating to the bench (which did not move), she settled on a turtle.

How adorable is this?

On Black Friday, instead of fighting the crowds on the craziest shopping day of the year, we enjoyed some precious family time on another beautiful day!  We went with Papa to George Ranch.   The George Ranch Historical Park's history follows family lines beginning in 1824 and spans more than 100 years. We got to see historic homes, costumed interpreters, and live demonstrations to learn a bit of history.  It was a fun experience for all of us.

Abbey enjoyed exploring.  But, she made it clear on the houses with the tours that she did not want to be quiet.  So, she hung out with Papa and explored the outside of the homes during the tour time.

Trying out an old children's chair.  She said, "it's just my size, mommy!"

Abbey and Papa were pretty much inseparable.

Exploring an old cannon the pioneers used to protect their property.

Having a little snack on the front porch of a really old house.

my man!

exploring a big treehouse in a big tree with papa

waiting for the cattle demonstration

cows used to be sent through this deep pool of water, which contained arsenic.  The purpose was to kill the ticks and flies.  Of course, later all pools like these were illegal due finding out about how bad the arsenic was.

What a great, memorable learning experience and fun memories created with the kids, Drew and papa at George Ranch!

Family time is so precious!

A Difficult Dilemma

As my scheduled surgery quickly approaches, I thought I would give some of the blog readers an idea of a dilemma I find myself in.  I do this in hopes of receiving some prayers for peace about the decision I make.  I want to make the right decision.  Also, I know there may be other women in my situation who will stumble upon this blog post.  Perhaps you can find some helpful information or encouragement here.

First, a little about my cancer.  My cancer is estrogen and progesterone positive, her2 negative, and brca1 and brca2 negative.  This basically means that my cancer grows and feeds off of estrogen and progesterone.  Therefore, in patients like me, the goal of continued treatment is to do one of two things:

1. Either stop cancer from growing by blocking the receptor sites of the cancer cells that would normally bind with the estrogen that is floating around my body.   If estrogen cannot bind at those receptor sites, the cell eventually dies.  The medication used to bind to those receptor sites (thus blocking estrogen) is Tamoxifen.  This option is given to pre-menopausal women like me.
2. Option 2 is to greatly reduce the estrogen in the body so that the cancer cells starve to death (since they have nothing to feed on).  This is accomplished via ovary suppression/removal.  In addition, the patient may take either an aromatase inhibitor or tamoxifen.  You see, once the ovaries are removed or suppressed, the body continues to try to make estrogen via other ways (like converting the enzyme, aromatase, into androgens and estrogens).   Estrogen is a vital hormone in the body, so the body continues to try to get it.  Aromatase inhibitors work by blocking the enzyme aromatase, making less estrogen available to stimulate cancer growth.  Other than that, fat also stores estrogen and so does the liver and a couple of other organs.   

Here is my dilemma.  I began taking Tamoxifen shortly after I completed radiation.   A couple of months after I began taking it, I began suffering with ovarian cysts, horrible bleeding (ridiculous bleeding), joint pain, vision issues, emotional/personality changes and other annoying symptoms.  I even had to have a biopsy of my endometrium, since Tamoxifen can cause endometrial cancer (and I was having symptoms of that).  However, I continued to push through as I thought it was my only option.  Then in June of this year, I read about the results of a trial (called TEXT, short for Tamoxifen and Exemestane Trial).  Basically, the trial found that exemestane (an aromatase inhibitor) was more effective than Tamoxifen in preventing breast cancer recurrence in young women who also received post-surgical treatment to suppress ovarian function.  A couple of days after I read about these results, my awesome oncologist's nurse called me to let me know my doctor wanted to discuss this option with me.  Apparently, when she read the results of the trial, my oncologist said she thought immediately of me (since I had so many issues with Tamoxifen).  The data showed that patients on exemestane plus ovary suppression were 4% less likely to have recurrence than those on Tamoxifen plus ovary suppression.  This meant I could change drugs if I agreed to suppress my ovaries (exemestane can only work when in menopause).

So, in June, we began suppressing my ovaries.  We did this via a monthly injection of Lupron in my hip.  It took a couple of months for the Lupron to actually be effective at shutting down my ovaries.  Once my estrogen levels greatly decreased, I began taking exemestane.  Things went very well and I began feeling more like myself for the first couple of months on the Lupron.  However, then strange things began happening.  My abdomen swelled up and I looked like I was 3-4 months pregnant.  This happened while I was barely eating (my belly felt full all the time due to the swelling) and working out a lot!  It was extremely uncomfortable.  I began having other strange symptoms as well and so I researched my symptoms.  Apparently, other young women who had the Lupron injection also suffered greatly and similarly.  Some suffered for years after only one injection.  After all that, my oncologist pulled me off the Lupron injections and thus put me back on Tamoxifen on October 1.    

It has been two months since I have been back on Tamoxifen, and so far, I have not had the symptoms I had before.  I recently began noticing negative vision changes and some emotional changes, but nothing else.  However, I know that I could begin having the awful bleeding and cysts as my ovaries begin waking back up.  I brace myself for that.  But, I have another option.  And that option is the surgery to remove my ovaries (and tubes) that is scheduled for December 15.  Here are my concerns about that surgery:

1. It's irreversible--once done I can never go back!
2. Without ovaries, obviously my estrogen level drops way down.  And, I will also be taking an aromatase inhibitor, which will reduce estrogen even more.  A lot of women who have hysterectomies when they are young (and not cancer survivors) take estrogen supplements so they don't have any of the issues associated with the lack of estrogen-obviously, I am not allowed to have this hormone replacement therapy.  Being in menopause at my age puts me at great risk of joint pain, osteoporosis, weight gain, heart disease, sleep disturbances, cognitive changes, sexual issues, hot flashes, etc.  This doesn't sound like fun for the rest of my life. 

There is another trial though, whose results will be reported next week (on Thursday, 12/11--same day as my pre-op appointment) at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.  These results have been long awaited!  The trial is called SOFT (Suppression of Ovary Function Trial).  This trial compares recurrence rates of estrogen positive breast cancer survivors who just take tamoxifen vs patients who take tamoxifen and have their ovaries suppressed (either medicinally or surgically).  My oncologist strongly believes the results will show that ovary suppression plus Tamoxifen will show significantly less recurrence rates those those just taking Tamoxifen.   If this is true, statistically speaking, it makes sense for me to have my ovaries removed to prevent cancer recurrence. However, if it does not show a significant decrease in risk of cancer recurrence, I believe I may cancel my surgery scheduled for 12/15.  It is such a big decision that needs much thought and prayer.  I need to feel 100% comfortable with the decision.  

I wish there was some way I could see all the data, factors and details about the women who had recurrence vs. those who did not.  For example, what did their lifestyle look like; did they eat a plant-based diet; did they exercise regularly; were they at a healthy weight; how aggressive was their cancer?   What % of women who exercised regularly, ate a plant based diet, were at a healthy weight had recurrence vs. those who did not.  Because if I have no estrogen in my body due to removing my ovaries, I wonder if this will negatively effect my overall health long term and if keeping myself super healthy will be just as beneficial (or better) than have my ovaries removed.  Obviously, God made the human body to want and need estrogen.  Is this the right decision?  That is what I continually ask.  Please Lord, show me the right path to take!  Can you pray with me?  Thank you!

I want to be around for as long as possible to teach these kiddos all God wants me to teach them!  If the only way to do this means suffering for the rest of my life due to no estrogen, I am willing.  I just want to make sure it is the right decision and feel at peace about it before I jump in and do it.   I believe God is sovereign, and this has already been written.  I believe He knows the exact number of my days.  However, it is still such a tough decision to make.  I want to feel the overwhelming amount of peace I normally get when I know I am making the right decision.  

  

  

Family Updates--and news on upcoming surgery

Homeschooling:

Honestly, when I felt God calling me to homeschool our kids, I really questioned it.  I was really looking forward to having some "me time" while the kids were in school someday.  And by "me time" I mean some time where I could get the house cleaned, meals planned and prepped, grocery shopping complete, laundry and dishes done, errands run, bills paid--and hey, maybe even get a work-out done.  So, when God called me to homeschooling I really wondered--"how in the world am I going to get everything done AND teach our kids?" Well, God has a way of equipping you for things He has called you.  While I will admit I am not always able to get everything done that needs to get done on a daily basis, I am able to do the important things.  Perhaps in a few years and after experience, I will be better in this role.  And being the kids' primary teacher has been so much fun!  Of course I know how they learn better than anyone else does (after all, they are our kids!), so it is fun tailoring their education to their specific learning styles.  It is a blessing to watch them learn something for the first time--like reading, or spelling, or math, etc.  I get to see all of those "a-ha" moments that are followed by the biggest smiles ever! So, I have a much different (and better) attitude towards God's call now.  I felt a bit like Moses at first when God first called Him to talk to Pharaoh and the millions of Israelites ("you are wanting me to do what, Lord?  But....").   But now I am in the "thankfulness" state and am praising God for allowing me the time and health to teach our kids.  I get to be with them nearly every. waking. moment.  :-)  And, we get to take field trips whenever we want!  Here are some photos from some of our recent field trips.

Checking out a monument in front of the Texas Memorial Museum

Luke is seeing what it was like back in the days of the pioneers.  Here, he is pretending to fetch some water for a bath.

Abbey's turn to do the same.

imagining what it would be like to live on a farm in the pioneer days.

checking out an old horse-drawn carriage.

Creating at the Thinkery

Illnesses:
Like many people this season, our family has been stricken with a slew of illnesses recently.  Abbey and I have this awful cough/congestant that has lasted for several weeks.  The doctor put her on an antibiotic on Thursday, so I am hoping she improves.  She actually feels completely fine--just has the awful sounding chest congestion.  I do as well--of course, when a cancer survivor has a cough that won't go away, our minds often go to the idea of it being cause by metastasis of cancer to the lungs.  So, for me, we are waiting until after Thanksgiving.  If I still have the chest cough and wheezing we will do a chest X-ray.   Luke and I were also both stricken with a bout of Food Poisoning last weekend.  I am 99% sure it was food poisoning, because we both ate the same exact thing at a restaurant and then both became sick at the exact same amount of time later.   Needless to say, we are all ready to be completely healed!   I just made a homemade decongestant/expectorant I found here on the everydayroots.com website today.  Hopefully, it will begin working soon.
 

Upcoming Surgery:
As a part of my ongoing cancer treatment, I am having my ovaries removed on December 15.   Because my cancer is estrogen positive (meaning estrogen makes the cancer grow), the less estrogen in my body, the better.  Thus, I have finally come to terms that this means having my ovaries removed is a good idea.  It has been such a tough decision--especially at my age.  It is a decision that took a really long time to make.  And honestly, I still don't have 100% peace about it.  No ovaries means instant menopause--in my 30's.     Estrogen provides so many health benefits to one's body--it is helpful for bone health, brain health, skin health, sexual health--pretty much everything.  So, life without the ovaries will bring about some issues we will have to try to tackle with health supplements.   Prayers for peace with the decision (if it be a good decision), would be greatly appreciated.   Recovery shouldn't be too difficult.  The surgery will be robot-assisted and lifting restrictions should only be a couple of weeks.  I am going to miss not working out for a while though, because I have really been enjoying being consistent with working out.


CHRISTMAS!
We are already excited about Christmas y'all!  I know--it's not even Thanksgiving yet.  But Thanksgiving is so late this year.  We decided to get down our Christmas decorations at the beginning of the week this week, and slowly get things out.  The kids have really been enjoying helping decorate.  Luke helped me decorate the tree one day.  He was such a good helper.  As we put the ornaments upon the tree, we talked about Jesus Christ, our savior and the reason we celebrate.  So, even decorating was a fun learning experience.  By starting early, our hope is to have everything up by December 1, so we have some time to enjoy it all.

Fall Family Fun

Fall is definitely my favorite season.  It is my favorite for so many reasons:  the weather, football, the weather, pumpkin-everything, the weather.  But one of the main reasons it is my favorite is because of the gorgeous weather--have I mentioned that yet?  

When fall brings the cooler temperatures, I just want to stay outside all. day. long.  Central Texas has the best fall weather ever!  Drew had last week off and has the coming week off as well.  It was sort of a surprise, so we had things scheduled for some of the days already.  However, on Friday, we had nothing on our schedule; so we declared it a fun family day.  And man, oh man, God gave us the most absolutely perfect weather to enjoy it!!!!

We went to the Austin Nature and Science center (which is awesome, beautiful and FREE), we had a delicious lunch at a new restaurant together, and then we had an amazing hike along the greenbelt in Austin. I was just giddy and couldn't quit telling Drew and the kids about how much fun I was having!  We brought the camera along and captured some of our little moments.  

Luke and Abbey are just so precious together sometimes.  They were just walking a long, holding hands at the Nature and Science Center.  Here, Luke is telling Abbey about the Barred Owl.  

Me and my sweet boy at the Nature and Science Center.

We tried to make the day as educational as possible as well.  We tried to interject plenty of learning moments.  One thing homeschooling Luke and Abbey has taught me is that there are so many "teaching moments" if you look for them and be intentional about using them.  We had a contest to try to find the "coolest creation" in nature.  On our hike, this was one of the first we saw.  It was a neat rock with several fossils on it.  Abbey was feeling it's cool temperature and fun textures here.  

just enjoying each other in the beautiful setting and weather.

Abbey loves to give eskimo kisses--even on hiking breaks.

I'm sure you could guess who was always in the lead during our hike!

a message along our hike.

There were even some tricky areas on our hike.  Like this steep one...

And this one along a cliff with a tiny walkway and chain.  2 years ago, I would have never let Luke do this, but he is SO much more careful now.

We also took plenty of breaks to take in the gorgeous scenery:

and just to be silly.

I found a boulder to set the camera on for this self-timer photo.  It was just so pretty in that spot and wanted to capture the beauty.

And Luke ended up finding the "coolest creation in nature" for the day.  We were along a cliff,  and he pointed up.  As soon as we looked, we saw the largest bee hive I had ever seen.   There were thousands of bees swarming and inside.  It was definitely cool--but we didn't stay there for long.  Later, we found out that the cliff is actually called, "bee hive cliff."  

  

I am so thankful for SO MUCH.  Spending gorgeous days with my wonderful family in God's beautiful creation is just one of them.  

Happy Halloween!

We were able to travel to Oklahoma to visit family over Halloween weekend this year.  This is the second year that we have been able to be there on Halloween.  It is so much fun to watch the Oklahoma cousins dress up and trick-or-treat together.  Also, my cousins and Uncle Ronnie/Aunt Brenda have been putting on a super-fun Halloween party for the past few years, and it has been fun to participate in the last couple.

For this post, I am just going to share some fun photos from our weekend there.  There isn't anything much cuter than little kids dressed up in adorable costumes!  Enjoy!

First off though, I must share this photo of Abbey.  On Wednesday night before Halloween, Luke and Abbey had a party at AWANA.  They were allowed to dress up in fun costumes for their party.  Since we were packing their Halloween costume, we just let them pick from dress-up stuff they had in their closets.  Abbey went as a little fairy.   I thought she was pretty cute, and had to snap a quick picture of her--even though she didn't want to look at the camera.  :-)

So, we traveled to Oklahoma the next morning and the Halloween fun began!

a pre-trick-or-treating photo

Luke and Abbey were the lion and puppy (Toto) from Wizard of oz.

I just could not get enough of the cuteness that was Abbey!

roaring, of course!

Lilly was a ladybug

Linnea was a bee.  My sister made both of their costumes.  I think she did an awesome job.

sweet Batgirl, Kaylee

The kids LOVED running to each house and trick-or-treating.

Abbey was pleased with her first candy pick.

I think you can tell here they ran from house to house.  :-)

Telling secrets.

The next day, we got dressed up for the annual Halloween party:

and there is the rest of the Wizard of Oz characters.

I didn't take too many photos at the party--there was so much fun going on.  But, I did get a few of the sack races.  I just thought Abbey was too adorable in the sack race!

The "big kids" even participated!

Abbey was attached to her cousin, Kaylee pretty much the whole time we were there.  It was so precious to watch.  Kaylee is SO nurturing and "took care" of Abbey all weekend.  There were tons of hugs, hand holding and kisses all weekend long!  Drew snapped a photo of one of the precious moments with his phone:

Fun memories made!