Another year come and gone!

School started at the beginning of August. The picture of Ryan is him before he was heading to St. Catherine's preschool for his first day in the 3's classroom with Ms. Terri & Ms. Lea. He walks into school like an old pro now! The picture of Derek is with his best buddy, Jacob, at the bus stop heading to his 1st day of 1st grade with Ms. Mooney. They are getting bigger by the minute. Derek is playing his first year of player pitch baseball and Ryan tags along and learns all the rules of baseball. Actually Ryan just chases butterflies and throws rocks in the nearby brook. I guess that is what he should be doing at 3!

Troy and I got back from Dr. Goldsweig's today and he has released Troy from his care due to the fact that his scans have come back clean again! Troy will now be seeing Dr. Riley, the ENT doctor, for all of his follow up visits. His next visit with Dr. Riley is on October 5th and we'll see what happens then. Troy has been doing great and is pretty much back to his old self. He's helping coach Derek's baseball team, The Boston Red Sox! He still has some food aversions and it still takes him a while to get his meals down even with lots of liquid to drink, but besides that you would never know anything ever happened to him if it weren't for the permanent scar on his neck. This constant reminder we could live without, but we are grateful for what it stands for... cancer removed and hopefully out of there forever!

We hope all is well with our friends and families!

Way too long

I can't believe it has been nearly 2 months since I last updated this! Well, there is a lot to say. I'm going to start off with our sad news first. Recently we lost a dear friend, Charlie Ellis. If you go back to the post on 9/18/08, you will see that I spoke about meeting a nice couple at Troy's first chemo treatment. Charlie is the man that I was speaking about. We kept in touch with them and kept up on how his treatment was going. Unfortunately, the cancer went from Charlie's lung to other parts of his body and then made it's way to his brain causing him to die. We had just visited him in Douglasville a few weeks prior to the phone call that his wife made to us saying that he had brain cancer and that hospice was at the house. It was a really nice visit. The kids had a good time visiting and Jerri, Charlie's wife, gave them a couple of collectible cars to take home with them. We can't say enough about how Charlie and Jerri took away so much gloom back on September 17th. They were so warm and friendly and talked about everything other than cancer. When you are in that chemo room, you are surrounded by chairs and people receiving treatment. You sit there and wonder what everyone's fate might be including your own, but Charlie sang and he talked about chili dogs and he temporarily took our fears away. Jerri was so giving. She let me know where I could get coffee and when I dropped my sandwich on the floor, she offered me hers. What can I say except that we will miss Charlie and so will a lot of other people that he touched. He is definitely making people smile up in heaven. And our thoughts and prayers are to Jerri and to all of Charlie's friends and family who are missing him.

Our boys have started school. Derek is in his 3rd week at Kennesaw Elementary and Ryan started at St. Catherine's Preschool yesterday. Derek has full days while Ryan goes from 9-12 just on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It was a very sad day yesterday. I hung around the "crying room" with some of the other moms who were concerned about their babies. Ryan was good right up until they went to take him out of the car from me and then he clung to me and started crying. This broke my heart tremendously. Needless to say, I do believe he enjoyed the day even though it was scary to him at first. A few more times and he should be a pro - and me too!

Anyway, Troy has been doing well. He just had an appointment at Dr. Riley's (the ENT) yesterday and all looked well. He will be going for his PET scan next month and if Dr. Goldsweig sees it come back clean, he said he would be moving him to every 6 months rather than every 3 months like it is now.

We have been busy getting the kids ready for school. We were able to meet Mr. & Mrs. Blackbird, from back home, for lunch at a Cracker Barrel recently. They dropped down from Tennessee after they had been visiting friends there. We were able to have lunch with them and their friends, so it was real nice to visit with a piece of "home". We also recently visited Chatanooga one weekend and then went to the Smokies, near Gatlinburg, the following weekend and stayed in a cabin owned by Steve Pridmore (a friend that we grew up with in Whitehall). It was nice to go to Tennessee and get away with the kids. Well, Ryan is tugging at me right now to get off the computer, so I'm going to hang out with my little guy and write again later.

3 month PET scan clean!

We are happy to report that Troy had good results from his PET scan that he took on Tuesday. He saw the doctor this morning and doesn't have another scan for 3 more months. Troy is doing really well and we are doing well also. The stress we feel before the results can't match the relief that we feel after we have had a good report.

Derek celebrated his 5th birthday here at home with a group of friends and their parent/siblings on the 23rd of June. Batman came and there was fun had by all. I included a couple of pictures for you to see. We have been to several different outings with friends or just events that have been organized by the Mom's group in our development in order to keep ourselves busy. Derek is also doing gymnastics on Friday mornings. He continually says that he hates it before we have to go and then when we get there, you can hardly wipe the smile off his face as he is jumping around. Ryan is entering the terrible 2's in a big way! He seems to listen to Daddy better than Mommy, but isn't that usually the case? He was real sick last week and had a high fever that lasted for 4+ days. He got over it, but not without a trip to Urgent Care and a catheter up his penis! There was no urinary tract infection and they have decided that it was just a nasty virus. Poor Ryan!! He is just as cute as ever and becoming quite the talker. We can just about recognize everything that he has to say.

Troy will be on vacation in another few weeks and we will probably take a little trip to Tennessee. He sees Dr. Riley next week for his monthly check-up. We'll keep you posted.

Father's Day

Father's Day is going well and has a lot more meaning to it this year. It is 500 degrees outside with the humidity, so we are staying in - not to mention that I have a sinus infection that is making my head feel like a pressure cooker. Troy has prepared his Father's Day meal because he is a good husband who feels bad for his wife. We did manage to make it to the Waffle House for breakfast.

Troy met with Dr. Riley at the beginning of this week for his monthly visit and everything still looks fine. The picture above is of Dr. Goldsweig with his Mickey ears that we brought back for him from Disney. Karen, also in the photo, is his head nurse. Dr. G., if you are still reading the blog, no offense, but I can't say that we miss you all that much. Not coming to that office on a regular basis is the best medicine that Troy has had yet! We will see you next month though and we do look forward to saying hello. Troy has had some pain still, but is doing much better and seems to improve very slowly. He has his PET scan coming up in the beginning of July and is naturally nervous. He looks great though for what he has been through.

Derek is turning 5 on Tuesday and has Batman coming to his party. He is ultra excited. We have been very busy every week since school got out. We try and come up with somewhere to go each day. We have been to a firehouse tour, the lake, the movies, Centennial Olympic park, and to other local parks and play areas meeting up with friends here and there. He has had some playdates with old classmates which he really enjoys. Unfortunately the heat is coming and we don't do well with the GA summer temperatures so we will have to find some indoor activities along with the pool. Derek is doing gymnastics on Fridays and Ryan wants to do ANYTHING that big brother is doing. I have Ryan signed up for St. Catherine's Preschool 2 days a week (3 hours each day). This will be interesting when it starts in August. I don't know how he will do without Mommy, but hopefully he will do well. We are off to a good start to the Summer. Troy is on vacation this week and we look forward to spending it together as a family.

Post Surgery

Troy's surgery went very well on Monday. He worked from home on Tuesday and then went back into the office on Wednesday. He only took a pain pill once. We went to Audrey Egitton's graduation party yesterday. Joe, Audrey's dad, works with Troy, and Sharon, Joe's wife, has helped us out a few times here at the house when we needed someone to watch the kids while we were at doctors' appointments. It was a really nice time. Derek and Ryan had a busy week. Along with playing with the kids at the party last night, we had a full week of play dates - once with William (a friend from Derek's class) and we met up with Blake, Gabriel, & Olivia at the park nearby (also friends from Derek's class). We also took a trip to the airport for a tour. Derek had his last gymnastics class on Friday, but we signed him up for a more advanced class for the summer. Derek is begging me to get off the computer right now so he can play on Kidzui - one of his favorite computer spots! We are loving this long weekend even though it has been rainy.

Surgery tomorrow

Well, we survived Disney! It was a wonderful trip, but as it goes with 2 young children, it was a lot of work and we were happy to be home. We had a really busy week last week. Troy had a few appointments. He had one with the ENT for his monthly visit and Dr. Riley said that he has one of the best looking throats around. He went to the dentist on Wednesday and Dr. Friedrich said that everything looked great. Troy doesn't have any cavities or damage from the radiation and his saliva is pretty productive. Troy feels like his mouth is pretty dry though. He also had to go to the hospital for blood tests on Thursday because he has his surgery tomorrow to remove his chemo port. Besides Troy's appointments, Derek had his skills testing Monday morning for his entrance to Kindergarten. He had an appointment on Tuesday to see the allergist. There isn't much to report except that Derek has a propensity to hives. They don't test for allergies to sorbitol and the doctor thinks it is highly unlikely that this is what his allergy is to. He wants him to take Zyrtec every night and Troy and I aren't so sure we want to do that so we are just waiting for the next allergic reaction. He has only had a few outbreaks in 5 years so we really don't think it warrants medicating him at this point. Derek also had his end of the year party on Thursday and his graduation on Friday. One of the pictures above is of him with his teachers, Miss Cassi and Miss Betsey. The other picture is Derek with 2 of his best friends, Alex and Gabriel. We are very proud of him. He has come a long way in this past year. He is more outgoing than he has been in the past and he has learned a lot at preschool academically. He is ready for Kindergarten!! Anyway, it has been a busy couple of weeks and now that summer is kicking in, we will be spending a lot of time at the pool and doing fun things around Atlanta. We'll keep you updated on all the happenings. We will let you know how Troy's surgery goes tomorrow as well. Thank you in advance to Marian and Torie, my friends and neighbors, for helping us out with the kids.

Heading to Disney!

Derek with his hives!!

We are getting packed and ready for our trip. We will drive to Orlando early Saturday morning and be back on Saturday the 9th. We're so excited to go and Troy said that he isn't even going to look at his phone! Troy has been doing really well. He has been going into work like he used to do before his diagnosis. He started on Monday of last week and has been doing it pretty steady. He stayed home Thursday to work from home, but besides that he is up and out the door by 7am. He struggles a little with his eating and wishes he could just enjoy food the way he used to. We will be going to Cobb Hospital on the 18th to have his port removed, so he will have to recover from that, but all in all things are really a lot better. My sister, Tonya, stopped by with her family while vacationing around the South. She was only here for a couple of hours, but it was so nice to see a piece of New York/family. Olivia, Christopher, and Logan (the cousins) are shown above with Ryan and Derek. Derek has only a couple of weeks of school left. He finishes on the 15th of May. He will be going to Kennesaw Elementary's Kindergarten orientation tomorrow. Ryan is signed up for the Fall to go to St. Catherine's Preschool on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Derek went to the doctor (and the hospital) last weekend for hives. He was on all kinds of medicine for 5 days and he is going to the allergist on the 12th. I actually think he may have an allergy to sorbitol. It's a long story, but he had an allergic reaction a couple of years ago and we linked it to fluoride tablets that he had taken with that inactive ingredient in them and this past reaction I found the same ingredient in some frosted animal cookies that he had chowed down. We'll see what the doctor thinks. Anyway, he is doing fine and his reaction, luckily, was just cosmetic (not to mention he was extremely itchy) and didn't affect his breathing or anything. We have a week of doctor's appointments when we return from vacation. Troy has to go to the ENT Monday for his monthly visit, Derek sees the allergist Tuesday, Troy goes to the dentist for a post radiation visit (who knows what damage the radiation may have done), and on Thursday, Troy sees Dr. Knauer for his pre-op visit. Ahhhhhhh, vacation is only 5 days away!!! We will leave the chaos behind us for a week.