Memorial Day 2010

Aj is doing better - he's on the mend after the last chemo. Took him out trying to buy a sofa today - not the best idea but we gave it a go :)
He's a pretty edgy from the steroids, told him he is like a pms'ing woman to live with, for the last 5 months. :) :) :)
We drove around to different stores and Aj got pretty tired (as you can tell from the earlier picture) :) :)  something in the James family, you guys can fall asleep A-N-Y-W-H-E-R-E!!! :)

This afternoon we went on a bike ride again, like we do every night. Its just soooo nice. Olivia is really good at riding hers and she tries to copy Chloe's stunts. Chloe wiped out tonight and got a pretty big scratch on her butt. But she didn't cry or even say anything... until 10 minutes later.. but all she said was 'oh it hurts a bit'
Olivia looks soo funny on her bike, she has a big pink barbie helmet on and then the handle bars are pretty big and it just looks funny. Swedish readers will appreciate this : she looks like the guy in 'dunderklumpen' that is riding his bike - hiding from Dunderklumpen. Her dress is flowing behind her and she leans in to the wind.  Especially when she pedals really fast. Let me see if I find a picture. You have to see the movie to understand what I mean, its funny :)

I couldn't find a picture of the guy on the bike, but I will find it! 

Chloe's Art work for sale :) - chloes konst ar till salu

"This Picture is for sell that cost ten dollars

Peace out everyone"

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"Den har bilden ar till salu och kostar 10 dollars

Fred allihopa"
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Furniture shopping!

May 30, 2010

Aj is feeling a tad better, the last few days have been pretty rough. Like usual maybe a little bit worse. But today he went for a walk outside and got some fresh air.
He had the normal procedure with the Neualasta on Friday.  Then the same routine basically, metal taste in mouth, feeling crummy and just blah.

I am going to get a wheat grass press so that he/we can detox with wheat grass. Guess I have to get the girls to help me grow the wheat grass too :) :) should be fun!
That and unsweetened cranberry juice helps to detox as well as the supplements and stuff he is eating.

Lake Austin is booming! Its almost as being back in the Grove- Music making the windows shake and you hear people. Its great!! :)

View from our boat dock - lake Austin

GRATTIS PA MORS DAG (happy mothers day) IN SWEDEN

Grattis Pa Mors Dag - Till basta mamman i varlden!!

(Happy mother's day to the best mum in the world)

Checkers!

May 27, 2010

Sorry it has been a while, just too many things right now. :) But all good so don't worry - and if things were bad or something - we would call. :)

Its the end of the school year, Chloe's last day today with pool party afterwards and Sienna is having field trip tomorrow. Just stuff you know.
Aj had treatment no. 6 yesterday and is feeling like he normally does after chemo - not so good. They cut out the vincristine this time so hopefully no more numb fingers or cramp in the legs!
He had his lumbar punch today and then Neulasta tomorrow. After this - next week he is going to detox - to get rid of all toxins and stuff out of his system. Then its building strength day by day and get stronger and stronger!
I have not read into the whole PCR test thing, come to the conclusion that I can't diagnose him over the internet and that its exhausting to look for stuff that is not that familiar. If everything comes back clear from the coming tests, then he will go for check ups every 3 months.

Had a little mishap the other night - I had put Ruby & Max outside to get fresh air, I was sooo tired in the evening that I forgot to bring them in. I go down to the kitchen in the morning and look outside and think 'shoot, i forgot them outside' but realized I couldn't see any birds in the cage.... I get closer and closer and then I see.. its empty and one of the doors are open! There are feathers scattered over the floor and inside the cage its a mess.
I know right away what has happened and its just terrible. Two nights before this happened - Aj was in Dallas with Brad & Jason and I can't sleep very well when he is not home. So I was up doing stuff and I heard a noise outside the kitchen. I turned on the light outside and see a racoon with a Corona bottle (from recycle) in its hands!! Drops the bottle and takes off, but not far.. then it comes back and comes up to the window to check me out. I snapped some pictures of it and then I thought, this is not good - that is to brave that it comes up to the window. It should be utterly scared of me and I make the ugliest face I can and jump towards the door and now it really took off.
.... so add this little f****r to the Max and Ruby story and you know exactly what happened to them... :( :( :( :(  He is so smart (must be a female actually) :) that she can open the door to a bird cage.
I didn't tell the girls right away because they didn't see it until they got home from school and I told them that they had opened the door and flown away. Chloe cried and cried - she is a little bit more emotional :)   so I tried telling her they might come back. hmmmm...

Yesterday morning I called pest control and asked them to come out and remove the f****r but it was $600!!!! So I called Story's dad Chris and asked him if he was up for some hunting - he has a bunch of guns... sure he was!!!Just going to put food outside so it keeps coming back and all Chris asked for was some beer while he waits for it. Of course its nocturnal...  Then Gary told me he has a trap, so my plan is that we are going to try to trap it and then take it in the woods and shoot it. These guys are very territorial so if you remove them from an area they will find their way back, unless you are at least 75 miles away. Now.. I am not driving with a racoon in the car for 75 miles nor am I going to risk it finding its way back so its going to die. A much quicker death than it gave my canaries. Its going to be 'an eye for an eye'

RIP Max & Ruby


On the positive note, Chloe has a bunch of animals in her classroom and I had told Ms. Sumners that we could help to babysit Reeses for a month during the summer.  Reeses is a super cute guinea pig and he is now living with us. Believe me - Reeses will not be outside unsupervised!!
Even Adrian took him in his little basket and sat down on the sofa with him while he was eating.  :)
Good thing is - we get to give this one back :):):)

Baby O

Local bakery!

Look at the size of that dough!!

View from our deck

Triple

Double tub!!!

May 22, 2010 Amazing Day!

We had an amazing day today, went a trip to Target to pick up some stuff with the girls while Aj was setting up the last pieces in his office which has turned out great!
Then we had a play date with Lauren - who is Sienna's friend from school, who lives on the same street. :)

Aj went to the airport to pick Brad up who flew in from LA and then we all went out in the boat and over to Ski Shores. That Is a great little restaurant/burger joint with a huge playscape for the kids, live music and drinks. After that we went for a quick run up the lake and back home with exhausted girls.
Brad & Aj went out again with the boat so they are either back at Ski Shores or just hanging on the boat. It rocks to live by lake Austin, what were we doing up in Barton Creek all those years??!!! I will never want to leave this street, this is just amazing!

Aj's hair is growing out, like a full head of hair and its growing fast. Pretty amazing since they said it would take 3-4 months after chemo is done for it to grow back... His fingers tips have improved a little bit which is happy news!
Next week is chemo week again, God let us pray this will be the last one he'll ever need. That he can finally get rid of all the toxins in his body after this.

I hope you all saw the pictures from Trinity Olympics - what a fantastic school, just amazing. They had a huge BBQ for everyone and the kids were in teams and went from stations to stations. About 10 different stations I think, I was tired from just watching.. :) of course I was trying to stay dry too, but got too close when they were doing the water guns. I was standing there and all of a sudden it feels like I've pee'd myself... turn around and there is one of the kids in Chloe's class who emptied a whole gun on my butt. Nice... LOL

One thing that was sooo cute today, Chloe and Sienna got to spend their savings at Target this morning - about $4.28!! so they picked out some lip gloss or something like that. When we came home, I was cleaning out some stuff and found a $1 bill. Baby O was next to me so I asked her, do you want to save this for something? Her face lit up and she nodded. Now.. that was about 10.30 this morning. She has been running around the whole day with this dollar bill in her hand. When she found out we were going to Ski Shores for dinner she told me she was buying a cheese burger for her dollar.
The whole time we were over there and she was running back and forth to the playscape, bathroom and table - she had her dollar in her hand, almost became the joke of the day. Baby O with her dollar...
When we were finished and the waitress comes up to clear up some stuff Olivia looks at her and then on her dollar and she goes up and gives it to the waitress. With out anyone saying anything!!! It was soooo cute, she really wanted to pay for her burger!! :) The waitress told her, it was the most special dollar she had received the whole day - Olivia just smiled :):):):)

Ouch!

He deserves it... 

Hook em' Horns..

Videos!

Ok, now I know what the problem is why you can't watch the videos. You have to actually go to the blog website to watch them. For some reason they don't show up in the email alerts that you get that tells you that I have done a posting.

Jag vet vad det ar for fel att ni inte kan se videofilmerna som jag lagger upp. Ni maste ga till websidan istallet for att lasa dem i emailen som kommer. Lagg till den i favoriter sa behover ni inte logga in varje gang. Klicka pa linken nedan sa kan ni se hur bloggen ser ut pa natet och sa kan ni se filmerna dar.

www.catandadrian.blogspot.com

Ms Sumners

Rock it!!

Trinity olympics!!!!!!!

May 18, 2010 Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiired!

Packing, unpacking, putting together, organizing and throwing away - that is what the last week has been for me!

Still not done but pretty well on the way. My body has taken a serious beating since Friday. So tired, sore and worn out. But its getting better slowly but surely. 

I don't remember it being this much work last time we moved.... maybe because we moved from a 1600 sq ft house to a 5500 sq ft :) 

This house is perfect in size - it really is, not sure how big it is but its just right. 

I will post some pictures 'before/after' when I get some more time. 

Aj is doing great, the 5th chemo didn't wipe him out any more than the previous times. He is super busy at work and I think that takes mind of everything else. He has had pretty bad numbness in his fingers that is a little bit better today.

Lisa told him last week that some people actually lose the feeling in their fingertips and that sometimes it won't return. This is due to the Vincristine as well, so Aj is now trying to get hold of her to see what can be done. Is that part of Chop really needed, is so can it be reduced. Its encouraging that its a little less today at least. 

The chemo is just such harsh treatment it is hard to understand. They are treating bad (cancer) with bad (chemo) and then dealing with after- or side- effects as they come along. Its a pretty gray area it seems like. But again, not like Aj had a choice if he wanted to try chemo or something else. Of course I am thankful for the chemo, that has more or less wiped out the lymphoma. 

I just want Aj to get to feel well, really well. No pain, soreness or anything. Just that he is full of energy and feeling great. Don't get me wrong when I say that, he is doing really well for a person in his situation - even people who are not sick with cancer. There is just something there the whole time that reminds him of it. Leg pain, back ache, fingers, head ache. Things come and go but seem to get replaced with something new. Right this minute - numbness in fingers. 

We will get the boat over here in the next few days as well and that will be great. Hopefully we can go tubing with the kids this weekend.

Last night there was a thunderstorm for hours that was suuuuuper loud. Chloe is scared of thunder and it was no point even trying to put her in bed. I put her mattress next to me and put her to sleep there. She just wants to be close when its thunder so she fell asleep. The reason I put the mattress on floor was that she came in the other morning around 2 am and hopped into my bed and then I can't sleep when she is there. So to save myself from that.. mattress on floor. 

I semi-woke up around 4 I think that someone crawled into my bed and curled up like a little ball. As much as I don't want them to sleep in my bed, its the best thing ever to lay there and cuddle them. So... of course not much sleep after 4 am. The alarm went of and the next second I hear a loud snore from the floor. I still haven't opened my eyes and I am going over in my head how this could be. Chloe is sleeping in my arms yet there was a snore from the floor... I open my eyes and see its Sienna in my arms!!!!  She is the one who has been there all morning. Its quite funny, because Chloe would sleep in our bed every night if we let her, but Sienna you can't even bribe to do so. So I was a little surprised it was her. I guess.. if its not one its the other - just waiting for Baby O to come too...

I am off to sleep, John Blund (Swedish guy) has come to put sand on my eyelids to make them heavy. At least that is what I was told he did when I was a kid. :)

Totally off subject.. but am I the only one who thinks this is a bit sick...

I know they make rugs of cows, but do they have to post the 'before' picture???


Rug for sale

Dinner

Baby O put turkey on her watermelon..... And ate it, twice!

Birds made a nest in adrian's shoe

It's ok!

Everything is ok, just so busy moving I don't have time to write. Aj
is a trooper, doing well. Tingle in his fingertips is the side effect
that is worst now I think. Except from feeling full of toxins.

Catia James

Sienna on Samantha's horse

Super Mario!!!

May10, 2010

This has nothing to do with AJ or his health.. but I just find this interesting... quite charming actually :)

17th Century Politics

May 9, 2010 NEW HOUSE

Click on the link below and you will see where we are moving this week. 
NEW HOUSE

May 9th, 2010 MOOOOOOOOTHER's DAY

Happy Mother's Day!

Yesterday ended up being one of those crazy days. It was Chloe's and Sienna's birthday party and it was a Roller skate party. Kids and parents had a blast!
Aj came with us and even got roller skates on - I will post pictures later. He is holding up pretty well, but gets tired really quick and has the yucky metal taste in his mouth.
He is staying in bed a lot and resting which is good.
Booked his ticket to Sweden last night - so now we are all set.

May 7, 2010 Back on Neulasta

Wednesday Aj had his normal chop - round 5 - Ding Ding Ding - one more to go!
Thursday back to Seton and lumbar - that you all got a really good look at :). His WBC had gone down to 2 so Neulasta today to boost it.
He has felt crummy again - like usual. Metal taste in his mouth and sleeping a lot.

Dr. Fayad called me yesterday and told me that the PCR test was positive. He really took me by surprise and I didn't ask all the questions that I have right now. But in short, the PCR test positive means that Aj is at high risk for relapse. Now it doesn't mean that he for sure will and if - maybe not for many many years. Dr. F said he has had patients who was positive and didn't relapse.
Also, this is after 3 rounds of chemo - remember we went there between round 3 and 4. So, maybe its all gone by now, we will find out in June when we go back down for the last biopsy. They will do another staging and do anther PCR and flow test at the same time. Its the same as he had last time we were there.

It felt a little bit like steps backwards yesterday after having such great news about the remission a week ago. I didn't tell Dr. F that Dr. H had given us the results from his tests. So there seem to be a difference in how they read them I guess. Or if Dr. H didn't read that part. Not sure...
But since Dr. F is the 'pro' we listen to him, even though it took him 3 weeks to call us back *urghhhhh*
Amira said, he says you don't answer the phone - I told her he has only called once so missing a call once is not being difficult to get hold of. She agreed.
 But again, we can't look at this as bad and jump into conclusions that he will relapse.
There is no point worry about the stuff we can't control right now anyway and since he has shown to be a star patient... he will be fine. The three last chemo treatments will take care of it!
Also, I am going to email Dr. F a bunch of questions that came up with as soon as I had hung up with him. I was at Costco with 3 kids and a full cart in the car park when he called. Managed to almost crash the cart so it tipped over when I was holding the phone in one hand and getting the kids in the car with the other and steering cart with my foot.
So, it was hard to be 'sharp' and ask all the 'right' questions, but when I do - I'll of course report back to you guys! I won't have any definite answers to give until a month but at least more info.

Soooo.. back in the waiting game again. Getting used to it now. No point in getting irritated or impatient, we won't find out earlier anyway. Plus we have too much to do right now... packing moving and kid's birthday party tomorrow. Roller skate party to ABBA music !!! Chloe wants it to be Chipmonk Cd - so I guess a mix of it. You'll see some pictures tomorrow!

Even got his hand on laptop in his sleep....

Spinal tap..... Not the movie... :)

May 4, 2010

We have had some amazing weather in Austin. If it was like this all year around, this would be the best place on earth :)
You notice, my postings are a little further apart, not that its not important to let you know how he is doing now when he's in remission. Its just that I have been slammed with packing up the house - kids and then going for walks with a neighbor in the evenings at 9 pm. So I am exhausted when I finally get into bed. I have actually got rid of most of our furniture already - sofas, guest bedroom, girls' beds and futon. They were just sooo worn and nasty from kids and age.
The house I found is nice, and its on the best street in Austin. It runs along Lake Austin and is about 60 second drive to the girl's elementary school. Couldn't be much closer, Olivia's school will be further though but its ok. Only have to drive for 2 more years :)

Aj is still having this pain in his leg that sometimes is so bad that he can't walk. Just put an ice pack on it and gave him two Darvon. When he was on his way home from Vegas I did some research and it does say its common and it can be due to the Vincristine drug in the CHOP. It could also be a blood clot..
Yesterday he went to see Lisa, the nurse practitioner and she sent him for an ultra sound to rule out blood clot. It came back negative (phew)
So there is no real telling what it is or where it comes from, today in the afternoon he said "hey its going away!!" but then when he came back from neighbor's house he was limping pretty bad. Now he's in bed with it elevated and an ice pack.
Lisa said that Dr. H can probably reduce the amount of Vincristine that he's going to get tomorrow, so lets see if it makes a difference. She told him last time that she had heard the 5 treatment was the worst for some reason, so going to take it day by day right now just see how he feels. At least we have enough drugs to kill an elephant and more so it should be manageable. Might slip some Ambien in the kids dinner to get an early night myself :) :) - just kidding!!!! They are so worn out from all the play in the heat that they are out in seconds!

Summer is here!!!!

If the pool is too deep.....

May 1, 2010

First of all Chloe just has a bacterial tonsillitis and is put on anti biotics for 10 days. :) she almost had a heart attack when they had to prick her finger. 

This whole week I have been getting more and more frustrated with Dr. Fayad that he has not been able to contact us and let us know if things were looking great or not. I have emailed and called Amira several times and her hands are tied - I don't think she is allowed to read the reports. 

I made a mistake yesterday morning when I was on a call, another call came in and that was from a blocked number - MD Anderson has a blocked id when the call. So when I was trying to be quick to swap call, I hung up on the blocked number. 

Right away I called MD Anderson but remembered as the signals were going through that Dr. F and Amira aren't there on Fridays so it couldn't have been them. Then I started thinking about the whole thing and I got really angry that they still haven't told us. So, stepping on anyone's toes or not, I didn't care.. I called up Dr. H's office and left a message for the nurse that it was urgent and that I really needed to speak to Dr. H. 

They called me back late in the afternoon to let me know that Dr. H wasn't in but she would put the message on the board and it would get taken care of as soon as she is back in the office - Monday morning. I told her that I know the report is there, because I can see it on the My MD Anderson page - I just couldn't read it (understand it) I've spent hours trying to google what is what and when it comes to the molecular language its not easy to understand even with Google.  So rather than trying to diagnose myself, I was going to be patient and wait for them to call.

She called me back about 1.5 hours later and said that they had faxed the report to Dr. H and she read it and Aj is in REMISSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *for my parents/brother - cancern ar borta* han kan inte kallas for kurerad forran efter 5 ar. men cancern ar borta i kroppen just nu!!!

It took probably 15-20 minutes for me to understand and then I was thinking, no I don't dare to believe this. They are going to call on Monday from MD Anderson and say that Dr. H didn't read it right... So I was still nervous and happy at the same time. I mean could it be?????? Cancer come and go in 4.5 months??? 

Then I called Aj - he is in Vegas with Barry to watch a fight and hang out. I told him - go out and celebrate tonight and do it BIG!! Then I just broke down and cried and cried, could barely speak. It hit home... Adrian no longer has cancer.... Wow - I get tears in my eyes just writing it now. This is almost as surreal as when they told he he had it. Its almost as I want to think that someone just wanted to f*** with us really bad, for a few months and then just go away. But hey! I don't have any complaints about it going away the way it did. I am just amazed!

What an emotional roller coaster these months have been, incredible. Still he has two more chemo treatments left and I know for sure that this will always be with us. It will never really leave us or we will never be able to leave it. Every check up is going to be nerve wracking, but we will get through that too. If we could live with it active - we can for sure live with it in remission too!!!! Live every day - doesn't have to be to the fullest, but just LIVE and feel alive. You never know what is ahead.  

So, that is when I got the Champagne out and toasted with the girls!! They don't have a clue how serious this has been. But one thing is for sure and that is they are HAPPY! I told them that the doctor said that Pappa is fine, he is well. All three of them screamed and Chloe did her little dance and said - 'oh yeah baby, oh yeah' 

  

Negative strep

Catia James

Strep or not..... 5 min :)