Starting treatment

This post will be short. It's been a long and exhausting week.

Sam had 7 hours of testing at Duke yesterday, including the dreaded bone marrow biopsy. He's still a bit sore from that but otherwise feeling okay. The testing was to ensure his eligibility in the study. There were a few different criteria that he had to and did meet, but they were concerned about his dropping platelet counts. In order to participate in the trial he had to stay above 150,000 and at his last reading in December was at 152,000.  The oncologist's nurse/assistant called this afternoon and Sam's platelet count was 157,000 making him eligible to start the trial. GREAT news! If he had been disqualified for the study he would have had to start a much harsher chemo regimen that we were hoping to avoid for the time being.

So, this Thursday and Friday (February 2nd and 3rd) Sam will start his first round of chemo. Please keep him in your thoughts then and during the weekend as he rests and recovers. We are really hoping for mild side effects, but you never know how a person will react.

XOXO,
Alex

The kids closet redo

To put it bluntly, the kids closet was a mess. Not enough storage, not accessible to them, it just wasn't working. So, this weekend we set out to change that! Step one to redoing a closet - marry an awesome guy. Seriously, he was amazing. I changed my mind during this project probably 15 times and spent two hours in Lowe's staring at materials. But it's finished and I couldn't be happier! It freed up some room in other areas of the house that I can now utilize better as well. Okay, so the before pictures...

Making the most of it

On Tuesday afternoon, the weather was SO nice outside! Like 68 degrees and sunny. Great! I went to pick the kids up from school and we talked the whole way home about what a bummer it was that we couldn't go to the park (since I was just put on bedrest the day before). So I suggested that we take a blanket outside and that I could lay down while the kids and the dogs played in the backyard. Cameryn responded with, "You know what's even better than that?! A picnic!!"

Lots of changes

The new year has brought with it a lot of struggles, but we are confident that things are going to work out for us. We have an amazing support system of friends, family and community members that are helping us cope with life.

You have to start somewhere

I've been meaning to get into this whole blogging thing for awhile now, but it never quite happened. So, today is the day. With so many changes going on in our lives and with all of our family and friends spread out all over the country, this seemed like the easiest way to keep everyone updated on what is going on in the Shrader household. The good, the bad, and the ugly. All in one place.