Glass Slipper Entertainment

It's All Good

2009-04-15T18:23:00.005-05:00

We met with the surgeon again yesterday and everything looks good. He was happy with the way Peter's incision is healing and wants to see him again in 3 weeks to check it. He is still having to have the dressing changed twice a day, but as it begins to heal and get smaller, hopefully I will be able to help without wanting to pass out!

I was late getting my Easter cards out this year, which is still an improvement over last year because I don't think I sent any out at all! Katie had pictures taken, so we sent them out to family members. I didn't have enough to send to all the many friends that have been part of our lives and have watched her grow up, so here are some for you to see!

Happy Easter!!

Hey, not so fast......

2009-04-14T09:27:00.002-05:00

Well, I must have jinxed it when I said we were all done!! Those little places that I was talking about in the last post that we had to tape back together in his incision, well, one of them opened up pretty good. We ended up back at the surgeon's office last Friday and one of the places just isn't holding with the steristrips. We didn't see the surgeon, just his nurse. She opened it up quite a bit and drained it a little. Then packed it with some gauze that has to be changed twice a day.

She said that there is a blood clot that is sitting in that space where the stoma used to be and the body is trying to break it down by feeding it lots of liquid, which has been causing the oozing he has been having. When the "pocket" gets too full, it looks for the weakest point in the incision to push through. So, now they want it to heal from the inside out. It gets packed with gauze that has been moistened with saline solution to promote the growth of new cells. We are told that over the next month or so the pocket under the skins will gradually get smaller and smaller, needing less and less packing of gauze. At some point I guess it will just close completely, although it's hard to figure that the whole will completely seal up if you ask me. I guess we'll see in a month or so. The good news is that there is no infection and it is healing, it will just take longer and be higher maintenance.

Peter has been going to the hospital wound treatment center for some of the dressing changes. His niece, Ollie, who is a nurse, has also been coming over to change it for him when she is available. All of which means that I don't have to!! I handled the stoma ok, but so far, the thought of shoving all that gauze in under his skin is a little much for me!!!! I'm grateful that he is ok having others do it this time!

We have an appointment with the surgeon again this afternoon. Hopefully he will be there to see us this time.

Home Sweet Home!

2009-04-09T21:17:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the delay in information, but Peter is home! He was release Saturday. It was earlier than I thought, but I think he was ready to come home. He called me Saturday morning to say
his bowels had done everything we had been waiting for them to do and they were processing his discharge papers. I picked him up and we were home before lunch!

He started off taking the pain meds they had prescribed, which helped control the pain, but made him so anxious and nervous, he decided after a couple of days to switch to Advil & Tylenol. Last night he made it 6 hours without taking any medicine and not being woken up by pain. Once he got up, he had pain, but it was a good nights rest. He also got busy this afternoon and forgot to take meds most of the afternoon. Again, he was in pain when he finally realized what had happened, but the fact that he is no longer counting down the minutes until his next dosage is awesome!

We saw the surgeon this morning to get the staples out. That was a little painful in spots and of coarse he was not very gentle in removing them. Now we are wondering if they were removed a little early. He's had a couple of places where we have had to literally tape the skin together with steri-strips because it had separated, opened up and was draining. One place in particular looks like it was held together by the scab and the scab was ripped off. The nurse at the surgeon's office sent us home with some steri-strips and he will just have to be careful for the next couple of weeks until it really fuses back together.

All in all, we are done! The surgeon doesn't want to see Peter again for a year, when he will personally do another colonoscopy. Peter does have another appointment with the oncologist just as a treatment wrap up, but other than that, he is cancer free!!!

Hurray For Solid Food!!

2009-04-03T17:31:00.002-05:00

That's our mantra for the day. The surgeon came in early this afternoon and said Peter could be upgraded to a normal diet. The nurses recommended he start slow with soft food, but he can have pretty much anything he wants. So, this afternoon he had scrambled eggs and an English muffin, the first chewable food he's had since Sunday night!

We were also surprised to be told he will be going home tomorrow. The surgeon is not on call tomorrow, so his partner will be the one making the rounds. Peter is going to see how he feels tomorrow, but today he doesn't feel like he's ready to go home. He did come off oxygen this morning and has been walking. He did pass a tiny amount of gas and even a small amount of stool like you would expect to see at the bottom of a rabbit's cage. He is still, however, not in control of the pain and dependent on the morphine to control it. He is hoping to be off the morphine tomorrow, but would like to have one more day in the hospital in case it becomes a problem. If this feeling persists he will discuss it with the dr. and try to negotiate another day. In any case, we are looking at being home no later than sometime Sunday, which is still a day sooner than I thought he'd go home.

Update On Peter

2009-04-02T17:54:00.002-05:00

We were finally able to schedule Peter's surgery. He checked into the hospital on Tuesday the 30th. They did a colonoscopy and thankfully found nothing! No polyps, nothing suspicious! After the procedure he was admitted and spent the night. Wednesday morning, he had surgery to reconnect the colon. The surgery went very well. They reconnected the colon to the rectum and removed the port he had put in for chemo.

Today (Thursday) he has already been up walking twice and will walk 2 more times before bedtime. They had hoped at best he would walk a little bit, but he has lapped the floor both times he's been out. He is on a morphine pain button and able to administer it himself as needed. He has not been able to eat since Sunday night, so that has been an issue. After midnight the allowed him to have limited clear liquids, but the only thing that interested him was grape juice. The surgeon came in this afternoon and upgraded him to full clear liquids. Which for him means that he can have vanilla ice cream and orange sherbet. He could have cream of wheat or cream of chicken soup, but in his words, "If they have to cream it to make it taste better, I don't want it!" Hopefully tomorrow they will upgrade him to soft food and he can have eggs and possibly toast. That is what he seems to be most interested in having at the moment.

In order to be released from the hospital, he must pass a stool. First step is to pass gas, then he can start solid food, then pass a stool to be able to go home. It seems like vicious circle if you ask me, but we've done it before, so we know it works. The anticipation is much like potty training your toddler! Maybe we'll have a potty party when he goes home!!

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

Email News

2009-03-21T20:42:00.003-05:00

Today was a big day at the Stark house. Katie got her own email account today! She has been sending email like crazy.

She spent most of the day playing outside. The weather is slowly warming. Today was in the low 60's and sunny - just about perfect if you ask me. We let her stay out til about 7:30 tonight playing with some kids in the neighborhood. Then she comes in and decides it would be fun to swing on the towel bar in the bathroom and yanked it right out of the wall!! Never a dull moment!

This week is Spring Break. Tomorrow we are going to the movies and do some shopping. She desperately needs some spring clothes. Monday she has a dentist appointment and I have a meeting in the afternoon. Tuesday I have another meeting in the morning, then we are meeting some friends for lunch and going to paint pottery. Wednesday, Katie and I are both having our hair cut and I plan to have her pictures taken that afternoon. So far we have no plan for Thursday, but Friday we hope to go to Dubuque to play with some friends who we know from Mommy & Me, the McCaughey Family. We have no plan for the weekend, then Monday my Mom arrives, Tuesday Peter goes in the hospital and Wednesday is surgery.

Surgery Is Set

2009-03-17T11:24:00.003-05:00

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

We met with Peter's Surgeon yesterday and the surgery is scheduled! He goes in for colonoscopy on Tuesday March 31st. Immediately after that, they will check him in and do any other prep for surgery. He goes under the knife at 7:30am on Wednesday April 1st. It should take about 2 1/2 hours for the surgery.

My Mom is flying in on Monday the 30th to help out while Peter is in the hospital. It will be nice having her here this time around to help out with Katie. Simple things like making her lunch, getting her ready for school and on the bus and meeting the bus after school will relieve some of the pressure I felt when Peter was in the hospital last year. It will also help Katie stay on a normal schedule, which will make this experience more pleasant for her, too.

We expect Peter to be in the hospital almost a week. They said for sure through the weekend. Once the reconnection is done, they will have to wait for the bowels to "wake up", which could take a couple of days. Then they will slowly reintroduce foods - first clear liquids, then soft solids. I think he actually has to pass a stool to be able to go home.

February, at last

2009-02-28T16:43:00.005-06:00

Wow! Once a month blogging. I don't think that was the intention behing the intial idea of blogging.

I've been shoulder deep in working on the upcoming Gala for my non-profit group, Families Helping Families. Things are not coming together quite as quickly as I had hoped. We are anxious to start advertising but havn't locked up any new details to promote. Our next meeting is scheduled for March 6th, so I'm hoping everyone comes prepared with accomplished tasks.

We met this week with local celebrity, KCRG lead anchor Bruce Aune. He is MC-ing our event. We invited him to our Head Quarters, the Benjamin Brace House. It was a great meeting. He had done his homework and had checked out our website. He'd come prepared with questions and seemed genuinely interested in not only what we do, but how the foster system works. We were all impressed and charmed! He will be an awesome addition to our event this year!

We are also working on a Foster Family Appreciation Picnic for May, which I am excited about. We are desperate for volunteers, and I'd love to have someone I can confidently turn this over to, who will be enthusiastic and get it done. Unfortunately, we are running short in personnel with both of those qualities.

Katie has been sick the past couple of days. She has been up the last 3 nights with a sore throat. It seems to be ok mid-day, but at night it must be pretty painful for her. This morning, she actually got up on her own, went to the living room, turned the tv on and let us sleep in until 10am!! It was awesome! Have we finally gotten her trained after 6 1/2 years????

Peter has been battling the same cold/throat thing that Katie has been. He is back working with a new rep in the Quad Cities and I think his brother Mike is working with him next week to check out the business.

Catching up for the New Year

2009-01-28T09:12:00.006-06:00

Well, its been over a month since I last checked in. What a month it has been!

Christmas went so fast! Peter's sister, Kit, and her family where here from North Carolina. Kit's daughter, Sarah, had a baby last year, Ella, and it was nice to share her first Christmas. We also attended Ella's baptism, which was very special. Father Mark included Katie in the process and she was so proud! Hard to think that my baby isn't the baby in the family any more!

Katie and Father Mark

Sarah, Erik & Ella Rosenwood

This year for Christmas, we compiled all Peter's Mom's recipes and created a cookbook/memoir. We add pictures of her from childhood through adulthood. I was really pleased with the way it turned out! We even sent a copy to Peter's Aunt in Michigan and his Cousin in Chicago. We couldn't buy one for everyone in the family, but once they all saw it, I was asked to send out the link so they could buy their own. For the weeks I spent working on it, I'm very proud of the results! You can't preview it on-line, but if you want to order one for yourself, click here!

Peter's brother Mike and wife Donna, gave Peter an electric drum kit for Chirstmas. It was a table top set with several settings. Mike has been playing guitar most of his life and is now helping Donna learn to play the bass guitar. Now throw in Peter and his new drum set and you've got a band!

However, once Peter started playing it, he quickly decided to trade up and get an even bigger set, still electric, though. I don't have a picture of the new set yet, but here is a picture of the first one that Mike and Donna gave him.

Drum set #1

Donna, Kit & Mike

Then, after New Year's, my grandfather (Paw Paw) was hospitalized, so Katie and I took off for Texas. We left on a Saturday Jan 3rd and he passed away late that night as we drove through Oklahoma. I had hoped we would be able to say good-bye before he passed, but I'm glad he didn't linger any longer than he had to. It was his time and I didn't want him to suffer just so we could say good-bye. My cousin, Chris, who is stationed in Hawaii right now was able to get emergency leave through the Red Cross and he was there before Paw Paw passed away. It had been a while since Chris had seen him, so I'm glad he was able to come home. My other cousin, Mike and his wife, Dionndra also came for the funeral and brought their little girl, Arianna. I think it's the first time we have all been together at one time as adults!

After the funeral, we went for dinner and the margaritas were going down so smoothly, we ended up at a Karaoke Bar until the wee hours of the morning. Sincere thanks to my sister, Kristen, who drove all our drunk asses around and had to endure our musical stylings!! I'm sure it was torturous at best!

While we were in Texas, we took Katie to the American Girl Place & Bistro. I had gotten pre-approval from Peter to purchase a doll, so Katie picked out the one she liked. We were there to have dinner at the Bistro, and they actually have highchairs for the dolls. If you don't have a doll, they have dolls that they will loan you while you are there. Here are a few more pictures from our visit to American Girl Place.

At the door waiting to go in

Katie and her American Girl Doll, Clara

Me, Katie and Clara at dinner in the American Girl Bistro, Dallas

Katie and Clara, leaving American Girl Place

Katie sharing her American Girl Doll, Clara, with her cousin, Arianna. That's my cousin Chris in the background looking very handsome in his dress blues.

Ok, so that's about it for now. There's more, but I'll save it for next post. I will try to be a little more consistant than once a month!

Holiday Happiness

2008-12-14T11:39:00.001-06:00

This week has been an awesome week for us.

Peter has now officially completed chemotherapy!!! Now for the hard part, the healing. It will take him a few weeks to start feeling like he's on the way back to normal. His blood counts were still low, so he will have to wait for those to come back up before he has surgery. We are hoping for the reconnection surgery in late January or February. It's later than we had hoped, but the surgery will be a cake walk compared to the last 6 months of chemo.

I hurt my back on Tuesday, which made me loose the entire week. I even had a party on Saturday that ended up cancelling - sort of. It was for my friend, Lea and her daughter Autumn. I have done several parties for her over the last 2 years. With my back, I was just not physically able to do the party. I offered her the option to reschedule or to do it on her own for just the cost of materials and she could borrow my tables, chairs, serving pieces, etc. She opted to do it herself and I think it went really well. She has a new appreciation for what I do.

I did go to the Chiropractor on Thursday and Friday. That helped considerably. I am still not back to normal, but it is much better. I will go 3 more times next week.

Other than my back pain, it was an amazing week and really brought out the spirit of Christmas that we all love. I spent 2 of the 3 evenings helping with the Shop With A Cop program. The non-profit group I've been working with, Families Helping Families, partnered up with the Cedar Rapids Police Department to provide a $100 shopping spree for over 100 children in Foster Care!! It was really incredible to see the kids show up with the anticipation on their faces, then to see them leaving with bags and carts full of all the stuff they had picked out. The smiles on their faces and the appreciation they showed really made my holiday!!

When these children are removed from their homes, they are most often removed with only the clothes on their backs. They must leave everything else behind and are then placed in either a group home or the home of complete strangers. Also, the only interaction these kids may have had with a police officer is when they are removed from their home or to watch their parents being arrested! So, not only are these Foster Children given the shopping spree, but it's a great way to repair the relationship with law enforcement to show them that Police Officers are not the bad guys. It's such an awesome program! I just can't say enough and I am so proud to have been part of it. I'm hopeful that Families Helping Families will participate in 2 more Shop With A Cop Programs next year and I'm pushing for a third!!

Also, yesterday (Saturday), I was honored to be able to escort 2 of my Princesses to a Christmas party hosted by the Homeless Children's Trust. This is a foundation sponsored by HACAP. With the flood this year, the number of homeless families in Cedar Rapids has gone up. This party was established to help these families provide Christmas for their children. The parents were given $50 and were bussed to a store to shop for gifts for their children. The children remained at the party to take part in the holiday party while the parents were off shopping. My Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty were there, along with the CR Kernels Mascot and the CR Roughriders Mascot. Santa and Mrs. Claus also made an appearance and gave each child a gift. School groups, Boy Scout and Girl Scout Troops also participated by bringing crafts and games to entertain the children. Once the parents returned, they were all able to enjoy a free lunch together. KCRG-TV did a story at 6pm and 10pm and showed my Sleeping Beauty, too. They didn't mention us by name, but we will take what we can get!

All in all it was a good week. Next week will be very busy getting everything ready for Christmas and holiday company. I am also volunteering at Katie's class party. I have a few more things to purchase for Christmas, but the bulk of the shopping is done. I've barely started the wrapping, so that will be chore now with my back hurting. I must also work on Christmas Cards! Unfortunately, anyone who has been keeping up with the blog, won't find much new (if anything) in the Christmas letter this year.

Wrapping up November

2008-12-08T23:35:00.005-06:00

Ok, it's been almost a month since I last logged in and WOW what a month's it's been!

Rachael McCaughey, Luann Slaymaker, Me

First I have to update you on my friend Luann. Luann passed away just before Thanksgiving. Her visitation and funeral were so moving, emotional and powerfully spiritual. She touched so many lives and had such a strong faith in God. It was a sad farewell to a friend, but I know I will see her again one day. Please say a prayer for the family she left behind as death is always hardest on the living. She will be missed.

Aside from loosing Luann, Thanksgiving was nice. The weather was decent, so we grilled a turkey breast and Peter's Nephew, Nick, fried a turkey for us. Both were awesome and I handled all the trimmings! It was a pretty low-key day and just what we needed as we prepared for the last chemo treatment.

We spent most of the weekend decorating the house for Christmas. Nick came over and put the lights on the house for us. They look fabulous!! We bought all new LED lights this year. We had Family pictures taken last week for our Christmas card, so the house had to be done.

Thank you Sara for the awesome pictures. Check out Sara's MySpace page. Book a session and be sure to tell her I sent you!

Which leads me to today. Peter went for his FINAL chemo treatment today. We can't actually celebrate until he gets the bag off on Wednesday, but it's so close to being over, I can't help but do a little happy dance!!

Oh, and I almost forgot....we have a new addition at our house. We have a new 4 legged baby! His name is Cooper. He is just over 1 year old. He came from a friend, who was having to find a new home for him. He is so affectionate and adorable. He has been living with us for a couple of weeks now and has found his place with the other animals in the house!

Cooper, our new kitty!

And last but not least, we made it to see Santa this year. Last year, I got stuck in Dallas and ended up flying into DesMoines on Christmas Eve, renting a car and racing home. Katie got all dolled up and we rushed to the mall, only to find that Santa had to go back to the North Pole to prepare for his long night of delivering gifts to good little boys and girls.

I think that about does it. We are, for the most part, finished with our Christmas shopping. I've been obsessing over some home-made gifts this year. They are finally finished, I just hope they all arrive before the 25th! I've done several parties and have a crazy week & weekend ahead. Once that is over, I hope to have a nice break for the holidays.

Prayers For Luann

2008-11-04T09:00:00.003-06:00

Please pray for my friend Luann. She has been in a heavy battle with breast cancer and has just found out she has brain cancer. She has 2 small children, one who is just 2 days younger than Katie.

We met Luann and her husband Scott in Lamaze when we were both pregnant. As it turns out, we are actually related! Luann's husband Scott is the nephew of Peter's Brother's Wife, Donna. Scott's Mom is Donna's Sister.

They have been told that the cancer is inoperable and are beginning radiation. She has been having radiation for her breast cancer, but they are now going to concentrate on the brain. I have been told, however, that treatment is not to prolong life at this point, but merely to ease the pressure on the brain and control her pain.

Our prayers go out to Louann and her family.

3 Posts In 1 Day!!!!

2008-11-03T16:15:00.003-06:00

Ok, this is some kind of record, but I just had to share Katie's school picture. It turned out so cute!!

Katie Stark - 6 years old - Mrs. Mueller's Class - 1st Grade - Hiawatha Elementary

More Stuff and Halloween

2008-11-03T09:29:00.006-06:00

Just a few more pictures. I took Katie to see High School Musical 3! She loved it and I have to admit that I enjoyed it, too. We went again over the weekend with a bunch of her friends from school. It was so funny to see all the girls dancing in their seats, singing a clapping with the music.

This is Katie with the Standee in the lobby at the theater with the cast of High School Musical 3.

This is Katie before school on Friday (Halloween) I made us matching shirts with spiders and matching spider head bands.

Here's a close up with a little better focus.

Friday was also Katie's school Fall Celebration. I was in charge of the party for her class. We made photo frames, played fall bingo, had a snack of popcorn with fall candies, edible eye balls and apple slices with caramel and peanut butter. The kids all talked about how awesome the party was. Thanks to the other parents that helped put this together! It was a fun party!

Blog Picture Problems!

2008-11-03T09:18:00.003-06:00

I have figured out why I'm having problem with my blog photos. I fixed the previous post with the Halloween pictures. You can now click on each photo and see it full screen. I'm not going back to fix all the previous posts, but will make sure from here on out that I'm posting them correctly.

Happy Halloween!!

2008-10-31T21:31:00.012-05:00

Wow! What a day! Today was Katie's Fall Celebration at school. I'll post pics of that maybe tomorrow. Here are some from trick-or-treating tonight!

Katie was a Geisha Girl, or a Japanese Princess, or Mulan, or a "Chinese Girl"....depending on when you asked her. Anyway, she wore a kimono and was adorable!!!

Her costume came with a butterfly headband and I found the most perfect purple chopsticks with butterflies on them to go in her hair!

Katie's cousins, Maddie the Princess in Blue, Aidan the Skeleton and Little Petey the Dragon came over to go trick-or-treating with us.

Maddie and Katie striking a pose!

Petey the Dragon....what a happy boy!

Aidan did not want his picture taken. You will notice he is not smiling in any of the other pictures. I caught him off guard with this one and it turned out so cute! Notice that his shoes are on the wrong feet!! Too cute! Ironicaly, he wanted to go home early because his feet were hurting. He still wouldn't fix his shoes, though.

It was a wonderful day, but man am I exhausted. We couldn't have had more perfect weather! It was about 74 degrees today and gorgeous! We were even able to get the capris back out today! Even after the sun went down, it was still nice enough not to need a coat. I put a long sleeve shirt and long pants under Katie's costume and she was fine. Every other year we've been here we've been freezing and have come home because we couldn't take the cold any longer. Just a few days ago we were having flurries and were worried about having snow on the ground for trick-or-treating.

One last picture. We walked with another family from the neighborhood. Here is the group pictured from left to right....Lauren, Emma, Maddie, Aidan, Katie and Megan. I think they had a good time!

Pumpkin Farm Pictures, As Promised

2008-10-28T18:13:00.005-05:00

Here are the pictures from our trip to the pumpkin farm a week ago. The entire 1st grade went along for this field trip. It was so much fun. The farm was out around Shellsburg. I think the woman was a retired school teacher, but I am not positive of that. Anyway, she was great with the kids and has done this a time or two. She offers this at no charge to the school, but we took up a collection to give to her when we arrived.

This is Katie and her friend and classmate, Abby. This is in the class before we left for the field trip. I volunteer in the class room on Thursday mornings, so I was in class already. The kids were having an early lunch in the class room, so I packed my lunch and ate with them. We rode the bus to the farm, which was interesting, since I hadn't ridden a bus in 20+ years!!

Katie and her friend/classmate/and our neighbor, Zindrick. This was on the bus. They spent most of the ride playing on my new blackberry.

This is at the farm. The 2008 is some kind of squash that was shaped as it was growing and wired into the numbers. It was so neat. As you can see we had an absolutely beautiful day!!! I love this picture!

Katie, Mackenzie & Spencer posing in front of the Ostrich pen. There were also 2 Emu's in there.

Katie in the corn field picking Indian Corn.

Each adult was in charge of 3-5 kids. I had (pictured above left to right), Katie, Spencer, Zindrick and Mackenzie. They are posing with their Indian Corn.

My group: Katie, Mackenzie, Spencer and Zindrick

Zindrick and Katie as we are getting ready to leave.....aren't they so cute!!!!

This is Katie's Class picture at the farm. Each kid got an ear of Indian Corn and a pumpkin to take home. What a fun day!!

It's A Hallelujah Day!!!

2008-10-23T20:12:00.003-05:00

First, Peter got his approval for Medicaid!!!!! Thank God!!! They will go back 90 days and pay everything billed in those 90 days and from here forward. It won't cover a his out patient surgery from when he had his port put in, but we called the hospital today and they said once he's approved for Medicaid, they write off everything that isn't covered!!! This is so huge for us! I can't even express how much stress this has put on Peter over the last month.

This afternoon, Peter went in and had his blood tested and it's much better than before, in spite of the stress. So, he doesn't have to have shots and he will resume full chemo treatments on Monday!! Now we are just 6 weeks away from being done with all this!!

Then, today was Katie's 1st Grade Program at school. She was an Aimless Sheep. She had a speaking part and a singing solo! She did such a great job. They performed twice for groups of kids at school during the day today, then for the parents tonight. It was so cute. All the kids did a wonderful job.....but our little Katie was a star!! If I ever figure out how to post video, I'll put some of it up. Anyone know how to pull a segment from a mini dvd?

Here are a few pictures to give you an idea.

This is Zindrick and Katie. They were both Sheep.

This is a picture of the main characters from the program.

This is the entire 1st Grade. They were all in the Program and those who didn't have specific stage parts, were a chorus of farmers.

These are the kids just from Katie's Class. Such a great group of kids this year.

I've got more pictures to add next time. Katie's class went to the pumpkin patch last week, but I'll save those for another post.

Hurry Up And Wait

2008-10-20T15:54:00.002-05:00

That's what I feel like our lives have been reduced to. We are still waiting to hear from DHS to see if they will approve us for medicaid. This will go back 3 months and pick up all the bills our insurance has rejected and will allow Peter to finish his treatment. Everyday, literally, we get new bills that show the insurance company is not paying something. Just this weekend, we got a bill from when Peter had his port put in. This was done in June or July before he received his 1st treatment!! It's amazing that no one is in a hurry for their money, until it falls on us to pay it. If medicaid doesn't come through I don't know what we will do. I think we are somewhere around the $80K mark now.

The insurance company did give the approval for Peter to receive chemo as an in-patient treatment (sort of). This means that he can check into the hospital overnight and get the same drugs we would spend 4 hours at the Oncologist office getting. How does that make sense on any level?? The only problem is that in the wording of the approval, they left them selves an out basically saying that if the deemed it was unnecessary, they could deny the claim. Well, either you approve it or you don't! Writing in your own loop hole is bull shit!

I got a call today from the insurance lady at the Oncologist office wanting to know what was going on. She got a call from the nurse she had spoken with at the hospital, saying that Peter hadn't shown up for treatment. Are these people daft?? If we can't afford the $80K we owe already, what's the point of running up even more. It's just so much money, I don't even know what to do with a debt like that. The good news is that as long as we make a small payment to them and we make it every month, in the state of Iowa, they can't do anything to us and we'll just pay $50 a month for the rest of our lives if necessary.

So many people fouled this up I don't know who to be more pissed at! Peter and I discussed this weekend that if Medicaid doesn't cover it, we might have to retain a lawyer to sue the Oncologist. It's their fault they didn't call the right company to get approval for this treatment. It's their fault we ended up with a needless emergency room visit, it's their fault we ended up with a surgery bill for the port. The only thing WE are at fault for is relying on the Oncologist and his staff to HELP us! Isn't that what they are suppose to do??

Insurance Sucks!

2008-10-13T09:30:00.004-05:00

We made it through treatment #8. A lot has been going on in the last week or so. We found out last weekend that we have maxed out Peter's out patient benefits on his insurance policy. What does that mean? Well, it seems to mean that the insurance company will not cover any more chemo treatments, dr. visits, emergency room visits, etc. Anything that doesn't require him to be admitted to the hospital. The bad news is that we met the maximum about the beginning of August, so we've managed to run up about $40K in medical bills since it ran out.

Peter has applied for assistance with DHS and if we are approved, they will go back 3 months and pick up everything that the insurance kicks back. That would include all the chemo treatments he has already taken and a trip to the Emergency Room. Keep your fingers crossed that they approve us.

Peter is suppose to take another round of chemo in 2 days, but won't be able to until we get the word from DHS. His blood was so bad last treatment that he wasn't able to take the toxic drug again, this is the second treatment in a row. And, now because of this insurance thing, he isn't going to take the shots that make his bone marrow work harder to produce the white blood cells he needs to build his blood back up. It's just a vicious cycle.

Our lesson from this....check your policy. If you have less than $100 K in outpatient benefit, call you agent to increase it.

On another note, Katie has a solo part in her school program next week! She has 3 speaking lines as well as a solo singing part. She is an aimless sheep. She came home singing her part last week, and I couldn't figure out what she was saying. I didn't know at the time that she was a sheep. She was singing "I'm a miserable ewe". It was the "ewe" part that was totally throwing me off. She has to wear all white, like a white sweatsuit. I don't know how hard that will be to find.

7th Treatment Down!!

2008-09-21T22:36:00.002-05:00

We are officially over half way now! Peter had his seventh of twelve treatments last week. There was a little concern about his blood work. His white cell count over all was ok, but one of the specific counts, his neutraphill (or something like that) is what helps fight off infection. It was significantly low. So, the doctor told us he wanted to postpone this weeks treatment. We then expressed our concern about staying on schedule and being able to get chemo completed and get the reconnection surgery before the end of the year, so we wouldn't have to pay another deductible. The doctor then agreed to continue on with treatment with 2 conditions. First, he would hold off giving the Oxiliplaton (I have no idea of the spelling). This is the most toxic drug of the 3 Peter receives. The effectiveness of this drug is seen most in the first 8 doses, so he's gotten most of the benefit of that one already. Second, Peter will have to again take the shots to increase his bone marrow production. Also, he's going from 4 shots to 5 shots and the shot dosage has gone up, which just means his marrow will work even harder to produce those cells. We had hoped this would be an easy week, but he has still had the normal exhaustion and the whole mouth sores thing with the metal taste has gotten increasing worse. The only thing that seems to be lessening is the sensitivity to cold. He is actually hoping that by next Tuesday he might be able to have ice cream!! Sometimes it's the small things that make him happiest!!

Other news, our air conditioning unit sucks!!! Anyone in the CR area should avoid using Emery Heating & A/C at all costs!!! They installed our unit when the house was built. We have had to have someone out almost every season change since we moved in!! The newest drama is the unit is freezing up. The coil has an obstruction, which the new repair man says probably came that way from the factory. The unit is Carrier and we are told that to cut cost, they paired it with another coil that probably cost less money. Anyway, we had Emery come out and they told us it just wasn't meant to run when it was cool out side. Well, it was high 50's out side, but still over 74 in the house. So this little bull shit diagnosis cost us $128, until Peter got on the phone and started chewing ass!! The owner (or manager, or whoever he was able to get a piece of) finally agreed to eat the bill, but didn't want to hear from us again. He also said they are no longer Carrier dealers and cannot get parts to fix it. Then, WTF was the $128 for????? So Carrier put us in touch with Novak, who so far seems to be wonderful. We have been all weekend without a/c, which for anyone who knows me, is a problem. Granted, it has only been about 80 during the day, but still warm enough that I am having to work really hard at not being bitchy!!! Novak is suppose to be here tomorrow to do the replacement.

Baby Ella Comes To Visit

2008-09-15T22:28:00.004-05:00

Peter's niece, Sarah, came to visit with her new baby, Ella.

Katie with baby Ella, almost 4 months old.

Peter and Baby Ella.

Katie, Peter & Baby Ella.

While Sarah was here, she took Katie shopping to buy a birthday gift from Kit, Sarah's Mom (Peter's Sister). Below are the outfits she picked out!

It was raining this morning, so Katie wanted to use the new High School Musical umbrella she got for her birthday!

Sarah & Ella came over this evening for dinner and Katie read Green Eggs & Ham to Ella!

What a Kodak moment

Chemo Update

2008-09-05T18:17:00.003-05:00

We are half way through Chemo!!!! YEAH!!!! This past round was a tough one, though. Peter spent most of the weekend after the last treatment in bed. He really struggled up and down over the last 2 weeks.

He has chemo 1 week, then off a week. His white blood cell count was down, so on his off week this time, they gave him a shot every day for 4 days that makes the bone marrow produce more white blood cells. Then this past Monday night, Labor Day, we ended up in the Emergency Room because he was running a fever. Not a bad one, but with his immune system being knocked out by chemo, any fever could be serious. The doctor had told us at the beginning of treatment to call if it reached 100.5 or higher. We took it about 6pm and it was 100.9. We called the doctors office and they said they would call ahead and check him in to the ER. When we arrived, they were waiting on us and walked us right back to a room. Beats the hell out of sitting in the waiting room for an hour or longer!!! The fever slowly started to drop while we were there. They ran a battery of blood work and couldn't come up with a reason for the fever. The white blood count had come up from the shots he had taken, there was no visible sign of infection and he had no other symptoms except the fever. They did blood cultures and again, no visible cause for the fever. They put him on an antibiotic just for good measure, but when we went to our regular visit on Wednesday, the Oncologist said he wouldn't have prescribed it and Peter could quit taking it. Sucks, though, because they cost us $85 for 7 pills!!!

So after all this, the Oncologist decided to lower the dosage of the most toxic drug. It should still be an affective dosage. They said that his body is just holding on to more of the drug due to the way his body is processing it. Much the way that one person will have a cocktail and not be affected and someone else drinks the same cocktail and is totally smashed.

I have already noticed a difference in his reaction. The past 2 days he has felt better than in the past 2 weeks. I think this afternoon he started feeling bad, but it usually hits when the bag comes off, and that was today. So that is normal. We will see how the next 2 weeks goes.

I have been busy with a garage sale. My friend Lori and I have been doing a sale at her house. Yesterday the weather was horrible, but today it was great and we did pretty good.

Katie is loving school. She is going to a birthday party tomorrow afternoon and will be spending the morning selling dog treats at the garage sale with Lori's daughter Rachel.

Big Happenings At The Stark House

2008-08-27T16:11:00.006-05:00

Wow!! What a week it's been!! Where do I start???

Ok, well, Katie....our precious little angel....turned 6 today!!!! I can hardly believe it's been 6 years!!! And....yesterday, she started 1st Grade!!!

This was yesterday, the 1st day of school. Katie standing in front of her locker. Also yesterday, 1st day of school. Katie with her teacher, Mrs. Mueller.

8/27/08 Katie on her 6th birthday, on her way to school.

I went to school today and took McDonald's to Katie for lunch. I also took cupcakes for her class for snack in honor of her birthday. I'm sure she was a popular kid today. She has some friends in her class that were in her Kindergarten class last year.
Last weekend we had Katie's birthday party. She had a Princess Belle party. It's bitter sweet for me because I think it's her last Princess party. Truthfully, I had to talk her into this one, but she said it was the best one yet. She is big into the American Girl style dolls. She doesn't actually have an American Girl doll, but she has the Target Brand and a couple from Disney that are the same style. So, we had each of the party guests bring their doll or a teddy bear and incorporated them into the party. It was a lot of fun, but very exhausting.

Katie having her hair done for her party.

The Princess Table

The party guests and their dolls.

Katie & her "American Girl" Doll.

Katie & Princess Belle

I don't know what we'll do next year, but thank God I have a whole year to work on it!! My parents and my sister came for the party again this year. They were life savers this trip. Peter has been having a tough time with Chemo this go 'round and hasn't been able to help with all the normal stuff. I even had my Dad running the vacuum while he was here!!!

Peter has just completed the 5th of 12 Chemo treatments. Like I said, I think he's been having a tougher time with this one. He spent most of Friday and Saturday in bed asleep. He said it hasn't been worse, he's just stopped fighting the urge to give in to it, but I think it's been worse. Last week when the Oncologist ran his blood work, his platelets and white cell counts are both down quite a bit. So, all this week, Monday-Thursday, he has had to go in for a shot to make his bone marrow work harder at producing platelets. The other option was to back off on the chemo, but Peter doesn't want to do that unless it's absolutely necessary. Even now, a week later, he is still struggling with energy levels. I haven't heard him complain as much about the nausea, but I guess it's hard to feel sick when you're asleep.

Party season is kicking up for me. I have 2 parties this weekend and so much work a head of me it's overwhelming. We are having Peter's family over for dinner tonight to celebrate the birthday and tomorrow I'm taking Peter for his last shot for platelets.

This is Katie, Peter's Nephew's Wife - Ollie, their daughter Maddie and son Aidan. Ollie got her RN degree and Maddie and Katie made her a cake to celebrate.

I know there's other stuff, but I just can't think of it. This is probably enough for one day anyway!!

Wii Crazy!

2008-08-17T00:01:00.003-05:00

Our new Wii arrived this week (a gift from my parents) and we finally got around to setting it up! It came with a Sports Pack that was pretty fun, and another game that I haven't had a chance to check out yet. Peter's nephew Nick came over this afternoon to help Peter get it connected and brought some of his games over, too. The kids had a great time!

Peter took Katie and cousin Maddie out to WalMart to look for new games tonight. We had some stuff to return, so they took that money and bought a few new games! I suspect that is what the girls will spend the day doing tomorrow!!

I spent most of the day cleaning out my office/guest room so my parents will have someplace to sleep when they are here for the big birthday bash!! We are on the countdown now! 7 days til Party Time! It will be bitter sweet because I think this will be our last Princess Party with Katie.

I am also trying to go through things and pull stuff out for garage sale. My friend Lori and I are planning a fall garage sale for the first weekend in Sept.

Party season for me has kicked up quickly. We had a new coupon book go out mid-week and my phone has been ringing off the hook. We ran a new add and I'm excited to see such a great response to it. Mostly because it features our little angel! It's been nice having a little time off over the summer, although it seems like we've been really busy anyway!

Just an update

2008-08-12T22:16:00.003-05:00

We've just passed the 1/3 mark. Peter is officially 1/3 done with chemo. This was a hard dosage for him. The first couple of days were pretty miserable, but he seems to be bouncing back quicker. I guess if it's bad for a couple of days then it can be "ok", I guess there are worse things. He has some mouth sores that he is treating with salt water gargle. He's also got some lesions in his nose that are causing it to bleed. He's not having a full running nose bleed, just a little when he blows.

We are in full party mode getting ready for Katie's 6th Birthday. It has snuck up on my quick this year. I'm already late getting invitations out. I hope to have them out tomorrow. We finalized the guest list today and the invitation is done, so now all I have to do is print them.

Oh! And we officially have a 1st grader!! We registered Katie for school today. She is going to be in Mrs. Mueller's class. Mrs. Mueller was a Kindergarten teacher last year, so I think Katie is a little more familiar with her than a typical new teacher. Katie is very excited. We went tonight and bought some of her school supplies. Walmart was out of some stuff, so we are on the hunt now. She is completely High School Musical CRAZY!!! Everything had to be highschool musical....backpack, lunch box, pencils, umbrella, clothes, folders! She would've bought everything HSM if I would've let her....and believe me, they make it!!

High School Musical Obsession

2008-08-02T22:24:00.003-05:00

So, for those of you who aren't as completely obsessed with High School Musical as we are at our house, the Limited Edition High School Musical Bear and accessories came out at Build-A-Bear this week. We took Katie there today to get the bear in a cheerleader outfit. Just like most kids that enter that store, her head started spinning with all the choices and she promptly started making a list of items she wanted, which made my head spin!!! I reminded her that she has a birthday coming in a couple of weeks, so anyone looking for birthday ideas, we have a few!!!

Fluffing the Bear.

I think she likes it!

Peter's actually the one that got the email about the release and it was his idea to take her down and get one! We even called ahead on Thursday (the release day) to reserve one, just to make sure they didn't run out! Katie named it Gabriella, just like the main character in the movie.

Adventureland Was Awesome!

2008-07-29T22:31:00.003-05:00

My friend Leanne invited us to go to Adventureland in Des Moines today with her and her family. Adventureland is like Six Flags, but not a good. It was still a really fun day!!! The weather was pretty decent. It was warm and muggy, but a storm rolled through about mid afternoon and brought some nice breezes. The good news was that it blew right thru and never rained a drop!! Here are a few pics from our day. For those that don't know, Leanne is my friend with 10 children. She has 3 biological and 7 adopted. She is the one that started Families Helping Families, the charity I am involved in.

This is Katie and Leanne's daughter Autumn, riding the "green thing". Don't remember the name of the ride, but the kids all kept calling it the green thing.
Katie and Leanne's son Noah (on her right) riding the Frog Hopper. 2 years ago on our last trip to Adventureland this was Katie's favorite ride. This trip, she was on to bigger and better things!!!
From the top going clockwise, Katie, Leanne's daughter Haley, her husband Ed, her son Jackson and other son Noah, all riding the Raging Rapids. They all seemed to enjoy this one. I didn't go as I DON'T enjoy getting completely soaked. I did ride the log ride with Katie, but we sat in the back so we didn't get as wet.
Katie and Katie. My Katie and Leanne's daughter Katie riding the Tornado. This was a big ole rickety wooden roller coaster. Tons of fun! My little dare devil! She's just like her Mommy when it comes to roller coasters. I'm proud to announce that at the age of 5 she begged me to ride the Dragon, which has not 1, but 2 loops!!! She rode everything they'd let her ride and was pissed she couldn't ride a couple of things merely because she wasn't tall enough!! I know you can't see me, but I'm glowing with pride!!!
Katie and Katie after riding the Log Ride for the 2nd time. They sat in front and got totally soaked!!!

What a fabulous day!!!!

Cedar Rapids Flood 2008

2008-07-28T21:51:00.005-05:00

I sent an email with some pictures from the flood, but just thought I'd post some here for prosperity. If you click on each picture, you can see a larger view of it.

This is buy my house. We have a little creek that runs through town. We weren't ever in danger of flooding, but it got pretty far out of it's banks! To the left of this picture the creek usually runs between the lines of trees.

This is Quaker Oats looking down from the interstate. This is downtown Cedar Rapids just off the river. To the left of the building is a parking lot that separates the building from the river.

This is the river just to the left of Quaker Oats from the picture above. This was a common shot on the news. The railroad bridge about the center of the pictures is being weighed down by rail cars full of sand and gravel to help maintain stability. Up river from here were houseboats that broke free and are stacked up against the back side of the railroad bridge. You can really see this on the left end.

This one is headed back North, so the other side of the interstate from the previous pictures. You can see the street signs in the middle of the picture.

To the left in this picture is City Beat. This is a family favorite and anyone who has visited has probably been here. Peter's Dad had lunch here about 4-5 days a week, I think. You can see that the water is up to the roof line.

This one is heading North again on the interstate looking down 1st Ave. The Dairy Queen is almost completely under water. This was another popular scene from the news. As the water began to rise, the drive thru window of the DQ was on of the reference points.....until there was no drive-thru window.

Here you see the City Hall on Mays Island. It sits on a man-made island in the middle of the river, so the water actually runs on either side of it. Just before the building there is kind of a line in the water. This is actually the railing from the bridge. The water is usually 10 feet or so beneath the bridge and now that the water is back down to normal level, there is still all kind of debris caught in the underneath of the bridge.

The red awning about center of this picture is the salon I go to. It is 1 block off the river and was completely flooded out. I can't tell you how many times over the past 10 years I've driven to that building. They have temporarily relocated and are sharing a building with another salon until they can rebuild. Last I heard there were issues with electricity, and there was no estimate on when it would be restored. The rumors I heard were that all the power runs through tunnels under the city and that some of the tunnels had collapsed because of the flooding. No telling how long it will take to sort that mess out!

Well, there you have it. Just a few shots of our fair city in total disaster. We were fortunate that we were not personally affected (our home or businesses), but we will all feel the affects long into the future.

3 Chemo Treatments Down, 9 To Go

2008-07-28T21:19:00.004-05:00

Peter had his 3rd chemo treatment last Wednesday. We met with the doctor while we were there to discuss some of the symptoms he had been having. The time after the 2nd treatment was much worse than the time after the 1st. He was experiencing more nausea, having some back pain, sores in his mouth and just didn't feel good in general. After discussing all this with the doctor, he thought that the symptoms, while all could be from chemo, could be aggravated by stress and anxiety. I think some of you (if not all) are aware that right after we found out about Peter's cancer, we also got notified that we are being audited by the IRS. Plus with the floods, people are being conservative with their advertising, so putting the coupon books together has been more of a challenge over the last month. Also, about 5 weeks after his surgery, Peter threw his back out and wasn't able to do anything about it because the chiropractor couldn't adjust him until he was 10 weeks post-op. So, as if chemo weren't enough, the stress of the IRS, of the business and his back pain has just about sent Peter over the edge. The doctor offered to reduce the dosage on his chemo, but with the prospect of the symptoms being aggravated by stress, Peter decided to hang tough another dosage and see how it goes. The doctor also said to take the Lorazapam (nausea medicine, which is also an anti-anxiety drug) every 6 hours to not only help with the nausea, but to take the edge off the anxiety. I think it is helping. Peter had 2 "good" days after his last treatment. I think he is already seeing a noticeable difference this time.

My allergies have been acting up like crazy. The last time I had this was 10 years ago after Peter and I got married. The skin around my eyes and on my neck gets really itchy and the scratching makes it red and puffy. Well, yesterday was about as bad as it's ever been. Peter said I looked like a red-eyed-raccoon. A local pharmacist recommended a 12 hour antihistamine that seems to be working ok. I think it would be working a lot better if it wasn't so out of control to begin with. Now that the itching has subsided, the skin will go through a healing process of flaking off, which is really pretty and wearing makeup only makes it worse!

Katie and I are headed to Adventureland in Des Moines tomorrow. We are going with a friend of mine and her family. It should be fun, but I'm worried it will be really hot! You know how I feel about the heat!! Look for Adventureland pictures in the next couple of days!

Oh, and Peter turned 55 last Tuesday! He is officially the speed limit!

Leopard Girls

2008-07-20T22:43:00.007-05:00

Here are a few cute pictures of Katie. I bought her this adorable outfit on ebay. She has been really into the American Girl Doll thing lately (even though hers are not truly American Girl brand), so I bought the matching outfit for her doll. They look so cute!!!!

High School Musical On-Stage

2008-07-18T23:11:00.003-05:00

We saw the local theater group performing High School Musical tonight! It was so awesome!! Those kids did an amazing job! The gorgeous theater that we usually go to was flooded and the inside has to be completely gutted! This show is being put on at Linn-Mar High School. The singing is ok (better in some spots than others), the acting is pretty good, the choreography is amazing and the over show was really impressive!! I would encourage you to all (locally) go see it. There are seats available at all the remaining shows and there really isn't a bad seat in the house. Plus, Disney has donated back all the royalties and allowed an extra performance to benefit the theater and flood victims. My friend, Jen's son, Michael, is one of the Skater Dudes and he did a great job, too! Congrats Michael! You should all be very proud of the work you've done! It was sooooo great!

Katie loved it, too! She sang through the whole show! I think we have a rising star in her!

July 18 - No other grand title!

2008-07-18T15:25:00.003-05:00

We had our monthly board meeting for Families Helping Families last night! We skipped the one last month because it hit during all the flooding. So, this was a long meeting with lots to discuss. We have decided to go ahead with the Gala for next year. There was talk about canceling it, but I'm glad that didn't happen. I have also committed to co-chairing the committee, which should be interesting. I think that 2nd quarter, April/May/June is my busiest time of year, and the Gala will fall right in the middle!! Anyone with fundraising experience that wants to share some advice, please do so!! This is a new adventure for me and I must say it's a bit overwhelming, but exciting, too!!

We are taking Katie to see the local theater performance of High School Musical tonight. She is so excited!! We have explained to her that it's local theater and the real Troy and Gabriella aren't going to be there, but I'm not sure she gets it. She loves live theater and we've taken her to several other shows, but I think she is still hoping to see TROY!! She really had her heart set on a High School Musical party this year and was very disappointed that I couldn't produce Troy and Gabriella to come to the party! Especially since I've been able to get Cinderella and Jasmine the last 2 years. She has settled for Belle this year and I'm afraid this may be our last Princess birthday! She seems to be slowly drifting away from it and gravitating to HSM, Hannah Montana, etc. Hhhmmm....wonder what Miley Cirus charges for a personal appearance??????

A Couple of Pictures

2008-07-14T09:36:00.005-05:00

Katie after her dance recital on June 28th. It was an all day affair. They did 2 shows and she had to be there all day! The original venue for the recital was flooded out, so we had to move it to a local high school that had no air conditioning. It was nice out side that day, but so hot in the building with all those people and no ventilation!!!

Katie after her hair cut on July 2nd. It looked so cute! I wish she'd let me curl it like that!! It was so precious. I only got the one picture and one more on my phone. She was not very cooperative about the picture taking! Hard to believe she'll be 6 next month!!

The Weekend

2008-07-13T19:34:00.004-05:00

We made it through the weekend. Katie had a sleepover/campout party Friday night. She did ok with the sleepover but didn't want anything to do with the campout part. The bugs were bad. I don't know if they're June bugs like we have in the south, but it looked like that's what they were. She might have been ok if it wasn't for the bugs. As it turned out, though, about 1am a big storm blew in and the girls that were outside, ended up inside anyway. I didn't sleep much, because I just knew I'd be getting a call to pick her up. Whenever we have a storm, Katie ends up in our bed. So when I heard the thunder, I thought for sure that call was coming. I was very proud that she not only stayed the night, but wasn't freaked out by the storm. When I picked her up Saturday, the Mom said she was so sound asleep that she slept through the storm and never heard it.

Katie got asked for another sleepover Saturday night at her cousin Maddie's house. I should've known 2 night is a row was too good to be true. I got a call about 10pm that Katie wanted to come home.

Sunday, Peter and I had some errands to run and did a little house "window shopping"! We found the perfect house for us, if only we had more money than we knew what to do with!! It's about $700k!!!

Friday I took Cinderella to her first daycare visit. That was interesting. The daycare people wanted her to tell her story to toddlers, 2 & 3 year olds. The kids didn't really care about the story and kept trying to talk over her. We probably would've been better off telling it to the 4 year olds and up. We took some pictures and visited with all the kids. It was a fun visit. Tomorrow, Belle is going to the same daycare, different location. Ought to be another fun visit.

A New Blog For The Stark's

2008-07-10T10:35:00.005-05:00

In an effort to keep everyone up to date on our lives, and the happenings going on around here, I have created this blog. I have to admit that I've never been much of a journaler, long term anyway. I start out with the best of intentions, but my follow through for the most part......well, sucks!

With everything going on in our lives, business, Peter's chemo, Katie, it's just too much to send individual emails and I'm afraid I have failed miserably at trying to keep everyone informed. So, with any luck, this blog will give everyone a chance to stay current with us, and hey, it's free!

Peter had his 2nd chemo treatment yesterday. The first one, 2 weeks ago, went ok. It took him about 5 days to bounce back from it, but he never really got rid of the nausea. I think we have determined, though, that the nausea that hung on after those 5 days may have been a result of the oral iron he has been taking. The Dr. has given us the ok to stop the oral iron for now and see if the nausea subsides. Peter had been taking it because his red blood cell count was low from the surgery and they wanted to boost it up before he started chemo. It was back in normal range before his first treatment and even though it has dropped a little, it's still "normal for chemo world".

For those that hadn't heard, Peter had a Power Port put in to his shoulder before he started chemo. This is a device, like a catheter that goes under the skin and snakes into the vein, so they have immediate access to the vein without having to stick the vein each time they access it. When a vein is punctured numerous times, it apparently has a tendency to collapse, so this way, they vein is stitched closed with the "catheter" in it. Then they use a special needle to puncture the port and it feeds directly into the vein. Through this port, they are able to not only administer meds, but can also draw blood when they need to. If this has done nothing but confuse you even more, you can see the product website http://www.powerportadvantage.com/index.html . Just another one of those things that I wish I had invented!!

Another interesting fact about chemo that we learned yesterday. One of the drugs Peter takes, costs $8000 per dosage!!!! He will have burned through more than $100,000 of drugs before his 12 dose treatment plan is over. The other 2 drugs he takes are much cheaper, but can you believe a little bag (that looks like nothing but water) costs $8000!?!?!?

So far no hair loss to speak of. Other than the exhaustion and nausea, I would say things in "chemo world" are pretty good.

Katie has been doing well. She had a friend spend the night this week and that was interesting. At one point they were both in tears and the friend spend more time playing by herself than with Katie. I thought this was a little odd, but Peter quickly reminded me that this child has 9 siblings....no, that is not a type-o, I meant to say 9 (nine). That's a story for another day! So, she probably doesn't get much time to herself. Anyway, once I took myself out of the mix and stopped trying to force them together, they came together on their own. I'm sure somewhere in there is a life lesson.....

I have been keeping busy as always! Business has slowed down a bit for the summer. I think this is the "slow time" based on my experience from this summer and last summer. Thankfully, all the charitable contributions I've made this year have been cashing in lately, so I'm not turning down paying customers to work for free. It has actually been nice to have a break and with all that has gone on here, I really needed one. I am still working on getting my Jasmine theme ready to market. I started this over a year ago and was able to throw it together for Katie's birthday last year, but the girl doing Jasmine for me just wasn't right. She was a very sweet girl, but just didn't have any acting or singing experience. I have finally found a girl who I think is going to be perfect, but we've had to make so changes!! The costume had to be altered, and that's finally done. Now I just need to work out the wig! My costume designer has made an introduction for me to another costume designer that also does wigs, so hopefully this will be my final investment into this theme and it will be up and running by the end of the month!

We have also added Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She has been fabulous! The girl playing her used to work at Disney, so she gets it! I am adding Snow White, too, and even have the costume, but not sure who will end up playing her. I bought the costume with the intention of having Jen play her, but Jen gets entirely too tan during the summer to pull off a fair skinned princess like Snow White!

I have gotten involved in a non-profit organization called Families Helping Families of Iowa. We help children and families in the foster care system. I have taken on the task of web design and have completely redesigned the website.....thanks to the help of godaddy.com. It was a long and laborious process, but I am very proud of the outcome. http://www.familieshelpingfamiliesofiowa.com/ .
I have been asked to work on their Spring Gala, so have been doing some research on that, as well. This year's Gala did not bring in the funds they had hoped for, so I am trying to come up with a way to make next year's Gala over the top. I think the past Gala's have been, ok, come for dinner and bring your wallet. I think there needs to be more entertainment and we need to make some kind of emotional connection so these people will want to give us money because they are touched by our work, not just because we are asking for it. I found a book by a woman who "survived" foster care and hope to go out today and buy it. She's now a motivational speaker and I think would make a great segment for next year's Gala.

I have also been asked to join a Gala committee for the March of Dimes. The first meeting is tonight, but I'm not feeling much like going. I think it would be a good learning experience, though, and would give me some tools that I could take to the Families Helping Families group. It would also be a good place to network for not only FHF, but my business as well. We'll see if I can talk myself into going by tonight.

I have been struggling with allergies again. I think this must be a 10-year affliction. The last time I had this was just after Peter and I were married, and that's been 10 years!!! The skin around my eyes and down my neck itch so bad I could scratch it with razor blades!!! Since it's been 10 years, I can't remember what I took to control the itch last time. I've been taking Benedril, but some days it barely makes a dent. The skin gets all red and swells from the scratching, then because of the irritation, gets flaky, which itches even more...it's just a vicious cycle. Make-up makes it even worse, which is the main reason I don't want to go to the March of Dimes thing tonight. I need make up to cover up the red flakiness and yet it only makes it itch that much more!!!

Well, guess that does it for today's post. I will try to be diligent about posting and will also add pictures from time to time to make it more interesting. Feel free to comment on my posts or send me an email.....or hey, start a blog of your own.