Thanksgiving and Crazy Life

Thanksgiving has come and gone... can you believe it? The end of the year (and possibly end of the world) is fast approaching and life has been crazy.

Over the weekend I looked at my email and there were 420 unread messages...  I have kind of given up trying to keep on top of them.  If you are waiting for a response from us, we will eventually get through them.  I spent some time yesterday deleting the junk and got the number down to around 200.

The last few weeks of radiation were worse than we expected.  JaNae had more pain than we thought she would and it was hard to watch her suffer.  We went to her parents house for Thanksgiving and she was miserable on the car ride there... but by the time we came home, she was much better.  Her body has been healing quickly and we are thankful for that.  We are not looking forward to 3 more months of chemotherapy...  JaNae gets sick just thinking about it.  It's strange how at times she gets a chemo taste in her mouth from time to time.  I can always tell by the grimace on her face and the way she moves her tongue.

During these hard times, we do try to be positive and count our blessings.  JaNae still gets angry at times and questions why she has to go through this. Even though it's late, I wanted to mention some thanksgiving thoughts. As I am writing this it's almost midnight and there are two owls hooting in my back yard... I love it.

We do have a lot to be thankful for...

Faith and our hope in the gospel.
Family
Good health insurance
Doctors and nurses who provide good care for us.
Support from wonderful friends. (People we didn't even know a year ago that have become huge blessings in our lives. We are so thankful for the meals, the gifts, and all of the prayers offered in our behalf.)
Shooting clay pigeons with my brother in law... it was good stress relief.
Netflix (So JaNae and I can watch our favorite episodes of The Office.)
A roof over our heads
An electric blanket for JaNae when she feels cold.
Many more things...

Good night.
-Jeff

One week of radiation to go.

I went out of town to Seattle for work and had to leave JaNae during her 4th week of radiation.  We are so blessed that her mom lives close enough to come to stay and help.  I'm not sure if JaNae or the kids would have survived without her.  I'm so glad to be back home.

JaNae is feeling the cumulative effect of the radiation.  She is very tired and is having quite a bit of pain in the radiated areas. It certainly makes a husband feel helpless to watch his wife go through this.  On the bright side, there is only one more week of radiation and then she'll have a few weeks to heal before starting the infusions of chemotherapy again.  She has been taking oral chemotherapy during the radiation but it hasn't been nearly as bad as the infusions they put in her port.

One week to go...  wait, is that a light at the end of the tunnel?
-Jeff