Ding Ding - Round Two - The score card gives that round to MEGAN!!

We had our second and final (hopefully for ever) visit to the oncologist. Here are some points of the day...

• The CT Scan was very positive. Nasopharynx, tongue base, oropharynx, epiglottis, trachea, salivary glands, thyroid, larynx, soft tissue, and sinuses ALL NORMAL
• No suspicious adenopathy in the chest, abdomen and pelvis
• BLAH, BLAH, BLAH - interpretation - Megan is all good on the inside.

We are ecstatic and celebrated with a great sushi lunch (for those who don't like sushi - great sushi lunch is a oxymoron).

other points of interest:

• The doctor told Megan that she didn't need the Barrium drink. He forgot to tell the nurses not to give it to her. It worked out for the best -he said by drinking the "elixir from heck" (Megan's name for barrium) that she is now completely clean on the inside. They wouldn't have been able to verify the bowel area if she hadn't drank the juice - he said it is rare that the cancer would wind up there (or down there in Megan's case).
• I get a CD of the CT scan results next week. Pictures to come later next week - COOL
• No more oncologists!

What is next - Feb 10th Megan has an appointment at OHSU to start her treatments. We don't know what that means yet...it most likely be a cream. Every treatment has a side effect. There are also over a dozen treatments for the skin - which one is better? The one that works of course. Trial and error (from what I have read). We are keeping our fingers crossed for treatment type one!

Thank you for everyone's concern, thoughts, and prayers... We are truely blessed!

In her blessing Megan was told that there is reason she is going through this. Why? Right now we are not sure. She was told that she will know why someday - it may be tomorrow it may be years down the road, but that she would know. She was also told she may be going through this for someone else's purpose too and to be attentive to everyone she is around - friends, doctors nurses, church members, etc.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Sunday morning greeted us with a brief snow storm...from 3:45am (the time I have to get up on Sundays until church starts (9am) we got a couple of inches. The funny comment of the morning was...In the foyer 10 minutes before church started, someone heard that the Battle Ground Ward (we're in Maple Grove ward) cancelled church. One of the members came up to me and said, "Are we canceling church?" I'm like -"You're already here, were the roads that bad?
A nasty virus and a little snow - attendance went from 185 average down to 132.

Happy Birthday Sweet 16...um...well...ok...Connor

Connor's birthday is Jan 25th (Sunday) and Jen wanted to do something special for his 16th birthday. It was a 1/2 day at school...so she rented a limo to pick up him and 6 of his friends (2 girls and 4 guys). She first was looking for a pink limo of some sort...not a very popular limo choice. She then found this 'gangsta' style limo and new that Connor would love that even more. The limo was parked out in front of the high school. When school let out there were a lot of students that just stood and stared wonder who the celebrity was that was being dropped off at the school. I told the kids to act Jen's age and not their own. I also told the limo driver that they are mostly good kids. She said she has teenagers also - her comment was - "There are all good kids, until you get a group of good kids together. They behaved well.

The limo took the kids to BIG AL's. It is huge bowling alley fun center - 42 bowling lanes - 4,000 sq. ft. arcade - 7,000 sq. ft. Sports Bar & Grill with One Gigantic Jumbo-Tron (8 ft. tall x 36 ft. wide) - 17 projection screens - 76 High Definition Plasma Screens...it's quite the place. Jen and I drove a car and Megan met us there. We rented 2 lanes for 90 minutes, ordered 3 pizza and large drinks. Can you have much more fun than that...I would say NO you can't.

This is what our area looked like. All the scoring was automated. You put your name the system and the upper screen will display up to the first three characters. Connor enters every one's name in the system so the upper screen displays THE FAT MAN CAN RUN...thank you Connor.
Jen tried her hardest to keep this a surprise...does it ever work - not in the Taylor house. Tuesday I sent Jen and email telling her of my schedule for the week and I cc'd Megan (she says she never knows my schedule and if I am going to be home for dinner etc). That night Megan says from downstairs, "So Connor gets a limo?" Connor, who is upstairs on the computer says, "So I get a limo, sweet." Then on Wednesday, Jen asks Connor what kind of cake he wants -he say "Me likey the ice cream cake, okay? Fudgey the Whale." (The Office tv show reference). After Connor explained it to Jen she said, "Not only do I have to make I have to take it to Big Al's." Connor says, "So we're going bowling, sweet."
On a side note - Jen made an ice cream chocolate fudge cake shaped like a whale. This is what she patterned the whale fudge cake after....

Something is FISHy...and I think his name is Gill

This was a fish in the tank at Megan's doctor appointment...I think he was finnish. He was alone - he must have graduated because he had no school. Scale of 1 to 10 most fish are ate. He was having a whale of a time, mostly because he wasn't blubbering. Eel be happy as long as he is in water. He was a real angel.

Here I sit at the NW Cancel Specialist office waiting and wondering…I have read many documents about mycosis fungoides, CTCL, cancer treatments, cancer treatment side effects, and still I sit waiting and wondering. I think I will be doing a lot of that these next few months. I read today that, as far as treatments go, there are many different options and that you can really compare one with another. Why? Because the rarity of the disease and lack of studies on all the various treatments. That sounds encouraging. They say to track your treatments and results so you can find out what works best for you and your body. So, there are about a dozen different treatments for this type of cancer and we aren’t sure which will work best. Looking forward to that game.

Meetings is over - Now we know a couple of things…not much more that what I read…We are 80% through the diagnosis stage. Megan has a CT Scan scheduled.

Here is where we are at and what we do know…

• There is only a 10% chance that this will develop any further than the stage she is currently at. She is at the patches of skin (the appearance of dry flaky skin or psoriasis) stage.

• CTLC –MF (Mycosis Fungoides) is mostly a benign cancer and slow developing type of cancer. If Megan’s CT Scan is clear, than she does not have to do another scan ever (unless she develops symptoms of enlarges lymph nodes – which he said is rare).

• We will meet with a specialist who works at the University Hospital in Portland. He comes highly recommended from our dermatologist. The first meeting with him will be somewhere around the 10th of February. He will help her get rid of (or minimize) her skin patches.

Eye think eye see what you are trying to say - A view from my cell phone camera*

After... It's what's for dinner
After watching a herd of dinners walk down the street of Denver, there was no doubt what are evening plans would include.
1/4 rack of ribs, a 12 oz Rib-eye steak, two side (garlic mashed & broccoli) and a soda - all for under $21.00 - I love Texas Roadhouse.

* The parade pic was from the Denver Post website. Most of my pictures will be from my Treo cell phone camera.

Herd it through the bo-vine

I spent a couple of days last week working in Colorado. I went to visit the State of Colorado financial department and Arapahoe County. We arrive downtown at the state building about 90 minutes early and noticed a lot of people lining up on the streets, mostly in the sunshine (it was 50 degrees that day). My co-worker, Jerry Anderson (a Burley ID son – born and raised) asked a bystander what was going on. He was told that because it was the first day of the National Western Stock show in Denver they run a herd of cows down through the middle of downtown Denver.
Following the herd was the rodeo queens (America, Colorado, and NW Stock show), a group of antique tractors, various horse drawn wagons (anywhere from 2 to 8 horses), high school bands playing TV western theme songs , and the horse riding teams (all dressed up in their performance costumes). About 30 entries in total. It almost filled the void...