Happy New Year!!!

Well we wanted to take a quick minute and say a Big Giant THANK YOU!!! This has been a great holiday we have all gotten some kind of "the bug" but I think everyone is on the mend, and we hope it will stay that way.

This past weekend Ron received the most amazing video from his "Schreiber Family" it was so fun especially for me to be able to put faces with names as each one gave Ron wonderful words of encouragement what a great group of people!  I just have to say Ron has been with Schreiber for going on 18 years, and I will never forget before he was hired with Schreiber Foods, Ron came home from work and said to me, "sometime I am going to work for Schreiber Foods, the people there are so good, and it is just a good company, thats the kind of people I would like to associate with." Well not long after Ron said that he was given an offer with Schreiber and he has been so grateful for that chance.  Ron was so right the people that he works with are amazing! They truly are like a family and look out for each other.  We have found that to be so true not just in this time of trial but over the past 18 years.  So let me say one more time THANK YOU!

We got to go to a production at the conference center "Savior of the World" it was so wonderful Lori's brother Jeff was in the production and he did a great job.  We were with all of our children and a lot of extended family it was a fun afternoon! 

So as a side note this is our dog Rocky and this is how he usually sleeps! Funny huh!  (He sleeps with his tongue out. And usually right in the middle of Ron and I in our bed.)  You can't really see it too well, but he has an orange collar on in honor of Ron our cute neighbor who cares for him while we are in the hospital wanted Rocky to get in on the support of Ron so she got him this orange collar.  Everyone is supporting Ron!

Well 2013 is here and we pray for many more blessings to come our way.  We have truly been blessed this past year and are so thankful for all that we have! Happy New Year! Everyone!!!!

Just a quick update

So Ron and I are enjoying the holidays! Spending time with our children makes us both very happy.  Ok mostly our grandchildren haha they really make us smile, we didn't realize how much joy being grandparents would bring us, and they really do!

Ron got a pretty bad cold when we got home and we ended up back up at the Huntsman Center I was concerned that his lungs were not doing so good as he had a terrible cough! But when we got there and the doctor listened to him he said he sounded great! That made me very happy! So he sent us home with an antibiotic and some great cough medicine and he is doing so much better.

I thought it would be fun to show some pictures of "us" and our Christmas trees so....

Pretston, Lindsey and the girls...

Logan and Kimi...

Chase and Kaylee....

And Ron and Me....

We truly have so much to be thankful for this holiday season.

President Eyring said this, "What all of us long for in our hearts, at Christmas time and always, is to feel bound together in love with the sweet assurance that it can last forever.  This is the promise of eternal life, which God has called His greatest gift to His children " (see D&C 14:7)

We know that this is true! May everyone have a most joyous Christmas and remember the feelings that have been felt during this season and make it last all year long!

Whats happening!!!

We are home! And so very happy to be.  Just wanted to give a quick update.  Ron is doing well! It is so nice to be home, "Home Sweet Home" has a whole new meaning.  He is recovering quickly and doing all the things that he feels like doing.  Working, church duties and family.  We are so blessed in so many ways! The prayers have been so felt and appreciated! Please don't stop! We hope everyone has a fantastic holiday!

Day 5 1B Oh Happy Day!!!!

We are home!!! Ron was able to come home this afternoon, what a blessing! He didn't even have to use any O2 to walk out of the hospital that made me very happy! He will still use it in the night for the next few nights just to help him sleep and for peace of mind but then he should be clear to go back to normal life!  So happy did I already say that so very Happy!!! Thought you might like to see what his medicine tree looked like when we left, it is even missing some of the meds that he was on it was very full!

As you can see we decorated his med tree with some Christmas decorations he jingled when he took his walks, I loved that! And if you look closely at Ron's arms you can see how swollen he is.  He gained 21lbs in 5 days.  He will begin loosing it just as fast however because its mostly all the fluid that is pumped in him in such a short period of time.  

So that is the end of round one.  Only 3 more to go! Then we will say goodbye to Ron's cancer!!  But we are so blessed that we live when we do that they have advancements in medicine like  IL2.  We hope everyone who reads this blog has a wonderful Merry Christmas! Spending time with your family and loved ones.  That is what we plan on doing.  Ron goes back for round 2 as planed now on the 21st of January.  So for now we are going to enjoy a "normal" life and do the things we enjoy doing!

Thank you everyone for all the Love and support! 

Funny quotes from Ron...

So he made it! Dose #5 was a big one! Worst one ever, so according to the Doctor the best one ever! The harder the reaction they say the IL2 is working! On a lighter note here are some funny things that my sweet husband had to say when the "shakes" as he calls them began.

"Lets get ready to shake and bake dear."

 "Ok dear I'm getting off this dance floor if no one else is going to shake with me."

"They call me Bond James Bond."

 But my favorite I said to Ron no I think you can be my Thor and his response, "No way he's my arch enemy, I will take him out with one shake!"  (Just as a side bar I like to tease Ron that I like Thor and it kinda bugs him. haha)

But all in all he's doing well.  It's after 4:00 p.m. and he's sitting in a chair using his breathing machine determined not to get another fever! We have so much to be thankful for!!! Everyone who is praying for my Ron Thank You!!! Schreiber Family, Beckstrand Family,  Anderson Family, Ward Family, Friends, Neighbors we truly feel so blessed and Loved!!!

Thursday Day 4.... of 1B

Ok so heres the update..... He went all day yesterday without a dose to try to get his numbers all back into the ok range for another dose.  He's in a hospital in ICU so sleep as you can imagine isn't too easy to come by, however he was able to get some sleep last night because they didn't dose him.  So today all his numbers have gone back into a good enough range that they decided to have him get a chest
x-ray and make sure the lungs are clear enough and then make a decision on whether or not to be done or go for dose #5.  And the verdict is..... Dose #5 will be given at around 10:45 a.m. they are anticipating a big reaction due to the fact that he has not been dosed for 36 hours and his body has already gone into recovery mode so they want it to be done as quickly as possible, and have it done so that staff will be ready for what will come to Ron.  This is why we are here to get as many doses as possible.  I have to keep reminding myself that.  Watching Ron go through this is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.  But he is amazing and just keeps on smiling and laughing and saying things like lets do this! Thats why were here! He truly is the most amazing man I know.  I don't want to sound like a broken record but I truly have been blessed to have him as my eternal companion how grateful I am for that wonderful blessing! So Go Ron! Your are the Best!!!! And you can do this!! (P.S. Ron read  some of the blog yesterday and I asked him what he thought. He said, "its great you spelled some things wrong though.)  haha so spelling is not my strong point ask my sister Jill.  So forgive me of that and hopefully you can still enjoy reading the updates and look past my spelling.

Wednesday Day #3

My how time flies when your having fun haha.  So all of the important numbers that they follow while dosing Ron to make sure he stays as "safe" as possible during the IL2 are in the not too good range.  Which means that he may be done receiving any more doses this round, the Doctor decided to give Ron a rest for the day and not dose him to see if his numbers may improve over night and then possibly get another dose tomorrow.  Either way its all good! He has had great reactions every time he had a dose which means that his body is responding in the way they want it to.  The key is not how many doses that he gets as much as how good he reacts to the dose and all of Ron's reactions have been in a way that makes the Doctor very happy.  Sooooo if he gets any more we will find out tomorrow as I have said before nothing is ever for sure around here what or how the body will respond is just not something you can predict so we continue to have faith and know that he will do what he is suppose to do.  We truly are in the Lords hands and will trust him and this process.   Learning patience is done quickly here there really is not a whole lot of choice in the matter.

Tuesday Day 1B....

The days all kind of blur together but I'll try to give an update on the very long Tuesday.  Labs are always the tell all sign if you get another dose or not, Ron's were very iffy this morning but good enough to go ahead so at 11:19 a.m. this morning dose #3 and it only took an hour for the riggers to kick in.  They managed to catch it really fast though with 1 dose of morphine and he was out.  He slept well for a bit then he started to get hot the fever seems to be the theme of this week it keeps going up really high so he had more ice packs and cold wash cloths to try to combat it.

It always seems that they manage to get his fever down right before more labs are drawn to check on the next dose possibilities and that was the case once more...Dose #4 was given at 10:35 p.m.  it seems like the bad ones always occur in the night this was the case again with this dose.  Before the riggers began this time Ron became very fidgety he really wanted to go to sleep and couldn't so the nurse tried a different sleep aid, that seemed to help.  Then around 12:35 a.m. 2 hours after the dose the riggers set in really bad this time took a double dose of morphine and several other kinds of meds to get him to stop. About 40 min. of really bad shakes etc. But I will say during the whole rigger episode Ron was saying "its time to dance, lets rock and roll, who wants to put their right foot in and shake it all about?" Even in his worse he is always trying to make it easier on me.

When he is really "drugged up" he says some funny things however it is so nice to hear that when this is happening the things that are on his mind are most often gospel related...last night as he was just about to fall asleep he quoted the priesthood oath and covenant to me just started reciting it to me.   This is probably the hardest thing that I have ever done in my life and I know it is for Ron and yet through it all knowing that the Lord is always present and by our side keeping watch so to speak is such a comfort! Day 2A is done Wednesday is just around the corner and that is one day closer to the end of the week.  Keep praying for us I know it helps we feel it so much!

Monday.... day one check

So when we got into our room Monday morning this cute note was on the white board for us from one of the nurses we had last time! The nurses on this floor are so amazing!! They do all they can to make you feel ok with all the "bad stuff" you have to deal with.

So the first dose was given at 1:45 p.m. and right on time the riggers came around 4:15 not too bad but they came none the less.  A dose of morphine was given, then Ron asks about his friend who had some surgery done today when he found out he was ok he was able to sleep a while.

Dinner a nice walk and we thought things were going smoothly, haha he began to get a fever.  Tylenol didn't touch it so  ice packs and cold wash cloths came into play.  Finally got the fever down and time for another dose! 11:58 p.m. Dose #2 here we go.  This one was not so easy!!! At exactly 1:24 a.m. the riggers started this time they were not going to go away 2 doses of morphine did nothing so next they tried benedryl, that didn't stop them either so a whole dose of ativan, finally some relief but not for too long! He was able to sleep maybe an hour and the fever is back!!! More ice packs and lots of moaning! 6:30 a.m. and its time for vitals he had just broke his fever and had been asleep maybe 20 min. and the aid wakes him up and asks him to stand up to get his weight.  Ron being the always cooperative one says ok.  He stands up on the scale find that he has gained 7 lbs in 1 day and then he tells the aid I don't feel so good and he passes out on the aid.  The button is pushed and everyone on the floor is running to Ron's room.  His blood pressure dropped extremely low.  So no getting up for Ron until they get all that under control.  It's now 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, what today will bring is anyones guess.

Here is some fun pictures of Ron before his first dose.  Hair still in place.  And of the room! He loves his family and they give him lots of encouragement!

If you can see the medicine tree in the background its decorated with Christmas stuff his nurse brought in for him.  The hat is for Logan Vortex! I have to say he doesn't look that good any more but he will this is all about the process.  Getting rid of cancer is hard but keeping Ron around is worth it! My husband is truly my Hero!!!

Monday here we go again!!!

Well we made it to the hospital, he's getting hooked up to all the lines right now.  Its been a wonderful 2 weeks of healing and getting back to "normal." Ron was able to work, as well as do his church duties, what a blessing it has been to have his   office be in our home. It makes it much easier for me to keep an eye on him. Rocky (our dog) was very happy to have him back in the office,  he loves to bark at the UPS truck, it always seems to be right when Ron is on a conference call! It makes Ron so mad!! haha

Sunday evening our boys were able to come and give their Dad a blessing, it was Logan's turn and he gave him a beautiful blessing, one of comfort and peace, during the blessing he said something interesting, he said that Ron would be able to receive phone calls and visits from the people he needs to hear from. Another tender mercy from the lord and a testament of the power of the priesthood happened this morning. I wont go into all the details but as we had just barely gotten in our room Ron got a phone call, it was Elder D. Todd Christofferson's secretary asking if Ron would be able to speak to Elder Christofferson, of course he said YES! Elder Christofferson got on the line and told Ron that he had been told what was going on with Ron and that his family had been praying for him, he also asked if it would be ok with him if Elder Christofferson took Rons name with him to the first Presidency meeting this morning and have his name added to their prayer list.  What an amazing blessing! Just another testimony to me that I know that the Lord is aware of us and what is going on in our lives.  Such a very tender Mercy!

So its about noon and they are just about ready to start his first dose of IL2.  So here we go.  I know it will be a long week but, also know that he has everything he needs to get through this week.  And I can't thank everyone enough for all that you have done for us! Don't stop! Keep our dear Bishop, my husband, dad, pop and Big daddy Ron in all of your prayers I know they work, we feel them everyday!