Kicked Out!

Ok so the title isn't exactly the truth, but it grabbed your attention, am I right?

Yesterday we went to Karmanos for Tim's infusion. On Friday last week he had a CT scan. So we were met in the hallway by one of Dr. Heath's nurses. She told us Tim needed to go to the 5th floor for his labs not the lab on the 1st floor, as he was previously told. Then we were to go back downstairs for the appt with Dr. Heath. After a little chit chat she told us the results of his CT scan. Yes, you guessed it, his lesions are growing. They are not growing fast and did not meet the 20% growth that is protocol for being kicked out of the drug trial. However, it was about a 14% overall growth. So Tim decided to stop this drug trial and wait for the next one. The positive thing is that Tim is fairly healthy and that Karmanos has 70+ drug trials. So it shouldn't be long before they find another one for him. The other positive thing is that he does not have any new lesions. Mentally this always takes us a day or two to get through. I think it's just a loss of anything there is a grieving process. I told him not to get down about it, but who cried on the way home yesterday...yeah me. So that's where we're at right now. I have also heard about unemployment being extended again. It's kind of confusing to decipher if I will get it or not. I highly doubt it, it would be nice this time of year to have that, as things are really tough.

Things will get better I know they will!

Drug Trial

Tim's CT scan on Friday showed only 7% growth of the lesions on his lungs. So he was okayed to stay on this drug trial. We were told if it was 20% or more than they would've stopped this drug trial and looked for another. So we've been in Detroit all day today. We're looking to leave in about 1/2 hr. We got here late,hence the longer day. Tomorrow he comes for blood work and EKG later in the aft. so we'll be able to drop Mitch off for work, he'll still get there a couple hours early but there is nearby places to shop like Bed, Bath and Beyond, Office Max, Best Buy and of course enough places to grab a bite to eat. Tomorrow I have a test in Language of Medicine so it'll be interesting on how the timing goes.

Oh also wanted to mention that I won at Stampavie's DT blog. This is the card I won with. It's been a few weeks since I won, but the pkg finally came in the mail last week. I was so excited to receive it!! I got three stampavie stamps, some jewel tone brads, a beautiful box filled with Hershey's kisses, a fabulous card created by Michelle Oatman and some 7 gypsies stickers. If I missed something I'll have to add it later.

My dear friend Carolyn is starting her own digi stamp business with her friend Thomas. If you love digi stamps, please stop back on Saturday Oct. 10 to see what she's got for us. If you've never used digi stamps before stop on by and see if you'd like to give it a try. She will be starting a group on PCP, so you'll find challenges and other fun stuff there. Please come and support her new venture!

Checking In

As you can see I haven't posted in quite awhile. Things have been pretty busy here. Mitchell got a job! I'm so excited for him and even more so since it's at Hobby Lobby!!! He started two weeks ago and has been working 12 hr days to get the store up and running. Hopefully the new store will open this week in Perrysburg, OH. He's really so excited to be working and working there. I told him I think this will be good for him, he's really personable, positive and enjoys artsy things. Yesterday he went down to Bowling Green for training on the cash register. He did pretty well at explaining what he learned so I'm sure he'll remember it quite well and we all know once you do it enough you usually become adept. Eventually we might have to get Mitch his driver's license and another car so mom can rest a little bit. Taking Tim to work and then Mitch to work has been rather exhausting. Mitch will be working PT so things will slow down a bit soon.

Yesterday I volunteered for the Ovarian Cancer Walk here in Toledo. We did it as part of my Medical Sociology class. The instructor's friend was recently diagnosed and asked our instructor to participate. Since we have classes on Sat mornings she asked us if we'd like to participate and it would take place of our biosketch paper. She told us if we did not want to participate that we could still do the biosketch and she would not be hurt in the least. So we voted and most agreed to do the walk. She set it up so we would have our participation fee waived, but we would then volunteer in place of that. She also set a goal of raising $1000 for the group and when I spoke to her yesterday we surpassed that goal, so she was very happy. I know I didn't post here about raising money for this event, the timing was too short. Those of you received my email and contributed I want to Thank you! Even though this class is Sat morning at 8 am I really enjoy this class. And hey, I still think I want to do my biosketch paper.

As you can see I had to change up my background for fall. If you get this in an email just click the link at the bottom of the email and you will be taken to my blog. This week is busy Tim goes to Detroit twice for his Drug Trial. Tomorrow for an Echo, EKG and follow up and the Tuesday is the infusion. Hopefully Mitch's work schedule fits in. So far we've been lucky. Speaking of Detroit I applied for a juried craft show and will find out by Sept. 28 if I got in or not. The show is Nov. 21. Gee, I must like being busy! hehehe. I know of a gal on sb.com that did really well at a juried craft show in the NW Wisconsin area, so that's what spurred me on to give it a try.

Well I just wanted to catch you up. Gotta get Mitch up and going so he can get to work by 8 am. I have a few pictures to post, mostly of Hobby Lobby. I haven't done too much with creating. I did get a little sewing machine so I can sew on my cards, but am learning how to use it and how much sewing I can really do with it. Of course I don't go for straight lines, but curved ones...why do I have to be so difficult??? :D I also thought since the foot pedal was so small that I should use my hand and not my foot. But I have learned that since I'm so accustomed to using my foot, I'm actually more adept doing it that way. I was so afraid of running over my fingers using my hand to run the pedal hahaha. Hope you all are having a wonderful Sunday!

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge & Updates

I've been busy creating cards for Cards for Heroes. I decided to look up One Sheet Wonder to see if I could make some cards quicker. I felt like I was behind in my promise to make some cards for CFH. So I found a couple of templates and thought I'd give them a try. I didn't cut the first one out quite right, turned the paper or something, but of course that doesn't mean that I can't use the paper. So that is why you'll see a few different papers. I started with the one and then went to the other and then decided to add another for some variety. So I can't tell you exactly how many cards I got from one 12x12 page this time. Double sided paper like the MME and Graphic 45 paper I chose works so nicely, because you have more choices. Here are the photos of the cards and the one card works for the Stamptacular Sunday challenge #15.


Here are the rest of the cards that I did. I made these last Monday while at Karmanos. Then I just had to add some decoration to each of the fronts.



I was also able to do a LO of Mitch when he was about 2.5 yrs old. I entered it in the Cosmo Cricket challenge on scrapbook.com. I actually started it last month, but with all that has been going on in our lives it took me this long to finish. I'm glad I was able to use it for this month's challenge which was to have 2 or more photos on the LO.

Also this week Hero Arts has been having some fabulous giveaways to mark their new and improved website and blog. I follow them on Twitter and I re-tweeted regarding their upcoming new and improved site and I won a Design Block. I've been eyeing one up at Hobby Lobby, but just can't swing it right now. So it was so sweet to see that I had won! So excited to see what one they send me. Here is the one I've been eyeing. The only thing is I do not see it in their 2009 catalog. Oh well they have plenty other fabulous Design blocks! So stop by the Hero Arts blog or add Hero Arts to your Twitter to see what you can win!


The second week of Tim's drug trial was last week and things were going well until Thurs night. Tim got a pain in his back/side and it went up to his shoulder/neck on his right side. So when he was still in pain on Friday morning I called his primary doc for an appt. His doc examined him and then prescribed a muscle relaxer. Well by Sunday he wasn't any better, so he called into work. He didn't look good, was sweaty and in a lot of pain. By the time I was ready to go to Adrian to get Mitch he had a fever. He wouldn't let me call 911 so I asked his sister to come over while I ran to get Mitch. On Monday he was to go to Karmanos to have a check up. I had to get a wheelchair to get him up to the fifth floor. Since he wasn't doing well they had to take cultures and then the PA came and checked him out and then sent him for a chest xray and also requested a sinus xray as well. Well when they got that all back and she conferred with the oncology doc they diagnosed him with pneumonia. So he was off work through yesterday and returned to work today. Today was supposed to be OT to make up for missed time. I keep worrying about not working, but then I've also been able to be there and support Tim through all this, so there is definitely a reason I'm still unemployed. On Monday Tim goes again for the drug trial but it will only be about a 3 hr day and we don't need to get there until 11am -noon. Then he'll go again the following week, after that they will do another CAT scan to see how things are going. So please keep Tim and all of us in your prayers.

Cleveland Clinic

Yesterday we drove to Cleveland so Tim could find out about drug trials for the cancer lesions on his lungs. It's about a 2 hour drive but we made it to the outskirts in a little over an hour and 1/2. We got to the east side of Cleveland (where the hospital is) at about 9:10 am. We got to the area where we were supposed to be around 9:20 and Tim checked in and was called about 9:30 am. There was much waiting as opposed to seeing someone. The 1st nurse did the vitals, etc and then 15 mins or more later the PA checked in and said she was reading over Tim's tome of information/records, etc and she'd be back with us in a bit. Well another 15 mins or so she comes in and gets all the information again. Asking Tim about family history etc. finally after about 1/2 hour or so she leaves and says Dr. Pelley will be in soon. We wait another 15 mins or more he arrives with an exchange student/dr from Brazil. Dr. Pelley goes over some of the information the PA got and then explained the two drug trials that are going on right now. One would require more travel to Cleveland and with Tim working it would be a bit difficult. The other is more viable as it only requires two full days in Cleveland. Dr. Pelley also recommended that Tim go to Karmanos at Wayne State in the Detroit area. He said he has a colleague there that trained at Cleveland Clinic and would set up the appt for Tim with this Dr. so now we await word on when that appt will be. Dr. Pelley left the room stating that a nurse named Patsy would be in to give Tim the information on the one drug trial. I waited with him for about 10 mins then decided to go out into the lobby where Mitch was to check on how to get to the paper place. That was about 11:50. I couldn't get online with the laptop, something Mitch complained about as I got out there. I looked at the time on the laptop and noticed it was 12:22 and Tim still hadn't come out of the exam room. I said 32 mins and he still isn't out. I went back and looked for him in the room only to notice that the nurse that took him back there was changing out the room. So Tim must've taken a different hallway to the lobby. I went into a nearby room that offered internet and found out that Hollo's paper store was closed due to their father passing and the funeral being yesterday. So we stopped at a Burger King for lunch and then drove home. We arrived about 3:10pm. I hit the bed and planned on sleeping for 2 hours at least. Tim comes in and says he told Mitch to wake us in an hour, I said something to the effect of no way. I didn't get up until 5:25pm. I really didnt' want to, but we had chicken breasts that were about done in the crockpot. So I got up to make supper. I had only slept maybe three hours the night before as Tim was talking in his sleep way more than usual. Guess it was from anxiety about the appt. So today I don't know if I'll get any creating done, but I plan on getting some more sleep as I have a headache I need to get rid of.