Joy!

So much joy to post about,

but our little family has been so so busy!

Here is a recap of some

wonderful Christmas Blessings...

After a weeks worth of phone calls and some serious persistence, we finally got the diagnostic center to complete their dictation of my Mom's scans and forward to the gastroenterologist who forwarded to the oncologist. Bottom line, it took two boxes of Sees Candy and some determination and gentle but firm attitude with all involved but we got an appt for my Mom to see her cancer doctor! Yay!

The biggest Christmas Blessing! At the appt yesterday, the Medical Oncologist, Dr. Dicarlo, was confident that my Mom could beat this cancer! PRAISE GOD! His thoughts mirrored all my research. If the cancer has spread to distant organs, the prognosis would have been very dire. But we caught it! So, we are going to try to spare her muscle function in her bottom and attempt to shrink this very large tumor with an aggressive measure of radiation and chemotherapy. 6-7 weeks of daily radiation and two weeks of chemo to start. It will be painful and exhausting. She may very sick and loose her hair. But we agreed, the side effects are worth it to beat the cancer.
We are now in preauthorization land. I am working with the insurance and doctors daily to get her port authorized, her consultation meeting with the Radiation Oncologist set up. I need to get her tour of the infusion center scheduled, as well as her next PET scan so we can map her radiation needs. We need a conference with the staff regarding pain management and after appt care. We did get her next round of labs completed yesterday. All of this in midst of shortened work weeks for all the staff at these doctors offices. So Dr. D. and all of us agreed, realistically we will start chemo Jan 3rd. It is a M-F therapy and with the offices closed the next two Fridays our hands are tied.
So, Jan and Feb will be the hard months. But hopefully by March we should know where we stand. I am prepared to go everyday with my Mom, and be there in the day time until Abel comes home. Take care of medical details, pharmacy needs and her home details. I am just soo soo happy that we caught it in time and although we will have to walk into some hard times, we should have my Mom around for years to come. Praise God!

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Some other things that have happened in just this past week....

We had a wonderful gift of having my aunt Linda come for a visit from LA on Saturday. She looked amazing! Aunt Linda underwent gastric bypass surgery last fall and has lost about 80 pounds. She looks wonderful and I was thrilled to see her. She looked happy and that is what I loved the most. Doesn't' matter what she looks like to me, but I know she felt so much better, so that made me so happy! Aunt Linda and her friend Maggie visited with my Mom first and then met us at Sydney's game on Saturday. It was just a great time!

Speaking of Sydney's game, her team won her second game! Yahoo! Sydney played with more confidence in her second game and I loved watching her growth! It is an exciting time.

After the game, Adam and I were celebrated at Cool Hand Luke's with Linda, Maggie, Mom, Sydney, Jack, Sadie and Auntie Dani for our Anniversary. It was great to go out to a 'real' dinner! I mean with a salad course and a steak knife! Dinner was great. I loved being with my husband. And I adored being with family. We didn't get away for our anniversary like we planned, but our dinner was wonderful instead!

On Sunday after church I was lucky enough to attend a luncheon for our Fellowship Committee. The girls wanted to go out to lunch to celebrate the end of my Fellowship term. I have been on the committee for 8 years and I am stepping down this December. The luncheon was great. I had a really nice time. And I was totally surprised by the gifts the girls got me. Flowers, handmade earrings and movie tickets and an Applebees gift card. Treats I didn't deserve but I am so thankful for! I will miss working with those special women.

On Tuesday Sydney served her school by hosting a movie night. As a student council member she was a co-planner of a night watching Toy Story 3 in the Cafeteria. Adam took the kids to the movie and Sydney served her classmates and parents by handing out popcorn, cutting and plating pizza and doing clean up after the event. I was unable to go because I was out shopping for the Christmas Potluck I am hosting at church this Friday. Adam said Sydney enjoyed herself and served with a joyful heart. I'm a proud mama!

So many things to be grateful for this Holiday Season.

We truly do have Repeating Joy in the Krebs home!