Valentine's Day

Oh, I wish I had some cute pictures of Charlie in a red shirt with a heart on it from Valentine's Day.  But Pat had to go into the Clinic yesterday for fluids after a night of vomiting.  They took blood cultures and found his White Blood Count is very low. (currently .8 when it's normally around 10.  Low WBC is called being neutropenic, fyi) And he had a 102.9 fever, so he was admitted to Vanderbilt Hospital late yesterday afternoon.  They are closely monitoring his input and output and he got rid of his fever overnight thankfully.  Pat had been feeling great on Monday but after dinner that night his stomach was upset.  He hadn't eaten anything since Monday night until lunch today (Wednesday). 

The first picture was from yesterday when he had the chills...and the second picture is him today, feeling much better.  It is a 48 hour minimum stay, so he is hoping to go home late tomorrow, but we'll see.  My parents and sis have been helping (A LOT) with Charlie, and Dad stayed at the hospital with Pat overnight and I plan to tonight.

Well, happy belated Valentine's (a memorable one for us!) and kisses to you all.  <3

Recent Happenings

I've got a lot for you today!

1.  Last Thursday I went to see my friend Kristen and meet her cute little boy Cullen.  I hadn't seem Kristen in several years, but we've known each other since we were little girls on summer swim team.

Cullen is 8 months old but about the same size as CQ.  They were so cute together!

 We were having such a great time visiting that I kind of lost track of time...

2.  But we made it to the airport and picked up Paul who had flown in for a long weekend.  Charlie had a lot of fun with his Grandpa. 

3.  Paul and Charlie hung out on Friday while I took Pat to get his second infusion.  The process of going to the hospital takes about 5 hours with blood work and meeting with his doctor.

But the actual infusion is about 3 hours.  This is a typical setup:  Pat in one chair and me in the other.

4.  That night I joined my sister, Mark, and Cousin Rachel for an 80s night to benefit the W.O. Smith school.  (they offer music lessons for 50 cents) 

There was a great band that played numbers like "Jessie's Girl" and a bunch more. 

5.  Saturday afternoon our friends Eugene and Kate came over.  Kate had made Russian food for us!  Yum!  Great to see them - and they got a puppy, so hopefully we'll go meet her soon.

6.  Splash time in the bath! 

Don't you touch the duckie. 

7.  Paul helped us tackle a couple house projects, like installing a new shower head and fixing our front porch light.  This has been out for a couple months now and after I had tried new bulbs with no luck, we needed a new fixture.   My parents stopped by yesterday afternoon with some baked brie and we went for a walk (and Dad's arrival meant I no longer had to help with the light, score)

Charlie really wanted to help the boys out there.  Too cute! 

We had a great weekend and Pat seems to be doing alright.  I know his treatment is supposed to be cumulative, but it really seemed like he felt better this weekend than he did after his first treatment.

IGBOK

Our new motto is IGBOK for it's gonna be ok.  We have realized lately that things could always be better, things could always be worse.  Within the last couple weeks Pat has had a CT scan, PET scan, needle biopsy, invasive biopsy (surgery), blood work, a bone marrow biopsy and other stuff, all to determine he has Hodgkins Lymphoma.  The prognosis is very good, but Pat does have to undergo six months of Chemo.  Starting tomorrow.  This was all very much a shock to us.  Pat is amazing, as always, and continues to have a positive attitude and even shows his sense of humor.  Our plan is to try and keep things as normal as possible and Pat has notified the Dean and his professors at Vandy about what's going on, but he intends to continue classes like usual.  Some of you  might be wondering where he'll be treated - at Vanderbilt.  I've met his oncologist who seems great.  The chemo will take place every other Friday (works for Pat's schedule since he doesn't have class that day).  My Father-in-Law Paul is in town for a week and we're lucky to have my family so close by us. 

Of course Charlie has  no clue what is going on and he keeps us smiling.

Please keep Pat in your thoughts and prayers.