Round 11 is Underway…

Today is day 2 of round 11 of chemo.  Not going great, but could always be worse!  They are trying a new type of anti nausea patch that Ricky put on Sunday night.  It’s supposed administer the medicine for a week through the patch.  He felt sick immediately last nightafter he took the chemo pills and had to take some stronger medicine to sleep.  He is napping now and has been tired and queasy today!  No vomiting so that’s always a plus =)

Including today, he only has 9 days of chemo left!!!  How awesome is that?!? Last year at this time he had not even started chemo.  He was still going through radiation.   4 days left this round and the last 5 days will be the first week in November.  Please continue to pray him through this week.  He goes for the MRI on Friday.  It’s  always fun to lay completely still for 45 minutes when you don’t feel well.  We then head to Houston on Sunday night and his appointment is on Tuesday.  Continue to pray for strength to get through his round and for the new meds to kick in and take away the queasiness.

I have a ton of pics to update, but cannot download any of them until my laptop is back from the “hospital”.  It’s been gone over a month so hopefully it will be fixed and feeling better soon!

Hope everyone is doing well!  If you want to leave any uplifting messages to Ricky, you can leave them as a comment.  I’m sure he could use some this week!

Love,

Tracey

The Ranch

We are so excited to be here at the Ranch.  The kids have enjoyed every single second of our stay.  We got in Friday night around 10:30 and they were out!  So our first full day here was Saturday.  We started out the day by taking a jeep ride.  They loved sitting in the back of the jeep and spying all the animals.  We topped out at 10 mph and they loved every bump we hit!  We made it down to the horses and we were in for a surprise.

Josh had already saddled the horses and Elvis was ready to take Lily and Riley for a ride.  Lily went first and was a natural.  She was steering the horse all by herself!  She had a smile from ear to ear!  Then Riley got on behind her and she took him for a ride around the arena.  What a great time!

When we got back they couldn’t wait to swim.  So swimming was first and then lunch by the pool.  Daddy rested all morning and then went to do some welding work with Josh after lunch.  While Daddy worked, we took a rest with Nana Baker in the playroom, had snack, swam again, and ate dinner.  When Ricky got back he was starving!  Working at the ranch is hard!  Nana Baker served us all some ice cream for dessert and then we just hung out and chatted.  Ricky and Riley said goodnight at 9:00 and Lily and I stayed up for our next adventure.

We went spotlighting in the jeep with Josh.  You can’t go until dark and you spotlight the land and look for reflections from eyes.  We saw 13 raccoons, 2 beaver(yes, beaver), 1 coyote, 1 skunk(Lily’s least favorite!), 1 wild cat, 1 deer and 1 rabbit.  Lily giggled the entire time and enjoyed every minute!  It was so sweet of Josh to take us out to do that.

Sunday was spent at church and the pool.  It was such a relaxing day. 

Today we got up and decided to go fishing.  The weather here right now is HOT!  High 90’s to 100.  Today started out cloudy and overcast, so we headed out to the pond.  Lily and Riley both caught a fish and Ricky caught 7!  I stood back and helped and got bit by fire ants!  Ouch!  Better me than the kids.  We went back home and the kids and I swam while Ricky napped.  Another beautiful day in the country!

Tonight we plan on going swimming.  The kids want to swim when it’s dark and we thought that would be fun.  The Bakers are back in Houston until tomorrow, so it’s just up here! 

Tonight is also the start of round 7 of chemo.  We are leaving here early tomorrow for Ricky’s appointment at MD Anderson.  The kids are staying here at the ranch while we go.  I will update as soon as I can with the results.  Please pray that Ricky has a smooth chemo week.  This is the first time that we have traveled while he is doing chemo but we couldn’t pass up this family trip!

I will update tomorrow!

It’s That Time Again

I can’t believe it’s already been two months!!!!  Ricky is headed for bloodwork tomorrow and his MRI on Friday.  His appointment with Dr. Yung is on Tuesday in Houston.  He has been feeling really good the past two months.  Sure, he’s been tired and still needs frequent naps.  The chemo is always tough.  But, his attitude is unbelievable!!! 

We Are Home!

We are home and trying to get settled back in.  Disney was so much fun!  The weather was awesome the whole time we were there.  80’s and full of sunshine.  We got to hang out with the Blum’s and enjoyed every second of it. We have been friends forever but our kids have never met.  They had a blast meeting each other and immediately become best buds.   We also got to see the Everett’s who we haven’t seen in over a year!  I got to meet up with my friend Carrie that I haven’t seen in over ten years.  She is a dolphin trainer at Sea World and we spent a day with her and her husband Mike there.  Wow!  That was so fun and so awesome to see her!  We even saw some friends at Disney that we didn’t know were going to be there.  We bumped into each other walking out of a show.  So crazy!  God definitely directed our steps that day =)  So on top of all of the wonderful family time, God blessed us with some special times with old friends.  He is so good!

As far as pictures, I have a ton.  I haven’t even put them on my computer yet, but I will get them up for all to see sometime this week.  There were so many special moments I will have trouble choosing!

Going To See Mickey

Sorry I have been slacking this week.  We have been busy getting things ready to take our trip to visit Mickey.  We are leaving tomorrow morning and will be gone until the 17th.  We are so excited and can’t wait to have this time together as a family. No doctors appointments.  No chemo.  No blood draws.  No MRI’s.  No speech.  Just family time.   We are even going to get to visit with some amazing friends we haven’t seen in forever!  So I am signing off until probably the 18th.  Don’t worry, I will have plenty of pictures to post =)

Chemo…Round 3!

Round 3 of chemo is set to start tonight.  Please pray for him to keep his appetite and have no nausea with this round!  Thank you for continuing to lift up Ricky and our family in prayer!  Love you all!!

Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day friends!  We love each and every one of you and can’t even begin to tell you what you have meant to us on this journey.  May your day be filled with love and blessings.

One Month To Live Challenge

One month to live.  What would you do?  How would you feel?  That is what we have been doing in church for the past five weeks and during our small group bible study.  I have to admit, this was extremely difficult for me to think about.  Who wants to think about death?  That was my first response.  But the deeper we got into the study, the more I realized, this isn’t about death.  It’s about living!

Chemo Update…Round 2

Well, I am so glad that round 2 of chemo is over.  It was ugly.  The last two days  were awful.  Ricky felt so bad.  He had a queasy feeling all week but made it through to Friday.  He napped his usual two to three hours every day.  Friday morning he woke up and came down to eat breakfast.  After he finished he immediately felt sick.  He went to bed and stayed there until 6 that night.  He just felt awful.  It broke my heart because there was nothing that I could do! I prayed over him so many times he was sick of seeing me =)   He eventually did get up and said he wanted a big hamburger.  So I went to Chili’s and got him one.  He ate the whole thing and felt ok.  Totally off of the food plan, but I figure you gotta eat what you can and when you can!

Saturday morning he woke up and said he wanted pancakes.  I made him some whole wheat pancakes that he loves, and halfway through the same feeling hit.  So he spent yesterday the same way he spent Friday.  I just pray that he wakes up today refreshed and feeling great! 

I have to say that the chemo is a lot tougher than we expected.  We thought he would sail through just like he did the radiation.  Not so much!  The fatigue is never ending and the nausea made him miserable.  It was a tough week for us since the kids were off school four days due to ice and snow.  Momma is tired!!!  Trying to keep everyone happy this week was not easy.  Quiet kids and a sick and tired hubby do NOT go together.  However, we made it through by the grace of God!

Please pray that the sickness will be gone today!  Please pray that the fatigue lets up and does not get any worse.  Please continue to pray for complete healing!

Coaches Spectacular

Lily had an awesome meet today!  We couldn’t have been any prouder of her.  She overcame some fears she had, mainly falling over the bar during her dismount from the last meet, and did wonderful!  She competed on vault, bars, beam  and floor.  She finished 4th on vault, 6th on bars, 3rd on beam, and 5th on floor.  She finished 4th all around.  Her team finished 2nd!  It was a wonderful morning and you can tell by the pictures that she was having a blast.  She said her favorite part was getting a blue ribbon for beam and earning a trophy!  Here are some pictures from this morning.