Happy 7th Birthday Graham!

Graham had his 7th birthday on June 3rd! I can't believe it! Where has the time gone? He debated and debated over what kind of birthday party to have. He finally decided on a roller skating birthday party at Taylors Roller Sports- the same place where I once had a few birthdays of my own! He had a great turnout with family and a few school friends. He had a blast and has really enjoyed learning to roller skate! He even got a pair of in-line skates for his birthday from Mema and Papa- which he loves! Happy birthday Graham! We love you!

Awards Day at School...

Graham was recognized at school for several things including the "Music Star" in his class, meeting his AR Reading goal, and the Citizenship Award for his class! Then from his teacher, she recognized him as "Mr. Manners"! She told me that out of the 20-something years she has taught, that Graham has had the best manners of all of her students! What an amazing compliment! We are very proud of our son for sure!

A long update...

Well...sorry it has been a while since my last post. Many things have kept me busy, including being back at school. Yes...I went back to school at the beginning of March and I am so thankful for that! That has been one of the best things for me- it just got us all back into "normal routines"! I will try to recap the last few months as best as possible! At the beginning of March we had some snow- ironically school was closed on the day I was supposed to return to work! The kids had a blast and Mallory Kate loved making snow angels!


Graham has been busy with Cub Scouts, soccer, and school. He had his first Pinewood Derby Race. Graham decided he wanted a Gamecock car- from Greg's influence! His car had a little "engine trouble" when his weights on the bottom dragged the track a little. But next year we'll know! Soccer just recently finished up! Graham scored 1 goal this season! He has a lot of speed and he really hustles on the field! He is finishing up his 1st grade year- so hard for me to believe! He is doing very well in school, but he is really looking forward to summer! (Aren't we all?)


Mallory Kate has really come out with her little personality in the last few months! She is very demanding and a daddy's girl, for sure! Funny story...the other night I was trying to put her to bed. She insisted for daddy to do it, and I said that I wanted to put her to bed. She started to pitch a fit and told me " I don't like you Mommy!" Greg heard her and he came to the rescue! So I went downstairs to get Graham ready for bed. He was so concerned and asked me if Mallory Kate had hurt my feelings! He had heard "our tiff" through the monitor! What a caring little boy! I explained that hopefully this is just a little stage she is in right now!


I finished up my 37 radiation treatments during Spring Break and celebrated with a well-deserved beach trip! Our family went with some of our friends, the Columbia's, and we had a great time! The weather was PERFECT and we had so much fun hanging out and doing nothing!



Last weekend I took the kids strawberry picking for the first time. Mallory Kate put 1 strawberry in the basket and ate the rest! I thought she was going to get sick from eating so many fresh strawberries! Graham enjoyed it too and made sure his little sister was picking the best ones!


I can officially now call myself a cancer SURVIVOR! It really hit home last week when I attended a Relay for Life Cancer Survivor dinner. It was an eye-opener to be surrounded by so many survivors! What an inspiration it was! Our Relay for Life is this Friday, May 15th at JL Mann High School. Come out if you can and support us!

I met with Dr. Gococo a few weeks ago for my first appointment post-treatments. My lab work looked good and I have started a daily medication called Tamoxifen. This is a hormone receptor blocker medication. I will have a mammogram and breast MRI in September and see my surgeon for a follow up appointment then. Dr. Gococo suggests a hysterectomy later in the year- I think maybe in December. This will stop the estrogen production, since my ovaries will be gone. I am completely at ease with this decision-the only concern I have with this is that I cannot take any hormone replacement therapy. I hope that I will not be too "moody"! So now on to more important things...hair! I have hair now- and my first appointment is May 26th for a cut and color. I still am wearing my wig right now, but my hair is about 1 inch long. It came back in all gray, so I thought I would fix that! Well...not such good results! I bought a wash-out hair dye at CVS that said it covers gray hair. Let me tell you...false advertising! It covered "some" of the gray hair and left my hair splotchy! Oh well, thank goodness for the wig still! My hairdresser will fix it in a few weeks! My goal is to be without a wig by June 5th- the last day of school. I just couldn't imagine going through the summer having to wear this hot wig! So, I'm not so excited about a short new doo, but I am ready to put the wig back into the box!


Oh, and one more thing, I have started running. I would have never thought I would say "me" and "running"together in the same sentence, but it is true! I have a great friend that I teach with who is "coaching" me and a few others. We have been running 2 miles, 3 times a week. I want to get up to 3 miles hopefully in the next month! I have decided I am going to run a 5K in November- Rachel's Run. A run dedicated to a precious little 2 year old who lost her battle with cancer. Graham has also decided to run in this race!


So that's what we have been up to in the last few months! Happy Mother's Day to all moms out there! What a blessing it is to be a mother! XOXOXO

Thankfulness...

Sitting in the radiation waiting room last week, I had a conversation with a lady that really hit home. This lady was battling breast cancer and almost finished with her radiation treatments. We got to talking about our journeys and how the Lord has walked us though this step by step. She then made a comment that she thanks the Lord daily for giving her this cancer. Boy, those are strong words, and I kept thinking about those words all day. I had never said those words and I wasn't even sure I ever would. I firmly believe that God has the perfect plan and He has reasons for why He does certain things, although we may not understand them. I have seen God's work done though my cancer journey and many good things have come out of it...but I never actually "thanked" God for the cancer. The more I thought about this, the more I got to thinking how thankful I am that it is not my child affected by this cancer, or my husband, or my siblings, or my mom or (step)Dad. I am thankful that I have such a caring support group that has helped us tremendously in the last several months. I am thankful for the awesome doctors and nurses that have taken care of me. I am thankful for all of the prayers for myself and my family. We have so much to be thankful for! I pray daily for complete healing in my body, which God can do; but now I will add another prayer- I will thank God for this cancer.

Radiation...

Tomorrow I will start the first of 35 radiation treatments. I met with Dr. Wilcox last Thursday and she thoroughly explained the process. I really think this will be a breeze- not a lot of side effects like the chemo. She said for me to expect a little tiredness and some skin irritation from the targeted areas. After I met with her, she did a scan of my upper body and decided what fields were going to be radiated. Then, get this...they took "Sharpie markers" (blue and black) and marked all over my body! I even asked if they were using surgical markers, but no- just Sharpie's from their desk drawers! I came out of there looking like Mallory Kate had used my body as her canvas for coloring! They then covered a lot of the marks with clear, circle stickers to prevent fading of the lines. These marks will stay on me for the 7 weeks. (And yes, Sharpie markers do rub off on your clothes if you were wondering!) Dr. Wilcox said that the radiation itself will take 1-2 minutes! It will take me longer to check in, get undressed, and dressed than the treatment itself. Amazing! Since I am going back to work in 1 1/2 weeks, I will have a late appointment each day- so I can go after school. I will be done by Spring Break- what a great time to celebrate!

On Monday, I met with Dr, Gococo for a follow up. I think it finally sunk in that I am done with chemo. That would have been the day that I needed another treatment, but thank God I made it through all 6 treatments! I feel better and better each day. Dr. Gococo did some lab work and things looked pretty good. My tumor markers from my last visit were high, but he seems to think it went to a different lab that uses a different scale or it was a fluke. He said he is keeping a very close eye on me and is not concerned at this point. He also felt a swollen lymph node under my right arm, but he said it wasn't hard which is a good thing. The doctors will continue to monitor every bump, pain, and ache that I feel to make sure I still have a clean bill of health. I will see Dr. Gococo again in 7 weeks, after radiation is completed. So, I am ready to get this ball rolling and to be done, just in time for the warm weather! :) Thanks for the continued prayers! XOXOXO

Here, there, and everywhere...

I haven't updated my blog in a while...maybe because things are starting to return to normalcy and that means going here, there, and everywhere. So what have we been doing? Well, Graham has been involved in Tae Kwon Do and started soccer practice last night. That is all consuming in of itself. We have practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays and games on Saturdays and sometimes Sundays. Thank goodness Mallory Kate isn't old enough for all of this yet!

Daryl, my brother, and my nieces brought my grandmother up for this past weekend. We went to the circus and had a ball! Mallory Kate stayed home with "Honey", as we call my grandmother. I really didn't want to walk the halls of the Bi-lo Center with a 2 year old trying to distract her from all of the light-up toys that cost an arm and a leg! Maybe she'll be old enough next year to sit and enjoy it. On Sunday, I took Honey and Mallory Kate to Alabama to visit with my Aunt Mari. We had a great visit, but it is always good to get home and settled back in at your own house!

I have felt great lately! I guess I have forgotten how it feels to feel good. I have a lot of energy now and if it weren't for a constant reminder of my bald head, I wouldn't know that I was in a battle fighting cancer! And speaking of a bald head...I can now say I am growing hair! My head is now covered with blonde "peach fuzz" and you can even see my hair line! This is exciting and I hope it continues to grow this fast. Graham said that my head looks like Grandad's used to look! Haha! And let me tell you, I will be sporting a "new do" as soon as I have enough hair to cover my scalp! My eyelashes and eyebrows never came out, although they thinned a little- thank goodness for good mascara! Anyways, what's next? I meet tomorrow with the radiation oncologist, Dr. Wilcox. She'll have to "map" and "mark" me and see how much radiation I'll need. I believe I'll start radiation next week. I will go every day, Monday through Friday, for 7 weeks. The appointments are short, NOTHING like chemo! I am told I will be in and out in 30 minutes...yeah! The radiation itself takes less than 5 minutes. I am planning on returning to work on March 2nd....I am so ready! I want to return to routines and get back to "normal" as my family once knew it! I have had a wonderful substitute in my class which I'm sure the kids will miss. But hopefully it will be an easy transition back. My school is also doing a Relay for Life team in my name this year. Our team goal is $10,000...which I'm sure we will meet! The theme of our team is "100 Women for 1 Woman." We plan to get 100 people on our team, each raising $100+. You can check out our web page here and even donate through the website. I'd love to have your support, so if you're interested in joining our team, all of the information is located there. I will get to walk the "Survivor Lap"- that just gave me chills as I typed that! That will be a moving experience I'm sure that I am really looking forward to!

Thank you again for all the support and prayers...we still need it! We are getting closer and closer to closing this chapter of our lives in hopes to never have to go here again.

I crossed the finish line!

Yes...I have officially crossed the finish line and got to ring the bell today! I told Greg after round #5 that I couldn't do it anymore. But with the support of all of you- friends and family- I made it! Thank you for all of the prayers- I couldn't have made it without God being on my side.

I met with Dr. Go today, and we talked for about an hour or so. I had many questions and he is so very thorough. We talked about what's next...7 weeks of radiation/ 5 days a week. (after 2-3 weeks of recovery from the chemo) The radiation should not be so bad- side effects like tiredness and a "sunburn" effect on the radiated sites. Dr. Wilcox will oversee the radiation, but Dr. Go still sees me throughout. We talked about tumor markers- which I really didn't know much about. That is done through a blood test and it measures a protein on the surface of cancer and non-cancer cells. He has been testing this all along, but I wasn't aware of it. All of my tumor markers are in the normal range as of now. If he sees them increasing steadily, then he will immediately scan me again. He is going to scan me again, but it will be after radiation some time. I will also be starting the medication Tamoxifen soon, which is a hormone receptor blocker. A big kudos goes out to my chemo nurse, Cassie! She was awesome- and got the IV in the first time today! I will miss seeing her every few weeks, but certainly will not miss the chemo room! I also have to thank my dear friend Julie for holding my hand through all of this! Take a look at the pictures below- she made me a finish line and was there to cheer me on when I rang the bell. So as I close this chapter in Lori"s breast cancer journey, I never want to talk about getting chemo again. I seriously start feeling "queasy" when I think about getting chemo or seeing things that remind me of it. It's so weird how our minds can cause a physical reaction to a thought- such as a popsicle! I hope to never again lay eyes on those triangular popsicles. When you take the chemo drug called Adriamyacin, you have to freeze your mouth to construct the blood vessels. So in order to not get these terrible mouth sores, I had to chomp away at a nasty popsicle! Anyways, it's over and I vow to never have to return to chemotherapy again! Thanks for the huge support...and please pray for Greg as he does the Mr. Mom thing this week and a prayer for a "not-so-bad" week for me. XOXOXO Lori

Terrible Two's...already?

Well, people have advised me that girls are much more difficult than boys to raise, and I believe that is true! Mallory Kate just turned two before Christmas, and the two's are definitely here! Her vocabulary has grown tremendously in the last month and she wants you to hear it ALL! She makes me tired just listening to her, and most of it is understandable, even to a stranger. We are finding out she has a little "stubborn" side to her. She makes sure to tell us what she wants, and that she certainly doesn't want to "wait patiently" for it! She is sure to tell us that "I don't like that" when we ask her to try her veggies on her plate or that it is "Mallory Kate's turn" to watch a TV show- Dora of course. Last night was the topper of it all...I put her to bed and rubbed her back for about 2 minutes or so. (Like we do each night- sometimes longer than others!) I then went downstairs and started watching TV with Greg and Graham. We heard a thud- not too terribly loud, and at that point I knew...she has gotten out of her bed! I went upstairs to find her smiling so big in the middle of the hall. She proceeds to tell me, "Hey Mommy! I get out!" I couldn't help but laugh. Graham never once tried to get out of his bed at this age...this is all new! I tucked her back in and told her she's not allowed to get out. I figured I better play it safe this time and decided to watch TV upstairs in my room. About 3 minutes later, once again...thud! She came running in my room..."I do it again Mommy. I get out! I want to watch TV." This time I threatened her with timeout and Greg ended up laying down with her to get her settled. Phew...is there a life's instructions book on how to raise a girl? Please advise... One more funny side note, the other night my mom and I were playing with Mallory Kate and her Dora doll. Mallory Kate was talking about Dora's hair, Nana's hair, Daddy's hair, and then she got to Mommy's hair. She said, and I quote, "Mommy's hair in the bathroom!" Which it is- on the mannequin's head! I hope this doesn't scar her for life! :)