Once again

Well we didn't get the results we were hoping for. The MRI showed three new, but very small spots on the brain (that weren't on the scans I had done at home a month ago) And since there are multiple spots showing up they feel like full brain radiation would be best.  On a positive note, the previous spots that were Gamma Knifed are still gone.  So we know that I respond well to radiation.  I was just hoping to not have to use full brain this quick since I can only really do it one time. The nurse was very optimistic about doing full brain radiation. She felt I would handle it well and she told us she had seen scans that were 10 times worse than mine. So that made me feel better.

The CT scan showed the spots in the liver and lungs have grown a decent amount from the last scan. They all decreased in size and were stable after chemo in Jan but showed regrowth on these scans. There are no new spots so that is good I guess.

Right now we don't have a plan. My original oncologist at MD was out of the office today so I saw a differnt oncologist. He was going to share the results with her tomorrow and she will be getting a hold of us to start the next process.

I'm not real sure what to think about all of this. I was a little worried about the MRI since there was that suspicious spot on the one I did at home (which didn't even show up on these scans). But I felt good about the CT scans and really thought everything would be fine there. I don't think I'm ready to start this awful journey over yet again. I have had a great 4 months of being free from chemo. I just don't want to go down that round again for the 4th time. Maybe they will have something other than chemo that I can do.

I'll update when we get a plan.

Love,
Jeryka

Easter

Had a wonderful Easter with my family. We did lunch at our house and then took the kids to the gym for an egg hunt. They could have cared less about the eggs, all they wanted to do was play.

Jackson teaching Willie how to find worms

How many people does it take it get Willie out of the pit?

Grammy and PaPa with all their grandchildren

Mom is going in.

We had a great weekend overall. It was nice having everyone together since it is so hard with our busy schedules.

I have been feeling great lately. My energy level is growing and so is my hair. I had an MRI of the brain a couple of weeks ago. There was a very small (3mm) "suspicious" spot that Dr. Bell was concerned about. So he was going to send the scans down to MD Anderson to see what they think about it.  We will wait to see what they say and go from there. I am scheduled to be down in Houston on June 1st for my 3 month check up scans and to see the doctor.

Hope everyone had a great Easter and got to spend it with family.

Love,
Jeryka

Check up

Getting to Houston was one of the most complicated trips I have taken. The girls had a meet in Oklahoma City on Saturday and I was suppose to fly out from there on Sunday morning for my MRI on Sunday afternoon. On Thursday night after work I decided to get online and check my schedule of appointments at MD. Luckily I did this because they had went a head a scheduled a CT scan for Sunday morning at 7:20. If I wouldn't have looked I wouldn't have showed up for it. Well this caused a dilemma because my flight out of OKC wasn't until 8:30 that morning. The latest flight out Saturday was at 2:40 and if I had to take that one, that would mean I would have to miss sessions at the meet. I waited until Friday morning to try and get a hold of MD to see if they could change my CT scan to later in the day since my MRI wasn't scheduled until 4:30 and we had already booked our flights, hotel and car. I left a message with the scheduling nurse who wasn't in on Fridays. I did finally get a call from the nurse who was just ready to get out of the office. Was no help at all and refused to help me out in anyway. Just told me they were pretty busy on Sundays and if I could just show up for the appointment at 7:00 am that would be great. So getting this scan changed wasn't looking real promising. So I went a head and changed our flights to Saturday afternoon, added a night to our hotel and car.

We headed to Oklahoma Friday afternoon and about half way there I get a call from the scheduling nurse at MD confirming my appointments. I had asked if there was anyway she could move my CT scan to later in the day. It amazes me what a little effort and willingness to help someone does. She was able to move the scan to 12:40 on Sunday unlike the last nurse who refused to even look at moving it. So this meant I could stay for all the sessions on Saturday and fly out early Sunday morning. So I changed our flights once again, canceled Saturday night with the hotel and car. At this point I was pretty sure I would be red flagged at the airport for all the changing of flights I just did in less than 8 hours.

We  had a lot of fun in OKC and all the girls did really well. Friday night we got to watch a NCAA session between Oklahoma, Alabama, West Virginia, and Michigan. 


I scored a 9.925 on vault for West Virginia!

Sarah made a special trip down to see the girls compete. It was nice to see her!



I got out of OKC with no problems at all and met Kyle in Houston around 11. We headed straight to the hospital to start the excitement. Everything went smoothly during the CT scan and MRI, just took all afternoon.

I saw the neurosurgeon at 8:30 Monday morning with the results from the MRI. I wasn't real nervous for this appointment but its still stressful. I wish every doctor would do what this PA does. As she is opening the door to come talk to us she tells us everything looks great and nothing showed up on the scans. And then she sits down and asks all her questions and does her examination. This is so nice because she doesn't make us wait for the results and doesn't try to have a conversation before she tells us anything.

I was scheduled to see the oncologist with the CT scans at 10:30. We didn't get called back to the room until 11:30. Lets say I wasn't real happy at this point. Its just frustrating to have to wait so long before you are even called back. We had to wait another 20 mins in the room for the doctor came in. Then she comes in and wants to know how life is and then wants to do the examination, ask about the wedding and honeymoon. At this point I don't want to talk about life, I just want the results. After you give me those I would be happy to discuss anything with you. I already had to wait over an hour to see you, so just tell me the results.

These results were just as good as the MRI. Everything is stable if not slightly improved from the last time. The one spot on one side of the liver doesn't even show up, the spots in the lungs are barley recognizable, and the other spot in the liver is way improved. This was such a huge relief.

Now the plan is to repeat a CT scan in 3 months and an MRI in 6 months. I am hoping everything continues to improve.

I need to send prayers to a special person who starting this crazy journey. Stay strong and you will have so many people beside you fighting along with you.

Love,
Jeryka

Wedding Pictures



A few pictures from our wedding. There are so many good ones, it was hard to choose which ones to share.

 



 Blake and Jackson

 

 Right before we walked down the isle.

 My beautiful ladies!

 It was freezing out but I am glad we got a couple of pictures outside

 Love my children!

All of our family and friends in one place

I believe Jacks was holding up #1

 



New Year

I know it has been a while since I updated this and what better time to do than on a snow day. It amazes me how much I can get accomplished around the house when I am stuck inside of it for almost a full day, but I am not sure I could play Suzy Homemaker everyday.

The last month has been busy and hectic but I wouldn't trade it for anything. At the beginning of January I finally got to see my girls compete at their second meet of the season. I am so proud of how every girl did at that meet. The girls had their third meet two weeks ago and they all made huge improvements and its so nice seeing all their hard work pay off.

This last weekend was the Thumbwars practice tree race which is usually a good time. It is nice to see all the racers during the off season. I did not fair to well and only won a little bit of money but I still enjoyed the night. On Sunday Mom and Dad had the family over to celebrate Kyle and I's birthdays and to watch the Super bowl. It felt good to get to spend some time with my family and the crazy kids.

I saw my oncologist last week and all of my labs are looking great. I didn't get scans done yet because I might get some when we go to Houston at the end of February. But I am feeling great and getting more of my energy back each day.

Crazy Girls after the Folgers meet

My girls and I after KC Coed. Best meet of the year for them so far

Thumbwars Winners

Grizzly Adams and I at Thumbwars

 

 

 My beautiful birthday flowers from Sarah

 

 Kyle and I's birthday cake from my family

 

I am going to try harder to update this more often this year. 

 

Love,
Jeryka

Best Christmas present

I am pretty sad that Christmas is already over. I feel like it came so fast and then it was over. I usually like to start shopping pretty early but this year I really didn't get started until the Friday before. I finally finished up on Christmas Eve and still felt like I didn't have enough. Even though everything went by extremely fast I enjoyed every minute that I got to spend with my family and Kyle's family. I love watching people open presents especially the kids. 

I had a CT scan done on the Monday before Christmas and then saw th doctor on Friday. Dr. Koeneke delivered the best Christmas present I had gotten so far.  My scans showed nothing in the lungs and two very small spots in the liver that were hard to tell what they were. He said if these spots showed up on a healthy person's scans he wouldn't be concerned at all but knowing there was something there before we are going to do at least one more round of chemo maybe two. If feels so good knowing that this chemo reginmin is doing its job so hopefully it will be a little easier to sit through this round. I will go in on Tuesday this week. Looks like I'll be having my own "cocktails" to celebrate New Years. 

I had a MRI of the brain done Friday morning before I saw Dr. Koeneke. I was scheduled to see the radiologist on Jan 2nd so I wasn't even thinking about those results yet but Dr. Koeneke eased our minds and let is know that the scan came back clean as well. So that was my second favorite Christmas present!

On a side note, married life is great. Our wedding was a amazing and I couldn't have asked for it to go any smoother. It was so nice getting to share our special day with so many special people in our lives. I will share pictures on my next blog!

I want to give a special shout out to all the racers and their families who showed their support by purchasing Team Jeryka items from dragraceresults.com. It is greatly appreciated and I hope to be able to thank you all in person one day at the track. I also want to thank Scott Lemon, Luke Bogacki, Danielle Davis, Rick Huffman and Jeremy Maples for helping to make it happen. 

Hope everyone has a great New Years!

Love,

Jeryka

Missing out

So this weekend is our first gymnastics meet of the season, which I am pretty excited about. But what I'm not excited about is that I will be laying in a hospital bed all weekend for round 4 of chemo and won't get to see the girl's hard work pay off. This is going to be extremely hard for me. I want nothing more than to be there with them during their first meet. I'm not going to be able to help calm their nerves, give them last minute corrections or give them a hug after they do an awesome routine. These kids mean the world to me and I just want to be there for them. Tonight after practice was extremely difficult. It was so hard looking at the girls as I was giving them last minute advice because I could see the disappointment on their faces and it killed me. I couldn't let them know I was hurting inside so I held back the tears as we said good bye. I want them to be strong while I'm gone so I had to put my strong face on even though I didn't feel strong at all. Tonight was also hard because I have a gymnast who is struggling and there is nothing I can do for her before the meet. I can't help her work through her mental block from the hospital and it really bothers me. I just want to fix it for her and make it all better, but I can't. I feel like I am letting her, along with the other gymnast down for not being there for them whee they need me the most. It's not fair to them that they have to be put through this battle with me. They shouldn't have to worry about me, they should just be able to focus on doing their routines to the best of their ability.

This round could be my last round. It will all depend on what the scans show this time. After two rounds the spot in the liver shrank a lot from the original scans. If it looks like the chemo is still working I could do up to 2 more rounds. If everything looks stable we may take a break after this one. Since I am tolerating the chemo pretty well, Dr Koeneke would be okay with doing more rounds after this if it looks like it is still doing its job. I haven't been sick at all this time around, it just wears me out and sucks sitting in a bed for 4 days straight with only being able to get up to use the restroom. I take plenty of things to do but I never have the desire to do anything. Last time we took the clock down because it was directly in front of my bed and I couldn't stand watching the time go by so slowly. Last round my hemoglobin levels dropped pretty low so they did a blood transfusion. I was a little worried about this but it went fine other than being done in the middle of the night. I just want to sleep when I'm there but the nurses won't leave me alone no matter what time it is.

The last two weeks were the best. Between getting to marry my best friend and spending a week in Mexico. I got to forget about everything and just have fun.  I think that is why this round of chemo is extremely difficult on me. I went from an extreme high to an extreme low. I am so sick of this thing running my life. I feel like everything revolves around it and I can't just live a normal life. I didn't get to race as much as I would have liked this summer and now I can't go coach my girls at their first meet.

On a brighter note, our wedding was amazing. Everything came together nicely and I had the time of my life. It was so nice to have our families and friends all come together and help us celebrate our special day. The dance floor was rockin' all night long and so was the photo booth! We got a good laugh from the photo album that was put together from the photo booth. I will try to post some pictures from the night real soon.

Love,
Jeryka