You've Heard of the Boy in the Bubble?

Well...he is our boy in a pumpkin! Yes, that's right...it's Marshall dressed as an Indian in a pumpkin. Would you expect anything less from me? :) And believe it or not, he didn't mind a bit! Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving...Ours was FANTASTIC!

A time for Thanks

As we rapidly approach Thanksgiving Day 2008, I wanted to reflect on the year and give a sincere thanks to all my family and friends.  This year, unlike any other before, has truly been a year of jubilation and tribulation.  There are so many things that I am grateful for and to try to list them in an order of preference is, well, ludicris.  So in no particular order I am going to try to say THANK YOU ....

I can above all things else though state that I am truly thankful to have such a loving and supporting wife!  Without her, I am not certain I would have remained calm and kept my insanity this year.  Mandy, you are truly amazing and I hope you know how much I truly love you!  I am thankful for the birth of my son and that he is very healthy, lovable, and just plain stinking fun :).  I am very thankful for my overall health.  We laugh all the time that I am probably the most healthy cancer patient in the world!  I am thankful for the thoughts of encouragement, prayers, gifts, support and everything else that has been shown to my family during our darkest days in being diagnosed.  I am thankful for Dr. Blum and the wonderful team of people at the James Cancer center, and additionally thankful to my PCP and ENT who were resilient in diagnosing me properly (I have read many horror stories of lymphoma patients being mis-diagnosed for years).  In a sick way, I am thankful for my cancer especially that it is a favorable cancer :) .  I am thankful for the many many many friends who have shown support not only to me, but also to Mandy.  Thank you for donating your time, words and kindness and showing support for Team Hall during LTN.  And lastly, I am very thankful for my wonderful family, from my brother to all my new brothers, my Mama Bear and Damnit Dave.  Other than my wife, I have the BEST EVER support group who has to be the most loving and compassionate group on the planet.  I am not sure how to ever truly say thank you to all of them, but to know they have my back is just an amazing feeling.  

So when I awake from my triptophan induced acoma on Thanksgiving Day, know that I am still thinking about what a truly blessed man I am. Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.  

Marshall and Tug

I know Dave and I are Blog Slackers right now, but Dave is in between treatments and we have been super busy. For those of you who don't know...we bought a house. We weren't actually looking to buy a house, but I'm home on maternity leave with a little too much time on my hands. So...I found this house online, we went to take a look, made an offer that day, and moved in two weeks later! We are having a lot of fun with our new space and Dave is loving the fact that he has a "man cave" now. (a.k.a...basement)

The video I've attached is of Marshall totally screwing with one of my twin brothers. (Tug) You'll see him look at Tug, fake cry, look away, etc. You can tell from our laughter that we love this kid more than words could ever express!

Hope this finds all of you enjoying everyday!

A few updates

Sorry everyone for taking so long to post any updates.  I believe the good (for me) and the bad (for updating the blog) is follicular lymphoma is such a slow moving cancer, nothing happens very quickly.  Hope everyone had a great Halloween and got lots of candy!  

As for me -- I had a full body CT scan a few weeks back and the results came back that overall I have 40% tumor reduction YEAHHHHHH!!!  There were some nodes that were significantly down, there were other nodes that weren't down that much, so they take the collection of the results and come up with this 40% average.  Another thing to keep in mind with this is --- the node could remain larger than normal in size but have no cancerous activity.  The only way to know this is to do a PET scan and at the moment I don't know when I am scheduled for another one of those.  I had another treatment following the CT scan and do not have to have another treatment until mid December.  Like I said this is a slowwwww cancer :)

I also wanted to again say THANK YOU to all the supporters who came out to walk with us for Light the Night.  Team Hall was able to raise almost $1,200 for Lymphoma research.  Next year we plan to be better organized and hope to up our goal for the team.  Actually I hope to make our team part of the 2015 club.  (The Lymphoma Society envision that in the year 2015 the great majority of people who have been diagnosed with a blood cancer will be cured, or they will manage their illness with good quality of life.)  More on how we become a part of the 2015 club later.

Marshall is doing great, as is Mandy!  It is amazing to think that he is now 6 weeks old!  Seems like only yesterday we were getting to bring him home!!!  I do have to say it was fun dressing him for Halloween.  Yesterday we took him to vote and he was the hit at the polling place.  Had I thought about it in time I would have gotten him an outfit that read I am voting for O'bottle! 

Team Hall

Last night was the annual Light the Night walk to support blood born cancers. I don't really know how to express in words how touched Dave and I were by the support we felt from our friends and family. As we talked to each one of you last night, and saw your beautiful families, we couldn't help but think how blessed we feel to be surrounded by such amazing people. At the end of the night after everyone had left, Dave and I sat in our car, in the parking lot, feeding Marshall and talking about the night. We were both very teary eyed as we sat in the dark, just the three of us...realizing the sometimes it takes something as bad a cancer to make you realize how good life really is. So thank you...thank you for being a part of a night that meant more to us than you could possibly ever know!!!

I'm a Slacker...I know!

I know, I know, I had a baby and it's like, "Blog? What Blog?" No worries...today is a day for updates. Let's start with Marshall. Instead of telling you all about him, I'm going to post a few pictures. I think they speak for themselves. :)

A Day to Remember

I don't know how to describe what I'm feeling. It's six a.m. and the perfect cool, fall morning. The house is quiet as I sit here with my cup of coffee, snuggled up in a blanket with Marshall sleeping in my arms. The last eight days have been the happiest moments of my life. Dave and I have to laugh because every night we say, "Today is my favorite day I've lived so far!" It's amazing that this little person we created has brought such tremendous joy into our lives.

For those of you who don't know the story of Marshall's arrival, here is the condensed version. Marshall was running a little late, so Dr. Charles decided to induce me on Sunday, September 21st. Saturday night I finished packing my bag for the hospital and pretended to sleep in preparation of what the next day would be bringing. At four a.m. I decided I was tired of pretending and that it was time to get up. As I stood, it was very evident that my water had broke. I woke Dave up and excitedly explained that indeed Marshall was coming today but apparently on his own terms. Funny, I had no idea how true this would be. I took a shower, my husband slept a little longer (ask him about this next time you see him :), and we headed to the hospital.

Everything was going great until around 2 o'clock. I knew something was wrong when the nurse came in and asked Dave and I how big we were when we were born. It seemed a little strange that she was making smalltalk about our birth weights when I was hyperventilating from the pain of each contraction. Looking back I realize she was worried Marshall was too big to make it out the birth canal. Long story, short...by 5'oclock Dr. Charles was explaining to me that although I was dilated to nine, Marshall's position was going to make it impossible for me to deliver him naturally. So...plan B. Frankly at this point, I didn't care if it was plan L, K, or Z...I just wanted him out!

The csection is a bit of a blur, but I do remember Dave's face being right beside mine telling me how great I was doing. And I remember lying there waiting to hear Marshall cry because I knew it would all be okay once I could hear his voice. It only took about five minutes to get him out and then I heard this little voice screaming as he arrived into our world. Dr. Charles quickly brought Marshall around the sheet so Dave and I could see him and then he was whisked off to be checked out. I will never forget how it felt at that very moment to look at my husband and know that regardless of what our future brings, it was at this very moment that made our lives so worth living. Dave was able to run back and forth from where I was lying to where Marshall was lying and then come back to give me all the details. It takes about an hour to stitch a person up after a csection so Dave had plenty of time to describe to me what Marshall looked like...what he didn't say at the time was that Marshall is actually just a miniature version of him :)

Once they were finished with me, I was moved to recovery for an hour and was finally able to hold my son. There really aren't words to describe a moment like this. Dave and I sat there...holding onto Marshall...looking at each other...and realizing we were now not just Dave and Mandy, but a family of three.

Once our hour was up, we were moved to the postpartum room. I was pretty loopy by this point, but I do know that my entire family was in the room awaiting our arrival and that the smiles and tears were abundant. Like I said...a day to remember!