Merry Christmas!!!

We just returned from a fabulous week in Cardiff, CA with my family. Eric was supposed to get chemo the day before we left for CA, but his white blood cells were too low so they couldn't give it to him. We were bummed at the time, but it turned out to be a blessing. Eric felt GREAT the whole trip and could enjoy all the holiday food and festivities. I almost forgot how sick my husband really is because he was so normal this week. It really was great. We had to return a couple days earlier than we had planned so he could get chemo today. Here are a few pictures from our trip. Enjoy!

Nana and Papa with the babies (and Morgan).

Our family - doesn't Eric look great bald?
Christmas morning with some of their loot. Santa brought some transformer cars that are practically impossible to transform - way to go Santa.
A glorious day at the beach.
The boys searching the tidepools for creatures. Logan stepped in every pool of water possible, scaring away any sign of life to be found. The biggest find was a dead lobster that Mason swore wasn't really dead. Pretty fun!

Eating cotton candy at Sea World while waiting for Shamu (the cotton candy was Nana's idea of course).

And saying hello to a vacationing Santa at Sea World. The kids were quite perplexed by Santa's different clothes, but he was the most authentic Santa we've seen.

Thanks to the Borgquist/Cummings clan for hanging with us last week. Thanks, Mom, for all the great food that helped Eric gain 6 pounds during the week at your house! We miss you all already!

Eric's Stats

Stats:
September - December 08 = 30 lb. weight LOSS
December 11th - December 29th = 21 lb. weight GAIN

Cause?
Doctor: Trunkal obesity due to steroid therapy
Eric: Sugar cookies, ice cream, brownies, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy etc.

Translation:
Eric's getting fat and we are so happy!

P.S. A recent CAT scan showed his tumors have shrunk by half!

Happiness is...

A weekend visit from Erika...
A smiley little girl in a Christmas dress...
Peanut butter blossoms and sugar cookies (thanks Erika for your help with these)...

The first snow of the year...

A husband who is well enough to shovel snow...

And new bedding for the kids room (an early Christmas present from Kirsten)!

Life is GOOD!!!

We LOVE Mayo!

We felt like our trip to Mayo was meant to be, especially after we got an appointment so quickly, and now we know why. Eric's tissues were reviewed by the pathologists at Mayo and the head of the lymphoma pathology department found that Eric had been misdiagnosed. He actually has Lymphocyte Predominant Hodgkins Lymphoma, which is commonly confused with the other non-Hodgkins lymphoma that he was first diagnosed with. The reason we feel so blessed is because our physician at Mayo (who is also a transplant specialist) said that he usually sees patients who have been misdiagnosed as Eric was after they have gone through months of chemo with no success and come to him for a transplant consult to save their lives. We are so grateful that we found this out now after just one round of incorrect chemo, instead of months. The chemo he did get before didn't harm him, it just wasn't the correct concoction to treat his particular kind of cancer. The upside to this diagnois is that he now has a 67% chance of going into remission with chemo (versus 50% before), and the downside is that this cancer is more likely to reoccur after remission.

We returned late last night from MN and Eric went in this morning at 8 am to start his new chemo regimen. Hopefully he gets through this round as easily as he did the last one. His hair hasn't fallen out yet, but he can pull out his whiskers with his fingers relatively easily, so it's on it's way out for sure.

On a side note, Mayo Clinic was amazing. We were so impressed with everyone we came in contact with and the efficiency of such a huge facility. If you ever have a serious medical concern, definitely consider going there, it is worth it! But it was COLD! We did get to check out the Mall of America on one of our less busy days, which was also amazing (in a different way of course). We got some Christmas shopping done and spent some quality time together, which was great. So overall, we had a good trip, especially because my mom was taking great care of our boys back in Grand Junction. Thank you, mom, we love you!