Happy Thansgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

Yesterday was a day full of giving thanks for the people and things in our life. For me I spent the morning writing thankful posts to many people on Facebook. So many that Facebook decided to put a security question/quiz for each post as I was doing them. It was interesting.
Given my past few years, I felt it was fitting to give thanks to the people that have shown up for me in so many ways. I probably wrote over 100 posts. It felt so great to let people know how much they have meant to me this past year and how appreciative I was for them showing up for me. Some tears were shed as I realized how many wonderful people surround me and care for me. Especially after my benefit surprise party Sunday it was great to show my appreciation.
I spent the night with close family in Provo with excellent food and traditions. It was low key and wonderful. Wouldn't change a thing... well maybe I would have some left overs, that would be good.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of love, friends, family and good food. Hope your hearts are as full as mine and that you felt loved.

xoxox

all prints purchased from Simple as That Digital Shop

Surprise!!!

Last night was definitely a night to remember... Well a weekend to remember I'd say!

Lets start with Saturday night. Tyler and I had tickets to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer musical. We grabbed dinner before and then headed to the play. It was actually a lot of fun! We may have been the only ones with out children but I still really enjoyed it, probably since I am a kid at heart. Afterwards we decided to grab a drink at the bar across the street. When we walked in I looked up and saw my good friend Brooke there. I was shocked and thought we may have caught her on a date! I even asked if we were interrupting haha, but turns out she was there to surprise me. So fun. We got some drinks and chatted and then I felt someone scooting by me, almost like trying to sit at the table next to me and thought it was very rude and then she sat down next to Tyler and it was my best friend from California!! What a serious surprise! I was so excited to see her! And beyond shocked. She told me she found a cheap flight and was here for the weekend. We got some more drinks and had a great time.

Sunday I went to the market for a minute and then we met up for brunch and then decided to go see the toy store at Grand America. We ended up grabbing tea and ran into another friend of mine and we spent a good 2 hours just chatting and hanging out. Really fun. We had plans to meet up with Maryann and others for dinner later so we just killed some time at her aunts before heading out.
As we were driving to the restaurant Maryann called and said her car was breaking down and her brakes were grinding - asking if I can hear them over the phone even. Regardless she said she was pulling over and to come get her. Not thinking anything of it I headed to get her. We got there and she was sitting on her bumper. She pulled into the place we hold our holiday markets and when we pulled in there were all sorts of cars, which is weird for a Sunday. She opened the car door and then said "wait you have to see how these guys are dancing in this party!" and me being a nosy Nelly was all for peeking, so I pulled into a makeshift parking spot and we went to spy. I thought we were going to look through the windows and Maryann said she just opened the door.. What?! She's crazy! But before I knew it she had knocked on the door and it opened and there stood 50+ of my closest friends and family yelling SURPRISE!!! What the hell just happened?!?! I was soooo surprised, like absolutely no idea what was going on. I just had everyone staring at me, a camcorder pointed at me, flashes from phones and cameras going off and a DJ (What?!) blaring music for me. I seriously couldn't believe my eyes.. which started to fill up with gratitude and full of love. I have never felt more loved and special in my whole life! I can't believe I didn't see it coming at all!! I have lost my intense curiosity in my old age of 33! Ha!

It was a birthday benefit - so people had to pay $33 to attend and then there was a silent auction full of AMAZING things donated by all sorts of people. My market family really showed up for me. I kept trying to look at all the items but kept getting pulled away so I need to get the list of everything there. It looked awesome from what I saw!

There was Fire and Slice Wood Fire pizza cooking pizzas and making salads. If I had one more minute to think things through I would have realized it was pizza's trailer outside (I noticed it as we were walking in) but before I knew it the door was opening.. Sneaky Sneaky people! There was also tamales from Tamales Tita, cookies from The Hungry Bear, shortbread cookies from Scotti and Shorts, coffee donated by Starbucks. There was a bar with my favorite drinks: Hennessy and coke, champagne and PBR. My great friend Elisa from The Baking Hive made a 3-tier birthday cake with sprinkles, it was beautiful and beyond delicious! There was a magician which was really fun and also cotton candy. Balloons everywhere. I had a sash that said happy birthday. My sister even brought me a wardrobe change. The theme was "Big Kid Elegance" and it definitely was!

Maryann gave a sweet speech and then so did Megg - using my favorite #.. #melafuckinoma. Although it was a family affair, it was needed. Ha! Then everyone sang happy birthday and I blew out the candles after making a wish. Then the DJ played some great songs and we all joined in line dancing and group dances. SO much fun! My dad hopefully caught some of it on camera.. We shall see what the final product shows.

I can't believe they pulled this off without me even having a slight idea of what was happening! I had seen so many of them in the weeks leading up to it and no one even hinted to anything. Ashley coming into town didn't even heighten my radar. Even everyone at the market wishing me a happy birthday didn't make me wonder - I just thought Maryann was telling them I wasn't working cause it was my birthday. Never did I think the party of the year was in the works!

How am I so lucky to be surrounded by such love and support? It truly took my breath away and made so beyond full of gratitude, love and belonging! My army really showed up for me that night. It was so amazing. Words truly can't describe it. (even though I have made a very long post to describe it! Ha!)

After all was said and done they raised over $5,000 for me, about $4,000 after all expenses were tallied. SOO AMAZING! I was starting to stress about money heading into the new year as my deductible and max out of pocket restarts. I still have some money left from the previous fundraisers but was getting a little worried about how far it would go.. But my friends really pulled through on this. It really is incredible.

33 is going to be good I'm telling ya!! Birthday months are THE BEST!

Dance floor! 

One of the amazing auction items from Salsita Mendoza

Our fun DJ

My wonderful cake!! So fun!

Auction Item from Zagpie

Almost all my girls

Me and baby Jax and Jordan

My Market Street crew - So FUN!

Just a little Gangnum Style

Not sure if this is Gangnum or Whip and Nae Nae... either way really fun!

Beautiful auction signs and items!

My friends in Seattle sent over chocolates in a hand crafted glass bowl for the auction. So nice!

Me and Courtney

Kori and Jeff from The Hungry Bear and Iliana photobombing

The master mind behind it all - Miss Maryann and I. 

The dance floor

My welcome crew

Auction Sheets

Auction tables

Elisa and I by her amazingly beautiful cake

Delicious Pizza right out of the oven

My surprise face

Ashley, Elisa and I

I mean really... so fun!

Scan results, again.

I had another round of CT scans this last week because the study I am on needed them approximately 9 weeks after finishing the infusions of Ipilimumab. I am glad they did more scans because it gives us a better idea of where I stand now instead of waiting another 6+ weeks.
Before they told me the results I started looking into other treatments available for my stage. My cancer buddy Mandy was just recently pulled off of this study as it wasn't working for her and her cancer began to grow more than they felt comfortable with. She is now going to be starting with Keytruda - a PD1 inhibitor drug. So I started looking into it and it is definitely an option. My thoughts going into the appointment is that if things hadn't started to improve I would tell them to continue one or two more injections and then possibly switch to a PDI drug, like Keytruda.
My new scans showed that the tumors are all still growing, and there is a possible new tumor in my neck as well. It has not spread to any other area of my body, which is good. My lungs are the same as they were before, no change in either direction. My tumors, although bigger, looked more cystic (full of fluid not all tumor mass) as well as had more marbling of decrepit tissue or dying tissue. Both those things are a good sign.  All that said, my doctors have the same idea as I had going in. They would like to give the Ipilimumab another month or so to peak (peak efficiency is 4 months after infusion and I am only 9 weeks out from it) and then if at my next scans on 12/22/15 still show growth of the tumors then we will withdraw from the study and switch to a PD1 drug, most likely Keytruda. If the tumors are the same size then we will continue on the study, one treatment/injection at a time.
It is nice to be on the same page as my doctors and is also nice to have some good news mixed into things, just wish the tumors were shrinking.
I had the injection and it was a bit tender, but not bad. I had a pretty easy night with side effects, no fever or chills just a slight headache which is just fine with me. I'm pretty tired today, even after getting a good 11+ hours of sleep last night. Just means my body is fighting hard. I'm hoping this is the case going forward with injections, especially the next one since I booked a trip the next day to New York City. I had a flight credit I had to use by December 15, 2015 so I decided to go visit cousins and see the city all decked out for Christmas. It should be a great time! I really hope I feel good enough to do everything I want to for that trip. We shall see!

For now I am just going to keep on trucking along and enjoy as much of my life as I can while I am feeling as good as I am. This treatment will take me until at least the end of this year, so we will just see where it takes us!

Margins. Large one is 8cm

Spit and urine.. the usual

My hair is getting long.. and curly!

Viva La Mexico!

I just got home from 5 days in beautiful, warm, sunny Puerto Vallarta! My mom took me for my birthday and we were joined by her friend, and two of my best friends Tyler and Brooke. We swam with the dolphins and sea lions - which was amazing! We hung by the pool and went on the lazy river tons. Went through lots of sunscreen and bugspray. I got stung by a monster bee (hurts like a B!) Watched 50+ baby tortoises be released into the ocean. Went to a beach hideaway and snorkled, drank margaritas and tried mezcal, held monkeys and snakes and ate some great food. Went into town. Attended a Mexican fiesta on the beach. And just relaxed and laughed. It was a great birthday week of celebrating!

It's been a long time since I had been to Mexico and we had a great time. The resort was GIGANTIC and a lot of fun, also beautiful. Excellent pools and good drinks too. Room was big and perfect for our size of group. Our group was good and we all had a lot of fun. So glad there truly wasn't any damage from hurricane Patricia - literally there wasn't any destruction that we could see. Pretty amazing. Can't wait to go back!

Always prepared... 

Little baby turtles making their way to the ocean