Yellowstone 2016

One of my favorite childhood memories was going to Yellowstone almost every summer and staying at Campfire Lodge. We would usually camp but sometimes we would get a cabin, we would play in the river, roast marshmallows, go into town and head into Yellowstone National Park. It was a girls trip and we always had such a good time. We got to pick out a treat each time - so we usually picked Doritos, Oreos and Oh's cereal. Simple times and amazing memories.

The past few years I have wanted to go back and stay at Campfire and see the park again. Luckily my friends are open to my random ideas so we booked it! We got a cabin at Campfire and not much has changed there besides being a lot more expensive I guess (or so my mom says) and it was just as I expected. Super rustic and cabin-y. No cell phone reception. No wifi. Just nature, and it was as beautiful as I remember.

   

     

We headed into the park for two of the days. It was the 100th anniversary of national parks system so entry to the park was free for our first day. This was great but it also meant it was a bit busy but it was manageable. The first day we did the Old Faithful loop and saw a lot of bison and elk. We walked my favorite hot pot and found a new spot that we had never been. It was near the lake and it was gorgeous. Can't believe we had never done that stop. We finished off the day with swimming in the Firehole river swimming hole. This is what I wanted to come back to so bad - I had remembered stopping here one time and thinking it was just the most fun thing ever! When we got here it wasn't exactly like I remembered but that didn't take away from the fun we had getting in the semi-cold water and letting the current take us and then walk back up just to have the current take us again. There were fish jumping just feet away from us and the sun was setting. It was pretty great. Sadly there were multiple fires burning while we were there and while we were driving out the fire was just yards from the road. They have a "let it burn" policy inside the park so they rangers and firefighters just watch the fire basically. 

Day two was spent more north. We saw some paint pots, the canyon and the upper and lower falls. Three of us did the crazy stair hike down to a lookout point of lower falls, 320+ steep stairs down the side of the canyon. Nope, not for me. So me and Brooke hung out in the parking lot and had some random laughs. I tried to feed a crow - you know just my usual. The fires were blazing on this day so there was ash falling all around as well. Pretty crazy.
We then drove more north to Roosevelt Lodge and on the way stopped to look at a black bear in a tree - who knew they really climbed trees? Like to the very top of a pine tree! What?! Once we got to the lodge we all got a drink and sat on the rocking chairs on the porch and just took in the surroundings. Not too shabby! On the drive back home we saw a momma black bear and her two cubs, pretty adorable!

We had dinner in town and then headed home for some indoor S'mores (since the fire danger is so high they didn't allow any campfires sadly) and then called it a day. In the morning we had breakfast in the cafe per tradition and then I put my toes in the Madison river which was super cold, not surprisingly. After we loaded up the cars we headed into town where I got a custom screenprinted tee, some fudge and a delicious huckleberry iced tea. Sarah got some fun traditional purchases as well. We had to leave by 11:30 so we could make our 1pm check in at Bear World in Idaho to feed the bear cubs. We made it right at 1pm! And oh my goodness the baby bears were adorable. They were 7 months old and 60+ pounds. We bottle fed each of the 6 cubs and they were so sweet. They have the longest eyelashes and the sweetest eyes. So worth it. After buying some lottery tickets and getting lunch in Twin Falls we made the final trek home.

Another successful Yellowstone trip full of it's own new memories. I am already looking forward to our next one and it will need to be longer! I want to visit Mammoth hot springs and possible head south into the Tetons and Jackson. Long road trip but probably beautiful. Here's to an amazing Yellowstone 2016 and looking forward to Yellowstone 2017!


To see more pictures from the trip click on this link:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6ZzNZ6t1WSXbkhReVRmdWI0NGs

LaterBlog: August 20-26

Another busy week in the books! I think I just decided to fill August with all the summer fun at once!

On the 20th I got a haircut (it grows crazy fast - and curly - right now!) and then headed to Roy to do a balloon release in honor of Miss Mandy with her coworkers and family. We also did her favorite shot which tasted like French toast - pretty wild. I only took a sip but it was tasty! The balloon release was hard but it was also nice to watch them float up.

After that my sister picked me up and we headed to Eden for the hot air balloon festival. We got there and watched one take off and then had some food and looked at the vendors. Once it was dark they did the "glow" where they have balloons on the ground and light them up with the flames. My sister and I have wanted to go to one of these festivals for awhile so we were excited to catch one.

 

The 21-23rd I went to Bear Lake for a girls trip. I went with one of my best friends Maryann and then  two of our friends we met from the farmers market. We got there pretty late on the 21st and all of us were pretty exhausted so we headed to bed. The second day was the lake day. They rented jetskis and we just hung at the beach for the day. I didn't feel so great to start the day off but rallied and enjoyed myself by mid day. We enjoyed some raspberry shakes (they are known for this) and fries and then just hung out for the night. We had to head out super early because I had my radiation consult. My friends are very nice to do this cause I'm sure they'd like to have stayed longer. The 23rd was my radiation consult and you can read about it in the previous update blog.

24th was a full day for sure! I started the day with a work lunch with Gastronomy. They wanted to do something for me in light of my new news so we decided to go to lunch. The entire office (minus a couple people) came and it was a lot of fun. We went to a new southern restaurant called SoCo and it was tasty! After that I had to prep for my CT scan so I met a friend and drank up. Sure hate that stuff...

Once my CT was done I rested for a bit and then went to ZooBrew. ZooBrew is when they open up the zoo to only adults - no strollers or kids! There is also beer and wine if you drink. It was the best way to see the zoo! As much as I enjoy going with my friends and their kids, it was a lot of fun to just mosey around the zoo and look at everything. The lion cubs were all playing and harassing their dad, it was adorable.



That Friday (26th) I looked at a duplex that I will most likely be moving in to. The timing is still up in the air but I hope it works. The location and price are perfect so it is hard to pass up. We shall see! That night my friends and I headed up the canyon and made some dinner and then did S'mores. There is something about just going up the canyon and hanging around a fire chatting with your friends. We need to do it another time before the seasons change.

Phew - lots of fun stuff! And pictures!

LaterBlog: August 12-19

I have been filling my time up with as much fun stuff as I can lately. This means I have been extra busy and don't have time to update the blog when I'm out playing! *my android phone would let me update through the app, but not Iphone...

On the 12th I got to watch my sister walk in graduation from her executive masters program at BYU. She has worked so so hard the last two years to achieve this and I couldn't be more proud. It was fun to watch my uncle hand her the diploma as he is an alumni as well as a faculty member of BYU. It was just a good moment. We went to dinner as a family (extended) after which had its ups and downs but overall good. My cousin was in town from New York so it was great to see him.

On the 13th I went to a local craft/DIY festival with a friend. There were lots of fun booths and such and I came away with a sweet treat and two pairs of earrings. It is always fun to just wander through these things. I topped the day off with boating with friends up at Jordanelle reservoir. It was so great to just check out from things for a couple hours. Goofing off, snacking and just hanging. It was a good reset for sure surrounded by good people and pretty scenery.

 


The next few days were full of fun breakfast, lunch and dinner dates throughout the days. I tend to do a lot of that - and I'm not complaining! It is my favorite thing to do with friends, and my steroids approve haha.

On the 18th my dad, sister and two friends went to a Bees baseball game. We got peanuts, beers (not me sadly) hot dogs and ice cream. All the things! It was a fun time to hang with my dad and see him enjoy himself and having us there with him. Earlier in the day I went with my friend as she got a tattoo - for some reason I love to watch other people get tattoo'd but it isn't for me.

The 19th was Mandys (my melanoma soul sister) birthday. This is also the day that her and I met the previous year, technically. We met through Instagram so we met virtually but I saw her and she saw me in the waiting room of the infusion room so it counts. I went back and looked at our first conversations so that was a little hard. Sure do miss that spunky thing.

Looking back at this week I was a busy girl! I am so grateful that my treatments don't make me sick to the point that I can't enjoy things. The hardest part is the steroid shakes and such but that is all workable. Things could be so much worse, and I am thankful they aren't bad.

Busy two+ weeks without a blog update = super long update

Hello blog followers!
I knew I had been slacking on blog posting but didn't realize it had been over two weeks. . Sorry! I have been pretty busy though so I feel like I have a valid excuse - and it isn't because I wasn't feeling good which is great!

After the last post I started the liver med (8/18) and haven't had any side effects from it. After not even a week on the meds my liver levels went down by almost half! Pretty great news. They are currently still trending down but just not as fast as the first week, but moving in the right direction. When I started these meds I had been off of cancer treatment for about 2 weeks and my tumors had started to sprout in my neck once again. And they started to grow fast.  First picture is 8/16, second 8/24, third 8/27.

As the tumors grow the more they press on nerves to then comes the nerve meds and pain meds. I had an appointment on the 24th with the neurosurgery radiation oncologist and messaged my general oncologists that morning and said that my tumors were growing like crazy and they should look at them while I am at my other appointment. Luckily they got me in and we decided we need to get me on a treatment asap. We decided to do a new CT scan and then have me presented at tumor board again that week. Tumor board is where my entire team (surgical oncologist, general oncologist, radiation oncologist and nurses as well as other people in the melanoma field) get together and discuss my entire past and what we should do going forward. It is a giant powwow with me as the focus. Apparently there was a very lively conversation about me and a lot of ideas of what to do and the best course of action. Now remember we have to still think of my damn liver and how it is responding to things. The end conclusion they came to is to restart me on the first BRaf inhibitors (Debrafanib/Mekinist) as I didn't have a liver reaction to this combo while I was on it. This will also shrink my tumors and reduce my pain. If all goes as planned it will give my liver some more time to heal and react to the liver meds as well as treating my neck (lungs and hopefully brain too). Then they suggesting that I meet with a surgeon to possibly have them removed once they get smaller so it is less invasive. As much as I don't want another surgery it may be good to get the "roots" of these out. Then after surgery I would follow up with radiation of my neck. This I am not happy about but at this point I have to put something aside and do all I can to fight this. I restarted the BRaf meds and the tumors started shrinking like crazy almost instantly, which means the pain started shrinking too. So great!

First picture is 8/27, second is 8/28 (Pretty crazy right?) and the third is 8/31.

As for my CT results, there was obviously growth in my neck. My lung tumors haven't progressed much if at all. There are still the 10 tumors, but they haven't changed much in size which is good. We also decided to postpone the SRS Radiation (brain radiation) for a couple reasons. One, I needed to get my pain under control and so we started these meds, and I can't be on them if I do radiation as it interferes somehow. Also we are still fighting insurance and the appeal can take around 30 days to get settled. I had a new MRI done and my brain tumor has grown by 2mm, so it is now 6mm. Considering how fast and large my neck grows (easily 5CM in weeks) this isn't much but it is still growth. We decided to be on these meds for 4 weeks and then redo my MRI and if it is still growing we will pause these meds and do the SRS (with or without insurance approval, we'll figure it out). The BRaf inhibitors have a 40% success rate of crossing the blood brain barrier so we will give it a couple weeks to do that and if it hasn't then we will treat the brain tumor with the SRS Radiation. The waiting will give the liver meds more time to work, will give the BRaf a chance to hit the brain and time for the insurance company to have some compassion and approve the radiation. As bad as it sounds to postpone treatment on my brain, it is actually in our best interest overall. 

I have also started to taper down on the steroids again. If all goes as planned I will be fully off of them in two weeks. This girl is excited!

Wow, that was a long update! Hope you are still reading to this point.. if so, good job! I am going to be posting all the fun things I've been doing outside of cancer soon. And it is a lot! 

As always, thank you for following this trek and all the ups and downs (not just the tumors!) 

oxoxo

 

I was sent home with my port accessed.. that was an interesting conversation starter!