End of Chemo!

It's finally done!!

Glenn's final chemo treatment was on Friday, September 28, 2012 and we were ready to party!

As this day got closer lots of people we talked to wanted to get together and celebrate this major milestone with us.  We decided to take our celebration to the Pizza Factory and enjoy their delicious food & fun bread twists.

Back row: Dad, Glenn, Necia w/Wyatt, Mandi, Mom

Front row: Kinley, Zoe, Sadie & Maggie

We were so happy to have Zack & his family join us

Kyler, Kelsie, Sandy & Zack

Around the kid table left to right: Zoe, Sadie, Wyatt, Maggie, Kinley, Kaylie & Kadan (Zack's youngest two)

Mandi brought Glenn a bunch of balloons & one said "You Rock"

I agree.  Glenn pretty much rocks!

Maggie supports her Dad & Cancer awareness!

Zoe is rockin' blue for her Dad!

Wyatt's hero is named Dad!

I love my man & I am so glad he has made it through this difficult time with as little drama & sickness as possible.

Our hero & chemo grad!  You are the best & we love you so much.  How about you stick around a while longer?!

Annual Fall Sundance Trip

 This year at the Sundance Harvest Market there was and ambulance, fire truck & a horse that the kids could interact with.  They loved being inside the ambulance and really wanted to get into the fire truck, but were unable to.  We would have had to pay extra for them to ride the horse so we passed on that, but they did get to pet it.  Overall it was a great afternoon!

The Final Treatment

We are so glad that Glenn made it through all his treatments on schedule.  There were so many patients that had to be sent home without their treatments because their numbers & levels were too low.  Glenn was slightly low a few times, but he was always good enough to take his treatments.  It was such a blessing to get them all done and not have to be traveling down to Salt Lake in snowy weather.

When we first arrive Glenn gets his port accessed and labs done.  After that we get to sit and wait for an hour before lab results are ready.

Bridget is the nurse that does the port access and lab draws

After our hour wait Chelsea would take Glenn's vitals and then get us to the room where we would wait for the Doctor

Several visits we got to meet with different Doctors or Physicians Assistants before the Oncologist would visit with us. This visit we got to meet with Dr. Kim.  She's in the middle.  Cammi is Dr. Garrido's nurse so we got to see her pretty much every visit.  We loved having her as our nurse.  She was always upbeat and friendly.  Always had a smile and was very encouraging.  It helped so much to have happy and friendly people taking care of Glenn all along the way.

Here's Dr. Garrido.  He was awesome.  We felt well taken care of by him.  He had taken a vacation during the time we were doing treatments so we had the opportunity to see a couple of other Doctors while he was out.  Dr. Nuttall & Dr. Gilcrease took care of Glenn during that time and they too were amazing at what they do. 

After the visit with the Doctor we head upstairs to the Infusion Room.  This place was always hopping.  Lots of nurses and patients and visitors.  Here is where we spent most of the day.  It took over four hours for every treatment.  The first four (i think) treatments were the longest because of the added iron he was being infused with. 

This is Cyd.  She was Glenn's nurse for about four of his treatments.  We really liked her.  She always had good stories and would talk to us about the church.  She isn't a member, but know a lot about what we believe and has attended some meetings with other members she knows.  We loved all the staff that took care of us while we sat and waited for all those nasty drugs to get pumped into Glenn. 

This is the nurse that took care of Glenn on his final treatment.  I feel so bad, but I can't remember her name right now.  I wrote all their names on a paper that day and of course I can't find it right now.  So typical me. 

Right now she is flushing his line and getting ready to hook him up to the bulb of chemo that he carries around for the next 46 hours.  As soon as they got him hooked up a group of nurses gathered around and sang a cute song then gave him a blanket as an end of chemo present.

Thank you to everyone at Huntsman for taking such good care of our Dad, Husband, Son, Brother, Uncle, Nephew & Friend!!

Steam Train

I just discovered this unpublished post.  I don't remember all the facts about it, but here are some pictures from when the steam train came into town...last december.

Things I do remember:
It was huge
It was loud
It sprayed out really hot water
The kids loved it

Taking Care of Dad

I have been putting off posting about Glenn's cancer diagnoses because it has been such a difficult journey.  Lots of ups & even more downs.  I plan to eventually get the whole story written out, but it's still pretty hard to think about some of our experiences.

I put this collage together of the day Wyatt & I took Glenn to the E.R. a while ago, but I get so emotional when I look at it I didn't want it on here.  Glenn was in so much pain & Wyatt was being such a good boy taking care of him and making sure he was alright.

February 26, 2012

Glenn had been dealing with abdominal pain for almost a year before he finally broke down and said he was ready to see about it.  We were all ready for church when he came out of the room and told me he was done and just wanted to go to the E.R.  I was a little taken back and didn't quite know how to react.  I really didn't want to take all three kids to sit in the hospital for hours.  We decided to go ahead to church and then after the first meeting we would send the kids to their classes while we went to the hospital.  We were late getting to church so we sat on the couch in the foyer and let the kids color & eat fruit snacks while we waited for the meeting to end.  About half way through the meeting one of our friends came out to take her daughter to the restroom.  She asked how we were doing and we told her what was going on.  She insisted on taking the kids back into the meeting with her so I could take Glenn.  We knew Wyatt wouldn't have been good for her so we took him with us.

The E.R. Doctor ran some tests and did a scope, but didn't really tell us a whole lot.  She gave us the name of the General Surgeon in town and sent us home.  We were able to get in to see him the next day and that's where the fun really begins!

It just so happens that the day we went to the E.R. was also Maggie's 10th birthday.  I was glad we were able to have her birthday party the day before so she got to have some fun and be celebrated!

Little Mommy

Zoe loves to play with her many baby dolls whenever she is home.  She carries them with her everywhere.  They go on car rides with us.  They sleep with her.  They get their clothes changed frequently.  She just loves her babies!

I think she's going to be a great Mom when that time arrives, but we do need to work on one aspect of Mommyhood.  She needs to make arrangements for a babysitter before running out the door.  Glenn took the girls on a Walmart run tonight and after they left I noticed how she had "taken care of" her baby...

I had a good laugh.  She is pretty creative.  I love that little girl and all her spunk & sass.  She just wouldn't be our Zoe without it.

I may need to work on my Grandma skills over the next several years since it was quite a while after they left that I noticed the baby hanging out of the blanket.  I'm not all that observant apprently.

Meeting Josi

I have never been a real big reader, but I thought since I'm trying to encourage my kids that are learning to read I better start reading something myself.  On one of our weekends in Provo I went to Deseret Book to see if anything caught my eye.  I noticed a couple of books that looked interesting.  I love looking through recipes and getting new ideas for meals and these novels had food on the cover and were categorized as culinary mysteries.  Sounded interesting.  I purchased the first book in the series and decided I would see how I liked it before I bought any more.  I liked the story & thought it was an interesting concept.  I finished that book pretty quick, but it was several weeks before I could get back to a Deseret Book to get the next one.  I decided to get the rest of the series since we don't live near a Deseret Book and it never occured to me to look online.  I'm just that brilliant!

We got home Sunday afternoon and were enjoying our relaxing evening when it was so rudely interupted by the fire that broke out on the balcony below us.  I had placed the stack of newly purchased books on a cabinet next to my rocking chair that was next to our sliding door that lead to our balcony.  They did not survive the fire.  I was pretty bummed to have just spent that much money on books that I hadn't even taken out of the bag.

I just recently re-purchased all those books plus those that have come out since.  I decided to check out the author's website with all the recipes from the books.  She was having a release party for her newest book in a bookstore in Brigham City.  It just so happened that it was on a Thursday evening before one of Glenn's treatments so we were able to go down and get her to sign a book for me.  We told her a little bit about our situation and she told me that would be a good scene for a book.  I agree.  It wasn't fun to live through, but we have come out better and stronger and it would be interesting to see how she would have her characters deal with something like that.

Thank you, Miss Josi for taking the time to chat with us and to have a picture taken with us!!

Maggie, Zoe, Me, Wyatt & Josi S. Kilpack

School Days

It's that time again & the girls were so excited, especially Zoe. She has been waiting not so patiently all summer for her turn to go to school.

Maggie starts 4th grade and she has an awesome teacher. We have heard all good things about Mrs. Lester. I hope she has a great year!
Zoe started Kindergarten & couldn't be more ready! She gets to be in Mrs. Lonsway's class. I think she will be an excellent student!

That leaves Mr. Wyatt at home all day with Mom. Not sure how he feels about that, but so far he's been good. He's a big helper & when he plays he just kind of disappears and enjoys the freedom of being able to play with whatever he wants!

Bear Lake

I decided that our lazy Sunday afternoon needed a pick me up so we packed the kids up and went for a drive.  We ended up at Bear Lake.  I've never been there and was very surprised at how beautiful it is.  The water is so clear and pretty.

Since we weren't prepared for water play we didn't actually stop at the lake.  I was pretty bummed and so were the kids, but we found a fun pizza place and had some dinner.  We drove around a few more minutes then grabbed us an ice cream snack & headed back home.  We had fun on our short impromptu road trip!

Snacking on Cheetos for an hour will give you some super orange and deliciously cheesy fingers!!

This chunky little bear was in the restaurant and the kids loved him

This big ferocious bear was outside...they liked him too!

Movie Night

I've been wanting to have an outdoor movie night for quite a long time now & finally decided to just do it.  Unfortunetly I didn't get pictures.  I took one of Wyatt with the consession table, but didn't get anything else.  The kids and I were at the bowery all day setting up and having fun.  We rented a popcorn machine, had a kiddie pool, hula hoops, bubbles, glow sticks and lots of candy.

Since most of the people we invited were not able to make it because of girls camp and scout camp we decided to do another movie night just before school starts.  I'm looking forward to it.  We had so much fun.

Thanks to Karleen, Kylie, Mandi, Sadie & Kinley for sharing the fun with us!!