Rudolph Day

Hello my crafty friends, I have just a little update before I show you my card. We went to see the family doctor again on Monday and he is running more blood tests on Lyme's, Pancreatis and the usual blood work and a abdomen/pelvic CAT scan. Saw our local oncologist today and he was more concerned this the fevers are higher than we first suspected. Our thermometer wasn't working right and we got a new one. Hubby's fever went up to 101.8 on Sunday evening, so doc didn't like that. He added on more blood work, port blood withdrawal and he added a chest CAT scan to the family doctors scan. Hubby has already did the blood work today and the CAT scan is for Thursday afternoon. So now it is just a matter of trying to "catch" whatever is causing the fevers with the blood work and scan. I know stuff going on in the blood work doesn't always show up right away. It took almost 2 years to get the "right" blood work to show up with my Lupus when they were trying to diagnose me. Doc talked to us about that and I told him I could relate, and when he found out that I had Lupus and RA, he said that I know exactly what he is talking about. Even now my doctor doesn't "catch" my Lupus acting up with blood work because the timing is usually off. So hopefully they will find something. If they can't after extensive testing,  doc said he will start hubby on the backup chemo plan and if it is his tumors causing the fever, and if the treatment works well like it did the first time, that could make the fevers go away. So we will see how it goes. I feel much better now that they are taking these fevers more serious! Last time hubby had a fever was when his tumor ruptured in the colon making him a lifetime chemo patient, but we didn't know he had a tumor. Family doc didn't take his fevers serious then either because his blood work was perfect. Well his blood work has been perfect this whole time all through chemo! So you can't go by just the blood work. Sorry, I said this was going to be quick and it wasn't. lol

Ok, I have been so tense, stressed and just plain in a funk so I had to go into my craft room for a while just to get away from all of this health stuff. It's weird because part of me wants to craft, but another part of me doesn't want too. But I forced myself to make a card for Rudolph Day. And low and behold I made two Christmas cards to go into my stash for this Christmas. But the one I'm entering into the Rudolph Day is the first one. Rudolph Day  always starts on the 25th of each month and runs to the end of that month. It's a great way to build your Christmas card stash, so I've been trying to play along each month, but I missed March's. Anyway I'm entering my card over at Rudolph Day. My card is a standard A2. I used some cork board material that Loll sent to me, bless her heart, she is just the sweetest! I also used SU's Wondrous Wreath and a sentiment from My Creative Time, as is my stitched layer. I embossed the sentiment in SU gold embossing powder along with the second layer of my wreath. I used my Misti to stamp the layers to my wreath, that worked out perfectly, I just didn't die cut it perfectly. lol But it wasn't to bad and I am please with how this card came out. I hope you like it too.

 Showing the gold shine. May stamp this bow and emboss in gold and then cut it out. I don't like that the bow loops don't have any "holes" in them. lol

My second card is just a simple little card too. I used My Creative Time Products on this one.

Thanks for stopping by to visit me, I always appreciate when you stop by. I love the love you guys always leave me, you are just the best!! Crafty hugs, Brenda

No Hopkins for a 3rd Time

Its a no go to Hopkins for the third time. I was really praying that the third time was the charm. But it isn't to be. Hubby is still running a fever and it seems to be a little higher than it was. His port is not infected thank God and he has no infection in his blood. So where is this fever coming from? Well that's the million dollar question. The local oncologist said that it could take up to 3 weeks for a viral fever to go away. Well Saturday was 3 weeks, or close to it. Then he said that the cancer tumors could be causing the fever, though it rarely happens. So.....here we sit, hubby being miserable with a burning pain in his belly and me being nervous and just trying to make him comfortable. I'm at my wits end as we have been to the family doctor 3 times and all tests come back fine and we've been to the local oncologist with all test coming back fine. I'm ready to just take him to the emergency room of our local hospital, not sure that will make a difference but we need to find out what is going on. Now I just have to talk hubby into going. He has said if he is still in pain tomorrow he will go so I will be holding him to it! That's the update, will update again when we have something to go on. Thanks for holding us up in your prayers, it sure means the world to us as well as your support to me. Crafty hugs, Brenda

Blessings Fall Like Rain

Hello my crafty friends, I hope you are having a great week thus far! My project this week for Cardz TV Gallery is a quick and simple one. With hubby being sick, my time has been spent running him to the doctors and taking care of him. We have to get his fever gone before he can do the study at Johns Hopkins, it has been a busy one around here. So I apologize that my project is plain, but I think it is a good one. The Cardz TV stamps I used on this card are:

I used Suburbia for my lady with the umbrella, I can't remember what cartridge I got the grass from, the clouds are from Disney and Friends, and the flowers are from My Quiet Book. I used Glossy Accents for my rain drops. Papers are from my stash and I have no clue who they are by. And that's it, plain and simple just like I told you. lol Have a wonderful week, we are hoping to get results from the blood work and port blood work. Then maybe we can get a plan on getting rid of this infection that hubby seems to have going on.

Thanks for taking the time to visit me today. I always appreciate your visits and your comments! Crafty hugs, Brenda

A Bright Spot in Our Lives/Little Update

Hello my crafty friends, I hope you all are having a great start to the week. Hubby is still running a fever but I think we are getting on the right track at getting him well. Blood tests will be done today, along with blood drawn from his port to make sure there is no infection in there. Not sure if this fever is going to be gone by the 28th, but I am sure praying it is. If it isn't, then God must be telling us that now isn't the time for the study. I'm trying not to be down about it, but it will be disappointing if this fever is still around next week.

But we have a bright spot in our lives once again. Son #4 and his bride to be are expecting, so we will be grandparents again come Nov.!!! I'm so excited to be grandma once again. I would have preferred that they had been married first, but at least they are engaged and will be married in June. Now what are the odds that it will be another girl?! lol I always told my 6 boys that I had the boys so they will have the girls and so far that has been pretty true. We have 5 granddaughters and only 1 grandson. He is so out numbered! But these kids are the joy in our lives. So we can't wait to hold this little bundle of joy come Nov.! Couldn't wait to share with you all. Crafty hugs, Brenda

No Go to Hopkins

Hello my friends, thank you for all your comments. Hubby got cancelled for Hopkins tomorrow. Back to the doctors we went today and doc put him on another antibiotic along with prednisone. Got back home waiting on RX's to be filled and we call our contact at Hopkins. She told us that if hubby takes the prednisone he won't be able to come in for 30 days! So put a call in to family doc and he says don't take the prednisone. So tomorrow is off and they have scheduled hubby in for the 28th. That will give him time to heal and then hopefully this will be the last cancellation!! They are really trying hard to get hubby in and going, but this has to be gone because if the CAT scan shows any infections he will be kicked out of the study. So I really appreciate them working so hard with us to get this done. So that is where we are at for now. Hubby just has to rest, take his meds and heal. Thanks for hanging in here with us everyone, we so appreciate you all!! Hugs, Brenda

New Update

Hello my crafty friends,  I hope your week is going well. Hubby has been home sick since last week. Of course last week he kept trying to go to work only ended up staying home at lunch time because his fever would make an appearance. I made him a doctors appointment last Wednesday and the soonest they had open was Friday. So off we went last Friday. As I suspected he had bronchitis. So we leave and go get his RX's. In the mean time Johns Hopkins called wanting hubby to go down to do his testing this past Tuesday, but when they found out he was sick and on antibiotics the person had to check to see if that was ok. So they didn't let us go down. Then on Tuesday, hubby didn't run a fever. We were happy about that hoping he was on the mend. He also finished his antibiotic yesterday as well. Johns Hopkins called again yesterday and wants hubby to be down there on Friday at 12:30 pm to do the testing. So they will do an EKG, a CAT scan, blood work and a full physical. We were so excited and still are...but....today hubby's fever came back! I was heartbroken to say the least. So I will be calling our family doctor first thing in the morning! We are both still excited to be going down this week to Johns Hopkins. I am just praying that the fever is because doc didn't give hubby a strong enough antibiotic and that it isn't because his "numbers" are going down. The man hasn't been sick since...well I can't remember since when! His numbers have to stay up if he is to qualify for this study and that is what has me worried. I sure pray that it is just that the antibiotic wasn't strong enough. Will give an update on how the testing goes when we know something. Thanks for taking the time to read this, thank you so much for your prayers and above all thanks for your support! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Floating Frame

Hello crafting friends, I hope your hump day is going well. It is rainy here today, so it makes for a lazy day, not necessarily a good thing. lol  I did a floating frame for some friend's anniversary along with a tag to hang from it. I will be apologizing to my friends, they are more like family to us, but I had all intentions of giving this to them for their anniversary back in Oct. Yes, back in Oct.!!! I had forgotten all about cutting it out and putting it on glass. So when I saw it, I got busy right away. The SVG file I used came from SVG Attic. I used a system's font for their last name that was in my computer and stretched and sized their name to suit my space, I also sized and stretched the SVG "M" to get what I wanted. I cut this on my Cricut Explore on the vinyl setting. It cut perfectly with the "kiss" cut. Using transfer tape, I placed it on the cleaned glass using my T-Ruler to get it as straight as I could. Trust me even with a ruler I don't get things straight, this is as good as it gets with me. lol

I then set to making the tag. I had a pre-cut tag that came in an order as a freebie, it also came with the flowers. So I took some scrap paper and dressed up the tag, added a bow I had already had made using scraps, I used the SU Bow Punch to make it. Then I stamped my sentiments on the tag, tape it on the back of the frame and let it hang over. The Cardz TV Stamps I used are "Congratulations" and "Count Your Blessings" and you can find them here. I crossed out the "I" and "my" to put "we" and "our". 

As always thank you for taking time out from your busy schedule to visit me. Your comments always make my day! Crafty hugs, Brenda

A Johns Hopkins Update

Hello my crafty friends, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. We sure did. We went to VA and enjoyed no tv, internet or phones-well we had our cell phones along but didn't bother with them. lol We rode around 300 acres just admiring the beauty of God, the warm weather and friends who are more like family to us. We ate, oh my did we eat! Being outdoors makes you eat more and I can't afford to do that! But it was so good and very relaxing getting away. Took our minds off the cancer for a little while. We came home on Easter Sunday evening after a wonderful meal at lunch time. We got the dishes in the dishwasher and the car packed up and off we went 6 hours to home. Bret got his gear out the car and into his only to have to drive another 2 1/2 hours up the road back to school. Glad it was him than me, it doesn't seem to bother the younger ones. 

Monday was our appointment at Johns Hopkins with the new oncologist. We really liked her. At first we were getting a little nervous because she told us that hubby has done everything available to him as they wrote it out on paper in front of us. But then she turned the paper over and continued to write and then we knew she had a plan. There is a study that hubby qualifies for. I don't know if any of you saw on 60 Minutes where they were taking live viruses and injecting them into the tumors so the body recolonizes the tumor so it can fight them. Well her plan is similar to that only she won't be injecting the tumors with live viruses, instead they will be boosting hubby's auto immune system and then giving him a chemo with it that he hasn't had before. Why hasn't he had it yet you ask? Well it is because this cancer has a mutation that causes that chemo not to work on it. Why is she using it then you ask?? Well because they have found that when they boost the auto immune system and then add this chemo that it is working! So as soon as she can get some info regarding hubby's tumor from our local hospital she will do some more testing for other mutations and then he will begin treatments. It will be every week. It should take her 2 to 4 weeks to get ready for us as long as the hospital sends her what she needs. We are very excited and hopeful that they will work for hubby. If it doesn't she has another plan too. And that is to go back to the first chemo treatment that worked but because of the bad side effects hubby had to be pulled off of it. She will come in with a much lower dose and with some kinds of depression meds that they have found to work to lower some of the side effects with this type of chemo. We are praying he doesn't have to go back on it, but if he has to then he will. He still has some neuropathy from this chemo treatment and it has been over a year now since he has had it. But regardless, there is a plan(s) in effect now and we can soon start treatments. 

I would like to thank you all again for the wonderful support you have given us. We have been so very blessed with all the support of family, friends and blogging buddies. The prayers are so awesome and I truly believe that is why hubby is in such good shape and is other wise healthy to do this study. If he had been losing weight and sickly he wouldn't have been a candidate for the study. But his "numbers" have stayed up, his weight has stay up and he has done fairly good for a person who is stage 4 colon cancer. And we owe it all to the good Lord and the people who keep praying for him all over the world. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!  Thank you for blessing our lives with knowing a piece of you, thank you for being you! 

Until next time crafty hugs, Brenda