We had to get up at 4am to make it to Birmingham in plenty of time for Mom's chemo. When we got there we waited....
Such a beautiful place!
The staircase..no one takes it!
The trees were just gorgeous!
This is the lab where Mom will get her blood work done every week before she starts her chemo. She is so brave and was so happy to be there and get this started.
This poor woman has had more blood taken than I could stand.
Then we go and wait some more until the doctor calls us back. My nephew Jude was there and was he miserable! He did so well though. My sister, Darcy lives in Ohio and followed us to Birmingham on her way home after spending Thanksgiving with us. This is her entertaining Jude with a tissue! He thought it was hilarious!
Jude loves his belly!
We were still waiting for probably an hour or so...then
We headed back to the examination room for the doctor to check her over and make sure she was still good to go for the chemo.
These are the tumors under her arm. Just a month ago, you couldn't see anything but a red scar from the last tumor removal 1 1/2 years ago. Now they are spreading like wildfire and are red, swollen and tender. The large lumps under the skin are hard as a rock and are a result of blood pooling and hardening under the skin. This would explain a lot of the pain she feels in her arm. This is only one month!
This is lympodemia. It is a swelling of your arms (or other parts) where you have had lymph nodes removed. Mom had 17 removed with her first bout of cancer. Her arm is very swollen and heavy.
This is the tumor under her breast. It looks different from the others. Mom's cancer is called Triple Negative. It is a very rare type of cancer that does not respond to the normal treatments such as estrogen.
While we were talking to the nurse, she mentioned that Mom's ct scan was over 28 days old. She said she couldn't receive treatment unless it was within 28 days. We were confused until I asked her if Mom had gotten her name drawn for the study. She said "oh my gosh, I thought I called you"! "Yes, she has been drawn"! That was such a miracle and exactly what we were praying for. So she told us we needed to get another ct scan that day and then she would set up her chemo/treatment for Tuesday! We were so happy, we didn't even care that we had nothing but the clothes on our backs!
My sister, Malen keeps notes of everything. It is like her second Bible. Thank goodness she is good at that!
This is Mom with her nurse, Cheryl (blond) and her dr., Dr. Falkson. They are so wonderful! Dr. Falkson is very British. So cute!
She loved to cheese it up for the camera!
Obviously, so does my Mom!
So then we were back to waiting, and waiting and waiting....
Mom finally got her ct scan and then she was asked to help other women with her type of cancer. She was asked to do a biopsy of the tumors she has. She was told it wouldn't help her, but would help someone else. She was gung ho. I was worried about the pain, I know selfish, right?.. Well they said it would be just a "little" needle biopsy. Um, they lied! They took two huge chunks out! OF THE TUMORS! OUCH! She was in quite a bit of pain after that.
Jude finally fell asleep when Darcy danced and sang to him!
My sweet niece, Natalie. She and I decided to go take photos together while we waited for the biopsy.
These were the elevators and then I got the pictures above of the outside and stairs. This older man came walking toward me and asked me if I wanted to go to Federal Prison for Christmas. Um..seriously??? He informed that I could not take any pictures inside the hospital. So, the next day I snuck a picture of Mom on my cell phone during chemo...shhh...don't tell. I don't want to go to prison for Christmas, but then again, isn't Federal supposed to be really nice????
We left about 4:30 and headed to The Cheesecake Factory and a hotel. We were beat! I had my cheesecake though and I was in heaven! We didn't have any clothes, toothpaste, contact solution, we had nada! That's where Darcy came in with all her luggage from visiting! She had a t-shirt and shorts for me and that wonderful black lacy bra for my poor booby-less sister, Malen! LOL! We always give her a hard time! Don't worry, she's used to it! :O)
So we got up the next morning and headed back to the hospital at 9am. Mom's chemo was scheduled for 11am. They were late. So we waited and waited. We were told it would only be 2 hours. It took 4. You know what though? I don't care! I would wait all day everyday! I am so thankful for them accepting her! Thank you Lord! So we laughed and we visited and we just enjoyed every second of being together. It is truely a blessing to have this one on one time with Mom and Malen. We are really bonded and close and we talk and talk. We don't even turn on the radio during the drive. We just share our lives together and enjoy the time we have. We ended up leaving the hospital to head home about 4:30pm again. Then we hit the road and headed home.
The worst part of the whole ordeal was the deer that ran in front of the car! YIKES!!!!!! Scared the poop outta me! But, yet again, God was with us and Malen had just said she needed to slow down and had right before the deer ran in front of us. So we just laughed at how funny we all sounded screaming like little school girls and thanked the Lord for being with us.
Thank you all for all the prayers. We really do feel them and know that God is with us. We are faithful and sure that God will heal her. We are so grateful to everyone. Me, I am extremely grateful to my dear friend, Shelia, who has kept my kids at a moments notice, no questions asked. I love you! I am soooo blessed with the people I have in my life. I thank God for you all every night!
So I am ending with the cheese cake. Doesn't it look divine! Red velvet cheesecake is da bomb diggity!
He is such a sweet happy little guy with the biggest eyes! He likes to pretend like he is pinching you and makes vroom noises when he sees motorcycles or bikes! 
Watch out! Daddy's gonna get you! 
This is the 2010 version! Wow! We are old! We tried to make my Dad pick me up, but you see how that worked! LOL! From left tor right: Cindy, Mom, Malen, Me, Dad, Darcy, Russ, and Tobin. The whole gang all together!
