Good Genes

These are my 3 precious babies & my baby Brother Dustin, his beautiful wife, Yesenia & my niece Isabella Grace.

This was a crazy busy weekend. Hence, not making a post until now. On Thursday night, Shane and I drove almost to Greensboro to meet his mom to give her Caitlyn for the night. Then we backtracked to Winston-Salem to go to a Chris Tomlin concert. It was amazing. To have one of the greatest worship singers/writers in the last few years to do a concert. It was literally almost "heaven on earth". It kind of gave you a small sense of how heaven will be. All the different people from all different walks of life all united for one cause, Jesus Christ and to worship him. There were several times that Chris would stop singing and you could hear the whole audience singing. It was indescribable. 7000 people singing "How Great is Our God" I loved every minute of it. The guy who opened was named Isreal Houghton. He is apparently the one who writes a good bit of the very well known worship songs that most churches sing. He was very good also. I didn't realize how many of his songs and Chris' that we sang. But it was so worth the drive.

Shane had made reservations for us to stay at the Embassy Suites in Winston. That was nice not to have to drive the 1 1/2 hrs to his mom and dads. We got up the next morning had breakfast and drove to Creedmoor to see his family, pick up Caitlyn, see our new nephew Gavin & get the boys 4 wheelers. We spent most of the day with his parents and Papa Fred. I have not been able to see them since I was diagnosed. Shane's mom Chris had been up here, but with Robin's work schedule and Papa Fred being in a wheelchair it makes it kind of hard to get away. Needless to say they were both a little emotional seeing me for the first time and they hadn't seen me bald. I told Papa Fred, "I never expected to have less hair than you do!" He laughed.

Shane and I took a ride on his Dad Robin's new Goldwing. It is like a motorcycle Cadillac. Armrests, speakers, radio, and a comfy seat for those long trips. I want one. LOL We rode over to see our new nephew, Gavin. He is Travis & Skyla's first baby. He weighed 9lbs even. And God bless Skyla she did it without an epidural. Wow!!! She is my hero. He doesn't even look like a newborn. It is crazy. But he has Travis' olive colored skin and dark hair like both of them. He was adorable. It has been almost 7 years since we have had a boy that little. I miss them being that small. He is really cute & most of all healthy.

We drove home with four 4 wheelers in the back of the truck and on the trailer. We got about 40 minutes down 85S and it bumper to bumper traffic all the way as far as you could see. So we got on 40E I think and went thru Chapel Hill & Asheboro down 49 home to Harrisburg. It was pouring down rain the whole way home and then about 20 min. outside of Asheboro there was snow on the sides of the road. Carolina weather for you. Snow in April. A little over 3 hours later we finally got home. It should only be a 2 hr drive. But Shane has to be moving. Oh Well we made it safely.

Saturday the boys got up around 6am and headed for South Carolina to go 4 wheelin'. They had an absolute blast. They didn't come home till about 5pm and they were covered in mud from head to toe. Their feet and knees were orange from Carolina red clay. I had to send them back into the shower to get it off. Shane & Dustin spent 2 hrs pressure washing all the mud off of the 4 wheelers. The night before it had thunder stormed and apparently where they went the boys found every mud pit there was. There are pictures of them up to their knees in mud holes. I'll post those by themselves. But anyway Mom wants to go next time. So we shall see. It does look like fun. Besides I won't have to worry about my hair. LOL

Mom had errands to run and last minute things for the weekend. Yessie went shopping for Easter clothes and I stayed at home with Caitlyn & Isabella & a killer migraine. It didn't hit me until Saturday so that was nice. But when it does man it hurts. I tried a new medicine which did nothing. However, I managed to make 4 loaves of homemade bread, broccoli salad, sweet potato casserole, tea, brownies, & a strawberry delight. So it was productive just a little slow with the migraine. We cooked hamburgers on the grill for dinner and called it an early night. Except for Mom who was up late getting all her stuff done.

Sunday morning I woke up yet again with a Migraine. It stinks when you wake up that way. Not a good start. I went to get the boys new outfits ready. Mom had picked up the dry cleaning the day before because I had the boys new shirts pressed. Guess what wasn't in with all the other clothes? All of the boys new clothes for Easter. I was so upset. I felt like crap and now my kids didn't have their new clothes to wear. I didn't care that I didn't have anything, my head hurt too much to go and look the day before, but I at least wanted the kids to look nice. So they had to wear something else. I went to go and get ready and I looked and myself, my bald self, and just felt so ugly. I began to sob. I got in the shower and continued to cry. I didn't want to look at myself or anything. My head hurt, the kids didn't have their clothes, I felt ugly, and then Shane had surprised me and went and bought a new suit. I have been bugging him forever to get one. He looked so awesome but I just felt worse. I thought he deserved better than this bald, pale woman who was looking me back in the mirror. I felt like when I put my wig on I was just a big fake. It just was not a good day at all. I haven't had to many but this was a bad one. I literally had to make myself and talk myself into going to church that day. I never have to do that. But I was mentally & probably spiritually fighting myself in my head. How could I not go on Easter???!!! It was really a battle for me to make myself go. But I did.

We came home and my head was still killing me. I was still crying. Shane didn't or couldn't understand why. I don't know if at that point I even understood it. I took 2 Tylenol & 2 Motrin, he held me and then I went to bed. He woke me up to eat. I felt better. Not totally but better. We had an awesome meal as usual. We celebrated my Tia Marta's birthday and she was totally surprised. We did an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids which they had so much fun doing. Then we did dessert and of course the best part...Naptime!!! We all took naps. Shane woke up early from his and did all the laundry for me. Yeah!!! I was feeling so overwhelmed with feeling like I was, I felt like the house was a mess because I didn't do anything the day before from having a headache and doing all that other stuff for Sunday, I still had to pack for the beach & I had treatment on Monday. Yikes. That is overwhelming for anyone. I am so thankful he helped me out. He is the best. Sometimes he doesn't know what to do and he will just hold me and let me cry, but other times he does and he just jumps in and does it even though I know he was tired himself.

Today I had my herceptin treatment. Tony took me because Shane couldn't get away from the office with the staff being short and he had to prepare for a board meeting at 1:00pm. So Tony picked me up and my appointment was at 10:15am. My port has a rash around it. Hydrocortizone does not work so they gave me the name of some other stuff to try. They choose not to use the port in case of infection. So they just did it in my arm instead. My blood counts were low today. Mom said she thought they would because my color was a little off. She was right. It usually is low on day 15 after chemo, but it was low today which is only day 8 after chemo. Not good. But I feel fine. Normally it is about 2.5-2.8 today it was 1.7. So they said I will probably be even lower by the weekend & day 15 which is next Monday. Hopefully not, maybe they will just stay the same. My immune system is getting lower so I have to be more careful & aware of everything. Especially with the kids and me not to get sick. In Jesus Name.

Well after all that I came home, got the kids packed and the phone rang. The lady from the genetics testing called me. I had forgotten with the hustle and bustle of everything else to check in with her. However she called me. We finally have more good news. I am negative for both the breast cancer & ovarian cancer gene. Thank You Jesus.

If it would have been positive they would have recommended me to have my ovaries removed as a precaution on top of my breasts. Plus that could have meant Dustin could have passed the gene to Isabella, my mom could have it, it could go on & on. I am so grateful and my heart was so full that God would answer one more prayer of mine. This is big and is very, very good news.

I still haven't packed my stuff yet but I will in the morning. Shane has fallen asleep beside me as I typed this. It took me so long with having to tell about a whole weekend. Oh well. I truly hope everyone had a blessed holiday weekend and enjoys this week. I will be at the beach so I know I will.

My love & prayers,

Rachael