Photos

Sorry it's crooked...you'll have to live with it :) The first picture is, obviously, the hospital. Then we have the shot of him the night we shaved his head. Isn't he cute??

Why you can't see Matt...

Because I've wasted thirty minutes of my life uploading the same picture four times to have this stupid website say "Uploaded!", but never actually post a picture. Sorry guys. You'll just have to trust me. He's bald.

FYI

Matt's doing really well. He's been as active as possible, trying to rebuild his strength for his Nov. 28th return to work. However, right now he's only working about 3-4 hours at a stretch, and he still takes the next day to recover. He's really pushing himself to get the most out of each day, but he just isn't getting as much now as he used to. Luckily, he's accepting his limitations in stride. He wants to get back to work and will do his best once he gets there. I'm really thankful that he's going back on a Wednesday, so he'll have a short week to help with the adjustment.

That's it! Hope y'all are doing great! Have a happy Thanksgiving!

He's done!!!

On Friday, November 9, 2007 at 2:00 pm (EST) Matt received his LAST chemo treatment!! Woo hoo! Praise God!

He's doing really well now too :) He worked TONS Saturday, which really wiped him out, so he's resting today. But he feels stellar!

Next up: CT scan and blood work on Dec. 6th, followed by a visit to Dr. G on Dec. 13th. We'll know then if Matt needs a surgery or not. If he does, then it's 3 days in Indianapolis for the surgery and 4 more weeks off work. If he doesn't - then it's over!!

You won't hear much from us on the blog until then (unless something happens). So, if you don't read anything until Dec. 6th, know that we are both doing well :)

Thanks so much for your love and support!

Pink, pink...everything's pink

So Matt's been pretty frustrated lately. Everywhere you turn there's a pink ribbon, pink cutlery, pink stand mixer...all for breast cancer awareness and research support. Where's the yellow??

Live Strong - yellow ribbon. Founded by Lance Armstrong for cancer research (my understanding is that it isn't just testicular cancer, since that is very rare). This is what Matt wants to know: Where's the yellow??

After first explaining to Matt that he's not going to find many yellow kitchen utensils (basically because not as many men are in the kitchen as much as the women), we've started to think about what the Lance Armstrong Foundation could start using to help support their research. What could we stick a yellow ribbon on that would appeal to the people who may be dealing with the same cancer as Matt (we're focusing on testicular cancer here). We've got some ideas:

-Athletic equipment: just makes sense (esp. biking equipment)
-Junk food: Matt ate a lot of Reece's Peanut Butter cups...simple packaging change!
-DeWalt: I mean, duh! They're already yellow...this could be good!
-Anything Auto: AutoZone, Belle Tires...endless possibilities
-Wii/SPS/X-box: You could definitely have the yellow versions of these...Matt played video games for HOURS during recovery!!

So that's just a few ideas. Feel free to contribute any more!

Almost done...

Matt had another shot of bleo today. It wipes him out pretty good, so he's kinda pooped today. The nice thing is that everyone at his parents' house is healthy, so he was finally able to go over there and hang out for the day. He's already watched every video we own, so the cable is a nice change :) He's got a scratchy throat today, so we're watching that closely, but everything should be fine.

He's been taking his anti-nausea meds (its Emend, not Amend...sorry) and that is helping a lot. He's just very surprised at how much of it he's had to take this time (the chemo is having an accumulative effect on him). We've very thankful to have those meds so he can live pretty normally (and, again thankful for the insurance, as those two drugs alone cost $1000!!).

I think that's it. I'm heading to my folks for the weekend...Matt's undecided. We'll let you know if/when anything changes! In the meantime, just assume that all is well :)