Happy New Year!

After a blogging vacation, I figured I should post some updates. We have been enjoying spending time with our little girl and I had a couple weeks off work, but Ava still isn't giving us much sleep! However, as mentioned before, this is a welcome kind of tired and much better than the exhaustion from spending over two months with her in Eugene.

Ava Update: Linda mentioned Ava is over 9 pounds now! She continues to grow and do well. Her feeding issues are very rare now, which is a nice relief. She has started to spit-up from time to time, with a couple doozies every once in awhile (I caught a large one with my shirt last night which was much better than it hitting the couch or floor). Ava still isn't sleeping much beyond 3 hours at a stretch but did give us a couple four hour stretches in the past week. Linda and I share the feeding so we can each try to get some sleep. But, as my friend Kevin (father of 2 including a newborn boy that has eyes for Ava) was saying, there is something nice about feeding her in the middle of the night when she's nice and content. Ava does have some fussy periods (once per day max) where Mom and Dad can't seem to do anything right, but those aren't too long and we just work through them. Her adusted age is almost 4 weeks and according to our county nurse (who checks on her almost weekly) she seems to be on track, but with much more strength! Linda and I can attest to her strength when she gives us a nice kick.

Linda Update: Linda is recovering nicely from her surgery but still sore. She is working on regaining her range of motion in her arm so she can hold a position for radiation. We met with the radiation oncologist and she suggested Linda have radiation on the breast as well as additional node radiation. This would last about 6.5 weeks beginning sometime this month.

More chemo? We had a call from our medical oncologist a few days ago. Although Linda's response to the chemo was excellent and the "next to best case" in that it nearly wiped out the cancer, it did not completely remove the cancer as we had hoped (although that only occurs 20-25 percent of the time). With most types of breast cancer (called hormone positive), people are given additional medication/chemo (Tamoxifen or Arimidex) for up to five additional years to fight back recurrence. However, Linda's type is not hormone sensitive and not able to respond to that medication. In addition, she is "Her2 negative" - if she was positive for this marker, she would also have received some additional therapy. So, up until now, we thought she would be done with chemo/medication (which is a nice thought since no one likes taking more medication, but the down side is the medical treatment is complete instead of ongoing). Linda's cancer (triple negative) does not have these targeted medications available even though it is more aggressive. Thus our medical oncologist is recommending some additional chemo as additional treatment. There are three medications being recommended. None have side-effects that should be as "tough" as what Linda had for the initial chemo but they all have side-effects that aren't enjoyable, from rashes to numbness, etc. The additional chemo would last 12 weeks. The local "tumor board" will discuss Linda's case again to help determine recommended timing and finalize a recommended plan.

Here are some recent photos. Even the kitties are tired!

Mom, Baby (hidden under many layers), and dog Shelby (will be 15 years old this spring) out on a walk near our house:

Here we are with Idgy the cat sneaking into the photo. Linda's hair is coming back now as you can see! Meanwhile, Ava is losing some hair on the back of her head.

Ava, Mom, Grandma, and Great Grandma (four generation photo):

Ava holding Dad's hands:

Happy New Year,

Rob.