HOME again!

After a little more that 48 hours in the hospital we are home again. It was pretty much like the last two times. They began the chemo - several hours after finishing she got sick and then once the anti nausea drugs kicked in she was out like a light - I'm not used to that much quiet for that long - it was almost un- nerving but I ended up reading and beading. It was nice. Once she started to wake up she was back on the chemo drugs. She slept thru the night and was pretty bright eyed this morning. Dr. Heideman thought she looked well enough to go home and as soon as everything was loaded in the car it was off to home for us. We've been home for about 4 hours now. Feels so good to be here. I had to cry because the realization that this was probably our last hospitalization for chemo is beginning to set in. It all kind of seems like a bad dream (bad enough to make me really have a bad dream our first night in the hospital that all 3 of my kids had Lymphoma - that is a nightmare!!!!!) I am exhausted tired from lack of sleep tuesday night but i'm going to bed way early tonight. This weekend is my son's birthday and I'd like to at least not be cranky and tired for that!!!! LOL. As usual we have been well taken care of thanks to the amazing organization skills of Linda and the kindness of our friends and family.
I heard too that two more of Storm's kids have been born (if this is a repeat - forgive - sometimes I forget that I've already posted something) , doe/buck twins. I cannot wait to go out to Camino Allegre and take pics for our progeny page that we are planning for the website and the herdbook.
Well, that's about all I have tonight. Thank you all for your prayers and support. Thank you Martins again for the wonderful tacos, The Valentino's for the wonderful pasta and salad. and Kim and Joe for the Pot Pie and canteloup - YUMMY!!!! Also the Goldsmith's for the ice cream. you all are just awesome!

I Feel Like Crying.

Here we are, back at UNMH, presumably for our last treatment. We've been doing
Chemo since around 3:30pm (they decided that if we start earlier we might get to go home earlier - I agree!!!) Alyssa and I were changed into our jammies just relaxing and hanging out
I'm beading and Aly is watching NCIS. I had just hung up the phone from talking to my family and saying goodnight. In walks in admitting and they want us to pay a $150 copay. ARE THEY KIDDING? At 9pm? IN my jammies just before Alyssa is going to get sick from the chemo (usually 3 hours after the last drug is administered though we started early tonight.) Talk about catching someone unawares. I mean, this is our 4th admission and they've never ever done this before so why now and why this late at night (turns out admitting is open 24/7) I guess they've changed policies and they are being asked to make sure folks pay their copays when they check in - hence the episode leading me to be escorted down to admitting at 9:30 at night. It's not that it that big of a deal but I knew these things were coming and I guess it caught me off guard. After the stress of the day - I just feel like crying. I just want to be here with my precious daughter to help her through these rough spots......not running around UNMH late at night paying bills. GRRRRRRR!!!
On a more positive note - this is our last treatment, Alyssa got the Suite (the Princess is getting the royal treatment) You should see this room - It's HUGE. It's got two windows and two extra beds in it. Very roomy...apparently this is the room the kids request (hm. no one told us that we could request a room!) Anyway. We also ran into K. Yep he's here again (every week are his treatments) he updated us on his lung surgery (the last time we were here he was coming out of surgery) and it turns out the nodules were nothing more than some scar tissue (praise GOD!!!!)
and he only has 5 more treatments after this one because his last evaluations showed a 90% or more reduction in cancer cells (another Praise!!!!!) I am Thanking our Father for answered prayer for K. I also heard that M is doing pretty good as well. GOOD NEWS!!!
Well, we are going to try to hit the hay soon and hope the anti-nausea drugs keep the nausea at bay and we can get some sleep!
Please pray for our friends the A family - their daughter is going to have to go back to Ohio for another "reconstruction" and to help her be better able to care for herself. It apparently is going to be a MAJOR surgery for this little 5 year old - they will have to spend about 2 months in Ohio for the surgery and recovery. i know this will be hard on the family and on this precious little one. Please pray for them all. Also, they have a young pregnant goat who is having some problems and they are very worried about their little one. This a very beloved family pet. (all of their animals are of cours - like ours!) Please pray they are able to find out what is wrong with their doe and that she will be fine and deliver her babies safely in one month.....
thank you all for letting me unload. Just had to get that off my chest.

CBF TD "Daredevil" is Sold

This handsome little man whose name is temporarily "daredevil" is sold. We are so happy is going to be a herdsire and help put little milkers on the ground in a new herd. Thank you so much LS for buying this beautiful, wonderful little man!!!!
I cannot wait to see what he does for your little herd.

Tomorrow is it.

Well, tomorrow is the big day - in theory - the last Chemo treatment day.
Aly isn't really wanting to go in but neither does she want to put this off anymore!
So, tonight we will be packing up to go back in for 3 days. Child care is taken care of (Thank you LS, LA and Dear Hubby), meals are taken care of (Thank you LS for scheduling all of that!)
and I need to make sure my laundry is done. I have books to read, knitting and crocheting to do.
I think we are about ready...

Postponed.

Yep, the nasty cold bit us in the heiny. WE are rescheduled for Tues-Thursday. UGH. I am actually feeling better but poor Alyssa is at the beginning stages of the nasty cold. She got it yesterday. This one is really nasty and we know a lot of folks who have it including my mother in law and sister in law. It's probably good we are postponed - taking the other kids over there today and having them watch the kids would have worn them out - this is about the most not fun cold I've had in a long time and makes your head hurt and your chest/throat feel like they are on fire! Your head is so congested you can't keep your eyes open. Hubby has it too and is home from work. It's a nice cold day - I am beginning to wonder if we will see real spring or if we are going to wake up in May to blazing hot weather!!!! Summer will be here - we will have skipped spring!!! (oh wait - I think we had a week or two of it earlier in March - I forgot!!!)

End of an Era - Maybe?

I made the difficult decision to sell Dixie and her babies this year.

This is probably one of the hardest decisions I've ever made - next to selling Dixie's mom Willow. Willow was our first Nigerian. I loved that doe - I miss that doe - her snippy attitude, her beautiful coat, Dixie looks a lot like her except in color but she even has her attitude! I went back and forth and I finally decided this line wasn't working as well for me as the other lines I have.

I fell in love with Dixie the minute I laid eyes on her impish little face when she was born. I couldn't sell her even though I'd made up my mind to. No, I ended up keeping both my does last year when i'd intended to sell one. Dixie has her mother's lovely udder, wide body, but has more angularity and dairy quality to her than her mother. Dixie surpassed my expectations when she won Jr. Champion at 6 weeks of age over several does much older than her. So, are you asking yourself why I decided to sell my darling Dixie? This year I came to the stark realization that i cannot milk 5 does. Not with all that is going on - Alyssa's cancer, My thyroid deal. Just isn't happening. I thought, for a while that when she kidded triplets that would be the icing on the cake - I should keep Dixie or one of her doelings (trust me - it's INCREDIBLY tempting) I am trying to justify. I still think - I should keep someone. But really I cannot do it right now. I milked the girls and since I will be doing the Lion's share of the milking this year I have to let the doe go who is the hardest for me to milk. As a first freshener - Dixie's teats are too small for me. "leave one of her babies on her and keep her" you say - ummm - 2 extra mouths to feed right now with medical bills looming (as my nephew likes to say "DARK CLOUDS LOOOOOMING!!!!!" said with an ominous voice)?

"Keep one of her babies then" you say. UMMMMM - yeah, that extra money would come in real handy this year to feed the rest of the herd. I already am keeping two babies I did not plan to keep - One for Alyssa and one because I'd really like to see what my next generation is going to be like . And Frankly I'm not even conviced I'll keep her but might have to because of the bad reaction she had to hornburning. So I'm kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. Willow was our first Nigie - the gal who got this love of Nigerians started. She is always going to have a place in my heart, as will miss Dixie - But sometimes you even have to let a good one go because of circumstances beyond your control. Willow is helping a new person start their herd of Nigerians - Dixie's daddy Entei is too, and NOW I guess it's Dixie's turn to do the same thing. It looks like she's sold. I know I'll cry when they come take precious Dixie and her son away but I also know that they will be starting a new herd for someone - I can't think of a better doe to do it than miss Dixie! These folks need a loveable sweet first goat and Dixie will be just that!!!!

Sigh. Thanks for listening.

Maybe back to the Hospital

If all goes according to plan - we will be back to the hospital tomorrow. Of course you know how plans are - I came down with this nasty cold on Monday morning and Alyssa complained of a sore throat this morning. I've been giving her EmergenC and Zicam. Trying to hedge off this thing. I've been Cloroxing the house and being on the kids about hand sanitizer, not sharing cups and stuff - IT isn't working! How frustrating. I have a call into the clinic to see what they want to do about this so I don't know if we will be going in or not. I know Alyssa doesn't want to go but we both want to just get the last treatment (we hope) over with!!!! We already have a follow up CT scan and a follow up chest Xray scheduled for the week of May 4th. WE did have our blood draw this morning so I expect the clinic will wait to have those results before they make a decision regarding her treatment. Please pray that this cold never really takes hold for her and that she can just go get this over with. I know it would be horrible to have this cold and go into the hospital and have to deal with a cold AND all the chemo side effects. Plus I guess they'll keep us in isolation too to make sure no one else gets exposed to this nasty thing. For those of you praying for my Ultrasound results - I still haven't heard back from Dr Spafford about the results. (NO news is good news??????)
On a positive note - my buck had two more kids yesterday - twin blue eyed doelings out of Camino Alegre's Tinker Bell who is also out of our lines (CBF Entei X CBF Serendipidy's Laikla).
The family who had the babies is excited and they have 3 more does due to Storm - could have a whole slew of blue eyed doelings since that seems to be what Storm is throwing this year!!!! I know Camino Allegre is considering selling some of these babies so if you want some blue eyed does out of good milking lines - here's your chance!!! I promise I will get pictures when I can and post them - I should do a whole page of Storm's offspring so folks can see them!!! He sure is a producer of does! I am very happy with this little buck. He will remain her for at least one more year if not much longer. He and some of our does will be showing at the May show (May 2 &3) at the Expo NM Livestock Pavillion.