MRI Results

We got the results back for Jacob's MRI.  It showed that the tumor was actually larger than the last MRI.  The doctor was surprised, but then she realized that the MRI taken last time was at the beginning of July and the chemo didn't start until the end of August so there was almost two months for it to grow before we started the treatments.  With that taken into consideration, the chemo should be working for him just fine.  We will know for sure with the next MRI in a few months.  It is just going to take a while to get it gone, but at least he is handling it just fine.  They could do a stronger chemo, but that would make him feel awful and loose his hair, so we'll just keep chugging along.  :-)

More Blessings

Last Friday we had blessings rain down on our heads.

A little back story:
We got our house renovated through the city in 2010.  This was a great thing because they spent $24,000 on our house and as long as we stayed in the house for five years, it would all be paid off.  A little bit has been coming out each month, but we still owe about $12,000.  It is in the form of a lean on our house.
Scott and I were trying to make plans to pay it off, but we couldn't figure out how we were going to pay it off as well as get a down payment for our new house.  (Renting in Austin costs more than a house payment.)  We still knew that our family was supposed to go to Austin and it would work out some way.  I was pretty down, though, because I just couldn't see how it was ever going to happen, and I hate having Scott working in Austin and only coming home on the weekends.  We are reading the D&C right now as a couple and at my lowest point we read section 58 that told me that "Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter."  Talk about an answer to prayers.

Well, last Friday, Heavenly Father showed us a little more of how it is going to be possible.  I had recently written a letter to the city trying to see if there was any way to make payments on the money we owe.  She called me and told me that as long as the people that buy our home are within the income requirements, they can just transfer the lean over to the buyer.  It will still continue to go down and be payed off in three years.  With this, we don't have to pay the lean back at all!  We can use the money we were planning on using for the lean to put a down payment on our house and also use some to pay the remainder of our current mortgage if we need to.

Our Realtor told us it might be hard to find someone willing to take over the lean even though they don't have to even pay anything for it, but we are going to use that as a bartering chip when they ask for us to lower our price.  It may still take a while to find a buyer, but at least we can see that it is possible now.  We lowered our asking price and have three people already coming this week to look at our house.

The lady from the city also told us there is a home buying assistance program in Arlington for people that meet the income requirements we need.  It requires people to take a one day class on home buying and then they can have up to $10,000 for a down payment and closing costs.  They have a Realtor representing them that I could call to let him know about our house.  They would be more likely to transfer the lean because they know more about the renovation program that the house had.  We may just be able to sell this house quickly!  (I can't get too excited, though.  I hate to get my hopes up.)

Also, on Friday, we got our pre-approval letter from Scott's new work for our new house contingent upon us selling our current house.  We also got a list of Realtors in Austin that the credit union likes to use.  If we use one of those Realtors they will give us 20% of the commission to go to closing costs.

We are going on Thanksgiving weekend to Austin.  (My sister is visiting family in Las Vegas so we are taking over her house.)  We are hoping to be able to put a bid on a house while we are there.

I would love to move over Christmas break, but I am trying my hardest to be on the Lord's schedule not my own.

Prayers are appreciated.  You can see that they are working!  Thank you all and we love you guys.

Catch Up

Everything is going great here.  Jacob does just fine with his chemo treatments every week.  He is a little tired on Wednesday nights after getting the medication, but other than that he is his normal self.  We will be getting an MRI on the 14th to see how effective it has been.

We have just been crazy busy getting ready to move.  We are trying to sell our house and hopefully we can get what we owe on it.  The realtor is coming by to take pictures tomorrow and get the house listed on the internet.  Scott and I already signed all the paperwork on Friday.  I really pray that the house sells quickly.

Scott starts his new job in Austin tomorrow.  He is staying with my sister during the week and then coming home on the weekends.  I really hate having our family separated, but we have to sell this house before the family can move.  Any prayers would be appreciated.

The kids are all taking the move very calmly.  We will see what happens when we actually have a date that we are going to move.  Right now things are in limbo.

It will be interesting getting all the medical stuff transferred but Jacob's doctors assure me that it will be just fine and that Austin has great medical facilities.

Becca's Results

Well, we met with the blood sugar doctor for Becca on Wednesday.  He didn't really tell us anything new.  He just said that Becca's blood sugar counts when she was in the hospital were at 51 (low is below 50) and usually seizures make it go up, so it must have been low when she had hers.  He just told us to make sure she doesn't go 16 hours without eating, and if she had a stomach virus again, we need to take her to the hospital to give her fluids.  He also said that as she gets older, we shouldn't need to worry about it as much.
She hasn't had any more seizures since then and she is not on any medication.  Personally, I just think that her seizure threshold gets lowered when she gets sick.  I hope that as she gets older, I won't have to worry about it as much, but until then, I will just keep her seizure stopping medicine handy whenever she is sick.

Good News

At Jacob's late treatment the doctor measured the bump on his head and it had already shrunk a half a centimeter!  She had told us before we started that if it hadn't grown in three months that would be good because that means it wasn't growing.  She wasn't expecting it to shrink so quickly at all.

Jacob also hasn't been having any more headaches.  I was really concerned that he would be suffering from pain as well as the chemo, but his pain is gone.

The pill camera results came back and everything looks great.

He is still battling fatigue and grumpyness, but it comes and goes.  So far he has been able to keep up with school as far as I know.  The worst part is that we have to spend an afternoon every week at the hospital, not getting home until 6:00 at the earliest.  Then I have to pick up the girls (from the wonderful people that watch them), have dinner, and get homework done all before 7:30 or the kids are too tired the next day.  Scott works Wednesday evenings, so I'm doing this all by myself.  But, all in all, that's not so bad.  And, the ward has been great in providing dinners for me on Wednesdays.

So, thank you all for your prayers and thoughts.  We are really benefiting from them.

Latest News

Jacob did the pill camera thing on Wednesday.  All went well, and the camera came out in time for Jacob to be able to eat diner before he went to bed, so he was happy about that.  I'm not sure when we will get the results from that.
   He had his second chemotherapy treatment on Wednesday as well.  We were able to get home an hour earlier, so that was nice.  He seems to be tolerating it better this week.   He isn't quite as tired as last week.
   Everything seems to be going well at school.  His teachers all know what is going on and are really helpful with making sure he is able to keep up with his work.

****Caution: Graphic Content****
The conversation that Jacob and I had when his pill camera came out:
Jacob: Mom, the camera came out!
Me: Are you sure?
Jacob: Yes, it was still blinking a blue light in the toilet and the monitor receiving the pictures turned off.
Me: I guess it was still taking pictures when it was in the toilet.  Those must be interesting pictures.
Jacob: Ya, and it took pictures of me looking at it in the toliet!
Me: That must be an odd camera angle. :-)

First Day of Chemo

   Jacob had his first day of chemotherapy yesterday.  He did great with it.  It wasn't quite so easy for me, though.  We got there at 2:50 and didn't leave until 6:15.  I really, really needed get something to eat by the time we got out of there!  First, we met with the oncologist.  Then they took a long time explaining everything to him, which was really great.  Then they put the IV into the port on his chest.  He said it didn't hurt at all!  Of course, they gave him an ipad to play with while they were doing it, so he didn't notice anything. :-)  Then they took some blood and ordered his medicine from the pharmacy.  It was 4:30 by the time this was all done.  We then went across the hall to the infusion area where we waited for an hour to get his medicine.  He didn't mind waiting at all because they had a wii for him to play on.  Once he got the medicine, the actual chemo only took 20 minutes.  Then the nurses had to take all the tape and such off of him and we got out at 6:15.
   The worse part about this, besides my almost fainting from glucose imbalance, was that I told the people watching the girls that I was going to be home around 4:30.  The doctor had told me that the infusion only took 20 minutes so I figured an hour and a half would be plenty of time, but apparently not.  The people watching the girls didn't mind at all, but I just don't like to take advantage of them.  They only live a half a block away from the girls' school, so Sarah and Elizabeth will walk there every Wednesday after school until I am done with Jacob's chemo.  (I will drop Becca off earlier.)  Hopefully, next time it won't take so long because we don't have to do the explaining part again.
   The medicine doesn't seem to be affecting Jacob too much.  He did sleep longer this morning and take a late morning nap.  He also feels a little dizzy today.  He doesn't feel nauseous at all, though, which is great.  I'm worried about how he will do with school next week, but he feels confident that he will be ok.
   The biopsies came back from his procedure last week.  They said that they are consistent with his Gardner's Syndrome.  They are going to still do the pill camera and he will be getting that next Wednesday before the next run of chemo.

School Registration

*Warning* Long, rambling entry just to voice frustration.  Not medically pertinent.

Today I went to go get Jacob's schedule at Bailey Jr High.  I was thinking that I would show my proof of address and they would give me his schedule.  Boy was I wrong!  We got in one line to get the check list for all the different stations.  Then we got in another line to get paperwork.  Then we got in a very long line to turn in that paperwork and get some more.  While I was in that line, I looked over the check list.  One of the items was immunizations.  Oops, I did not bring his shot record.  I never heard that he needed it.  I only heard proof of residencey.  I guess I wasn't listening closely enough.  I found someone to ask while I was in line and they told me that I needed to have the shot record.  So, we went home and got it.  I also grabbed his birth certificate just in case.  We went back and got into that long line again.  When we got to the end of that line, we got to go to the nurse line.  Jacob was getting more and more excited.  He really wanted to get his schedule and find out where is locker was.  We got to the end of that line at last and found out that Jacob didn't have all the shots he needed.  We couldn't go any farther towards getting his schedule.  The poor boy was devastated.  I called up his regular doctor to get the shots, but he hasn't had a physical for a while (I've been busy with other doctor appointments) so they couldn't give him shots.  I went to a health clinic and there was a three hour wait to get shots!  Luckily, there was a shot clinic going on down the street.  We stopped in at home for a quick snack and went on to the shot clinic. Right before I got to the nurse to get his shots I started wondering if the vaccinations would be bad with the chemo he is starting on Wednesday.  The nurse said that three of the four he needed would be fine, but one she wasn't sure of.  She gave him those three and then I called Jacob's chemo doctor about the other one.  She said that he should just not get the shots.  Well, we already got three of the four, but it was ok.  (If I just would have told the nurse at Bailey he was starting chemo on Wednesday, we could have avoided all of this!)  We went back to the school, got his schedule at last, and it had him having his hardest class last period.  Since he is going to be having chemo once a week all year in the afternoon, that class was not the best to have at the end.  We were able to get that fixed right there, which was very nice.  He now has reading last.  That shouldn't be a problem at all. :-)  We then found all of his classrooms so he will be ready a week from Monday.  This whole time he was still hurting and a bit weak from his surgery yesterday. We got home at about 3:30.  It took six hours just to pick up a schedule!  Then I took him back to Bailey at 4:30 for an AVID meeting.  (He is soooo excited about AVID.)  I'm beat.  My poor girls had to be home all alone all day and then I come home and am grouchy, tired, and don't want to do anything but sit on the computer.  Well, at least all bad days do come to an end eventually.  :-)

All went well

   Jacob went in for his colonoscopy and port insertion today.  We got there about noon, and didn't have to wait very long for the anesthesiologist to come in.  Jacob told him exactly how he wanted to have is medicine-- He does not like to have the mask.  He likes the IV method so much better.  He also does not like the "giggle juice" that they give to make him relax.  Jacob has done this so much that he has no problem with nerves.  The "giggle juice" makes it harder to wake up.  The doctor just told him that Jacob could just take over his job!  All the nurses were great with him.  It only took two sticks for the IV, which for Jacob is great.
   The port went in just fine.  They put it in his chest on the left side so his whole left arm is a bit hard for him to move right now.  It should be just fine in a day or so.  For his colonoscopy, the doctor found 9 small polyps and removed them.  He also found some inflammation in his stomach and beginning of his small intestines.  That isn't normal with his syndrome so the he took some biopsies and we will know in a couple of weeks why that is.  He thinks it could just be an infection that will be cured with antibiotics.  (One thing always leads to another with that kid!)  If the doctor needs to see more of the small intestine, Jacob will swallow a pill camera that will go all through him taking pictures.  I thought that was pretty cool.
   The first thing Jacob said to the nurse when he was waking up was that he was hungry.  The nurse offered him some water, juice or a popsicle, but Jacob only wanted Del Taco.  The nurse just couldn't get that for him for some reason.  He wasn't able to eat anything from Monday night up until his procedures were done.  For dinner he ate three Del Taco burritos!  The nurses told me to take it slow with food when he got home, but I've learned from past experiences that boy can handle food just fine after surgery!  He is still a bit sore and a little weak, but I'm sure even that will fade by tomorrow.  He is a real trooper.
   Thank you all for your prayers.  They are felt.

Becca's EEG came back normal.  She will meet with the neurologist on the 12th of September.  (Scott told me that I should also mention that Becca liked having pictures taken during her EEG so that she could see what she looked like.  I took the picture to try and make her happy.)

Jacob goes in for his colonoscopy and port insertion tomorrow at 1:30.  We were hoping for earlier so that the poor boy could eat sooner, but that is the time we got. I'll let you know how it goes.

Becca Update

Becca had her EEG on Tuesday.  She didn't like it very much, but things went well.  I will have an appointment with her neurologist later this month to let me know what it showed. (Hopefully, I haven't gotten around to making the apt yet.)  I'm not expecting it to show anything abnormal.  Her other ones never did.

Her appointment with the blood sugar doctor to see if low blood sugar is causing the seizures is on September 19th.

Jacob Condition Overview

   Jacob has had bumps on his head since he was about 12 month old.  He had them removed when he was 5 and then again when he was 10.  In October of last year, a bump came back and it was growing fast.  By the time we got him to the doctor in January, it was hurting him really bad.  The doctor looked at the bump and scheduled him for an operation two days later.  The mass was about the size of a golf ball.  When the doctor was done with the operation, he came and told us that the growth wasn't growing into the bone, so he didn't think it was cancer, but it had eroded the bone a bit by pushing into it.  No wonder it had been hurting him.
   The results of the biopsy came back and said that the mass is what's called a desmoid tumor.  It is not cancerous, but they tend to come back and be really annoying.  We met with an oncologist and she said that these types of tumors are very rare, but they can be signs of another syndrome called Gardner's Syndrome.  She sent us to a geneticist to see if that was the case with Jacob.  (He also had extra teeth that was another sign.) The tests that were required usually cost thousands of dollars and our insurance normally wouldn't cover it.  Scott and I decided that it needed to be done no matter what and we would figure it out.  The geneticist was really great, though, and fought with our insurance and the whole thing was covered.  We are really blessed.
   Well, the tests came back and he had a mutation in the APC gene.  (I told him that if he was going to be a mutant, he might as well walk through walls or something cool like that :-)  This mutation means that he has familial andenomatous polyposis (FAP) or more commonly known as Gardner's Syndrome. The biggest problem with this syndrome is colon cancer.  In fact, the lifetime risk to develop colon cancer is 100% without intervention.  The interventions he will have will be a colonoscopy every year.  If the polyps become too bad, he will have to have a colectomy (the geneticist said that from the position of mutation on the gene there is a high chance that he will have a colectomy in his teen years.)  He met with a Gastric Intestinal doctor in July and his first colonoscopy will be on Wednesday, August 15th.  We will know more after that is done.
   Meanwhile, the oncologist also ordered MRIs every six months to check on the desmoid tumors to make sure they aren't coming back.  The MRI in July showed that the tumor is back.  Since surgery is just not keeping it gone, the oncologist wants him to have chemotherapy.  At this time she told us that there was a 50% chance of it getting rid of the desmoid.
   Scott and I went to the temple the Friday following that appointment.  I was very unsure of whether or not I wanted to expose my poor little boy to chemo or not.  There have been people in my ward and neighborhood that have had to have it recently and it made them so miserable.  I really didn't want him to have to do that, but I also knew that surgery just wasn't working.  He does really well with surgeries, but if it doesn't work, why keep doing it?  Also, 50% just didn't seem like very good odds for all the misery that I anticipated him having to go through.  It was just like tossing a coin.  At the temple, the tossing the coin image kept coming into my mind.  Then I imagined the Savior catching the coin mid-toss and making the coin land on the side it was supposed to land on.  50% chance seemed to be much better odds to me then.  My son in is the hands of the Lord and things will happen the way they are supposed to happen, but we have to actually toss the coin.
  This last Monday, we met with the oncologist again.  She changed to say that there is a 70% chance that the chemo will get rid of it (don't know why it changed.)  The dosage he will get will be very small so it shouldn't make him loose his hair or make him too nauseous.  The medicine can be in increments of 20 to 300 and he will have 30.  This really shouldn't make him miserable or affect his life too greatly.  He will have the therapy every week for six months and then every two weeks after that (not sure for how long.)  We are able to get his appointments in the afternoon so he shouldn't miss too much school.  I'm also arranging it so that he will not have PE.  They will put a port in his chest when he has the colonoscopy on Wednesday.  This will allow them to not have to put in an IV every week.  He will still be able to go swimming and everything just like normal.  He will start the chemo on the 22nd.  I hope it works a quickly as possible because the tumor is causing poor kid a lot of pain right now.
   When we found out about all this back in March, Scott gave Jacob a blessing.  I was hoping for a blessing saying, "You are healed!," but that was not the way things are meant to be. Instead he was blessed that he will still be able to have the normal things in life.  This condition will not prevent him from going on a mission or having a family.  He was also blessed that he will remain cheerful through his adversities.  (There is a 50% chance that he will pass this gene on to his kids.  Scott and I were both tested and do not have this mutation.  Jacob really is a mutant :-)
   Well, that pretty much brings things up to date.

Wedding Cake Topper

I just recently made a wedding cake and topper that turned out pretty good. The cake was only passable, but I really liked how the topper turned out and a lot of other people liked it, too. I wonder if I could sell these?

Happy 4th of July!

Gibbons Reunion 2010

Here are some scrapbook pages from the 2010 Gibbons reunion. It was a lot of fun. We all went to Arizona where the Gibbons clan originated. We got to see all the sites of where they grew up. I know I need to label all of them by name, but I will get to that on a later page.

I need another scrapbooker's opinion on the swimming page. Does having the water in the background make it so the pictures don't stand out enough? I lowered the opacity, but I'm still not sure about it.

Everything is not in order, sorry.

Fun April Pics

Just thought I would give a brief showing of our April events:

We got a new puppy named, Samantha.

We had fun at Chuck E Cheese's

Our flowers are blooming!

Puppy fun.

I went to the zoo with Elizabeth's class

More puppy fun

Boy, she looks a lot smaller when she is wet!

Cute girl

Look at the happy couple with their new little one!

Becca got a shiner when her eye connected with the chair.

July 2008 Gibbons Reunion

I just got done scrapbooking the last Gibbons' Reunion. I thought I would share the pages I did with you.

This page is just my July page. Each month I put the miscellaneous pictures in a page and title it by that month.

These two lake pages are full of pictures for two reasons. 1-I liked too many and didn't want to do too many pages, and, 2, I didn't get any lake pictures because I wasn't there. I had to get these pictures from Van via facebook and the quality wasn't as good, so I didn't want to blow the pictures up too much.

Pinewood Derby 2010

We have been preparing for this pinewood derby race for a long, long time and we are so glad that it was fun and that it is OVER!

Jacob made his car a rocket this year. He cut all but the bottom off of his car and then they put a dowel on top of it as the rocket. It turned out really cool. Jacob designed it pretty much all by himself. Scott just helped with the attaching it to the car base. I knew I should have taken a picture before the race, but I didn't and now the only good ones I have are with one of the tail fins missing, but oh well.

Elizabeth loved racing her new toy hamster up the track. It was really cute.

Scott made really cool trophies for first, second and third as well as "The Coolest Concept," "Most Out of This World," "Best Paint Job," and 1st, 2nd, 3rd slowest. The slowest ones were the coolest by far! (I helped a little with the painting, turtle heads and lettering.)

If you look close, you can see Jacob's rocket car in front!

Yeah! Jacob came in first!

This is the only picture I have of the "Snake Rocket," as Jacob call it, while it was still in one piece.

Jacob came in third (out of 4) in the Bear den and won the trophy for "Coolest Concept." He was so happy that he won a trophy. Scott wanted to make different trophies so that the boys would be rewarded for creative designs and not just the fastest designs. I think next year there are going to be a whole lot more "original" cars than this year.

The New Year

We have started out the new year great. I got an order for a nativity that I make. It turned out better than any other I have made.

My parents were able to visit for Christmas and left on New Year's Day. They were kind enough to take us out for breakfast in the morning. It took forever to get our food, but the food sure was good.

Elizabeth has been wanting me to cut her hair for a long time, so I did. It turned out really cute. I like her hair at shoulder length.

I just liked this picture.

I broke Rebecca's glasses while trying to adjust them right before Christmas.

We finally got them back today!