We just got home from Hawaii and it was an amazing trip! We snorkeled, snuba’d, saw whales and dolphins and ate amazing fresh foods. Because of my anemia, lack of hair and weight loss I am always cold so it was so nice to feel warm for a while. The condo that Dr. Gardner donated was beautiful and sat right on the beach with many pools and activities. We can’t thank him enough for his generosity and all the others who did the fundraiser for our family trip. It was so great to not feel sick and be able to enjoy my kids and be active. I was still tired frequently but had much more energy than when I was in full blown chemo. I am so glad that the holistic stuff appears to be having some effect. I have been seeing Mark quite a bit and he has done urine samples, bloodwork and saliva testing and put together a very strict diet for me. It is very limited and difficult but I am trying! I can’t have any gluten grains, flour, sugar, vinegar, tomatoes, pork, milk etc… It makes life very difficult. I eat a lot of veggies, red potatoes and organic EVERYTHING if I can help it. It is very expensive but my cancer cell counts have dropped over 120 points in the last 5 weeks. This is better than the chemo has done alone and I am so grateful.

I had to go get ostomy supplies today and they are SO expensive. After a 20% discount they were still $230 for 10 wafers and 60 pouches. I’ll be lucky if they last me 3-4 weeks. Its days like this that I am so grateful for all the donors! Each time I go to the pharmacy or to get ostomy supplies I am so grateful that I don’t have to think this money is coming out of groceries or Christmas for my kids.

Speaking of Christmas I need to finish my shopping! I am hoping to go down with my friend Tina tomorrow and get it all finished up. Rilynn told Santa that she wants a violin and Mekaty wants reindeer horns. I don’t know that Aanta will be finding either of those I think he will find something that they will both like. Time to go unpack and put our summer stuff back in their boxes for a while…