it's been a while...

...and once again I have revamped the content of this blog. No more 'sale'  items, back to just sharing some things I create! woohoo...NOT that I have created anything lately, {but I will.}

I have been through some pretty big shake-ups this summer, some of you know this cause we are friends on Facebook, or you may have heard through the grapevine. I thought my big summer tragedy would be putting my yorkie, Niki to sleep. {man, that was horrible, yet peaceful and the right thing to do.}
I decided I would get another dog, my first puppy, and set out finding a breeder for golden retrievers. {I did research and looked into rescued goldens but it wasn't the 'fit' for me.} We decided to go with Millstones Goldens, not too far from home and I put my deposit down on an unborn male. On Aug 17th, our little boy was born and the the whole process of 'bonding' began and we went out to see the puppies on several weekends before he was ready to come home. Now let me tell you, I had been buying boy stuff before he was born and getting ready, moving things around and puppy proofing the house. Then Jim, went to a gastro dr. appointment, which was a follow up, to see why he was losing blood. I had made a dr. appointment for him in July, because he looked pale and his color was not right. This appointment was thursday, the day before the start of my long Labor Day weekend...and I was giddy with three days off in a row. I get home friday afternoon and Jim's primary care dr. calls and tells me Jim needs to get into the ER, he needs blood right away. Of course Jim is working, so I call him and tell him what his dr. said. The ER was notified that he was coming and Jim was able to leave work. Now, prior to this, I had no idea what our blood counts should be in our bodies. A man of Jim's size should carry around 13 pints? units?  It seems that in July Jim's count was at 7.8, at the gastro dr on that thursday, it was 6.3. When he was admitted into the ER, they tested him again at 6.1. Obviously something was going on, and they were concerned. Now, I was concerned, but didn't think much else, other than Jim needed blood and the weekend would continue as I had planned. ohhh, I had plans for my 3 days off! 
My parents were down in North Carolina, so I called my mom to see how long it took to receive a unit of blood. She has to go almost every month, she has issues with it staying in her body. Why would I not think this could be Jim's problem too. My mom said it takes 3 hours and that if his was that low, they may just admit him overnight. Well, being that he would need something to occupy his time and it was nearly 6 pm, I sent his ipad over to the hospital and I continued with the plans I had for friday night. {shopping & going to visit a friend} I got a text from Jim, they were going to do a CT scan on his stomach. Still, I continued my friday night and then stopped into the hospital at 9 pm. They were just taking him for the CT and then started the blood, so I went home. You know where this is headed, right?
I get a phone call about 6 in the morning, from Jim. They found a mass in his colon, 4.6 cm. {how big is that??} He was admitted into a room and was waiting to see what was next. I keep my hair appointment, get to the hospital and see on the nice info board they keep in patients rooms...colonoscopy on sunday, surgery on monday. 
The surgeon walks into the room, shortly after I arrive and point blank says it's not good. It's cancer and he has every reason to believe it's malignant. But, he will look at the colonoscopy after it's done and we will talk more. 
Here we sit, saturday morning and find out Jim has cancer. Yes, it was true, everything the surgeon said...and it was much bigger than a 4.6 cm mass. I really liked the surgeon and he performed the surgery on Labor Day and then left town for a planned vacation. haha
Jim spent 11 days in the hospital, all private rooms and it's close to our house and my work. {a HUGE plus!} We found out he was Stage 2 and it was an aggressive tumor, so they were going to treat it in an aggressive way. Chemo, 4 hours, every two weeks & one of the chemo meds he wears home for 48 hours. {he had a mediport installed} Lymph nodes they took out, all were clear of cancer. This chemo is a preventative measure. 
As I write this, Jim has just had his second chemo infusion and only 10 more to go! So far, no issues with the chemo and we are keeping our fingers crossed it stays that way. He returned to work on the 15th of Oct, after 6 weeks of recovery...like I said, so far, so good.   :)

Then, there is this puppy! Remember him, we kept going full speed ahead and brought him home on Oct. 5th. Here is Story, sleeping, the weekend we brought him home. Yeah, he is soooooo much bigger than he was 3 weeks ago.