Calm Endurance

As Nate and I sit here in the Infusion Clinic, I struggle to know how to start this update. It's been over a year since I last posted, and I could write a book! Don't worry, I'll spare you most of the details and try for a condensed version...maybe?

We've had a beautiful year! Nate had his last treatments at the end of May and we thoroughly enjoyed being on the "surveillance plan". We partied all summer and tried our best to make up for the summer before. We took the trailer out a few times and fished, rappelled, and hiked. We spent time at the cabin in Bear Lake with Nate's parents and our friends. We spent lots of time at the pool, finished our chicken coop, and just tried to enjoy life.

Seth went on his 3 week adventure to the Boy Scout Jamboree in June. He toured Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, and DC for 10 days then headed to the Jamboree site in West Virginia for another 10 days. He had a great experience!

Happy Airport Reunion!

Our chicks are all grown up now and they love their new digs. They lay 5 to 7 eggs every day. They've been so fun!

Nate rocked this coop!

Emma began competition dance and kept busy with that all summer. She loves to dance and has improved so much! She danced 6 hours every week, and had a very successful competition season. It's been so good for her to have something to focus on. After attending Emma's competitions, Sydney decided it all looked pretty fun and decided to join the competition team this year. We look forward to watching our girls dance together!

This year we decided to get Snow Basin passes (a result of Nate's "seize the day" perspective), and we had a wonderful time skiing as a family! The kids improved so much, and Seth caught the bug. He wanted to spend as much time as possible on the mountain. He even chose to spend his 14th birthday skiing with me and Nate! We'll enjoy that while we can!

Happy 14th Birthday Seth!

Emma and Sam share a birthday, and turned 12 and 9. I can't believe how fast the time flies by! Emma entered the Young Women's Program at church so we get to hang out at our weekly mutual activities. Sydney turned 7 and is proving to be "all girl". As soccer registration approached, I asked her if she wanted to play again and after she considered it for a moment, she said, "Well, I think I'll take a break. Soccer just makes me breathe too hard!" It's so fun to watch these kids grow up and see their unique personalities emerge.

Happy birthday Emma and Sam!

So grown up! It's killing me!

Happy 7th Birthday! Our Baby?!?
                                         

Hiking in St. George

Chichen Itza

In February, Nate and I snuck away to Cancun with my sister and her husband....we highly recommend it! It was great Vitamin D therapy!

Nate coached Sam's Mustang team this year! They had a great season, and it was so great to watch Nate coach again! He did a great job, and Sam loved learning how to play catcher from his dad. Sam went on to play for the Farmington Allstar team!

Nate has continued to have CT and PET scans every 3 months this year.  Even though it's been stressful as we've had to anticipate scan results so often, it was so nice to have such a long break from treatments! We know that all cancer patients don't get to do this very often, and we feel so blessed that we had this time. After his January scans, our doctors could see some suspicious areas and wanted to get a PET scan. The PET results came back better than expected, so they wanted to wait 3 more months and repeat scans to see if anything had changed. Appendix cancer is so hard to detect and monitor on scans because the tumors have to get big enough before they show up, and they don't always show uptake from the PET scans.

Unfortunately, the May scan results showed definite growth in a few areas, and Nate has relapsed. It wasn't completely unexpected, but we had hoped to have more time before the cancer came back. After consulting with both of his doctors, we decided to start chemotherapy again. It is the same Fulfury regimen that he had before, with the addition of a drug called Avastin which interferes with tumor blood supply. Nate started his first round on June 9th. He still tolerates the treatments pretty well, but has additional side effects from the new drug which include lots of nose bleeds, mouth sores, and slow healing time. He's also had a lot more fatigue.

True to his nature, he continues on with life. He works as much as he can, and his employer is a continued blessing and support to our family. We're so grateful for all the great people he works with.

He tries hard not to let the treatments slow him down. He's managed a few tee times with Seth and some friends, and two weeks ago he attended Scout Camp with Seth! They traveled down to Zion National Park where Nate helped the scouts on a rappelling adventure down a hike called Pine Creek. Seth loved the trip, and it was so great to have Nate there with him to share his love of adventure.

Seth rappelling in the "Cathedral"

In between the adventures with Seth, Nate and some of his buddies did Imlay Canyon...you've got to google this one! It was a 12 mile trip that took 18 hours of nonstop hiking/swimming/rappelling. They had to maneuver over 40 rappels! And Nate did it all on chemo...I just had to brag. 

Nate and Mike in a "simul rappel". Crazy.

Yep...they rappelled into that canyon.

We may have attended the Kiss/Def Leppard concert in June. How about Nate's hair? He fit right in with all the rockers. He was even sporting his chemo fanny pack...which also wasn't totally out of place. He wore the hat and hair for about an hour, and when he took it off, he had people freaking out all around him. He pulled the mullet off so beautifully that most of the women were thoroughly disappointed to learn it was fake. They were mostly pretty loopy, but the reaction was hilarious! I love this man. The concert was pretty good too!

Nate rocked the mullet!

I began writing this post June 23rd, at Nate's second chemo round. It took me a while to complete the post, and this week Nate completed his 3rd round of chemotherapy. I really wasn't sure if I'd share my blog anymore, but as word of the relapse got out, I've had so many people ask when I would post again. I realize there are so many of you that still root for Nate, and I want to give everyone access to these updates. I've also realized how much strength, support, and love we've gleaned from all the responses to these posts. Your well wishes have literally helped keep us sane. It's an overwhelming comfort for us to know that our family is in your thoughts and prayers. I absolutely believe in the power of prayer and have seen miracles occur in my family because of your faith.

As a mom, it's been more challenging for me to deal with Nate having chemo during the summer. It's not easy for our kids to watch him be fatigued and green all day. It's difficult to plan outings because I'm constantly worried how Nate will be feeling. We're all getting pretty tired of cancer and wish it would just leave us alone! I haven't felt as "strong" this time, and I know the stress takes its toll on the kids, and especially on Nate. As a good friend put it, we are "weary". However, we are not even close to giving up. Nate will continue through one more round of chemo, then have scans. Depending on the result, he will either continue with chemo (if it seems effective), or we will begin thinking about another trip to Boston for more surgery. We pray every day that the chemo is killing the cancer and that there will be a positive difference in the scans.

My sister recently spoke about having patience, and gave the definition from the scriptures as "calm endurance". What a perfect description of the way Nate continues to press forward. Calm endurance.