TEAM Wheeler

WOW!!!

2009-11-13T17:05:00.002-07:00

I guess it's been a while since I've kept in touch. So sorry!! Not much new has happened as far as my treatment goes. I'm still having chemo every week when my counts are good and then started a round of radiation this last week on a tiny tumor that was in my brain but that was only 3 treatments so it's over now. I am having re-reconstruction surgery on Dec. 17th :) and I am really looking forward to it. Macie is growing like a weed! She is in her second year of preschool and loves it. she is already reading words, does some very basic math, has learned to tie her shoes and amazes me everyday with what she knows on the computer. Yes, she's only 4 and I can't keep up with all she's learning. She does have her evil twin that comes out once in a while and what fun that is to deal with! lol...Trent is still working from home although he is taking on a new account this month so he will be able to go into the office a couple of days a week and I'm sure he's looking forward to getting out of the house once in a while. No new news about moving any time soon. I am excited I just started my own Mary Kay Business. I signed with them last week and so far am loving the women on my team. The product is amazing and I am looking forward to selling it. If you are interested in it my website is www.marykay.com/erika621
I will post some recent photo's this week...I promise! Have a great weekend.

Has it really been this long??

2009-05-20T16:19:00.005-06:00

Okay, it's been so long since I last updated everybody on our lives. Let's see...Macie just had her last day of preschool this morning and "will miss her teachers so much." She really enjoyed going to school and learning. She is already sounding out simple words and can add and subtract 1-10. She is riding her bike all over the place and LOVES to play outside now that it's warm and sunny (or as she says "it's summer already")
As for me and all my stuff: I started chemo 4 wks ago and will continue every 4 wks until this one doesn't work for me. The tumors in my left side were multiplying and growing so they changed from the last chemo I was doing. I still go in weekly for my Herceptin (it boosts my immune systen--the white blood cells). I had a few brain tumors show up again on my 3 mo MRI. I had a few pinpoint radiation sessions and they were gone at my 1 mo follow-up. I hope and pray that new ones show up with my 3mo MRI. They usually do though-so I'll just get rid of those too. My arm and knee are healing very well and I've had a lot of fun getting back out walking or riding my bicycle with Macie and Trent. It's about time...I started feeling like a slug!
Trent is keeping busy with work and helping out soooo much with Macie. He is so amazing! I love him for it though. He's also getting back into Mountain Biking so that will be good for him. We have started talking about possibly moving to Minneapolis again(where both of his accounts are). With the changes in the economy it may be better to be on-site rather than remotely from home. We have until Sept. to decide and are just talking about it at this point. No major decisions yet.
We get to see Austin at the end of June for a couple of weeks. It's been a year since we've seen him and miss him tons! I'll be posting a new family photo after he's here so I look forward to that. He's moved to St. Louis-still not too close but it feels so much closer than Spain. And we'll be able to see him more than once a year.
And last but not least--we have out fish set up again :). This time it's a cichlid tank (our favorite) and we think we already have babies! whoohoo....we'll have to see how many survive.
I guess that about covers our lives right now...I will be keeping up on photo's and pic's this summer. Take care and love and thanks to you all for your good thoughts and prayers!

My Cancer Update...

2009-03-01T00:12:00.003-07:00

Of course one of these evenings I will get on here to update you on more than just my treatment and health. I promise! There is so much to tell.
As for my medical stuff--I had my 4 month brain MRI follow-up and I wish I could say everything is good but I can't. It's not as bad as it could be though. I found out that I have 3 or 4 (4th is small enough they don't know if it is static or something like that on the film) VERY small new tumors in my brain. These are new since my last Brain MRI in October. Dr. Dorn is very positive about waiting to see if this new chemo drug that I am taking will work on these tumors (one of the few chemo meds that pass through the blood to the brain). We are going to do another MRI in 6 weeks and make a firm decision at that point. Just kinda sucks that there are new ones! On a more positive note: I had my hair trimmed and shaped so that I have a style now. :) :) :) Thanks Val!! I just hope I can keep it for a very long time!

So,I promise I will spend one full evening this next week putting new photo's on here and letting you all know how and what my family is up to.

Sorry it's been so long...

2008-12-16T19:30:00.003-07:00

So much has been going on at home with myself and the family that I hate to say it but I have neglected keeping in touch with all of you. Things are going well right now. I have started another round of chemo although this time they are pills that I can take at home. I am also going to start radiation again--on my back and left arm where I broke it in October. I am feeling pretty good with my treatment schedule that they have me on. Fighting the side affects of nausea and being very tired but that's just the down side to all of this. That's mostly what's new here in Boise, I need to download and add some pictures of our cruise and will probable get to that after Christmas. Love to you all and have a VERY Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's!!

New Treatment Info...

2008-11-10T13:14:00.002-07:00

There is so much to talk about with my health. Kind of sad that it all seemed to happen within days of eachother--but then again--I wouldn't be me if it didn't happen like that. :) Let's see...what's happened?! A few weeks ago-they found 3-4 new tumors on my spine (L1, L2, T12)and then that same day I was going to pick Macie up from Nicole's home and my arm broke as I was setting her car seat down. Spontaniously and to my ears very loudly my humorous bone broke. So in the same week-I had my ovaries removed because they were full of cancerous tumors,my arm broke, my tooth broke, and I found out that my bones have tumors in them in various places. Not only did I have surgery on my tummy, I had surgery on my rt leg where they scraped out a tumor and placed a plate and cement with lots of long screws, my left arm has a piece of metal about 6 inches long around my humorous bone along with several screws. They look pretty awesome on the x-rays I was able to look at. Not looking forward to having the staples removed though!! Because my arm broke-I got a Bone Scan which showed several areas that are weakened or very brittle-so because of that I will to be starting radiation on Nov. 13-26 every day and then chemo will begin when we get back from our cruise in December. *LONG SIGH* I think that's all that is going on-as if that's not enough. Oh--the good news--the tumors in my ovaries were Breast CA and not ovarian--the cancer was carried there from by my blood. So that is my good news through all of this. Thankfully-my mom came down the day before my arm broke and has been here since to help. She has been such a huge help to us!! Trent has been amazing and I love him for it! Hopefully I'll be fully on my feet in a week or two. I'll update our family as soon as I can. Love to you all and Thank You for your prayers and support as we go through this! I can't express to you how much it all means to me.

We're Staying!!

2008-11-10T13:06:00.002-07:00

Trent and I both decided that with so much new going on with my treatment that it wouldn't be a good time to move (I'll update that news next). Yep-that's what I said-we've decided not to move to Minneapolis. It's nice to not have to keep our house "show ready" with Macie around! :) Now it's time to clean the garage and put everything we decluttered back. LOL...may take a little time.

Bye Bye Fish

2008-09-23T22:37:00.003-06:00

Sadly, we dismantled our fish tank that we've had since our first year of marriage. Thanks to Heather Merritt and her family our remaining fish didn't have to take a porcelain plunge. Amazing how quiet it is in our bonus room now. We plan to set it up again and start an African Cichlid tank once we're settled in our home in Minneapolis.

whaaahoooeeeee!!!!

2008-09-23T17:10:00.004-06:00

Okay, so I am just a wee bit excited to have my eyelashes and eyebrows growing back!! It's funny how different I felt I looked without them. :)

Yes, rumors are true...we're moving.

2008-09-11T23:04:00.003-06:00

It's official now. Trent accepted his promotion with HP which means we will be leaving the Boise area for Minneapolis, MN. We are both excited and saddened. It will be a great career move for Trent and as for me-- I'm ready and all smiles to live near a big city again. A little nervous about leaving all my Doctor's and all of my support here-but thankfully with the church I know that we'll instantly have friends. There is also a Mayo clinic close to Minneapolis so the hospitals and clinics should be great! We've also been told by so many of our friends that it's a great place to live. We won't move until we sell our home so it may be a few months. And right now I am looking at our home and wondering where the heck am I going to start to get it ready to sell. LOL!! More on the move as we find out...

No new news...

2008-09-02T23:39:00.004-06:00

New update.
I went in today for the results of my Ultrasound from last week and don't really have anything new to tell. Since both-my OBGYN and Oncologist agree with the Radiologist to have another Ultrasound 6-8 wks from now to see if there have been any changes and if these are hemogenic cysts or if they are metastatic tumors needing further treatment. If I need anything after that then we are going to discuss laproscopy (sp?) or what I'll need. Hope this makes sense to you. Basically-I'm just waiting for a few weeks to have another test and wait for more results. Boy-oh-boy! You gotta love my life!! :) Anybody want to trade?? hehehehahaha!!

I do have some good news--my hair is about an inch long covering about 85% of my head (meaning I definately have a few less covered areas). I still won't be seen in public without my wigs, BBall hats or beanie's but excited to maybe have hair for our cold winter ahead and would love to have a cute short style for our cruise!!

Love you all....Erika

A continued struggle...

2008-08-25T23:42:00.002-06:00

I've decided to let you all know how my treatments are progressing from this point on. For those of you that may not know what's up--I was diagnosed 18 months ago with Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer. Right now physically I feel soooo much better than the last year and 1/2. The cancer had spread to my blood and bones causing me to have 10+ compression fractures in my spine--Yes it hurt like you can't imagine. Now, though, because enough time has passed and many of the bones have healed-I have been able to get back to working out at the gym 5 days a week with a good friend of mine-I love it!! I've been through 2 rounds of Chemo-6 months last year and then again for 6 months this year along with radiation in December 2007. I just finished my last round of chemotherapy (hopefully) on August 4th and today I went in for my results of the brain MRI and abdominal CT that I had done as a follow-up to treatment these last months.
Sad to say that it wasn't the news I was expecting...I have a new small tumor in my brain a little higher than the others that I had in Dec. So I will go in for pinpoint Radiation it should just be an hour each day for 3 days. And they also see something with my left ovary which could be as simple as a ruptured cyst to ??? who knows-- I am going in for an Ultrasound on Thursday for that one. I will keep you posted as to what the news is for that. Needless to say...life goes on in the Wheeler home.

2008-07-29T12:45:00.001-06:00

2008-04-25T00:45:00.000-06:00

Masterpiece Under Construction. :) More to come soon...I apologize for the time it's taken to get on here and to figure this out! I promise more photo's, comments and video's will be here soon!