...Round 2...

Hallelujah!!

Dustin is able to receive his 2^nd round of Chemo this week. His white blood cell count went back to normal and everything as been going great.

We are starting to experience the side effects of Chemo like hair loss, fatigue, and no immune system.

Dustin is frequently exhausted and has been taking the much needed time to rest and recover to get through each day. Dustin is an amazing father and contributor to our little family. Someone might think that going through something like Chemo would give anyone an excuse to NOT contribute but NOT Dustin. He is attending not only to his recovery but Kai and Knox. Making time and effort to play with Knox when he feels up for it and even do the dishes, take out the garbage, and do laundry for Kai! What a man! He never says “Poor Me” and hasn’t complained once about all the different challenges he has been facing lately.

Last week Dustin was facing the common cold. He had the running nose, the brutal cough, and the never ending head ache. It’s weird to think that many people get a cold and it goes away pretty quickly but Dustin has no immune system and he is still battling the deep cough that hurts his chest and keeps him up all night. The doctor is monitoring his lungs because of the deep cough. One of the drugs he receives can cause the lungs to collapse if not careful. Before Dustin started Chemo he had to have a pulmonary test preformed to show the starting point of his lungs. This week the doctor examined Dustin and they will be closely monitoring him and especially if his cough doesn’t subside.

When we took the Chemo class the nurse told all of the patients attending that there would be many different challenges with Chemo. One of the issues brought up was how a patient would receive the Chemo. Each patient has different options,

1)      You can get an IV and that IV can be left in for 2 days and then after 2 days they will start a new IV that can last for another 2 days… so-on and so-on

OR

2)      You can get a port, “In medicine, a port (or portacath) is a small medical appliance that is installed beneath the skin. A catheter connects the port to a vein. Under the skin, the port has a septum through which drugs can be injected and blood samples can be drawn many times, usually with less discomfort for the patient than a more typical "needle stick".” – Wikipedia

Dustin has been getting the IV every 2 days and it has become more and more of a struggle for the nurses to find veins. This has been causing Dustin major discomfort. The nurses today asked Dustin to make his final decision if he would like to get a port and Dustin has decided to go forth with the procedure.

To get the port in place Dustin will have to go under and it’s a half a day procedure. The treatment center has ordered the procedure and the doctor that performs the port incursions will be giving Dustin a call by next week to set up appointment day and time.

It’s scary to think that you have to go under in order to get a port in place but Dustin is mentally prepared for the procedure and is ready for it to happen. We will keep everyone posted when we find out more details.


Our next big day will be this Sunday, February 13^th at Tumwater High School for the Dustin Doughty Benefit Silent Auction and Spaghetti Feed.


 There are so many people dedicating their time and effort to put on this Spaghetti Feed. We are so thankful for each and every one of you! Without the hard work and motivation from Josh and Krista O’Byrne, Tyeson and Aleana Doughty, Libbie McClaflin, and all the amazing Volunteers none of this would be happening.


We are so overcome by the donations and sponsorships we have received that there are honestly no words that can express our gratitude. This whole benefit has been a really humbling experience for us and we can’t thank you all enough for your generosity and support.

Tomorrow Krista and Aleana will have the finalized list of all the amazing donations that were given for the silent auction and raffles.

We will post the preview list of what is up for auction and raffles at the benefit tomorrow.

We have received so many RSVP forms to the spaghetti feed and are so very excited to see all of you. Your presents will be a true honor and we can’t wait to see your faces!

Love you all so much!! Can’t wait to see you soon! Thank you for keeping our family in your thoughts and prayers!

Isaiah 40:31 - but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

...ROUGH Week...

“Being on your toes” is an under-statement for the process of Chemo.

It’s a very day-to-day battle. Dustin was scheduled to have his 2^nd round of Chemo this week and unfortunately was unable to do so. Monday he went in for the treatment and the doctor/nurses said his white blood cell count was too low to start Chemo. Instead they gave him a shot (Neupogen).

Neupogen is a medication that is a man-made version of a substance that is naturally produced in our body which helps the bone marrow to make new white blood cells. The Neupogen shot has very painful and has very uncomfortable side-effects.

Monday was the first day of the shot and he didn’t feel too terrible for the rest of the day.

Tuesday he received the shot in the morning and felt ok for the rest of the day. He even went on a walk with Kai and Knox for Kai’s Birthday. He didn’t complain once!

Wednesday was the third day of the shot and the worse day so far. He got to the clinic and the doctor said the shot had been working and his white blood cells were climbing and up to “normal”. The doctor ordered the Bleomycin for his regular Wednesday dosage.

 After his appointment he went home and slept. After his nap it went down hill from there. Dustin got very sick and he didn’t get out of bed all night. Kai would check in on him and found him to have 100.6 fever. When we took the Chemo class they said if a patient has a fever of a 100.5 he needs to call the doctor for further instructions. Art and Cindy called the on-call doctor and while they were waiting for a return phone call Dustin’s fever was starting to subside. Dustin barely slept because his body was in severe achy pain. Dustin felt like his ankles were swollen and his legs and back were throbbing.

Thursday (today), he went in for another shot of Neupogen and then came home feeling very sick and run down. He’s been on the couch sleeping all day. Rest is very much needed during this process. Dustin has come down with a terrible cough and runny nose. He can’t take anything but Tylenol.

 The doctor has him continuing this shot for tomorrow and possibly the weekend as well. The next plan of attack will be starting Dustin on Chemo this next Monday the 7^th. The doctor will only allow Dustin to start his 2^nd round of Chemo if his white blood cell count is at a normal range. If it’s not a normal range they will postpone his Chemo further. It’s important to have his white blood cells at a normal range because they are what fight off infection. If he didn’t have anything fighting off infection and they gave him Chemo then his whole immune system would shut down and he’d be very vulnerable to disease and sickness.

We are praying that he will get through this week with NO more nights like last night! We are also praying that his white blood cell count will be normal enough for him to start his 2^nd round of Chemo so we can be closer to the END of this battle.

We love you all so much and appreciate all of you!! Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers!  

...Back to Reality...

What an amazing trip! We had so much fun! It was really hard to be away from Knox for 4 days, especially with our parents sending lots of pictures! 

We made 3 big stops in San Diego: SeaWorld, Farmers Insurance Open PGA Golf Tour, and the Zoo.

First Stop (SeaWorld): SeaWorld was a blast! We met the shuttle driver down in the lobby at 9:30 a.m. and his name was Jeff and he looked exactly like Kai’s Uncle Jeff (we had to take a double look at first, lol). He was very nice and informative about San Diego and how to get around. He dropped us off right before the gates opened and there was a ton of people waiting outside.

 

We got to experience the Killer Whales (Shamu), Sea Lions, and so much more… It was so much fun but we missed Knox so much because everywhere we looked there were families with all their kids! We can’t wait to take Knox when he will be able to remember the whole experience.

 

 

Second Stop (Farmers Insurance Open PGA Golf Tour):

Dustin saw this PGA tournament was going on while we were going to be in San Diego. Dustin had never been to a PGA event before and was so excited to have the opportunity to go. We decided to go and it was definitely worth the adventure to get there.

We got up at 6:00 a.m. (on vacation!!) and walked 10 minutes to the Trolley Station where we caught the Green Line Trolley down to Qualcomm Stadium. At Qualcomm Stadium the Farmers Insurance Open had 20 shuttles taking event goers to Torrey Pines Golf Course. We thought we had to pay to get on the shuttle at Qualcomm stadium but it ended up being free (you had to pay to park). It was so much fun finding our way down to Qualcomm Stadium and so rewarding when we arrived at Torrey Pines Golf Course.

Torrey Pines Golf Coarse was so beautiful. We don’t know if you got a chance to see it on T.V. but it was right on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It’s a huge golf coarse too, it has a North coarse and a South coarse. Needless to say buy the end of the day we could barely walk. We saw all the big wigs of golf. Dustin was in heaven!!! That was definitely the highlight of our trip for him =) 

Tiger Woods Group

Tiger Woods Group

Tiger Woods

Third Stop (San Diego Zoo): By the Third day our feet were hurting so bad that the Zoo was almost TOO Big. The Zoo by far was the largest place we had gone to! We walked the whole park and had so much fun!! Once again, we were missing Knox like crazy because the whole park is family oriented.

We had fun taking pictures of all the animals and of the beautiful zoo itself. Last year Art and Cindy went to Africa with Doug and Dorene Mykol and they had a total blast seeing and taking pictures all the wild animals on their safari. We had a blast seeing all the wild animals but we also enjoyed being safe unlike them last year. That was our big joke when we were walking around the zoo! We couldn’t be eaten! 

After the zoo the first thing we did was go straight to the hot tub to soak our feet and relax our bodies! We came to realize how out of shape we are!!

 

Fun Facts:  We met some really nice people on the trolley that happened to be staying at our same hotel. The next day was her birthday so we decided to find our way to downtown San Diego (called Gas Lamp). We had to take the Green Line Trolley and then switch to the Blue Line Trolley and once we got down there we all felt like locals (haha). Gas Lamp is the name of their downtown district; it was a road about a mile long and on each side it was full of restaurants and bars. It was Daisy’s birthday so she picked the restaurant! We had fun making new friends and memories to last a life time!!

There’s no place like Home: Sunday Morning we had breakfast with our new friends Daisy and Noe and then packed our bags to go home. We had never been away from Knox for so long and were eager to see his face!!

Once we landed and got back to Olympia we were able to pick up Knox. We were expecting him to be so excited to see us like we were him. But NO, he was mad at us! You could tell instantly that he was not happy we left him. We kissed and loved on him until he came around with a great big smile! We think the presents did the trick =)

 

We had a lot of fun on our long weekend getaway! Now it’s back to reality! Dustin went in today for his next round of Chemo. He got his blood drawn and had to wait for the results before starting his Chemo. The nurse came back and told Dustin that his white blood cell count was extremely low and they needed to administer a shot (Neupogen) to help revive his cell count. The nurse also said that Dustin’s white blood cell count was too low today and Dustin wouldn’t be getting any Chemo today and possibly the rest of the week. He goes in tomorrow to see if his white blood cell count increases with the shot they gave him today.

If the white blood cell count doesn’t increase they will continue to give him the shot (Neupogen) until he is able to go forward with Chemo. The white blood cells are what fight off infection and if they give him Chemo while his counts are so low Dustin will be very vulnerable to diseases and sickness.

Please continue to keep Dustin and our family in your prayers! We will be taking this week one day at a time! Thank you all so much for all the support, encouragement, and prayers! We will keep you all posted! The sooner he can start his second round of Chemo the sooner we will be to winning this battle! Love you all very much!!