1 percent left to go.

Gracie keeping Matt company while he works.

Got my results from the CT scan yesterday. Dr. Sumida said he was 99% sure we got it all. Yet there is still some stuff left (2x1 inches of stuff). He described it like drying fruit. When the cancer is present it is like a normal piece of fruit, but after the chemo and radiation "dries it out", sometimes the husk of the cancer is left, like a dryed piece of fruit. this is usually absorbed naturally by the body. It probably doesn't have any cancer cells left in it, but just to make sure we are going to do a PET scan which is able to pick up any cancer cell activity.

Unfortuatey I will have to put this off a week because I am in California next week for a work meeting, so I don't even have a date set yet for the PET scan. I will let you know.

OK, now that that is out of the way, I have a totally funny story, or at least we think it is funny and I got Matt's permission to tell it, so here it goes. Matt and I were in bed the other night, and in the middle of the night I turned over to hug him and put my arm around him, but something didn't smell quite right. Now I know Matt sweats alot when he sleeps, he works around a bunch of chemicals and he just got back from a fishing trip, but this just didn't smell right. It almost smelled like urine. To the point that I was trying to figure out what to google to see if it was ok if his sweat smelled like urine or if that was a sign of anything larger like something with his kidneys. But then fell back asleep and woke up the next morning and went on my way.

The next night when we were going to sleep, Matt and I both smelled the urine smell. I told him what happened the night before and we both agreed that his "urine sweat" had gotten into the sheets and that was what we were smelling. So we changed the sheets, but were still catching whiffs of it, but couldn't figure it out.

The next morning I was laying in bed reading, and looked down at the comforter to see a discolored dried spot. At that moment I knew that is wasn't my husband's sweat that smelled like pee, it was that our cat had had an accident on the bed.

Moral to this story is that no matter how often your husband smells bad, it is probably not that his sweat smells like pee.

Have a great couple of weeks.

Peace,

MEA

Bigger Cat, Bigger Box - Same Great Fun.

Long time no post

Emillee and Matt

So I have been busy getting back to normal life and normal things. Although my stamina isn't 100% yet, I have more energy everyday. It feels great!

Matt has been very busy with work, leaving at 6am and not getting home until 7pm 6 days a week. Luckily he is doing something he loves - fishing. He is also getting to do it with nets, so it is a bit different than the regular deal. He will be on this schedule until the end of April.

Amazingly he still finds time to work on the house. Here are pictures of the counter tops. We re-used wood from the old house to make them. Then Matt did some research on what to put on them to protect them and whallah! We have counter tops.











Also, the infamous kitchen sink arrived and in ONE piece. This is actually the second one we ordered, the first one, thanks to FedEx, arrived in somewhere between a 1000 and a 1,000,000 pieces. This one arrived just right. Thank you Jake for doing this for us, not once, but twice. I love love love it.

Jen Hodges helping Matt with the plumbing of the sink.

So that is pretty much it. Hanging out, working, my friend Emilee's wedding (see picture of Matt and Em at the top), Claudine's visit (she didn't want any pictures, hence none taken) and now preparing to go to Oregon for Easter. So happy Easter to you - you are a very special!
Peace, MEA

I'M DONE!

Matt and I - prepoetry slam

I don't know what else to say. I just finished my last radiation and I am done with my treatment for Hodgkin's. I think it will take a couple days to set in that I don't have to go any more and that when I start feeling stronger I will get to continue feeling stronger instead of getting some treatment that makes me feel like crap.

I already started celebrating with mochi ice cream. Yum! I love it.
Now Matt and I are trying to decide where to go to dinner, then we are going to a poetry slam, which may sound weird to you, it sounds weird to me too. But one thing I have been thinking is that I do way too much of the same thing over and over and I need some new experiences. Some may just be different, like the poetry slam, others may take an interest further, like the journaling class I am going to take at the community college, and some may push me a little in my fears, like learning to paddle in the open ocean. Regardless, I am tired of doing the same things, going to the movies, etc and not being satisfied with the experience. It is time for new experiences. There is no good reason I have to only do things that I have already done. There are a million things I have never done that there is no good reason I shouldn't try (all of them legal). So I am off to my new adventure. Hopefully my first try at this - the poetry slam- doesn't suck.
Peace,
MEA

Bryan, Trisha (who suggested the poetry slam), and Jaime

Me, Linda and Josh. Isn't the lei Linda brought me pretty?

Josh and Matt getting into the poetry groove.

The poetry slam was great fun!

House Update

The house - all dressed up with batting and railings.

(going clockwise around it)

Matt's shed

Kitchen - still lots left to do, but we got a stove this weekend. Yay!

Stairs - still need to do the landing, stain and railing.

The outdoor furniture we bought for the deck, but have been using inside instead.

We broke down. We are not going to paint the exterior ourselves. A friend of ours is using a painter that seemed to quote a really good price, so we hired him. So the past two weekends Matt has been working on getting the outside completed for the painter. Little did the painter know that when he gave us his quote we going to add 5 more out buildings. Just kidding, but we did add the batting and Matt's shed, as well as the railings.

The painter has already started cocking the outside. He told Matt he would start with 5 cases and see how much more he needed after that.

So last weekend Matt did the batting and this weekend he did the railings on the upper lanai and the deck off the kitchen.

We are getting down to the final list. Pretty soon, I think we are going to have to spend a weekend or 2 at the Waikiki place to get that ready to rent. So if you know anybody, let me know.

Have a great week.

Peace,

MEA