Doctor's appointments, a stuffed bear, and a real doll all wrapped into one interesting blog update!

I wanted to update you on this past week; it has been a good one! Monday I met with my surgeon, Dr. Euhus. He thought he felt a lump during his routine exam. He thought it was a cyst and sent me for a sonogram. It all came back clear! I tell you this not to worry you, but to tell you what confidence I have in my cautious doctor! I went ahead and asked him if I would ever be on the new drug I heard him talking about on television. He said that it was a drug for people who are at a high risk for getting breast cancer, not for people who already have it. Therefore, I will never have this particular drug.

I had a normal treatment of Herceptin and Xeloda Thursday. The girls went to work with Jake for Take Your Daughter (and Son) to Work Day. They had a great time with their daddy.

Bryn keeps us all laughing all day long. We had one of Jake’s old friends from college and his children visit us over the weekend. We took them to Bass Pro Shop (a huge outdoor store in town). Jadyn and Bryn had never seen so many animals that were stuffed before, so needless to say, their eyes were huge over every bear, deer, and duck that we passed. Two animals were in a pose that showed a bear about to bite a deer. Bryn started yelling “We do not bite! If you bite, you get vinegar!” (We give the girls about a 1/8^th of a teaspoon of vinegar if they bite. It goes without saying that they do not bite very much!)

Bryn had her 3^rd birthday Wednesday. The time has just flown by. She had a fun day filled with presents, cake and family. Her party is this Sunday. It is a dress up party. My Aunt Diane is coming and is bringing a friend’s daughter to the party. When I told Bryn that her Aunt Diane is bringing a little girl for her to play with, Bryn got a huge smile on her face. She exclaimed, “What do you want to name her?” Not able to withhold my laughter, I said she already had a name, and was not hers to keep. I explained that she was coming to play with her and then go home with her mommy. I guess Bryn thought her Aunt was buying her a real girl! Good luck family trying to top that present!

Jadyn and Katelyn are enjoying their soccer seasons. Katelyn is involved in three choirs and has three end-of-the year concerts within the next three days. We will be kept quite entertained and busy this weekend!

Happy Easter!

We had a lovely Easter weekend with family and friends. Friday, Jake and Katelyn were off school, so the five of us went to an egg hunt and picnic at a park. The kids hunted for eggs, pet animals, and ate a ton of food and candy. Saturday, we attended another fun hunt and party at a friend's house. It was a beautiful day. However, we have had to stay in the shade lately (the weather in Texas had toppled over 100 in the past few days!) On Easter Sunday, we all attended church and listened to my aunt Sandy and mom (Judy) sing in the choir. Then, we headed over to my grandparent's house. We ate and hunted eggs once again. It has been a wonderful, busy weekend. It is so fun to watch little kids when they find an egg (even one that is right in front of them on the lawn--no "hunting" required!)

I am feeling good. My feet are still an issue, but it is fairly minor. I have two appointments next week. One is a three-month follow up with my surgeon and then my normal infusions for the month. I was watching the news about a new drug (a replacement for tamoxifin) that has come out when I saw my very own doctor explaining the drug and results to a study! I love to see my doctor's on the cutting edge of medical findings. I feel so confident in the doctor's I have at UT Southwestern. It makes the drive bearable...although I might be singing a different tune as our gas is so close to $3.00 a gallon that I cringe when filling up!

I am learing in my BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) class about Joseph and his incredible perserverance through such difficult problems. In Genesis 50:20, it says that what man intended for harm, God intended for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. I look back at the year to see such big trials, but God intended them for good. Another thing that impresses my about Joseph is he sees God's blessings in the midst of his hardships. So often, we have to look back at a difficult life event to see God's hand in it, well after the problem is over. I am thankful that during the trials of this year, it has been easy to see his blessings every day.

The Kaylor family enjoying an Easter hunt and party.  

Nice Picture

There are two things I have learned from my wife's recent postings. First if I make a silly face she will post it and second is that after she posts the picture of me making a silly face I will have numerous people coming up to me and saying two simple words: "Nice picture."

Yesterday was my nephew's (Austin) birthday party. Hope, his mom, told my girls to bring their apetites as there was going to be pizza and cake. We didn't think much of it when Jadyn started rummaging through drawers, but then she asked Jess, "Mommy, what's an apple tight? I need to bring one." After explaining what an apetite was she still didn't understand what it was or how she was supposed to bring it, so we finally told her to bring her hungry stomach.

We were trying to take a serious picture, but Jake, as usual, would not cooperate. He is my fourth child. 

Doctor Haley...

I had an appointment with Dr. Haley this morning. It was a great appointment. She went over my PET scan results and reinterated that it was a good scan. She said that I might always have "evidence" of cancer in the bone, even though it is healing. She said that cancer in the bone that remains stagnant is what they work towards. That seemed good to me.

Currently I go to get an infusion of a drug called Xeloda which is specifically for the bone disease every 4 weeks and a treatment of Herceptin which is an antibody every 3 weeks. It was getting a little hard to arrange childcare so often as well as make the trek to Dallas. So I asked Dr. Haley if we could combine the treatments, and she agreed. Now, I will only have to go once every 3 weeks. This might not sound like much, but this really halves my appoinments each month, so it means a lot to me. She also gave me an antibiotic for an infection in my big toe (no, I am not joking). Now I can say that Dr. Haley treats me all the way to the tip of my toes.

I have had a great night this evening. Jeremy, Kathryn and Jessica from our old college group came over to visit. It was good to visit and spend time with friends. It is one of my favorite things to do.

I am planning Bryn's birthday party at the end of April and we were going over who to invite. It is basically all family and a few friends, but for some reason Bryn thought she had to choose between Jake or I coming. I did not know what she was thinking about for so long, when she finally said, "I think I'll pick daddy to come to my party." I said that both her daddy and I would be able to come. She said, "Well, okay." I guess it is sweet to have a daddy's girl, but I will be attending the party!

Pin-Free

Jess is planning another post on Thursday after her visit with Dr. Haley, but I thought you might like to know now how Jadyn's outpatient surgery went. Jadyn is so sweet because this morning before she left for the hospital she told me with a huge smile that she was going to get to eat breakfast after her surgery. Like Jessica she amazes me because she didn't see the bad thing (not getting to eat breakfast in the morning); she only saw the postitive. Once they put Jadyn under they cut two small slits and took out the plastic pins (I was wondering why she hadn't been setting off any metal detectors). The doctor put in stitches on the inside of the cuts-- the kind of stitches that disolve over time and then put a big bandage over the top. The hardest thing on Jadyn (and for that matter Jess) is that the anesthesia made Jadyn's stomach sick and she threw up on the way home. Jadyn would have had her 2nd soccer practice of the season today, but obviously she stayed home. However, she was walking again this afternoon and running by the time it was time to go to bed.