Christmas and round 4 is done!

I am happy to save that I successfully finished round 4 of my chemo, meaning I am 2/3 of the way done!  I think that is a little something to celebrate.  I seem to be feeling good so far but it usually takes a few days to feel the ill effects.  I am just happy for good reports this time around and hoping for no major set back this time.

Now here are some happy memories from our Christmas.  We were so lucky this year to get my entire family to be at my parents for the entire Christmas weekend.  It was so fun to all be together and have all the grandkids together....I know my parents were on top of the world!

 The twins and their new "cube"

 My Mom bought all the grandkids these adorable pajamas, they were a big hit.  I don't think Sam took his off all weekend

 Isaac loves his new vacuum, I should have bought one that actually works:)

A happy boy!

Giving this a try for updates.

Hello everyone!

I'm not sure how this will work but I thought I would give it a try.  My email box is kind of out of control and I'm really bad at getting on and sending out emails or responding to emails that I get.
I know a lot of people also ask about what I am doing more day to day with all of my oncologist, alternative Dr, etc.  This way hopefully I can post more frequently without feeling as though I'm bugging people.

As most of you know, I was diagnosed with Follicular lymphoma in the fall of 2011 and reached a point where I had to start chemo this past October.  Today I had my first of day of my 4th round of chemo (which is a combo of Bendamustine and Rituximab).  I also had a CT scan and labs prior to my chemo treatment.  I am happy to say that we got good news from these tests.  On the CT scan it was found that all of my lymph nodes have shrunk to normal size except for a few lymph nodes in my abdomen (which were the largest to begin with).  They did say that the largest lymph node in my abdomen has shrunk by 90%!
Of course at this point, I asked, "so does that mean that I can stop the chemo early?".  My oncologist quickly responded with a big "No".  I thought it was worth a try!
My lab work all looked good also which is a good sign my body is tolerating all the treatment well.

I have been tolerating all the other treatments well with only a few set backs.  The day after my 2nd round the whole family got hit with the stomach bug.  That made things a little miserable, but not just for me.
About 2 weeks after my 3rd round, I broke out in shingles.  It was weird how it came on suddenly because I thought I had been feeling pretty good after that round.  I guess it can strike at any time if your immune system is a little down, guess the chemo had done that for me.  Luckily, I caught it early, started on my meds and was pretty much healed up by Christmas.  We were still able to go to my parents to celebrate Christmas which was a great blessing.  The only down side it that I wasn't able to hold my sweet little niece and nephew the entire time.  I guess I will have to make up for that another time!

Well I think this is a long enough post for now but I will try to update this more frequently and keep you more up to date on things......you all can check up on things as you want.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Love, Rikki

Half Marathon

After 12 weeks of training, Suzy (my sister), Maureen (my neighbor), and I finished our first half marathon. When Suzy brought the idea up to me late last year, I just kind of laughed. She slowly worked on me until I agreed. I never thought at that time I would be able to finish it or that I would enjoy it. Today was such a neat day.....the weather was great and I really enjoyed the entire race (minus a few hills). I am very proud of us. Thanks Suzy for encouraging me to do it and thanks Maureen for being my partner in training. I'm already looking forward to our next one!

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was a very exciting weekend in the Jost household. Rikki and I were confirmed in the Catholic Church Saturday Night and Sammy, in addition to being welcomed into the church, had 2 full days of Easter! Mama, Papa and Uncle Wade came to town. Between them, Aunt Suzy and Uncle Clay, the neighbors and all of the Josts (Todd's family and the 2 of us), Sammy was spoiled more than normal

Sammy Chilling with his glasses and his Easter Suit courtesy of Papa Jost

Enjoying a "Big Milk"

The Gauldin Girls looking good! (if i were to call them the Golden Girls, which way would that be taken?)

All the Gauldins

Family Pic before Easter Vigil

Sammy with the Jost and Winker Kids

Sam's birthday party

I know a lot of you will find this very out of character for our family but Sam's birthday party theme was Mizzou.....specifically Truman. I was excited when a few weeks before Sam's party, Gregg comes home and says that he found a "Truman costume" to rent. Talking the night before the party, Gregg all of the sudden announces, "you know it really doesn't look like Truman, right? It is just a tiger costume but I thought we could just say it was Truman". Let's just say, that Sam was not fooled at all by this Truman, in fact he was scared to death of it. It is not a bad looking tiger, but it was pretty scary.

Sam is in the pic with the tiger but not happy to be there (and would only sit there if an adult was with him, Thanks Aunt Suzy)

We could not talk him into this one above with the rest of the kid. It think we have learned our lesson on the life sized characters showing up to his parties. He was terrifed this year and last year by his surprise guests (last year it was Elmo). We are going to have to figure something else out for next year. We will look back and have lots of laughs though.

The spiderman pinata (Sam above, William below)

Out of all of the nice gift/toys he received for his birthday, playing with the cheap helium balloons we bought to decorate, were the high light of the night for him.

Sam turned 3!

I was giggling looking through these pics. We were trying to get a pic of Sam hold up "3" for his 3rd birthday party invitations. As I think is he case with most 3 yr olds, capturing a good picture was not exactly easy. Here are a few of the outcasts:

The winner was:

They probably will not like this pic in a few years but it is pretty darn cute right now!

We got to celebrate my birthday with my family and the Winkers. We enjoyed a dinner, beverages and a Tiger victory together. Sam, Ben, and Eli have become quite the little buddies and kept each other entertained for most of the dinner