New Addition

We added to our family yesterday.  We have been thinking about getting another pup so Daisy can have someone to play with, and about 6 weeks ago, our friend Bob's dog had puppies.  The mom is a golden retriever/lab mix and the dad was a husky mix.

They were born 6/21 and are healthy with just some fleas.  We picked the chocolate one and named him Hercules.  He's the biggest of his siblings and is very persistant.  He has light brown eyes with a ring of blue on the outside.  We aren't sure what color his eyes will be.  He has white patches on his chest, chin, and a little on the paws, just like Miss Daisy.   It took Bob's family and Dan  an 1 1/2hrs to get him out from under their barn so we could meet this little guy.  After a quick bath and a flea colar (he's too young for a treatment) he was a shade lighter, and good to go. 

He was great the car ride home, snuggled in a towel against my arm.  I received several licks and some grunts if I tried to move him off my lap.  I think he'll be a snuggler.

Sierra and Buggs don't really know what to think of Herc.  He grunts a lot and really prefers to be out in the grass than inside.  He seems to miss his Momma and siblings.  Daisy seems to like him so far.  She let him crawl all over her this morning.  He tried to nurse and she got weirded out.  Haha. 

So far the transition has been very easy.  He didn't mess in his kennel last night at all, so hopefully he'll be as easy to train as Daisy is.  Maybe Daisy will show him the ropes.

New Recipes

With Dan recovering from surgery and not being able to train as he used to, we needed to come up with some new recipes with more fruits, vegetables, and grains without the carbs.  So, we switched to organic foods, tried successful new recipes, and so far, we've been able to not only keep from putting pounds on, but get leaner!

Turkey Stuffed Peppers - These are sooo good.  People at work were gawking at the left overs.  It seems expensive when you are buying stuff at the store, but one stuffed pepper and you will be full!
5  Peppers (Green, Yellow or Red)
1lb ground turkey or beef
Mozzarella cheese
1/2 Yellow or White Onion Chopped
Turkey bacon - 2 strips
16oz can Crushed Tomatoes
Basil

Remove the tops off the peppers and core out the seeds.  Blanch the peppers for 1-3 min in boiling water.
Cook bacon strips until crispy.
Ground turkey or beef.  If you use turkey, be sure to add salt and pepper.  If the turkey starts to get too dry, add some olive oil to keep it moist.  If you use beef, be sure to rinse, but don't leave too much water in the meat because your peppers will get soggy.  Add the bacon, crumbled, and the onion.  Cook until the onions are softened, but still crunchy.  Add 1/2 can of crushed tomatoes and basil to taste.
In the pepper, layer a good slice of mozzarella cheese, meat mixture, cheese, meat, ect until the pepper is full.  Close the top with cheese.
Bake peppers at 350F for 10-15min and serve!

Lemon Pepper Steak Roast - This didn't taste as strong as lemon pepper chicken, but maybe if you added some lemon juice to the marinade.
London Broil or Steak Shoulder Roast
1- Yellow or White Onion
EVOO
Worchestershire Sauce
Salt and Pepper
4 cloves Garlic
Parsley
Lemon Pepper
Crushed Red Pepper

Add ingredients to steak and marinate ON in the fridge.  You should add enough spices for it to look like this:

Grill or broil in oven until its done to your desire.  This was good, but again, the lemon pepper flavor is subtle.  A thin london broil maybe better then a shoulder.

Apple Pork Loin - This is very good.  Makes your house smell like cinnamon apples.  The carrots and pork have a apple glaze on them, and the carrots don't get mushy!  My apples got mushy, so next time I might add later.
Pork Shoulder
1 - Apple
Carrots
EVOO
Lemon Juice
Salt and Pepper
2 cloves of garlic crushed
Cinnamon
Ginger
Rosemary
Parsley.

Place loin in casserol dish and slice longways in 3 places about 1/2 way through the pork.  Drizzles with EVOO (I used about 1/4 cup), lemon juice (about 1/3 of the amount of EVOO you use), and sprinkle with salt and pepper and add garlic.  Add the apple sliced, and I used 3 big carrots cut up.  Place the apples and carrots in the slices and around the pork.  Do not put the apples under the pork or they will be apple sauce!
Sprinkle the whole thing with cinnamon, ginger, rosemary, and parsley.  You can't use too much, its a big roast.
Grill in aluminum foil or broil on high until 160F through the entire roast.
The carrots and apples will blacken, but they are still tasty.  Next time I'll add the apples 1/2 way through cooking.

And for dessert when you get a craving for some chocolate:


Dan's Chocolate Mouse Recipe - Trust me, its good.  Dan doesn't even like avocados.  Don't be afraid.

2 Ripe Organic Avocados
2 Tbls melted coconut oil
1 1/2 Cup of Splenda
1 Tbls of Pure Vanilla Extract
1 Cup of Raw Organic Cacao Powder

Blend the bajesus out of it until smooth, and dark chocolate looking.  You may see some very small specks of green, but keep blending and they should mix in as well.



This is very very thick, like thick frosting.  We added 1/2 package of sugar free cool whip and it helped lighten it up.

Its very good if you top on these coconut bars:

1 3/4 cups fine unsweetened shredded coconut
6 tablespoons coconut oil
1/3 cup coconut milk (or regular milk)
1/3 cup splenda
Pure stevia extract, to taste (start with 1/16 of a teaspoon)
Raw almonds

Melt coconut oil in sauce pan.  Add splenda, coconut, and milk.  Stir until its a paste consistence.  It won't look like it will turn out.  Sweeten with stevia to your liking.
Spoon out into bar shapes on a pan lined with wax or parchment paper.  Push almond on the top of the bar.  Freeze for 5-10min.
Frost and serve!  Next time I may put the coconut in the food processor to make it more of a powder.  Sorry, these didn't last long enough for a picture!

Rest and Recover

Dan’s recovery at home seems to be going as quickly as his recovery at the hospital. We were sent home with a 10lb weight limit and a “don’t do anything that hurts”. Thursday and Friday we spent most of our time on the couch relaxing and watching movies. We had a few visitors once we were home.

By Saturday Dan was getting cabin fever, so we had people over to watch the UFC. Dan was still sleeping a lot, but was able to stay up later than me. Already he was feeling better than before the surgery.

By the 4th, Dan felt up to going to the movies. He was able to tolerate an hour drive up to Keystone and sit through a movie. After we got home, he was pretty tired, but it was nice to go on a date. I returned to work ½ day on Tuesday and Wednesday. Dan started walking around the neighborhood and was up to walking 3 miles that weekend. He even got his appetite back. It had been so long since has eaten to his full potential and I forgot how much that man can eat!

That next Wednesday he was able to drive, and he was less restless with some freedom. He was able to come out to my work picnic to show everyone how well he was recovering. By the next week, Dan was slowly jogging 1.5 miles and walking 1.5. Amazing recovery. We even went to see Tom Petty.

On the 13th, Dan had his checkup with the surgeon. He removed the steristrips and lifted his weight restriction to 25lbs. He was released to a physical therapist to help with the rest of his recovery. He’s started doing things around the house and I was very happy that he could take the trash out again.

Currently Dan is alternating between doing some exercises in the pool, and going up to see Bill Hartman at iFAST. Dan is really enjoying being back in the gym and around such athletic people, and he can’t wait to be off restrictions.  He’s only taking his pain meds at night after a long day.  It won't be too long until he's better than he has ever been!

We start going to the oncologist on August 3rd. He is going to review all of Dan’s history and map out where we go next. Dan will be having frequent checkups, and we are hoping to avoid any chemotherapy and/or radiation.

So here we are almost a month after his surgery and if you passed him on the street you’d never know any of this happened. It’s very surreal looking back at everything we went through in such a short time. We are definitely closer as a couple, and I have learned how to manage stress much better. My perspective on life has changed and I’m much more tolerant of people. You just never know what they are going through. I am very thankful to have a good job with solid benefits. We only have to pay 6% of everything: Dr. visits, colonoscopys, surgery, drugs, and hospital stay. It’s amazing. One thing is for sure, I could not imagine going through this and not having insurance.

I’m also very thankful to have such great, supportive family and friends. We never could’ve done this without them all. We truly have just one large family and I hope, one day we will be able to repay everyone.  Soon, we will celebrate!

Hospital Stay

The first day/night in the hospital was pretty rough. Dan wasn’t able to get his pain down to tolerable level until early Tuesday morning. By Monday night Dan was coherent, and only sleeping due to the morphine. He was able to pull himself up in bed and even dangle his feet over the side of the bed. He did have to have a cath in and all of Monday his pee was green due to the dye they injected into the tumor to ensure they cut around it and not through it during the surgery. By Monday night he was asking for it to be out, which was a great sign.

Monday night the nursing staff was still coming in every 3-4 hrs to check Dan’s vitals and urine output.  So, we were sleeping 1.5-2 hrs at a time.  Thankfully Dan’s mom and Clint stayed overnight and they helped Dan out a lot. I was clueless as how I could help Dan and was very glad to have other people help him out and show me what I can do.

Tuesday morning Dan was able to get his cath out and he was sitting up to dangle his feet for longer periods of time. By mid-morning Dan had decided to call the pathologist to get his results. The good thing about Dan staying at HCMH is that he worked there and knows all of the doctors, nurses, and lab techs. So, he called the pathologist directly to get his results.

The pathologist said that the tumor was about the size of a computer mouse (yikes!), and it had invaded the muscle wall of the colon, but not through. Also, he checked all 19 lymph nodes and none of them had any cancerous cells.  Dan is cancer free!!

The surgeon came into the room a couple hours later to tell us the news officially. It was definitely a huge relief to hear the great news from the pathologist, but it really didn’t sink in for me until the Dr. told us.  His tumor was staged T3, N0, M0, meaning his tumor went into the muscle wall, but not into the lymph nodes or any other organ.  So, he was stage IIA.

With the good news in, Dan’s room flooded with visitors Tuesday. There were so many doctors, nurses, nurses aids, lab techs, friends, and family that came to visit. Dan really started to recover quickly once we had the all clear. By Tuesday evening he was walking laps around the floor. Very slow laps, but still walking.

Tuesday evening they moved us into a different room because the A/C wasn’t working which was making us think Dan was spiking a fever. The new room had two beds with no one else in the room, so I was able to sleep in a bed!  Sooo much better than the chair.  We pushed the two beds together and were able to snuggle up a bit to watch a movie that night. The nurse came in around midnight and Dan was passing stool, so he said we may be able to go home Wednesday.

Wednesday morning we paced the room waiting for the Dr. to come in. We had even more family and friends come visit, and my work sent a ton of food. Dan was even able to go downstairs to see Miss Daisy.

The doctor came in around noon, and Dan was up joking and eating soft foods, and said (after some coaxing) that Dan could go home that evening, and eat anything he wanted!  Doctors and nurses said Dan's recovery from surgery to being checked out was the fastest they had seen.

So, with three days of excellent news, we decided to leave as quickly as possible. We packed up and drove home to Indy. My parents had cleaned the house, cooked us dinner, and my dad finished the game room. They stayed to be sure Dan could make it up and down the stairs, in and out of bed, and into the shower. But, Wednesday night, we were sleeping in our own bed, in our own house, cancer free!

Game Day

Dan was admitted into the hospital on Monday June 28th. We got up early to pack our hospital bag.  I always thought packing for our first hospital stay would involve us preparing to welcome our first child.  They don't give you a list for your hospital bag.  In fact, they didn't even suggest that we pack anything.   I guess it's just one of those things you are just supposed to know to do.  I had been failing in the "know what to do" department, so thankfully my mom was there to help. 

Checking into the hospital wasn't any different than checking in for his colonoscopy, except our nerves. I had been looking forward to and dreading this day all week. I wanted Monday to come so quickly, but so slowly at the same time. Again, I was playing the “What if” game. We didn’t get much sleep Sunday night, so Dan was looking forward to getting some good sleep once the surgery was done, and we heard that he was all clear.

We filled the waiting room with family and close friends and had a steady stream of people going into the prep room while we waited for Dan’s surgery to start. Dan got to wear nifty nylons to prevent blood clots in his legs.  They put in the IV, drew some blood, gave him a heparin shot and some pain meds. The surgeon came in before hand and my dad said a prayer. The nurse came in to shoo everyone away so they could wheel him off.

I cannot explain to you how hard it is to say goodbye, trusting everything into the hands of someone you’ve only heard bad news from. They said the surgery should only last an hour plus recovery time. This was the longest hour of my life. I had to sit, worthless, just waiting on the outcome. I broke. It was out of my hands, out of my control. Only God knew what was happening inside Dan’s abdomen.

Thankfully, Dan’s mom worked as a nurse at HC Hospital, and had a friend in the surgery room while Dan was being sedated, and peeking in to give us updates on the surgery and what they found. The surgeon removed about a foot of Dan’s colon, the descending and sigmoid portions, as well as 19 lymph nodes. He reconnected his transverse colon to his rectum and removed his appendix to prevent any other problems. He took his time stitching up his abdominal wall to ensure it would be nice and secure when Dan got back to training. They closed him up using steristrips.

I did pretty good waiting during the surgery. There were a lot of people there to distract me and it really did help. My mom made cookies and friends brought comfort food. The longest wait was the recovery. Dan didn’t do well with the anesthesia. It made him really nauseous, which prevented him from going up to his room for a while. Marsha was able to go back into recovery to see him as he was waking up, and I was able to see him once he got into his room.

I hope I never have to see Dan come out of surgery again. He was very pale, still nauseous, and in a lot of pain. He had a hard time staying awake and you really had to force him to talk to you. It took too long to get his morphine pump set up so he had a hard time controlling his pain levels that first day.

Unfortunately the doctor could only tell us that they were able to remove the tumor, and that it only appeared to be contained within the colon walls.  We had to wait for the pathology report before we knew if the lymph nodes were clear, and to know how big, and how contained the tumor was. We were told that it would be Wednesday, at the earliest, before we would know anything.

The surgery was over, but now there was even more waiting...

The Waiting Game

After Dan’s diagnosis, our days were full of friends, family, and worry.  The stresses of every day became laughable.  It was hard to remember what cancer-free life was like.  I don’t remember much about the 6 days between diagnosis and surgery.  There was a lot of sitting, waiting, and praying. 

It took us a full two days come to terms with things before we put our game face on to fight. I was able to take 2 weeks off from work without having to use any vacation which was very helpful. I’m not sure I would’ve been useful during that time anyways. We were even able to postpone our vacation to Pigeon Forge until Dan had recovered. They are going to let us reschedule for any time in the next year.

We also ate a lot. With not knowing when Dan could eat regular food again after his surgery we ate all of his favorite foods. By Sunday, I was tired of pizza and Mexican.

We had such an outpouring of support from everywhere. Every e-mail, text, facebook comment, and phone call brought a new smile to his face. We both were completely surprised by how quickly word spread. It was such a shock to hear the news, and each time I told someone, it became more real. Dan started calling himself a cancer patient, which at first made me really angry. How can you be a cancer patient when we weren’t doing anything to treat it yet? After I came to terms with the fact that he will always be a cancer patient, I started looking forward to being able to call him a cancer survivor. He’s still the sexiest cancer patient I have ever seen.

Night time was the worst. How can you sleep when you know something is slowly killing your husband from the inside out, and there is nothing you can do can stop it? How do you look at your husband and hope this isn’t the last week you get to see him look/act healthy? Every smile, laugh, and good time was cherished. We hugged and snuggled a lot not knowing how long he’d be in the hospital. We talked about the good and bad times we’ve had and daydreamed of the good things to come. It was so hard not to play the "What if" game once the distractions were gone.

I decided to have people over Saturday for a cook out. Dan was a little hesitant to the idea at first, but once he saw it was more a Goodbye Tumor party, rather than a big pity party, he had a great time.

My mom and sister came up early Saturday morning to help me clean the house. With your mind preoccupied with cancer, the simplest tasks become very difficult. How do you grocery shop when you don’t know how long you’ll be in the hospital, or how long until Dan can eat regular food? How can you care about dusting when you don’t know the next time you can take a family walk? Mom also stocked my fridge and pantry with comfort foods. Unfortunately, they couldn’t stay that evening, but they left me with a sparkling clean house, and fresh baked bread. Yum. My house smelled fantastic. Soo many people came over to see Dan. It was such a great night. Seeing so many other people optimistic of Dan’s recovery really helped us through the weekend.

Wife of a Cancer Patient

I've been thinking about this post for a while, unsure where to even start.  As many of you know, on Tuesday, June 22th my husband was diagnosed with colon cancer.  Today, he is cancer free.  In fact, we only knew of his cancer for 6 days before he was cancer free.  In the next posts I will try to relate our experience.  Some of it may be graphic, but hopefully it can help someone.

About 2 months prior to diagnosis, my husband started to feel fatiqued, some mild lower stomach cramping and occasional diarrhea.  Before this, he just had some blood in his stool which we attributed to his weight lifting.  Over the next 2 months, these symptoms gradually got worse.  My husband went to his doctor where they did a physical exam.  His family doctor suspected irritable bowel or inflammatory bowel and referred him to a general surgeon to schedule a colonoscopy.  In the meantime, Dan's symptoms got to be so bad, that we could only leave the house for a couple hours, before he would need to use the bathroom and his cramping would double him over.  He couldn't make it through the day without having to rest in the afternoon.

On the 17th Dan had his colonoscopy.  The Dr. said that the colonoscopy was not able to be completed because there was a blockage of tissue in the way in the sigmoid portion of his colon..  The passage through the obstruction was less than the width of a pinky finger.  He said that we would need to have a virtual colonoscopy using a CT scan. 

He had taken a biopsy of the tissue, but he suspected either inflammatory bowel, Crohn's Disease, or some sort of tissue damage due to taking a hit/kick to that area.  He said other, less likely diagnoses would be diverticulitis although this was also very unlikely because of his diet, colon cancer, but because Dan was so young, very unlikely, a TB infection, but because we haven't traveled out of the country this was pretty much out of the question as well as a parasite.  The good news, was it wasn't ulcerative colonitis.  The bad news, we didn't know how much of his colon was affected.

So, we scheduled the virtual colonoscopy and a follow up appointment with the Dr. to hopefully get a diagnosis.  At this point, we were frustrated because we were hopeful for some answers. 

On Sunday June 27th, Dan again had to undergo another bowel prep before the virtual colonoscopy Monday morning.  At this point, the bowel prep from the 1st colonoscopy really helped with his symptoms and he started to drink more protein shakes to prevent pain and bloating.  So, the 2nd bowel prep wasn't as bad (so he said) knowing his symptoms would be relieved for a little while.  Monday we went in early for a blood draw which ended up being not needed.  Dan went back into radiology for the procedure while I waited in the waiting room.  Apparently this is worse then the regular colonoscopy, and usually patients are still sedated when they have a virtual colonoscopy, but Dan wasn't.

Tuesday we went in to see the Dr. in the morning.  He walked us through the first colonoscopy results showing us pictures of the blockage, and then he brought up the pathology report. 

He said the biopsy showed an glandular tumor, or an adenocarcinoma. 

The doctor went on to show us the CT scan which showed a clean liver and his intestinal lymph nodes which appear to be a normal size.  His recommended treatment was to remove a foot of Dan's colon (remove the descending and sigmoid colon), reconnect the two ends, and hopefully that would be all of the tumor, and Dan would be free and clear to live his life.  As long as the tumor had remained inside the walls of the colon and hadn't spread anywhere, that would be all the treatment he would need.

Nothing I can write can explain to you what it is like to sit across the room and hear your husband has cancer.  Immediately flashes of emaciated, bald, cancer patients flash through your mind.  Thoughts of chemo, radiation, and hospital rooms fill your head.  Anything that remotely resembles a reasonable thought leaves your mind and your brain shuts down.  How could my healthy, mma fighter be sick?  Nothing prepares you for this.  Nothing prepares you for watching your husband hear this news. 

Dan and I scheduled the surgery for Monday the 28th with the nurse who started to cry.  You know its bad when even the nurse cries.  At this point, all we can think about is getting the cancer out, and doing whatever it takes to get that done.

That, and how do we tell the family?  How do you tell a mother her son has cancer?  His father? brother? sister? grandparents? Aunt? Uncles?  Friends?  How do you bring someone into this nightmare when all you want to do is wake up?

One Year

In the past year we have:

Gotten Married

Moved into our wonderful house

Gone to NYC

Lost 2 wonderful cats from our family and gained 2 great cats into our family

Dan graduated from college, gained and lost a job...

Went to Bonnaroo

And finally beat Cancer.

I can't wait to see what the next year, and the rest of our lives will bring.

(Photo taken by MLP)