Its Been a While

I didnt realize how long it had been since I had posted. Thats how crazy things have been. I have many websites and havent been able to keep them updated. Will it ever slow down? Probably not.

Heres the scoop....as I said before, My husband was diagnosed last year with Hepatitis C. He had type 1a, and all the risk factors which made him a bad candidate for success with the treatment. However they wanted him to wait until later in the year when a new drug "Incivek" was coming out. Incivek used along with Ribavirin and Interferon was supposed to have excellent results. Well in July he started a 6 month round of triple therapy. The side effects sucked! At times, the side effects were worse than the Hepatitis C itself. He went thru 6 months of therapy. We went to the Dr in December 2011 and were informed that he had CLEARED the virus! :)
They say that with Incivek they can use the word "cured". Im not so confident on that yet because there isnt enough data. However, right now we are completely elated with "CLEARED"!


The Ultimate Job Directory became available thru kindle, ipad, iphone and nook this year. It has received good reviews so far :) That is always nice to hear.

In December, the house at our other property burned down :( I loved that house. Still to this day unsure about the cause. It was underinsured by $123,000. Although it was insured for enough to cover the note at the bank, it was a terrible lesson to be learned about having something properly insured. However, on a good note, the money left over after the bank got theirs, did allow us to get some much needed things for the farm and to pay off some things. So as devastating as it was to us, because we loved that house, I think it was a blessing in disguise.

We have been going non stop on the farm, building fences, pens, with tons of new babies being born. We have a new farm sign in the works that I am excited about. It should be done in less than a week. It is being hand carved out of cedar. :)

I have also started with a few new companies. Not new, but new to me. Why? Not like I didnt have enough to do already. But I saw what these companies had to offer and I was intrigued and all had a low start up cost. I have actually enjoyed the easy money that is rollin in with them.

First I decided to join Scentsy. I had heard about it for a long time but didnt really know what it was. Wickless candles that you put in a warmer and the scents are AMAZING! It only cost me $99 to get started with them and I got a huge start up kit with samples and product. I love it. With hardly any effort I have been earning money with it. They also offer a fundraising kit.

Then I learned about Visalus. If you have not heard of Visalus you are missing out! This is a company that offers amazing weight loss shakes that literally taste like cake mix! This company is exploding by the minute. Why? Because the product works! I have tried everything to lose weight and nothing helped. I personally knew several people using and saw the before and after pics from their 90 day challenge and I thought that I had to try it. In just under 2 weeks with 2 shakes a day, I lost 16 lbs! And I feel great! The great thing about it is that if you refer 3 people, you can get your shakes for free! :) How awesome is that?

You can also earn money promoting Visalus. However, I would jump in quick because it is on fire! You can start on the basic package for just $49 and earn money for telling people about this amazing product! The product sells itself. Once you see it working, you will want to promote it and earn money for referring people. And then still get yours free!

I also started with Celebrating Home. They have Home Interiors and Gifts. Again the start up was low. I got a great start up kit with lots of products for $89.

But I couldnt help adding one more business to my portfolio. I started back selling adult novelties with Slumber Parties. This is a great company and allows women to empower themselves in a great business to earn money or to have fun or shop discreetly to enhance their love life. The start up with them is as low as $200 with a generous kit and business supplies.

Some of these companies even have car programs. I am loving this even though I am not crazy about sales. these products have been selling themselves :)


I had surgery in April to remove my right ovary due to a tumor.  Everything went well and the tumor was benign! Praise God!

I apologize for the crazy schedule and not being able to update things as often as Id like to, but I will find time :)


Take care and God bless!

what next?

i mean WOW~

that is really all i can say...other than a few explicatives. as if we needed anything else to "deal" with.

we have been fighting a BROWN RECLUSE INFESTATION in our HOUSE for about a month now! we have lived here almost 3 years and never had a problem. Then all of a sudden out of nowhere they are EVERYWHERE!

the first one i found was over 1 inch from leg to leg. It was hangin out in my bathtub. :/ at the time i had never seen a brown recluse up close. so after i killed it i googled them to see what they looked like. and to my horror, thats what it was.

about 1 week after i saw the first one in our house, my neighbor got bit on the foot by one in his house.

and every since we have found dozens, all sizes from babies to BIG ones.

this sucks, because all the research i have done says that they are resistant to commercial pesticides. it will just make them aggressive and kill off anything else which in turn makes more food for THEM! wth???

i have NO clue where they came from. all i know is that there have been tons and they have been found in every room of the house. *sigh* we have glue traps everywhere. yikes

ps-2 days ago, i also found a scorpion in the living room. nice

I am so crazy with emotion today

This is one that I do NOT even know what to do....

*sigh*

I have been thru alot in my 37 years...and considering I have come out pretty "normal". I have manged to stay strong and usually positive. I thank my MOTHER for making me a strong woman. But how much can one take? I have to stay strong for everyone else. Thats what mothers and wives do. But when does someone stay strong for me? The funny thing is that my family doesnt notice me being there for them. well my mom does. but thats because shes been in my shoes. even SHE says she doesnt know how i do it.

My faith is strong and will never be broken...and I believe that is what carries me thru these things.

Update on day 1

Well as I said he started at 5:30 this morning. When i checked on him at 9 this morning, he said he felt "ok".

I got him up around 1:30 pm to get ready to head to work. The side effects are kicking in. Hes runnin a temp with the chills. His body aches all over and his stomach is upset. He cant any eat, food just doesnt sound good to him right now. Altho Ive stressed to him and so hasa the nurse about eating to keep his energy up.

:/   dont like seein him this way and unfortunately this is only the beginning of the side effects.

It GO Time!

Well today is the day...

He started his Hepatitis C treatment today at 5:30 this morning. We were both anxious for him to start. He is taking a once a week Interferon injection along with Ribavirin and Incivek pills that he takes twice a day.

Incivek is a new med on the market, but it is supposed to have great success with people who have had little or no success in the past.

All 3 of the meds are reported to have nasty side effects. But everyone is different and I pray that he will be one of the people who can tolerate the meds without all the side effects.

Thats all folks!

God bless

Heres where we are with my husbands battle...

Again, he was diagnosed in early August with Hepatitis C.

He had symptoms of it but we attributed them to other things. He was exhausted all the time. But we just chalked that up to him working in the oil field for long hours in the heat. He had elevated liver functions and high triglycerides. Which could have been due to drinking alot of beer (which at that time he was) or eating fatty foods. We always just explained everything away.

He was having a check up for his work wellness program because his numbers were off. She asked us about testing for it. We didnt know, but figured why not with his history. Not ever suspecting anything would become of it.

The test came back and the nurse told me that he had Hepatitis C. At that time I didnt know anything about it, so it wasnt really anything that was scary. So I researched everything I could. It was kind of a shock. We do not know how or when he got it. Judging by how progressed it is, we are assuming 15 years or so. But its only a guess. He has had alot of tattoos (some homemade) and when he was younger he got into MANY fist fights, hes been in the military and gone overseas and had his fair share of problems with the law. So really no telling and at this stage it is really a moot point.

For the first couple of weeks, he took it really hard. He really didnt understand it completely (like most people dont) So he made alot of assumptions that were incorrect. He was depressed, wouldnt get out of bed on days off. But now that he has a better understanding about it, he deals with it much better. He talks freely about it with people. I do think he looks at things in life a little differently now for the better.

I have found since he has had this that people respond to it similar to the way they respond to bipolar disorder and other things they are misinformed about. For years I dealt with people and their ignorance about bipolar disorder. People dont understand if they havent been thru it. They would just make an assumption that my son was a "bad kid that just needed a good whoopin"...

The same is wth Hepatitis C. People it and freak out. News flash it is said that about 75% of people that have it DONT know about it. They say its 1 in 4. Yes, it is possible to get it from someone but only if you come into contact with their blood in some way. You will NOT get it by hugging him, shaking his hand, or even if he coughs or sneezes around you.

He wanted me to get tested for it, because unfortunately he gets hurt ALOT and im always the one there tending to the wounds. I did get tested and luckily I have tested negative. We were both thankful.

He had quit smoking around the end of 2009/beginning of 2010. Now he needed to give up the beer. He did...hesitantly. Then we find out that he cant have high fructose corn syrup because the liver can not break it down the same way it can not break down alcohol. Have you seen how many things that we eat or drink contain high fructose corn syrup? Practically everything. So now theres alot of things he cant have to eat or drink.

This is what makes him mad. He has come along way. He has been drug free for 4 1/2 years. He quit smoking a year and a half ago. He was just learning to be happy with "normal" life and felt like this was a punishment of sorts. That it wasnt fair, hes doing everything right and then this happens. But he turned things over to God and found a way to accept it. He did give up the beer and changed alot of the things he eats and drinks. He has had to give up the dipping because of the chemicals that they use to process it, again damging to liver. He has had to give up energy drinks, which he was having to have because he was literally wiped out ALL the time.

We found out that he was genotype 1a which is one of the hardest to treat with a relatively low response rate. They did a biopsy on his liver and that is when we found out that he was in stage 3 (the stage before cirrohsis). Lots of lab work all the time.

He was scheduled for an appt in December of 2010 where we thought he would start his treatments. But first they wanted to test him for a certain gene that people have. It could make treatment more difficult or not responsive at all. His viral count at that time was 900,000. Although that sounds like a high number, for Hepatitis C, that is actually a rather low number.

So unfortunately, he wasnt able to start in December because we had to wait to find out the results.

There are 3 genes. If one has a T/T gene, it has a better respone rate with the meds. The C/T gene doesnt have as good of a response rate and a C/C gene very little or no response. Well it turns out that he has the C/T gene.

So they want him to wait until some new meds came out this year so he would have a better chance at getting a sustained viral response and not developing a resistance to the meds. We were very disappointed as we were very anxious for him to start in December.

We went back in June and found out one of the new meds is out. So now if the insurance approves them, then he can start treatment. The only thing about the meds is that they are very expensive. The problem the insurance companies have with the new med is that it is not on the list.

His viral count is now 3,000,000. It has more than tripled since our last visit. He has had more symptoms on a daily basis such as night sweats, dizziness, lightheadedness, confusion, exhaustion, muscle aches and pains and so on.

Heres where we are on this...the duration of his treatment depends on several things. He will be taking 3 meds. (1 injection, and 2 different types of pills) He will have lots of lab appts and dr appts. All 3 of the meds have nasty side effects. But different people respond differently. They may affect him, they may not. We wont know until he takes them how they will or wont affect him. He could become very anemic with the meds. One med can affect the red blood cells, while another can affect the white blood cells. His immune system will be very susceptible to things.

If he responds and at the first 4 week interval, if his viral count is below 1000 they will continue treatment. If at 3 months he is still responding they will decide whether to treat him for 24 weeks or 48 weeks. If by chance he is responding but slowly they might even increase it to 72 weeks of treatment. However, if at 4 weeks his viral count is NOT below 1000, they will discontinue treatment so he doesnt build up a resistance to the meds.

We got word just Friday that they did approve the meds and they will be here on Wednesday! YAY! He says that he wants to start them on Thursday. I worry about what kind of side effects he will have. But I know hes ready to try and get over this so he can feel better. I hate watching him be miserable all the time.

Will give updates as we have them. Thanks to everyone that has expressed concern and support!!! God bless

10 months in 10 minutes

I havent been updating the blog for almost a year. Life gets in the way sometimes. Id be lying if I said nothing much has been happening. I believe my last post was somewhere around august of 2010. I dont even know where to begin. Things have been kinda overwhelming for quite sometime. In a nutshell, heres a summation of 10 months in about 10 minutes...

Since August, lots of Dr appts and tests for my husband. We were going to some Dr or having some lab drawn seems every "days off". That had eased up a bit, however it is about to pick back up as he starts his treatment.

Lots of babies born on the farm. We have had several months of just nonstop babies hitting the ground. we had 7 calves, 3 kids, 12 goslings, 24 chicks, 5 ducklings, and 9 lambs. That is something that always makes ya happy :)

After several wild and crazy years, Harley adopted Dakota. It has really been a good thing for both of them. Since Harley decided to adopt Dakota, there has been a substantial change in Dakota and his behavior (for the better). He is so proud of Harley and likewise, Harley is so proud of him. It is great. Dakota got academic and mathmatic honors this year and he received commended scores on science, social studies, and reading on the TAKS test. Way to go Dakota SCANLON!

On many levels the 2 of them are exactly alike. Im not convinced that Dakota is somehow secretly Harleys biological child. They are too much alike in every way.

Kenzie is now a teenager!! OMG She finished 10th in her class this year. She would have been higher if BOYS hadnt clogged her brain this year. Shes beautiful, but luckily the boys are afraid of Harley! lol

We adopted Floyd out to a new home. I wouldnt have let him go anywhere else. He is a great dog and has a wonderful home with my dear friend Nicole. He has a large yard he can run around in and loves the kids. It was a perfect fit. I miss him :( but I know hes happy :)



March brought along with it my dad falling ill. He was moved to Texas on our property so he could be taken care of. He is doing considerably better now. That is kind of interesting having my mother on one side of us and having him on the other.

We are dying here with no rain. The pastures are burning up. We get chances of rain, and somehow it always seems to rain everywhere but where we are. It will make for a hard winter with hay. But all is not lost. I still have faith.

My mom is doing much better than she was. She still has some issues that the Dr has to figure out, but all in all shes doing much better.

My mother in law is up and down with her battle against the myeloma. Just as soon as she makes a miraculous recovery, something else happens. I dont even know where to start with that one.

I had the surgery on my left hand in April. Im so thankful. Now I dont have the issues with the carpal tunnel anymore. I can use both hands without the pain and numbness. I had a wonderful Dr at Baylor! I have most of the strength back in my left hand now. So both are almost back to normal. It is great.

 

Through it all one thing has been a constant, or faith in God. He always provides and pulls us through.

 

Things my mom taught me...

I could go on and on about things my mom taught me. I imagine this post will be in parts. lol

My favorite: My mom used to sing a couple songs to me when I was a kid. She doesnt remember where she first heard them, but they are cute and catchy :)


The first one goes:


I have a horse, his name's Napoleon. Named him for his boney parts.
He can win in any horse race...if you give him a big head start! :)


Then theres:

I have a dog, his name is Fido. I have raised him from a pup.
He can stand up on his hind legs....if you hold his front legs up! :)


I love those and  love my mom! :D

Wow

Well I know its been a while since I posted...and for that I am sorry...
Things have been more crazy then usual. It is never dull in my life. I have taken time off from writing because I couldnt focus on anything.

Mom is still dealing with her issues from colon cancer earlier this year. Well shes cancer free, but shes not gotten all of her strength back and at times has vertigo and we cant seem to figure out why. Still physically ill at times, but no where near as bad as it was.
She had a MRI for the "mass" in her pancreas and they are just calling it "nodules" and saying that everything there is ok.
The lump in her thyroid, they are calling nothing more than a goiter. They say that everything there should be ok also.

My mother in law is still dealing with her myeloma. She has had 3 hospitalizations in the last few months for various reasons. The last radiation didnt take and her myeloma is still active. But they cant do another radiation at this time because they say that it would eat away at her skin. So they are forced with a decision about how to handle it now.
She has lost a substantial amount of bone in her spine and pelvis. She had a surgery around May, where they fused those bones back together to relieve some pain. It sort of worked for a while, but her pain is back and at times excruciating. So much so that she can not be moved out of the hospital bed that is in the house. She can not even be moved by both my husband and my father in law to get her to Drs appts. (and they are both big strong men)
She has been battling this disease for approximately 8 yrs now.

Of course then theres the fact that my son is bipolar and ADHD. Now my daughter is showing signs...bipolar runs in her family (on her dads side) and so does ADHD...but shes also 12...so is it the bipolar and the ADHD or is it just PUBERTY?? UGH!
So between him and her both...I NEED A VACATION!

Then I was hit with another freight train on Friday...We were doing routine testing for my husbands work wellness program and we were told that he tested positive for HEPATITIS C. He has had high liver enzymes for a while but they thought that it was due to high cholesterol. I feel bad for him because hes dealing with this stuff with his mom and then he gets hit with this crap.

On a good note, we are still NOT smoking! :)

SO I will try to be a little mroe diligent on my thoughts and things, but as you can see, if I am not you will know why.

God Bless

Heres the skinny...

As usual things have been hectic...but no drama around here means that we arent breathing. lol
But I will try to address all the things going on.

Indeed grandma's "mass" was cancer. Colon cancer. Hearing the "C" word kind of takes your breath away. Its hard. You're freaked out, but you want to keep your composure and stay strong so that the person going through it stays strong. Mom did just that. She may have been scared, but you would have never known it. She has always been a strong woman.

She did get very weak before all was said and done. So much she barely left the house for months and slept alot.

They scheduled her surgery and took out part of her colon along with 33 lymph nodes. They sent them to pathology. Her liver is fine, and all lymph nodes are clean. The oncologist said that at this time she needs no further treatment. However, it is likely that someday the cancer will return. We will deal with that bridge when we get there.

It has taken a little time, but she is gaining her strength back and able to do more things. It was a close call but thank God she is on the road to recovery.

Thank you for all your prayers and support!

On the opposite side of the board, my mother in laws cancer has returned. She is currently undergoing radiation for it. So please keep her in your prayers.


Now onto other news, I have NOT had a cigarette for going on 6 months now! Not even sneaking one here or there. There has been a time or two that I wanted one. But for the most part, I dont care. YAY me!


On the farm, we have had a ton of babies coming lately. Lots of goat kids, lambs, chicks, ducks and bunnies. They are all just so cute. We did have 2 little goats that lost their babies :( because the billy that got them was too big. But you can read about the babies we do have and see pictures of them at www.smfamilyfarms.com.

We are finally starting to dry up after many many months of solid rain. The ground is still saturated. But at least it is somewhat drier. SO my husband has been able to get most of the rabbit retreat done. We are just shy of it being complete. I know I have been so anxious for it to be ready and so have my bunnies. :)

Mom got a new tractor! Its BIG! :) Harleys at work, so he hasnt gotten to use it yet. I know he will just love it.

On a crappy note, my carpal tunnel is getting horribly bad :( (another reason why I dont get to post as often as I would like) I rarely even use the phone anymore because I cant hold it for more than a minute if that. I have dropped my phone so many times I am surprised it even works anymore. Trying to get a full nights sleep is a nightmare. Writing something by hand? Forget about it. Even just typing this little blog has taken me over 30 minutes. The middle fingers on both hands stay numb 24/7. Nerve damage already.

Why dont you have surgery you say? Well I was scheduled for surgery back in Oct of 2007. Had all the tests done, it was confirmed that yes I do have carpal tunnel. (like I didnt already know) Just now THEY know. Anyways, it was actually scheduled for the 15th, and on the morning of the 14th my kids & I were in a bad car accident. We were in the trauma center in ETMC Tyler for 3 days. So I missed my surgery.

My husband soon quit working for the company he was with and when he went to the next job, it was a different insurance, so now I am "pre-existing". So basically now it is, surgery will come when I have enough money to pay for it out of pocket since insurance will not cover it. Do not know when that will be. :/

But all in all, we are all alive and well. Life is good. You take the good and you take the bad.