Almost to the end of the year!

Wow, now that there are four school days left, I think I can make it. Whew...When Q was hospitalized in March, I thought I might need to take an extended leave from work; then, I thought I'd be able to hang in there till the end of the year. Little did I know that it was going to be a long haul, but now we're about there. I still have a mountain and a half of papers and grading, but I will get there.

Q has had a lot of ups and downs in those two + months. It's kind of cliche, but he has good days and bad days. He had a scan May 14th that was quite inconclusive. It showed more "signal" in the spinal cord, toward the neck/brain stem, but that could mean swelling from the radiation or ...tumor growth. Bruggers put him back on for additional rounds of his experimental chemo (Temodar). It works by stopping cell division in that last stage of mitosis. There's quite a bit of data to support that this drug is effective. Q will be on the drug (he takes it orally) for one week, and then off for three weeks for quite a while.

Two of the huge 'ups' he's had in these two months were his Eagle court of honor and the huge fundraisers done at our schools. April 26th was his Eagle Court of honor. What a wonderful night that was. Many of my family members were able to attend from out of town to make the evening really special. We are grateful to all those who attended and helped out. Robin Perkins deserves a shout-out. She decorated cupcakes, played the piano last minute, and got Q this cool embroidered custom Eagle scarfy thingy:)(I can't come up with the scouting term for this at the moment:) Skyler Halford, from BYU basketball came and gave an awesome talk. We are so grateful to him for coming and supporting us! 
 http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/south/salem/article_99c0bdd1-c80f-59d7-9159-a67bf527cb01.html
Secondly, we had a great experience with the fundraisers that our local schools put on for him. It's kind of difficult to be the ones receiving help, but we sucked it up, and we're so glad we did! I thought, "Oh, if each school earned 1,500, that would be great." But no, each school went way and above that, but what's more astounding was the tremendous show of support that the faculty and student council members of both schools displayed. What a blessing to our family! I thank them from the bottom of my heart. Even though Q doesn't display a lot of emotion openly, I know he was moved and felt supported and loved.

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/education/precollegiate/teachers-complete-dares-to-raise-money-for-student-with-cancer/article_3d487896-194e-5976-ac72-f325b90bc919.html#.U2pmmLxONLw.facebook

The money has already started to come in handy for paying for this really awesome nausea medicine that our insurance leaves a huge co-pay for. His nausea has been impacting him consistently, so this drug will be great for him, and it's a good use for the money. Here's to no more throw-up buckets in every room!!

We are so grateful for everyone's prayers and love and contributions. Cancer's a terrible disease that makes us better people. We feel so much peace right now; it doesn't make sense, but we do feel like we are being watched over in these times.