CANCER FREE!

It is true! I am Cancer Free! We found out the results of the PET scan last week! I am so happy and so so so so thankful! Thank you so much to you all for your prayers, and the many other ways that you have helped. We have been so blessed to have such a great support system of family, friends, community, and church. It really feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I know that this will not be the end of all of our trials and challenges, but it is the end of a difficult chapter. I have learned so many things, and I have met so many great and amazing people.

A.J. is continuing to grow bigger and bigger everyday. He loves to read stories, sing songs, and of course play ball. He loves JonAaron so much and whenever he comes home from school A.J. immediately wants to play with daddy. He runs so fast everywhere now, it is hard to keep up with him in places!

We have had fun this year with the MBA wives group. We have gone to the park, gone on hikes and been to other fun events. It is nice to have other kids for A.J. to play with during the week when we miss our family and friends.

School is going good for both of us, it is hard to believe that the semester is almost halfway over. We have been so busy! But the good kind!

I am wanting to celebrate somehow so if you have any ideas let me know! Thank you again to everyone for your support, it has meant more than you will ever know!

Summer Break Almost Over!

I haven't been very good at updating this, in fact Jessica said that I need to update it more! This summer has been really good for us!

A.J. is the one in our family with the really exciting news, HE CAN WALK!! He is so cute the way he gets so excited! Next week he is turning 1 years old. I remember thinking when I got sick that if I could make it to his birthday, I could make it through anything. I am so excited to have a birthday party for him. It is going to be a Mickey Mouse Party. He loves Mickey mouse. He can also hold up 1 finger when you ask him how old he is.

Not surprisingly his first word, besides Da da and ma ma was Ball. Even if he is throwing a tantrum if JonAaron asks him to go play ball, he stops crying and crawls (now kind of walks too) over to his little fisher price basketball hoop and puts the ball in the hoop with JonAaron.

I can't believe that a year ago he was just this little baby boy and now he isn't a baby anymore! Time goes by so fast!

School starts up next week for me, and the following week for JonAaron. The break wasn't long enough. The crazy thing is that we do not know where we are going to be next year! But we will both be graduated! YAY!

I am in remission right now, and it has come with a lot more emotions than I expected. There is always a fear that it will return, in fact we thought it had come back so we did some tests early. They came out positive, but there is still a fear in the back of your mind. We got told that we will have to wait awhile to try and have another baby. As selfish as I am, I was a little upset by it. You would think I would learn by now that Heavenly Father has his own plan for me, and it doesn't always coincide with my plan.

My hair is starting to grow back, it is a shade or two darker and it is curly. I don't mind how it looks, sometimes it is cute, but the biggest problem for me is that it is a reminder of what has happened to my family. But I remember thinking a thought about how honored I was to shave my head alongside all the other cancer fighters, and it made me proud to have the experience with them. There is a picture in my Mother in law's house that is of the Savior and it says, "I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it."

Lately my thoughts have been with other cancer fighters that I have met, many who did not win their fight, or who know they will not, or who do not know yet. I wish I had more words to say than that I hate cancer and that I wish they did not have to go through it. Hopefully I can help with my career choice to make it easier for families and fighters!

On a brighter note, I am trying to strengthen my lungs by running (ok and walking)

Middle of Summer!

Busy Life!

Hello! So much has happened in the last few months. A.J. is crawling now, and he is almost ready to walk! (AAAHHHH!) He gets into everything, so JonAaron and I have had to baby proof our house.

We went to St. George a few months ago as well before I started Radiation! Thanks so much to Josh, Jennica and Abby! We had so much fun staying with you guys! A.J. really loved Abby, it was really cute.

I have started Radiation, in fact I only have about a week left. It is definitely better than Chemo! It burns my throat, and it is hard to swallow, but it really isn't too bad. The people at Huntsman are awesome! The whole process of radiation therapy looks a little strange. They make a mask that goes over your head and neck. It hooks into the table that you lay on so you don't move and they can hit the same spots every time. They also bind your legs so you don't move. The whole thing takes about 15 minutes, so it's not bad at all. Better than 2 hours of Chemo! (yuck it makes me sick to think about it!)

JonAaron is still waiting on a few internships, we don't know if we will even go, but it will be exciting if we do.

We took A.J. to the zoo last week too with some friends and family. It was fun, but I don't think A.J. cared too much. We got a year pass to the zoo, though so if you want to go, let me know! I would love too!

Thanks again to everyone for all you have done for us! We are so lucky!

P.S. I would love to look at some of your blogs that are private, the address is jonaaronpaulsen@gmail.com, so if you could add us, and then let me know that would be great! Thanks again!

AJ at the zoo with Dad!

Alligator!

Radiation

A.J. and his cousin Marissa! So Cute!

A.J. talking to Abby!

Finally Spring!

Hello! I hope everyone is doing great. We have been really busy over these last few months. I ended up in the hospital for a week because one of the chemo drugs started to shut down my lungs. Thank you to everyone who helped us out and to the wonderful hospital staff and doctors. I will continue to have lung problems for awhile, but I am doing much better. The best news is that I am all done with CHEMO!! I cannot believe that I made it to this point. I remember looking back around my 5th treatment and I didn't think I would be able to handle it. It feels so good to be done! I will start Radiation pretty soon, we are meeting with the Radiation therapist next week.

A.J. started crawling last week too! He gets into EVERYTHING, but it is so much fun to watch him get around. He is getting so big! We are already working on getting him to walk, but I think that will take awhile.

JonAaron and I finished up our school semesters. It will be nice to have a break and have some fun this summer, especially after a rough year. Hopefully we will get to take some great vacations, and swim a LOT!

Happy Easter!+

New Year

These past few weeks have been full of ups and downs. We had our first Christmas together as a family! It was fun even though A.J. probably didn’t care too much. My work CVU4 did Christmas for us, and they went way over the top! It really made us feel so special at a time that has been really difficult for us. They are great and wonderful people.

We got to spend some time back in St. George! I miss the weather there, even with the flooding, which was pretty amazing to see all the damage! JonAaron and I walked a Golf Course that had been right next to the river. The riverbanks were torn away and the golf course was flooded at areas. It was nice to get some time away from the snow!

The holidays were great. We got to spend time with lots of friends and family. We made up a game for JonAaron’s family based on the show Minute to Win It! It was a lot of fun!

JonAaron has started up school again; I don’t think the break was long enough! He has also joined the dodge ball and basketball leagues. We are looking forward to going to the games.

A.J. is still wonderful! He started to sleep through the night, and it has been great. He can laugh now, and it is the best sound in the world. I can’t believe that he is going to be 5 months old! He is also starting to eat foods. He likes sweet potatoes, but he is not so fond of the rice cereal.

Treatment is going good, I am now halfway done! The last treatment was the hardest. The chemo IV came out of my arm and it burned me. It caused me to get a fever that lasted for a few days. The Chemo also was burning my kidneys, so I had to drink lots of water! Thanks to mom and Sarah for coming to the rescue last week. JonAaron really got me through this last one too, even though it was his first week back at school. It seems like I always throw something on him at the start of the semester! (last semester A.J. was born the first weeks!)

To be honest, I wanted to get on here and complain about how awful cancer is, and how hard it is, but there are a few lessons that I think I need to learn. I have had the opportunity these past weeks to meet some wonderful people who have been diagnosed as well, One of them does not know if she will make it, and the other one I met will not make it. It really put me back to when I first found out I had cancer. I was wondering what my life would be like if I only had so much longer to live. What would I want my family to know? How would A.J. ever know me? I am truly grateful that my cancer can be cured, and my prayers go out to those that are fighting even in the unknown, and that they will find a cure!

On the positive side! I am looking for ideas to celebrate when I am cancer free! If you have any ideas let me know! It will give me something else great to look forward to!

Almost Time for Christmas!!!

I probably won’t get around to updating this for awhile, so I better do it now! The next few weeks are going to be busy ones. My next treatment is this Friday. It’s number five! By the end of December I will be halfway done. On January 27^th (my birthday fyi!!) I will finish my 8^th treatment and I will undergo tests again to see where the cancer is at. I am hoping my birthday present will be that it is almost gone!

JonAaron is in the middle of finals this week. I can’t believe that the first semester has gone by. It has definitely been a crazy one for him. He has been amazing through this semester, in school, being a great dad, and supporting me. He will be going to New York sometime in January to meet with some companies, and then Boston later on. We will also find out where his internship will be pretty soon.

A.J. is great as well! He smiles and loves to play! He is growing so fast, and it has been a blast. I am looking into taking some swim lessons with him in the next few months. I can and cannot wait for him to get older. He has so many friends and cousins around him that he is going to love playing with. As long as he still likes to cuddle up with his mom, then I am happy.

I did wait to put up our Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving, but it was hard to wait. I also went black Friday shopping for the first time. I did not want go after any hot item, I did it more for emotional support of JonAaron and his brother in law Jayson. (but thanks to my sister-in-laws for the Old Navy pajamas!) I think that everyone is crazy to wake up and wait outside in the freezing cold weather! JonAaron and I were huddled up in a blanket and we were visiting with the people next to us in line and the woman said to JonAaron, “oh your poor wife.” Because I looked cold, and JonAaron responded, “Yeah, and she’s got cancer!” We all started laughing, even though we had to explain that I really did have cancer, but it was funny. She said she hoped that I got the $500.00 gift certificate, but I didn’t, I got a $10.00 one and bought some socks!

Treatment is going good. The doctors are very positive about my progress. I will be honest that I have good days and bad days, I wish I could be stronger sometimes, but I think that is why I have so many people around me that care and love me. Your prayers and thoughts really help me through. I also am grateful for a great husband and little boy. They are the strongest reasons that help me through this and they along with all of your thoughts and prayers will be the reason I will beat this!

Wow enough of all the emotional stuff! I hope that you all have a great Christmas! I am looking forward to our first one as a family. We are also going to go to St. George and visit with some friends in between treatments. It will be nice to get away for a little bit and enjoy some warmer weather!

Merry Christmas!