Chemo, Hospitals and Whales...Oh My!

I know it's been almost a month since I updated. Things have been seriously busy, stressful, fun, relaxing...just a little bit of everything. So, let's see if I can get ya'll caught up!

On the 28th of June, not long after we got back from Idaho, I flew home to Phoenix for chemotherapy. When I took off from Monterey airport it was 54 degrees. Ninety minutes later, when I landed in Phoenix it was 113. Is there any question as to why we spend our summers up here?

I had chemotherapy the next morning and then flew back up here that night. It's a good thing I flew home the night of chemo, because the next morning chemo had attacked my joints. Every joint in my body was swollen, stiff and HURT. Now, three weeks later, it's still affecting me in some ways, but the pain is mostly gone. My hair did fall out in big clumps again, so I'm back to having peach fuzz on my head.

So, back to the fun stuff!!! I decided it was time for Isaac to go play on the beach for the first time in his life. Because of his asthma, I've been a wee bit over protective of taking him to new places, but I decided it was time he got to see the beach.

Isaac's first steps onto the beach

He LOVED the sand...until he tried to eat it

He finally decided it was pretty dang cool!

Waving bye bye to the ocean!

The same day we went to the beach, I managed to get some cute pictures of the big boys, too...

He was showing me how to surf!
The kid is a total crack up

Tanner and I have been able to go out whale watching in the bay twice! There's a GREAT little company right here in Moss Landing called Sanctuary Cruises (www.sanctuarycruises.com). They run a smaller boat, so it's not as crowded as the boats out of Monterey, and they run a much longer cruise so you can see more. The first time we went, we got to see a whole lot of humpbacks surfacing feeding, so they were right on the surface next to the boat. It was AMAZING! We even got to see a blue whale completely breach out of the water! Sadly, that day I didn't have my camera. Yea, I'm a dork. But, we went again yesterday and I had a camera this time! We didn't see as many whales as we did the first time, but it was a GORGEOUS day! The sun was shining, the ocean had great swells and we were fortunate enough to see a lot of sea life.

A humpback spout

The view on the way out of the bay

Tanner and I on the boat

A humpback waving hi! He actually did this for like 3 minutes
It was amazing!

Our final view of the whale
What an absolutely amazing animal!

Tanner and Captain Mike
Captain Mike is my hero now and an angel walking on Earth
He took us out twice, for free, and he let T drive the boat!

At 1 this morning I woke up and could hear Isaac wheezing through two closed doors. I got him up, got Ma up to help me give him a breathing treatment. I put him back to bed but he never went back to sleep, and 2 hours later I could hear his wheeze through the doors again. So, up I got, up Mom got and we gave him a double treatment. I woke up Daddy to ask his opinion on what we should do, and we decided that we needed to make sure the baby's oxygen levels were ok, so I called 911. The wonderful men of the North County Fire Department showed up in a few minutes and transported Isaac and I to the hospital.

So, it turns out not only is the poor baby having a massive asthma attack, he's also got pneumonia. We're back on a 2 hour schedule for breathing treatments, tylenol, steroids and antibiotics. It's going to be a long few days. But, he's such a special baby and even when he's having trouble breathing and looks like hell, he still smiles and hugs everybody. I think we could all learn a great lesson from that little tiny boy!

So there's the highlights of the last few weeks of our life here on the Central Coast. We will be going back to Arizona around the 1st of August, so that I can see more doctors and Tanner can start school. This summer has been bitter sweet but, as always, it's been wonderful to share it with my parents and my phenomenal children. I will forever be grateful that my daddy chose to build a house up here!!!

I'll update ya'll on the cancer thing in a couple of days. I'd rather revel in the good for a while! :)

Love you all!