It's a Merry Merry Christmas!

Happy holidays everyone! Hope your Christmas was warm and cheery! Everyone made it back home to MN safely and on time despite all the snow. We had a great and thankful few days spent together with family.

Mom has been feeling great the last few weeks and is even back to work full time. Her hair has been growing back sporadically- so on Saturday we took turns and ended up shaving it all off (lathered her up with shaving cream and bic'd it!). Now it can grow out evenly and fee of toxins from the chemo!

Taylor needed a bit of medical attention himself on Saturday... he was playing in an annual softball game out on Lake Minnetonka and was hit in the forehead with a flying metal bat! Thankfully he didn't loose consciousness and just ended up with a swollen forehead with 7 stitches in it!

On Monday mom had a quick surgery to remove her port that was used for chemo. She's a bit bruised and swollen, but happy to have it out!

Our next hurdle to tackle will be mom's radiation. She will start next week most likely. She will have treatments 5 days a week for 6 weeks. Each treatment lasts about 10 minutes and everyone has said it will just make her tired- shouldn't be bad compared to the chemo, I'm sure she'll continue to get through this next phase like the champ she is!

It's been great looking through everyones Christmas cards and letters! We have so many people in our lives to be thankful for. We love you all, thanks once again for the continue love and support! Take care~

Love The Petersons

p.s. Congrats to the UW Badgers for winning the Champs Sports Bowl tonight, woo hoo!

Chemo Conquered!

So good news everyone, we are officially done with the chemo phase, woo hoo time to celebrate! Mom completed her 4th round of chemotherapy today like a champ. Dad, me (Andrea) and Mom headed to the clinic around 8:30am this morning, slightly delayed due to the dusting of snow we received. That was quite a rude awakening for me this morning after not seeing the nasty white stuff since pre-Hawaii last December! We snuggled into our room by 10:00am after finding out Mom's labs were perfect yet again and getting the go ahead from our practitioner Heather. It is surprising how "routine" this has become after just 4 rounds even though chemo is something you never truly want to get used to. Roxy was our nurse today and she was fabulous. She loved listening to Mom's stories, which is a blessing since Mom was talking a mile a minute, which we are contributing to her steroids! ("Yeah right says Dad, she always has a motor mouth!") We read magazines, surfed the Internet, did word puzzles and Dad even got some work done. Lindsey came a little later and brought us a tasty Subway lunch and a cake for dessert in celebration! And that was it. We are so blessed to have had such a positive experience through all of this. Our prayers have definitely been answered.

So whats next you ask? Mom will hopefully relax these next 3 weeks and let this final chemo work its course. We are all looking forward to a wonderful Christmas at home together. Then on Dec 28th, Mom will visit North Memorial and Dr. Mestitz again to have her port removed. She will need to heal for a couple of weeks and in the meantime will have the mapping done and tattoos placed in preparation for radiation. Mom will most likely start radiation therapy the second week of January, which will consist of 5 treatments a week for about six and a half weeks. So there you have it. We ask for your continued prayers for strength, healing, and no side effects for the next few weeks. We also pray for safe travels as Lins is heading back out to Vail on Monday for the ski season and me back to Chicago. While we are at it I also ask for prayers for Mom and Dad as they rediscover empty nesting! We hope this update finds everyone well and you all had a great Thanksgiving. This holiday season we have so much to be thankful for in all of you. Have a great day.

Love,
The Peterson's