Chemo Party

As I mentioned in my earlier post, Bryan officially completed his 12th & final round of chemotherapy yesterday. Needless to say he is still in his "chemo coma" as we speak (that's what I call it anyway - where he doesn't really leave the house, get out of bed, eat very much, etc. for a few days). But I am sure by next week he will be feeling better & then he will have a few weeks off to let his body rest before he starts radiation.

I have noticed that Bryan tends to do better when he has people around. If he is by himself or if it's just the 2 of us, he tends to feel more sick, more tired & he worries about things. But when he is surrounded by friends & family, he is easily distracted & it lifts his spirits. Therefore, I planned a surprise chemo party" while he was getting treatment yesterday. Actually, the past 2 days were filled with surprised. It started on Tuesday when he got a really sweet e-mail from his past co-workers & friends from the Yahoo! office in New York. They took a really neat picture & sent it to him:

Later that afternoon, we got a special delivery at the house from my parents:

At small group that night, a couple from church gave me a new book about Colt McCoy & his father so I waited until Wednesday morning to give him that. (Thanks Nancy & John!) Bryan enjoys reading & we were big Colt fans when he quarterbacked the Longhorns.

During the day, his Mom, Nanny, Granny (both of his grandmother's) and Josh & Jenny came to visit. Technically he can only have 1 visitor at a time so we took turns sitting with him. Josh has came to most of his treatments, but his wife Jenny never gets to come because she is always at home with the kids. But she surprised Bryan yesterday by showing up with a balloon, mini bundt cakes & a present. (By the way, the mini bundt cakes were delicious!) Also, his grandmothers have never been there so I think it was nice for them to stop by & see the facility, meet the staff, etc. Here are some pictures from our day together:

I set out all of his gifts yesterday when we got home. I figure the few times he actually gets out of bed & comes into the kitchen he will see this & it will cheer him up. Jenny gave him a picture frame of him & Josh at his very first treatment - I can't believe that was almost 6 months ago! They also surprised him with a mini football helmet signed by Colt McCoy. Just another thing to add to his collection in his office these days!

As I mentioned earlier, he will have a few weeks off from treatment but he will still have several doctor appointments: CBC (where they check his blood counts a few times a week), follow up with his Oncologist, he will have a new PET scan to see how effective the chemotherapy was & we will meet with a Radiologist to get him ready for radiation. We will keep you updated as we learn more in the weeks to come.

By the way, I finally snapped a picture of Dr. Rizvi, his Oncologist yesterday. He is always so busy that I hate to bother him, but I just had to get a picture yesterday since it was a special day:

And who could forget Amin?! He usually greets us & checks Bryan's vitals before we meet with the doctor:

We are thankful that we found Cancer Center & Associates in McKinney because we have thoroughly been impressed with the staff & have they made us feel completely comfortable during our time there. I have a feeling we will be stopping by occasionally even after Bryan is cancer free just to check on the staff & other patients that we have become friends with.