Today Albert is celebrating another birthday!!
We are beyond lucky to have had so much time to do so many amazing things together!!
Since I haven't posted in a while, I thought I would celebrate him by posting to the blog and catching everyone up on all the memories we have been busy making!!
Warning!! LONG POST WITH LOTS OF PICS!
2018!
Let's get some of the medical jargon out of the way. Albert started a chemo in the Fall called Temodar. It also caused all the stomach and digestive issues, fatigue, and malaise as his previous treatments, but in general, for about 6 months it was slowing the progression of all his tumors. In fact, it shrunk the main one that resides in his chest cavity and around his heart. The first part of 2018, his quality of life was pretty darn good! So good that we got to do some fun stuff!
We headed to Waco to visit a super cool suspension bridge over the Brazos River!
And traveled to the museum of my absolute favorite beverage...Dr. Pepper!
We celebrated our nephew's 21st birthday!!
We hosted Easter and taught Cade all about cascarones!
Bert, yes, you look good in them shades!
We celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary!!
Basically the event of the year for us! Our closest friends got together and threw us an amazing celebration. A beautiful backyard event, sponsored by those nearest and dearest to us, attended by our most amazing friends and family.
A most gracious thank you to the Pratts for your beautiful home and hospitality, the Aults for making us feel like it was our first wedding, Karen for making everyone of those delicious sandwiches, including all of Albert's favorites, Marty and Shirley for all the help and Jenny and Fiddy for keeping us hydrated on a hot day. We know you all put everything into the planning and preparing, it was an amazing day!
And we did a thing....we renewed our vows on the spot! The vows may have changed a little, since we made 'em up at that moment.
We traveled to Florida to attend our nephew's beautiful beach wedding, followed by a great time with both of my brothers!
And took some silly pics when we got back to Texas!
Of course we got as much river time as we could throughout the summer!!
My baby brother and his family came to town, so of course we all ATE!!
Albert's baby brother challenged him to take a pic wearing the WRONG jerseys!
We took Albert to Main Event to celebrate his 50th birthday!
Somewhere along the way, the Temodar stopped making a difference and his tumors started growing again. It was scary because his medical team was scrambling for treatment options. Remember that at this point, he is no longer a candidate for surgery or any more radiation. Additionally, because his cancer is so specific, there aren't many meds targeted for it AND it is difficult to get insurance to pay for something that has not been FDA approved for that specific use. AND that makes sense. It has to have a remote chance of helping or else you are just putting more toxins in your body for no good reason. Still scary. They explained a list of 5 potential treatments, only 2 of which were actually viable options based on Albert's particular case. Also, he had been having pain in his hip that they couldn't figure out without further scans. In the end, he decided to wait until we got back from our next trip to start any treatment and getting his hip checked by an orthopedic surgeon.
In late August, we fulfilled one of MY bucket list items and went on our very 1st cruise! It was a dream of mine to go and I wanted Albert to be part of that experience, so we treated ourselves to an anniversary gift of an Alaskan Cruise!
The cruise started with a trip to Seattle for our port of call! Thank you for the airline miles, Fiddy and Jenny!!
We enjoyed dressing up for dinner and had a great time at all the shows, bars, and clubs on board. The pampering was amazing!
Our first port was Juneau, Alaska where we visited the state capitol, saw an amazing 4 story totem pole, spotted more American Bald eagles than we could count, and ate salmon and crab that had just come off the boat!
Then we stopped in Skagway, Alaska and rode the rail to Canada. Apparently it was one of the clearest days they had had in a while, so the views of the hillsides, wildlife and water falls were amazing!
Next we sailed through the Glacier Bay National Forest where we saw otters, seals, bears, and mountain goats. Oh yeah and lots of glorious glaciers!
That night we sailed to Ketchikan, Alaska and woke up early to catch a sea plane to an all you can eat salmon and crab bake and all you can drink Alaskan beer. Followed by a jeep ride back to the boat, through the mountains. Ah-maze-ing!
Our last port was Victoria, Canada where we visited a super cool castle from the 1890's. Then got on our only tour bus to sightsee; not our favorite, we like to go at our own pace.
Once we got back to Seattle, we rented a car to drive home, first stop... Seattle Coffee!!!
We took a week to get home, which included 6 more Capitol cities for our 50 Capitols collection, and a few more national parks/monuments; like Yellowstone National Park,
and Mount Rushmore!
A toast to returning home safely!
And back to reality! New treatments, lots of scans, and more anxiety waiting for results. Bert started a new medication called Affinitor that had LOTS of side effects. And a referral to the orthopedic surgeon.
Meanwhile, we celebrated someone else's 50th birthday!
And pulled off another fantastic Halloween ensemble thanks to our daughter's artistic talents.
By the way, just sayin', October 31st marked Albert's 5th year of kicking cancer's butt!
And he got some new wheels!!
He's gotten pretty good at sleeping anywhere!
MD Anderson always does a great job decorating for Christmas!
We had fun sharing another New Year's Eve together.
I hope some of you are still with me!!
Next time I will post about this year; which has brought us more opportunities, more uncertainties, surgery, and more bad days than good, BUT it has also brought us more time together, making the most of every day, and of course, more pics!
-becca
