Dec. 7 "December Update" (Transplanted from Caringbridge.com)

December Update

By Adrienne Gibson — Dec 7, 2014 10:42pm

Wow! It's been awhile since I've updated. Honestly, I just haven't felt like writing about cancer. It's all consuming and It's like treading in murky deep water to keep it from swallowing us whole. We're hanging in there. Trent is on day 3 in round 3 of chemo as I write this. My mom has taken up weekday residence with us to take care of the boys while I've returned to work and to just keep my head from spinning off into the sphere (atmos, stratos, pathos...take your pick). Being back at work is challenging. It's as I figured. I just don't feel the same way about teaching as I once did. Maybe that will change, maybe not. It is good to see the students though. Some of them are so understanding and empathetic it's touching. Most of them are teenagers. It is very good to see my friends and colleagues. They truly are wonderful group of people whom I can be honest with, cry when I need to and laugh even more. Sabrinna is back at school with me and I love that. Lily turns 13 next week and she and the boys are doing well. Sometimes I think I get signs of some kind of acknowledgment in Gavin and then it passes. 

Trent is hanging in there as well - fighting pretty good really. At out last whirlwind trip to MDA things went well. He's mostly holding steady. His weight is good. There doesn't seem to be growth in the big tumor but some growth in the smaller ones in his lungs. The general thought is that his tumors are somewhat slow-growing so his chemo results will be equally as slow (we now know different). The Houston doctor has decided to add another day of chemo so now he's checked into Brackenridge for 6 days instead of 5 *sigh. He's sick some days and better others. Mostly really tired. He has several hobbies to keep him busy. Cancer is stupid and we hate it.

We have become regular attendants at a church here in Austin that seems to be the right fit for us - they have food trucks at every service, just one of many perks. We continue to have random God moments, which are cool but kind of creepy, to be honest. Like I said, cancer sucks, but we are truly being cared for and carried through some really dark times in so many ways. Through the love of family and friends, the kindness of total strangers and chance encounters with people who were obviously put in our path. Sharing Trent's story doesn't get old and people have heard about him - which is kind of weird - but allowed us to make some pretty cool connections.

Thanks for thinking about us and praying for us if you have been led to do so. Visit Trent if you get a second, we both appreciate it. 


Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Oct. 13 "Dates are Set" (Transplanted from Caringbridge.com)

Dates are Set

By Adrienne Gibson — Oct 13, 2014 7:15pm

Trent is scheduled to begin chemo on Wednesday. Things are a bit stressful in our house. (I wish I could remember why I said that...) Please pray for us as he begins his treatment. He'll have 2 rounds and then another trip to MDA - 6 weeks from Wednesday. If all goes as planned he'll complete the same process 2 more Times, totaling 3 rounds. That's as much as I know for now. I'll post as things progress. (It's Feb. 11, 2014 and Chemo and Cancer both still SUCK.)

Oct. 12 "Sunday Sunday" (Transplanted from Caringbridge.com)

Sunday Sunday

By Adrienne Gibson — Oct 12, 2014 9:54pm

After a whirlwind trip to MDA this past week we finally have a start date. Trent will begin his chemotherapy this upcoming week. We're hoping he's one of those people who sail through chemo. He's a tough guy and a great healer. Its been 2 months since the accident and his arm is doing great. Prayer works. 


We're very excited about the upcoming fundraiser. I see the advertisements pop up all over and it's great. I hear about so many of you who have donated and volunteered and We can't say thank you enough. We are truly blessed. Thank you for taking the time to read this and think about our my husband and our family.

(Poor Coley)

Oct. 3 "MDA" (transplanted from Caringbridge.com)

MDA Oct. 3

By Adrienne Gibson — Oct 3, 2014 10:23am

Sorry I haven't updated. Frankly, I haven't been "in the mood." Between hounding doctors' offices, wifeing, mommying and breastfeeding, pumping, appointments, dogs and anything else that you can imagine we've been swamped. So many of you have offered help and delivered and it's been such a true blessing. We love hearing voices and seeing faces. 


Well, we finally actually made it to MD Anderson but the trip wasn't without incident. About 30 minutes away from the Hospital on our way in on Tuesday I called to confirm logistics for the last time. Where should we park, what building and whatnot, only to find that the appointment had allegedly been canceled. Uhh, no. Those of you who are familiar with this ongoing situation and my current attitude know that this did not going over well, to say the least. At the advice of our favorite doctor I informed them that they actually would be seeing my husband in 30 minutes as scheduled. And they did. From then on the process has been quite nice considering. This really is THE HOSPITAL. They offer so much support for patients and family. They've truly thought of everything. I was even able to find a mothers room to do my baby business to keep up with Coley at home. Another real blessing are the employees of this facility who have true hearts for the work that they do. 


As we speak Trent is in a procedure. He's having a ct guided biopsy of his lung to reevaluate the nature of his tumor.


As far as returning to Austin is concerned. He has an appointment with the Austin oncologist on Friday to finalize plans for chemo. Preliminary it will work like this - he'll have a 4.5 month round. Within that round he'll have 3 six week cycles. Within those cycles he'll have 2 administrations of medications for 5 days each at the beginning of each 3 week set. At the end of each 6 week cycle he'll return to the Houston oncologist for scans and progress checks. At the end of the 4.5 months he'll have another check and he'll likely be given a 6 month break from the chemotherapy. 


***Update***


I'm back with Trent now. Everything went great. He's doing well, resting. He was understandably sad when he came out of the procedure - the sedation medicine messes with him too. He'll have xrays to monitor his lungs over the course of 3 hours. If those xrays are good they'll let us go, but the nurse did inform me that we aren't supposed to go further than 1 hr away for the first 24 hours. Great. But, its for his health and we'll do what we gotta. She said she'd speak with the doc and let us know.


Thank you to our Houston family for taking such good care of us. Regan, Todd, Carol, Ty, Chris, Rachel and John - thank you.


Momma, we'll home soon!??????

Brinna, Lil, Gav and Coley we love you and we can't wait to squeeze you all!?????????

Sept. 17 "C.Diff" (Transplanted from Caringbridge.com)

Update

By Adrienne Gibson — Sep 17, 2014 5:00pm - (This was my Dad's birthday and I said nothing about it.  I was on another planet.  Happy Belated Birthday, Dad!  Better late than never.)

Since the fever Trent was found to have a pretty horrendous bacteria called C. Diff. He was asked to return to the ER and was then admitted to the hospital for 2.5 days son that they could get the symptoms under control. He no longer has symptoms and is home from the hospital since Saturday afternoon. He has a couple more weeks of antibiotics and then hopefully we'll be finished with those. In the meantime there has been no baby or kid-kissing or hugging/touching. Its been difficult to say the least. Mom is on 24 hour baby duty. Trent helps when and where he can of course. The girls are both down with there own bugs as well. Hopefully we'll all be feeling better very soon.

We had some very welcome visitors while Trent was in the hospital. It meant a lot for his best friend Curtis and his new wife, Amanda, to visit. The spirits were definitely lifted. 

Also, with the much needed help of Trent's awesome infectious disease doc, Elizabeth Douglas, our squeaky wheel, we were finally able to get an appointment at MD Anderson! I was calling and leaving messages for our "patient representative" 3 times a day, but she was able to call today while he was in the office and work doctor magic. I'm so thankful for her. We go Sept. 30. Between now and then we'll get everything in order, focus on keeping everyone healthy and spending time together and with friends and family.

Sept. 11 "Fever" (transplanted from Caringbridge.com)

Fever

By Adrienne Gibson — Sep 11, 2014 4:45pm

We've had better days. Trent's fighting a fever and has been vomiting. We made a trip to the ER (Thank you, Ginger) and they ran bloodwork, he got a bag of fluid and they took chest xrays. There appeared to be increases in size according to the xrays. Trent wanted to come home and fight the fever and other symptoms at home, so we're here. The er doc is thankfully trying to expedite the MDA process. Hopefully we'll hear from them again tomorrow to actually schedule his appointment.  (turns out his vomiting and fever were a C.Diff infection, and they sent him home with it!)

Sept. 9 "Surgery" (Transplanted from Caringbridge.com)

Surgery

By Adrienne Gibson — Sep 9, 2014 3:20pm

Trent has surgery on his arm tomorrow for what will hopefully be the last time. He'll have the external fixture removed and as of yesterday there was no plan to put anything on the inside and it's an outpatient procedure, yay! This is #5 and he's know where near as nervous as he was a month ago, just aware. We're trying to navigate things like returning to work and whatnot, trying to get back to what our life will be like now. I'm very nervous about him returning to work for so many reasons. (Wow. what a foreign though at this point.  So naive.)


We haven't heard from MDA yet, but soon I hope. 


Thank you so much for thinking of us and supporting our family.

Sept. 7 "Waiting..." (Transplanted from CaringBridge.com)

Waiting - UPDATED - turns out we did not have a benefactor.  We will still owe upwards of $300,000 for Trent's accident alone.  Goodness it was good to think, even for a second, that we did not have that hanging over us.  Now, we just don't think about it.

Waiting

By Adrienne Gibson — Sep 7, 2014 7:59pm. 

The oncologist appointment last week went well. It wasn't more than a check-in so that he could officially refer us to MD Anderson. Now, we wait for a call from MDA to schedule with them. At best we'll hear something this coming week, and the following week at the latest. For now, we wait and now I wonder if there is anything more that I should be doing. Apparently, yes, because the tumor grew quite a bit between his accident and about the 3rd round of Chemo. Hindsight, dammit. (Feb. 11)
However, our time might be somewhat occupied between now and then. Trent has an appointment with the orthopedist tomorrow and they'll likely schedule another surgery to remove the ex-fix from his arm and possibly place something on the inside of his arm instead. We won't know for sure until tomorrow morning.

We received a series of bills from the hospital and various doctors that Trent has seen. The one from the hospital stay itself (12 days including 5 days in ICU) totaled over three hundred thousand dollars. At the time of the accident Trent didn't have insurance. After the initial sticker shock wore off a bit we looked at the bottom of the bill in the area for patient payment, which was marked 0.00. Meaning we owe nothing. The best we can imagine is that a charity picked up Trent's case for any number of reasons. Whatever those reasons might be to say that we are grateful is the utmost of understatements. Going into chemo with a $306,000 would be devastating, but now we can move into that phase with much more reasonable baggage. Thank you, Jesus. Praise God. We are being carried through this entire thing. Prayer works. Please continue to share our story. My husband has been given another chance to tell an amazing story that has just begun.

Sept. 3 "Big Days Ahead" (transplanted from CaringBridge.com)

Tomorrow is the appointment with the oncologist, the first since leaving the hospital 10 days ago. We're not quite sure what to expect and have trained ourselves to just be ready for anything. The best outcome would be leaving his office with a date for Trent's appointment at MD Anderson. I have a lot of questions and need to have my game face on as well.

Trent heard from work today and as of now they are working for him to be able to return at some point. Great news! We just don't have any idea when that will be. Could be 3 weeks, could be 3 months depending on so many factors. I'm in a very similar situation but without the worry of "if" I will have a job, thank goodness for contracts. Not only that though, I also have a very supportive and understanding work family. I'm exactly where I need to be. I'm actually still on maternity leave, as crazy as that is.

The kids are still holding steady. Gavin is hot and cold with everyone but Sabrinna these days. He got love for her all the time. He is concerned for his daddy and says "it hurts" when he sees his arm and his scars, but he'll hug, kiss and sit with Trent now, which Is great for everyone. Cole is a different story. He hasn't quite warmed up to Trent yet and won't really tolerate sitting or laying with him. Sometimes heartbreaking as we are subtly reminded of the days ahead and what they might bring. I truly pray for peace in pur hearts regarding these baby boys who are just so little. The girls are good so far. School seems to be keeping them mostly busy. There have been so many changes for them, my radar is on full alert. Mom is doing a great job of heading things off at the pass for us in regards to all of the babies who leave the house, a huge help and we can't thank her enough.

Jeez, I said this would be short.

His arm has been hurting a lot today and is worried that he might be building a tolerance to his pain medication. Unfortunately, I think it's just going to hurt for a while. The appointment with the ortho docs is Monday and that can be addressed then along with the next step with the inside of his arm. He's developed some mystery blisters on the outside of his arm where the road rash was that's troubling. We gave it 2 days but I think if it doesn't look at least 50% better in the morning it's time to call plastics.

Our moral is minute to minute. We are still in disbelief. Trent had his Dad take him to the crash site today to see if he could find his wallet. He said he knew exactly where it happened and found a bunch of debris from the truck. A pen, a sharpie, his small bottle of cologne and the belt that saved his life. The tire tracks seemed to help to tell the tale and they didn't hang out long. I don't think it was exactly going to turn into Trent's new hang out spot.

Better news! My bff Jennifer DeLara who is turning into event planner especial has locked down the date and location of the fundraiser that she is spearheading for us. Amazing! She has asked me to add the info that she has so far.

Save the Date: Sat. October 25 at Hanover's in Pflugerville, Tx. This is s kid-friendly event. So far it looks to be a volleyball tournament (of course ??) and silent auction. She is soliciting help of all kinds so if you feel the pull let me know and I'll put you in contact with her. This is a big undertaking and I know she could use the help. She's asked me to ask you to please spread the word.

We can't thank you enough for all of your kind words, offers for help, prayers and good thoughts. They carry us through those low times.

Sleep well and tell somebody you love them.
Galatians 6:9

Sept. 1 Happy Fall (transplanted from CaringBridge)

Tonight is the best that Trent has slept since the accident.  I think he just couldn't fight sleep anymore.  That sleep does seem to come with a cost for him though, but hopefully he'll get some relief when we go talk to someone tomorrow about the after effects of the accident.  If you are one who likes to pray for specifics rest, real rest is at the top of the list.

His arm is doing really well.  He's battling blisters from a sunburn on his arm after a walk with Gavin yesterday, which is indicative of a battle that in fighting - his inability to sit still.  His hand swells to twice its size daily.  Because of who he is Trent is having a hard time balancing doing too much and doing too little.  Add that to the prayers list as well.  His skin flap is doing great, on a happier note! He had all removable sutures removed Friday, which is a great sign.  He is also no longer on any IV antibiotics.  He'll have the picc line for a little longer but all is good there too.  We'll see the ortho guys very soon.  I know he's looking forward to having the external fixture removed and I'm looking forward to the same for selfish reason - I fear for my life on occasion and spend a lot of time ducking and dodging his sudden arm movements.  Alternatively, I caught Gavin preparing to hang from it yesterday.

The kids seems to be doing well.  They're all so tough its hard to tell what they really think.  I will tell you they do love all of the visitor, and of course the food.

Work is something that is on the radar as a concern. I'm still on maternity leabe but have used up all of my full time pay and have moved into the halftime pay portion of my leave,  which I am very grateful for.  I have heard that my school district wants to know how they can help, which is awesome.  In supposed to meet with them this week to see where I stand and what they can do - prayer list item #3.

As far as cheffing is concerned it seems to be on the backburner for awhile - pun partially intended.   We just don't know and that is incredibly difficult for my husband.  He loves to work, he is a great provider and he LOVES to cook.

A wise person told me yesterday that things will get easier before they get harder.  That seems to be the trend and I'm going to hold on to that as long as possible.

Thank you so much for the continued thoughts and prayers.  Thank you for spreading our story, Trent's story.  Its comforting to know that people know for some reason.  I guess because we know we're not alone.  Synovial Sarcoma accounts for only 5% of all cancers so if you come across a trial or a bit of information worth looking into please share it with us.  If you have anything you'd like to say please share that with us too if you can.  Kind words go a long way.

Happy Fall 😌🍁🌲