New Year, New Start

New year, new name for the blog :)

Wow, I haven't updated this in a very long time! Things have been pretty crazy around here and now that Josh has finished his second round of Chemo, things have started to slow down. I feel as if I have to back track to let people know what's going on in the Hearndon house!

First off, Josh started his first round of Chemotherapy last month. Temozolomide (or the easier name, Temodar) is a five day therapy once a month allowing him the rest of the month to recuperate. The first night was complete hell. We were naive (once again, let's be honest, when are we not?!) and thought "Okay, he'll just take the anti-nausea and go to bed and everything will be sunshine and rainbows like the doctor said." uh NO. It was about midnight the first night that I woke up to my husband violently throwing. Lucky for us we had the foresight to put a trash can right next to the bed. One time went by. Then the second time. Then the third. By the fourth throw up session I figured something was wrong so I packed him up and dragged him to the ER. While there he threw up two more times. He couldn't keep anything down, not even water. They gave him Zofran (Josh's new crack..it's amazing!) and let him sleep in the ER for a couple hours. Since the hospital was so nice to give us a thirty day supply of the Zofran, the rest of Chemo was a breeze. He finished his first round and we were able to have the rest of the month off to do with as we pleased. 

*Side bar, he had a MRI done which came back normal. There was no new growth, meaning the radiation did it's job at not allowing the tumor to grow!* 

Christmas was coming up, so we decided to pack up the car and drive down to Florida. Since Josh is prone to seizures, he is not allowed to drive.  Instead I would have to make the 16 hour drive down by myself. We had planned on just breaking it up in a few days and just take our time. Lucky for us my dad was home from work at the exact same time as we planned on leaving, so I had a driving buddy! I won't bore you guys with details of our two weeks in Florida, but let's just sum it up to Josh doing a lot of sleeping, beach days, spending time with our niece, and Josh catching the flu! We also got to spend the two weeks with our love puppy, Archie! Archie has been living with my parents since October. He adjusted just fine and has two playmates to spend his days with. He's losing weight and wrapping his grandparents around his little paw, haha. 




We came back to Maryland last Sunday. On Tuesday Josh started his second round of Chemotherapy (it was also on this day that we witnessed our first real snow fall of 3 inches! So cool for two Floridians!) This time around was different, they upped his dosage and added in a stronger anti nausea. I was hesitant of this new pill because every other one we had tried didn't work. I stayed up half the night the first night of chemo just waiting for Josh to throw up. Instead, he went right to sleep and slept the entire night! I was relieved to say the least. It's not fun waking up to your spouse violently throwing up in the middle of the night. Especially when it's something you really can't control. He has to take the pills, so the result is almost expected. This round went really well though. We were able to leave the apartment and do things around town. The past two days however he has been stuck in bed with exhaustion. So far, (fingers crossed) that is the only major side effect. On Tuesday we filed to get a wheel chair. We are still in the process of getting one, which will help us out immensely. I feel as if he will get more freedom with one, and I will get a great work out pushing him all over town! 

*Another side note, I have been told countless times that I need to take this story and turn it into a book. I, in no way, shape or form even consider myself a writer or could even fathom doing so. But I have decided to at least look into a the possibility of it. Who knows, years from now you guys just might be reading my very own book!*