Octob...HOCKEY SEASON!

I love fall time, but what I love more is the start of hockey season! We started off October with Chemotherapy. Josh did SO great that we actually forgot he was on it, oops! Aside from the normal fatigue, he made it through like a champ. Because of this, I figured I would treat him with hockey tickets. Our first game of the season was a total bust, we lost 0-5. Because of this, we decided what the hell and splurged on tickets for the next game, which was won! Lucky for our bank account, the team went up north to play three games in Canada so we are on a "game break." Along with the tickets, we splurged (and I mean, realllllly splurged) and bought two jerseys of our favorite players. I was completely in love with how excited Josh was. Seeing that made all the money spending a little less important. Money will always be there. It will always replenish itself one way or another. The memories however, will last a life time. I will go out of my way to just put a smile on his face. For in that moment, he is not a cancer patient, he is just Josh. A guy who loves his country, love his wife, and loves hockey!

Josh also had his 3 month check up MRI. He does two MRIs, one with contrast and one without. He has done so many of them, we have lost count. However, Josh did ask his oncologist for a slideshow of all the MRIs he has had, which I thought was a cool idea to see how things have changed. Speaking of change, the doctors have seen some in Josh's tumor. It's not dramatic, but basically Josh is responding well to treatment. The MRIs have shown improvement since moving here. Tumor is stable, not growing yet not shrinking. For now, we are doing great. He will never say he is a survivor, but stable is just as great. As long as it is maintained and hasn't grown, that is music to my ears. His blood work came back normal. Because of all the traveling we are doing for November, he was cleared to start Chemo the last week of October.

This month, we also had the pleasure of speaking on the panel at the Warrior Symposium for Navy Safe Harbor. I am forever grateful for this organization. They were the first people we met when we landed in Maryland. They were with us every step of the way the first few months. They sat with me during Josh's brain surgery, they help file paper work for my parents travel expenses, they took care of everything when dealing with Josh's old command and checking into his new command..basically they took care of everything. We have developed a friendship with our non-medical care team, a Master Chief who get's along perfectly with Josh and I. He has always helped us and stuck up for us when needed. We actually spoke on the panel as a favor to him. They asked us the general questions, what was his diagnosis, how has it changed our lives, and anything they could improve on. We are so thankful that we were placed in this organization, it has definitely helped us in time of need. We had nothing but good things to say on the panel. An added plus was I got to see my sexy Sailor in uniform, hubba hubba!

Wrapping up my October post...Halloween! Since Josh was on chemo, I wanted a simple costume for him. Out of the blue he said he wanted to be Waldo. Lucky for us, Target had his shirt. I toyed around for a little while on what I wanted to be, but at the Halloween store I found out they actually make the female version of Waldo, Wenda haha. So I bought the costume and tah-da, Waldo and Wenda was born! I really didn't think people would know who we were, I didn't think Wheres Waldo was as popular as it was when we were kids. But there were many adults who loved our costumes and one little boy said, with the biggest smile on his face, "Where's Waldo is my favorite book!" Success! We went to my brothers house to celebrate because trick or treaters were so minimal last year. It was a ton of fun handing out candy and seeing all of the costumes.

While I am sad to see October go, I am SO excited for Novemeber! It's going to be filled with tons of traveling and making ever last memories!