Team Watson: Heading into the second phase of Cycle Eleven

Well, we are finally seeing our Amanda back. The past two days she has actually stayed out of bed all day!! I'm so thrilled that she seems to have bounced back.

Tomorrow we go to Dell for labs, her Avastin infusion and the white blood cell booster shot. I expect (and hope!) that her labs will be good judging by what we are seeing right now.

On Sunday, Amanda woke up still feeling a little weak, so Brandon and I went to church together on Mother's Day. Mother's Day is one of those holidays that I love because for me it represents celebrating the two things in my life that I am the most proud of - my children. I have never been more grateful for the privilege of being their mother. What amazing, resilient, strong, tender and brave children I have been blessed with.

Because of Tom's schedule, our family celebrates holidays around when he is home.....and depending on when we buy gifts. The kids couldn't wait to give me my present once they bought it and that was last Monday!! So we celebrated Mother's Day early on the Monday evening before Mother's Day. We had a lovely picnic in the backyard with grilled cheeseburgers and they gave me a passion flower plant. The blooms are absolutely gorgeous! We were treated to a beautiful bloom the next day and the picture is below.

Yesterday, in spite of the rain, we managed to squeeze in a visit to Uncle Powell's for Amanda to see Georgie. In between short rain showers, Amanda got to ride a little, as did Brandon and I. It was the first day that Amanda has spent the entire day out of bed, and the fact that we actually got out of the house for a few hours to go somewhere was great!

This morning was her day at ROCK but she didn't feel like riding today. Thankfully, as the day went on, she has felt better and better and really seems to be back to herself.   I think I even heard her tell Tom tonight that this is the best she has felt in a couple weeks. Praise God!

It is such a relief to see Amanda with energy and feeling better. (Even though that means that she and Brandon have been feeding off each other tonight, going from squeals of laughter to angry growls quicker than I can catch my breath.....) Even with this perk in her energy, her appetite is still not where it should be. That means her weight will most likely not be where her doctors want it to be tomorrow at her appointment.   Perhaps a large breakfast and lunch tomorrow will help compensate a little? ;)

Tonight, I will go to bed with a grateful heart. My girl is back on her feet again, and even though I can't help but think about the fact that her counts might be hit again soon, I am still so happy to see her like this.   Please pray that she can breeze through these next two weeks and then sail into...drum roll please....chemo cycle twelve out of twelve!!!!! Just typing that, I'm having one of those 'Oh Happy Day' moments.   If you have been with us for awhile, you might remember reading the post when we were nearing the final days of radiation (a year ago last week!) and I described how joyful I was feeling with the anticipation of finishing that race by comparing it to the movie, Secretariat. (You can click on 'Oh Happy Day' to read the post.) Well, that feeling is once again a' brewin! I know we still have six weeks left and the emotional roller coaster will still roll on, but I will cling to that feeling fiercely in the days to come as we encourage Amanda to finish strong and we keep our eyes focused on the finish line.
Hebrews 12:1 .....let us run with endurance the race that is set before us