I was surprised to see how long it's been since I posted anything. I guess I've been busy with all of the Christmas preparation and celebrating the holiday.

We had a nice Christmas, on the quiet side since Jon's been fairly tired with this recent chemo. Levi, Ericka, Wyatt, Maelie, Elizabeth, Jon and I all spent Christmas Eve together. It was awesome to have grandchildren at Christmas (and the rest of the time as well)! Maelie is old enough to really understand and appreciate the holiday and kept us all entertained. Wyatt is an adorable, chubby baby and I am looking forward to my Tuesdays of babysitting that start in February. We all made fun of Elizabeth because Wyatt would cry the minute she would hold them and would stop the second Kelsey or I would take him from her! We all decided Ericka is truly a gift from God and we are all thrilled to have her a part of the family. Levi has matured into a wonderful husband and father, I still have a difficult time believing the stories of his youth and am thankful I missed out on all of that and get to enjoy them all now :)

The kids and I were up late doing church and our "Santa jobs" so we all slept in on Christmas day. Jon skipped out on candlelight services and went to bed early so he could preserve his energy for Christmas Day and duck hunting the rest of the week. Christmas morning was Jon, me, Elizabeth, and Kelsey who opened gifts and stocking stuffers while we drank coffee and ate cinnamon rolls. We went to Granny Nichols for Christmas dinner to celebrate with most of the Nichols clan. Tonya did a great job organizing the day and asked all of us to bring a Nichols memory to share. It was fun to reminisce, even for those of us who are new to the family.

Chemo last week was somewhat difficult for Jon. Krist and Tonya escorted him this time and he was feeling sick before they even left the new SCTWC. Jon had also been experiencing chest pains but Dr. Chen determined it was from the position he was in during chemo which cause the tumors to press up on his chest. He was chilled, nausea and tired when he got home but after an hour in bed with hot water bottles and an oxycodone he was up eating dinner and looking for his hunting magazines. He's been mostly just tired the rest of the week and he needs to take injections to boost his white count. He is finally giving in and getting a port so they can stop putting chemo in his veins (or what is left of them.) I am relieved that he finally made the decision and have been concerned that in the event of an emergency they would be unable to access a vein. He goes to Auburn general on Monday to have the port installed and is back at chemo on Wednesday.

Last time he had this regimen of chemo he had absolutely no side effects until 6 weeks into the program. This time its been problematic since chemo #1. We both feel certain he won't be able to tolerate all 12 and have decided to contact Dr. Goswami this week to see if there is anything he can do for the tumor on his pancreas. It is large enough to palpate through his abdomen and we are hoping that it can be treated with radiofrequency ablation and then he can have the Y90 embolization on his liver. The tumor on his pancreas also has the highest SUV on the PET scan which is a measure of the strength of the physiological activity of the cancer. It is our biggest concern because of the possibility of spreading so we want to eliminate it in the best way possible.