Shabby Miss Jenn
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Monday, May 31, 2010

Fancy Camera Workshop 2010

The Sunday of Memorial Day weekend I took part in a photography workshop hosted by **drumroll please** the amazingly talented and all too-beautiful Cristi Owen!!  We spent the first half of the day learning all of the technical aspects of photography... shutter speeds, F-stops, ISO, lighting, composure, how the camera works, what lens' do what, etc.  Then, during the second half of the day we had the opportunity to go out and practice what we had just learned.   Hope you enjoy my pictures!!














Saturday, May 29, 2010

Pray for Kate

This beautiful little girl, Kate McRae, is the daughter of one of the pastors at our church.  In June 2009, she and her family learned that she was diagnosed with a malignant, aggressive brain tumor called a supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumor or sPNET. She underwent surgery, which removed 50 percent of the tumor, and underwent chemotherapy.  After her treatments in Phoenix were complete, and showed that some of the brain tumor still remained, she flew to Houston.  In Houston she underwent a very localized proton beam radiation therapy.  After weeks in Houston, the treatment is complete, and now they just have to wait.  I can only imagine that waiting is one of the most difficult things when it has to do with the livelihood of one you love.  My only glimpse of this hard reality is the pain in my heart for my dear hubby as we continue to wait to see if our treatment plan of food therapy hopefully helps his pancreas to start working again.  Each day I hurt for him, and I pray for God's will.  So when I think of all that this family is going through, my heart aches and I just want to cry and drop to my knees so I can lean on the understanding that only God can give me.  Sometimes it all seems so unfair.  I continue to cling to this families blog and updates on beautiful Kate, and I am continually inspired by their faith and ability to stand firm knowing that they are being comforted by Him.

I ask that you pray for this little girl.  I can only guess that these next few weeks and months are going to be so difficult as they try to find some normalcy in their life as they wait.  Below is Kate's moms most recent blog post, with all of their petitions!!

"Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." Psalms 27:14

Yesterday we were back in the oncology clinic seeing all of the new and old faces. We quickly updated them on our 2 months in Houston and then discussed what the upcoming days could look like, as well as we can determine. Lab work only periodically, a 100 day transplant appointment to discuss long term side effects and do lab work, and a one month scan. After that we can't determine but only hope what the days will look like. We have to wait to see what the MRI shows. It's chilling how we only plan for a month. If things are stable we will have another MRI in 2-3 months and so on. I can tell they are hopeful, but realistic. Each time we are there I want to beg for statistics. Something tangible for my hurting heart to hang onto. A reminder that some do survive. I won't let myself ask anymore though. We know roughly and that's enough. Enough to know it is possible to survive, and yet enough to drive us to our knees for Kate. Enough to treasure every day and plead for more. Enough to know the upcoming years will be very difficult and that God will have to be our sustaining grace. 

After discussing scans and the upcoming days, it was decided Kate's PICC line could be removed. A day we have all anticipated. No more TPN, no more heparin flushes, and no more sterile dressing changes. Finally bubble baths and swimming. She cannot wait! I cried as I watched her just stand in the shower tonight and soak it in. A simple but well appreciated pleasure.

When we left the clinic with no appointment scheduled I wanted to beg for one. Surely we needed to be seen next week. I wanted weekly labs. I wanted the security net of treatments and the slight knowledge of what was going on in her little body.  But it's time to wait. Please God, strengthen our hearts.

As much as we are nervous for the upcoming days, we also relish in looking over the past year and clearly seeing God's hand. We have seen answers to the many prayers. And so we ask for your very specific prayers in the future.
-Please be praying for for no evidence of cancer on Kate's scans ever, and that there be no cancer in her body, even that which is undetectable.

-be praying for protection for Kate's hearing from the chemotherapy and the radiation.
-be praying for protection for Kate's vision from the radiation
-be praying for healing for Kate's kidneys from the large amounts of chemotherapy
-be praying for protection for her liver
-be praying for protection for the healthy parts of her brain from the radiation, for no long term brain damage or learning difficulties
-be praying for protection of her hypothalmus from the radiation and all of the many functions that it effects
-be praying for protection from any secondary cancers that could result from the chemotherapy and the radiation
-be praying for protection of her heart
-be praying for improvements in her right sided weakness
-be praying for God's protection of Kate's reproductive system from the high dose chemotherapy
-be praying for protection for the artery that is encased in the tumor that it would not be weakened from the radiation

So we wait. But we knock as we wait. Pleading for God to be gracious to Kate. Thank you for persistently knocking on the door of heaven with us for Kate. 

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Bliss

Six months ago, almost down to the exact hour, I was standing on a beautiful Hawaiian beach marrying the most incredible man in the whole wide world!!  And that's not me being biased... it is the complete and honest truth  :o)

I keep thinking of all those people who told us "the first year is the hardest."  I sure hope that is the truth, because if so we are in for a lifetime of pure BLISS!!! These six months have been an incredible journey with a few bumps in the road, a lot of laughter and an immense amount of love!  Here is a fun list of all that we have experienced in such a short amount of time, in no particular order:
  • I really start my post-processing  business, working for Cristi Owen Photography
  • Dustin is officially diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes
  • We meet Kim Brown and Dr. Baker
  • Dustin starts school at ASU working towards his Masters in Engineering
  • Visit Oregon
  • We find a new church - Cornerstone Chandler
  • My home loan modification is approved
  • Dustin gets a promotion at Intel
  • We become involved in the After I Do small Church at church
  • Visit Little Rock
  • For the first time ever, Dustin and I have no roommates
  • We begin to pray together
Now this last bullet may not seem like a big deal to anyone else -- but it has been a HUGE blessing in our marriage!!  In the last six months I have witnessed my husband become an amazing man of faith!  I think that it is safe to say, and without offending Dustin, that in the past I was the one who was "religious", at least that was the term Dustin used to use.  But now we are both walking together in faith, and most of the time he is the one leading me and reminding me what Christ has planned for us.  The comfort and peace this has brought our marriage is absolutely indescribable.


Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Dustin's Numbers Update

Posted by Dustin...

Since you all don't pay attention to Facebook, you may not know that today I received my Hemaglobin A1C and I have gotten back down to 5.5, from 8.9 this January. Although that sounds amazing, it was the level I was right before the wedding, so I have seen this number before. What makes me happy was the C-Peptide value of 1.3 (within the normal range of 1.1-4.4). C-Peptide is produced during insulin production from the pancreas, and thus can be a good metric on insulin production for those that artificially inject insulin (C-Peptide isn't present in synthetic insulin). What does this mean? I'm back! Well, my pancreas is. Although it's on the lower side of the scale, its still in the "normal" range, and given that I eat very few Carbs, it makes sense that I would be on the low side. Unfortunately, the Endocrinologist stomped on my hopes when I showed him the results from a recent study.... This is typical of them, who for some reason counter all engineering logic, where if even a glimpse of a solution exists, you pursue it until you prove it doesn't. Modern medicine seems to only test if someone is funding it, and believe it only if it exists in a medical journal. I've been holding out posting the results of thes study until I met with him (to update on the A1C at the same time)....

Leah, the engineer by heart, thought of the idea to monitor my glucose levels every hour to see what's really going on with my numbers, as I have had vastly variable results by only taking numbers 2 hours after eating. I also thought it would be cool to see it every half hour, and to see what would happen if I tested if for a few days while taking insulin once each morning, and not taking it at all. The results area amazing! Take a look:


click on Image for larger view

This graph essentially shows that after a meal, I will shoot up to as high as 170, then come down to ~100 by 3 hours after the meal. This is still not good, and after today I will begin taking meal time insulin to control these spikes. (Side Note:  The doctor didn't necessarily recommend meal time insulin, but we more or less asked for it.  I believe that if I can give my pancreas even more rest my insulin production will go up even more!!) The cool thing is what happened when I stopped taking insulin:



Click on Image for larger view


The results are almost identical for with and without insulin (with in blue, without in Red). What this means is that unlike this January, where I would eat carbs and wouldn't ever come down from ~300, now I spike up but my insulin is able to produce enough to keep me within control. Again, this doesn't mean all is well, we still need to figure out why I spike, which part of me wonders if I'm insulin resistant, but that's what we need to figure out in the next few months.

Let me know if you have questions. Love you all

Dustin

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Little Rock

Dustin and I have been so busy these last few weeks - so I am going to backdate a lot of these posts, so that they will fall in place where they truly deserve. And I will start with our trip to Little Rock.

In the middle of May, Dustin and I went to Little Rock to celebrate my cousin Josh's graduation. He graduated with degrees in Spanish and International Studies. He has one more class to go this summer that he will complete in Taiwan - taking a class in Mandarin. After that the world is his oyster... or something like that?!?!?! We know that he will be going on for his Masters degree - the complicated issue of where he will get his Masters is the question. Complicated because we all think he should come back home to AZ - and he thinks differently. He is throwing around the idea of going to school in Colorado, which would be absolutely fine by me. So much closer than Arkansas!!

We enjoyed our time in Little Rock much more than we ever expected. It is a beautiful city with a lot to do - and a lot of history!! Our weekend started out by visiting the state capital.






As you can see Dustin was not so thrilled that I made him take a picture next to President Bill Clinton's portrait. He was positive that I would post it on Facebook and make it his profile picture!! I am sticking to my promise that it would not go on Facebook and utterly embarrass him in front of all his conservative friends ;o)






The next day was Josh's graduation ceremony. I love the picture directly above.  This picture is of my dad, his brother bill, and Josh and KC (my dad's sisters boys).  This picture just makes me smile so much  :o)

I didn't get any pictures from the bbq that happened that evening at Josh's house - but the memory will never leave me. After all of Josh's friends had left, it was just the "McFarland family". My parents, my dads brother and his wife, KC and Shannon, Josh, Dustin and I. We sat around telling stories of my Poppy and Nonny (my dad's parents) and my aunt Judy. We laughed so hard at times I was sure that I was going to pee my pants, and there were moments when I really wanted to cry because I missed all of them so much! But having such a wonderful family to share stories with made their memory even brighter. As the night grew on and we were all exchanging hugs and getting ready to go, the song El Paso by Marty Robbins came on. This was my Nonny's favorite song, and all of us knew every single word. We sat on the porch and sang together. It was as if they were sending us a sign from heaven that they had been watching us all evening long and were laughing and crying along with the stories too. Such a perfect ending to a wonderful day!!

The next day before we left back to AZ we did some sight seeing. Our first stop was to Little Rock Central High School. This is where the story of the Little Rock Nine unfolded during the civil rights movement. Stepping foot directly into such an amazing piece of history was almost surreal. We thought it was incredible that the high school is still an operating high school that is attended by more than 2,000 students.








We went to downtown Little Rock and attempted to see the "little rock". But apparently it had been moved as they were re-doing the area for tourists. I'm not completely sure I got that one right - but regardless downtown Little Rock was pretty cool. After that it was back to AZ!!

Kaelin Danae

Last Thursday, before we left for Little Rock (post and pictures of that coming soon) I spent the morning with Maile and Kaelin.  We ran a few errands and then went to Chandler Mall and let Kaelin play in the play area outside of Barnes & Nobles.  This little girl is FEARLESS!!!  Watch out mom and dad, because she is going to be a climber and all about adventure!!  She didn't care at all that she was half the size of most of the kids - she just wanted to play!!

Here she is trying to get up the slide (instead of going down it!!)



This next video is from early April.  As you may remember from this post, Dustin and I took Kaelin to the farmers market.  After we were done shopping we got some food and listened to their little country band play.  Every time the music started, Kaelin started dancing!!  Maybe she will be an incredible dancer like her mommy!!

Monday, May 3, 2010

Where to store it all...

So after Type 1, we have bought a lot of strange things from Whole Foods and Sprouts. Things that were never in our house before. We have more nuts than you can possibly imagine: cashews, almonds, peanuts and macadamia nuts! Then we have all the seeds: sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, and hemp seeds. And if that isn't strange enough we have green and red lentils, quinoa, red quinoa and almond flower. So here's the question I kept asking myself... where do we put it all? I saw these glass storage canisters that had a chalkboard front on it, in some home decorating blog. I thought it looked simple enough, and here you have it!! I am super impressed with the way they look and how nice everything fits. We still need a few more canisters, but for now this will do!!

Supplies Needed:
Glass Canisters
Painters Tape
Chalkboard Paint
Chalk