Happy 11 Months to Grace!

A Graduation and a New Job

Today was Patty's (Stacey's mom) last day of radiation treatments. She was able to take home her special mask and a certificate to show that she graduated from her radiation treatments. We are so thankful that Patty was able to go to The Cancer Center at Unity Health Center. We have never met a more caring, compassionate, and respectful staff. They have been a complete blessing in our lives and we are actually sad that Patty will no longer be seeing them.
Yesterday we met with Dr. Zhang and she said that her partner will be meeting with Patty on September 15th and they will probably do an MRI then to see if the tumor has shrunk. Patty lost two pounds last week, but she stayed at the same weight this week. On Friday she will be meeting with Dr. Fetton to discuss her future chemotherapy treatments. Unfortunately, I (Stacey) will not be able to go due to.......my new job! My brother Brian will be going in my place.
I received a phone call from Spencerport Central School District last week to set up an appointment to meet with the deputy superintendent. On Wednesday I went in for my meeting and I was offered a full year long-term substituting position at Canal View Elementary school. I am very exciting about this new opportunity and I am ecstatic that I will be able to teach first grade again! I will started some new teacher classes tomorrow so that is why I cannot go to the appointment with Dr. Fetton on Friday. We are so thankful for this new opportunity!

Let the Treatments Begin!

My mom and I met with Dr. Zahng on Monday. She seems like a wonderful doctor who is on top of her game. She showed us a picture of my mom's brain scan on her computer. The tumor is about 2.7 x 2.7 cm and it is located on the back left side of her brain. She is surprised that Peej is not showing any signs of any symptoms.
She will be receiving 10 to 15 radiation treatments total. She will need to go for the treatment everyday Monday-Friday. Each treatment will only last a few minutes. The treatments may cause some swelling of the brain so she has prescribed Decadron to help with that. The treatments may cause some side effects such as hair loss, short-term memory loss, and itchy scalp.
Dr. Zahng wanted to start treatments on Tuesday and when my mom set it up for some reason the office person didn't schedule her until next Monday. I questioned my mom about it and she seemed ok with it. Well on Tuesday Dr. Zahng called and said she wanted her to go in then. I was working so she couldn't go then, but she got an appointment for today. I have to say that this really impressed me. I don't think most doctors would catch something like that.
Brian (my brother) will be taking my mom for her treatment tomorrow and then they will be meeting with Dr. Ashbury's partner to go over the CAT scan results and find out when they will start chemotherapy. Dr. Zahng seems to think that they will not start chemotherapy until they finish radiation. I will keep you all posted. Thank you for your wonderful thoughts and prayers!

Bows & Bikinis

Grace has been a very busy little girl lately. She is a little party animal. Unfortunately I've missed out on a lot of the fun due to my work schedule, but Jason has done a great job taking care of her while I am working. Here are a few pictures of Grace after Carrie's (Jason's step-sister) graduation party and Sissy's (Jason's cousin) surprise 30th birthday party.


Grace's hair is finally long enough to put hair bows in it. I was so excited about this. The bows don't bother her at all which is nice. As long as she doesn't eat them, we will be fine. :)
Here is a picture of Grace with her first hair bow.


We finally had some nice weather this past week, so on Tuesday, Grace went in the pool for the first time ever. We had to wait until Daddy got home from work so he could join us. Grace wore her Speedo bikini from Grandma Gina and Grandpa Gerry. She really liked going in the pool even though it was a little chilly at first. We thought she would kick more, but she really didn't. She just wanted to float around. We took her in the pool again on Saturday and she was kicking and moving more. She really liked chilling out in the pool with her shades on. We had a lot of fun.

Here is Grace in her bikini, waiting for Daddy to get home so we can go in the pool.

Grace and Daddy in the pool for the first time. Grace is making her new face. We're not really sure why she does it. It looks like she's mad, but she does it all of the time.

Here is Grace in her bikini from Aunt Andi and her sunglasses from Jan. She is loving the pool and the sun!

Hopefully we will have some more beautiful weather so we can get some more use out of the pool and Grace's bathing suits.