happy birthday to us!

Well it is that time of year again....our birthdays!! Sean and I are very happy to be celebrating our birthdays this week. The festivities started with our annual family gathering at the Parto's on Sunday. And of course, Jay was there to also celebrate his birthday (3/18). We had a wonderful time and were both very grateful to be able to get out and go to the party. Sean had a great day and it was definitely a confidence builder, so maybe next time will be a little easier to go and visit.

Right now we are enjoying the extremely warm weather on the back deck. It is about 70/75 and breezy which feels fabulous! We are hoping that this evening when Bert gets home from work we can go out for a walk as long as the weather holds up!

Sean is doing really well. He is spending more time awake during the day, which is great, we have been able to watch a lot of good movies lately. Last night he decided he wanted to sleep on the sofa bed with me, so he did! He is keeping positive and looking forward to starting PCV again. We meet with Dr Hou and Dr Raj on Friday and get the results of the MRI and start new chemo. We don't expect that this MRI will show much of anything or be much help, since it is a different machine than the last MRIs and we are pretty much looking at this scan as a baseline.

We hope that everyone else is enjoying warm weather and happy days!

so nice

Yesterday was so nice here at home that Sean decided he would like to have lunch on the back deck. It was over 60 degrees and it was super nice to get out of the house for a little bit. We are getting ready for the next few weeks. We have developed a new "schedule" to better organize our days and are looking forward to Sean's rehabilitation in the next few weeks. Yesterday we also celebrated Leah's birthday with a Serendipity themed evening. We ordered dinner from The Outback and then watched the movie Serendipity. During the movie, we enjoyed our wonderful Frozen Hot Chocolate that Brigid got us for Christmas. I also ordered a gift set for Leah so they could enjoy with us! We had such a fun evening! Hope everyone is having a great weekend and enjoying the warm weather!

look out world....

Sean is making a lot of headway with his recovery. Every day is something new and exciting here at the Carabine home! Gosh, where do I start? Sean did a week and a half of physical therapy outside the home, and it is a lot of effort getting him in and out of the car to get him to PT. Sean decided that he would rather use all of that extra effort actually doing physical therapy and recovering, so we have decided to use the exercises that David and Rachel gave us and we have asked them to help us with exercises that we can use as Sean progresses. We are taking this route for the time being and could possibly go back to outside PT as it is easier to get Sean in and out of the house.

Sean had acupuncture today in the house, which was awesome! The acupuncturist agreed that the chinese herbs are the best thing for Sean right now and will be in contact with his chinese doc about what she is doing in acupuncture and the chinese doc can then tailor the herbs to aid what the acupuncturist is doing. She will be coming in at least once a week.

Through the VA, Sean qualifies for 10 hours a week from a home aide. We got a call today from the home care agency and they will be coming Friday to evaluate the situation and by next week we should have someone coming in to help out during the day. This will be huge because it will give me a little time during the day to get some things done around the house.

What else? What else? We have an appointment with Dr Raj on Friday. I don't know how much information we will get from the appointment as we are not going to have an MRI beforehand, but it will be good to see Dr Raj and get her take on the situation.

Bert and Leah are still staying with us, which is wonderful. They are both so positive and encouraging and make our days so enjoyable! Bert is helping out a lot with physical therapy, which makes a huge difference, and Leah is so sunny and positive and Sean loves having her smiley face around!

Everyday Sean is getting stronger and is able to do a little more. This week has been great as far as improvements go. Two nights ago, Sean walked the length of the couch with the walker and some support from Bert and I. He is able to sit up on his own, his upper body strength is getting so much better. He fed himself dinner tonight and took all of his pills on his own today, which means his coordination is improving also. His speech is improving and he is talking a lot more, not just about the things he needs, but he is pretty much talking whenever he is awake. He is spending a lot more time during the day out of bed, watching TV with us on the couch, sitting in the massage chair, and eating at the table. His goal is to be up and using the walker mostly on his own by our birthdays. What a great present that will be!!

We are so blessed to have so many people rooting for us and supporting us. We are so grateful for all of the prayers and positive thoughts that everyone has been sending our way. Please keep 'em coming!