The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Book 2

(I have another post from 2009 entitled "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," but the title works so well for what I want to say today, I'm using it again. If you want to read the original, here is the link.)

The Good

Pepper has started his service mission at the Deseret Mill and Pasta! 

The above picture was taken on Sunday, Oct. 22, when he gave his farewell talk in church. As you can see, my parents were there, which was pretty great. Pepper did a fantastic job speaking about how Christ's atonement can help us get through trials, and I was beyond proud of him.

Then last weekend, Brad and I drove him out to UT so he could start on Monday, Oct. 30. He was a little nervous, but everyone there was soooooo nice, and Brad and I left feeling like our boy is absolutely in the right place. The other missionaries seem to have a lot in common with Pep, and after we had an orientation and tour of the mill, Pepper's supervisor took him out to lunch. We spent the afternoon getting groceries, prescriptions, and warm winter clothes, then Brad and I caught a plane back to Texas. A very quick trip, but such a good one.

As thrilled as we are about Pepper's mission, we still cried at the airport. We're sure going to miss this boy. It's mind-blowing to think we only have half our kids with us now.

 

The Bad

A brief update on my treatment, which isn't necessarily bad except that cancer is always bad.

We met with Dr. Cowey on Tuesday to see about starting immunotherapy, and it looks like I'll begin the week after Thanksgiving. He told us about a clinical trial that will combine vedolizumab with the immunotherapy drugs nivolumab and ipilmumab, which will hopefully minimize some of the side effects of the drugs. Vedolizumab is used to treat patients with Crohn's Disease or Ulcerative Colitis, and they're hoping it will reduce the frequency/severity of the diarrhea commonly experienced with the other drugs (diarrhea = also bad).

Since this is the side effect I'm dreading the most, I am eager to participate in this trial to see if it helps. They will do a brain MRI on Nov. 16 to see if my lesions are stable (same size as before radiation) or shrinking, and if they are, I should be eligible for the study. Once that's all figured out, I will hopefully have my first treatment sometime during the week of Nov. 27. The drugs will be administered intravenously about every two weeks for 49 weeks. I don't anticipate this will be an easy eleven months, but I guess it's for a good cause. I just hope it works.

The Ugly

Pepper's mill supervisor took this photo after the tour Monday morning. We'd been wearing the hairnets for a couple of hours and were desensitized to them, so we didn't think anything of it.

Big. Mistake.

Sadly, this is the only picture we have of the three of us on Pepper's first day, but whatever. It makes me laugh every time I see it--especially at Brad. (Sorry, Honey. Love you...)