FUNDRAISER WAS A SUCCESS!!!

Well, I can not thank all of you enough for the success of the fundraiser we had at Chili's!! We made over $2000!! I will be walking in to chemo tomorrow and writing a big fat check!! I will not receive the check from Chili's for another couple of weeks, so I will be writing another one for them next month too! Again we appreciate every single one of you who donated, prayed and supported us!! We love you all! All glory to God, because we all know he is the real power behind all of this!

Tomorrow is chemo again.. I am not a happy camper.  Jon says I usually pick fights with him the night before chemo!!! Who?? ME!!??? I don't believe him! But tonight he is working late, so since I can not aim my emotions at him, I thought I would jump on here and update everyone!! I did realize tonight that this is the longest that I have been on chemo without a break since starting in June of 2011.  I have been doing chemo for 8 months straight!!! The longest I had gone without a break before was 4 months! I think I am due for a break. (I know my hair is ready for a break! This is the thinnest my hair has ever been!) I need a fun break, not one that involves a surgery or hospital time.  Maybe a nice beach somewhere!

This past weekend I got sick. WOULDN'T YOU KNOW THE ONE WEEKEND JON AND I HAD A BABYSITTER TO TAKE THE KIDS OVERNIGHT AND I GET SICK!!?? What are the odds? Pretty good when you are Christianne Adamik! I think I had over did it at the fundraiser.  I literally could hardly walk to the car at the end of the night! I had forgot to eat, drink and take my pills while at the restaurant! After I got home from the fundraiser, I don't even remember how I got into the bath, but an hour after soaking and Jon getting me food, water and my pills, I was a lot better! Anyway, the next day I ended up having a fever of 101.5 and was throwing up! Usually they make you go to the ER, but they said if we could get the fever under control in 2 hours, I could stay home.  About an hour after taking all my meds and extra Tylenol, I was feeling much better. I fought the fever on and off for the next few days, but by Sunday night it had broke completely! So I am curious to see if my labs say anything tomorrow.  I am not lucky enough to get to skip this round, so I am not getting my hopes up.  I have been having more pain lately, in my chest.  I thought maybe it was psychological, but a couple days after noticing the increased pain, Jon and I were in our room and the kids were in bed.  He kept hearing a weird noise, then he walked closer to me and asked if I could hear it and I said no.  He came even closer and looked at me funny and said it was coming from me! I was wheezing and he heard it across the room.  So that is something else I need to bring up at tomorrow's appointment.  But that shouldn't be too much of a surprise because the cancer in my lungs did grow. 

I do have an update on the kids.  The school finally stepped in and the boys are now seeing the school's psychologist.  They go every Tuesday.  They haven't been to their personal counselor in a while because, we just can't afford it.  But we really needed to do something about Joey being on Ritalin.  This dose is a high one and the doctor said this is the highest dose he is willing to prescribe.  Joey's teacher (who I adore and completely trust, she even showed up to the fundraiser!!) and I both agree, this pill is just not working for him.  So we made an appointment for Joey to see a psychologist (because they are counselors who can prescribe meds, they sound scarier than they are!) So he goes to see her on April 26th. He is such a good kid! Loves animals and to garden.  Today he took his toy gun that makes a loud popping noise and sat on a chair for hours because we had a butterfly hatch out of a cocoon today.  He used the gun to scare off birds until the butterfly's wings were strong enough to fly away! That's Joey! On the other hand, if we don't keep him busy, he gets in a mess of trouble! Like jumping off the roof, trouble!
Jonny is up and down.  He started bringing and reading his Bible to school. He came home one night and told me he was reading his Bible at school because he ran out of books there that interested him (so in other words, they ran out of Star Wars books!) At first the Negative Nelly in me said, "YA RIGHT!?" Of course, I would never say that to him, so what did I do because I didn't believe him? I quizzed him.  He answered every question I threw at him!  I was still in disbelief.  So finally I asked him about Adam and Eve (because he said he had already read that and was reading about Noah already) I asked him why they got into trouble.  He said, 'That's easy mom. The snake gave Eve the fruit because if they ate the fruit, they would know as much as God knows! So she ate the fruit and gave it to Adam.  He ate it and then they realized they were NAKED (he said it like snake without the S) and then they made clothes out of fig leaves and was banished from the garden!"  I started crying!!! I felt so bad, he looked at me like I was CRAZY!! He said, "What? was I wrong?!" I said, "No baby!!! I was wrong!!!" As soon as he said NAKED I knew he was telling the truth because he said it like its spelled not how its pronounced!! I felt like the snake!!! I apologized for quizzing him and he told me he liked it.  Then proceeded to tell me the rest of what he had read! Even facts like how old Noah was when he died! I felt like the biggest jerk.  Then he told me that everyone kept asking him to look up different verses! I said, "That is a great way to witness and tell people about Jesus!" He said that he told his friends to bring their Bibles and then they would read it together and talk about what they were reading. I told him that was called a Bible study!! He laughed so hard! I said, "what is so funny?!" He said, "I didn't know thats what a Bible study was!!" LOL!! So, a couple of days go by and Jon goes to Jonny's parent/teacher conference.  The teacher asked if we were aware that Jonny was taking his Bible to school and leading a Bible study!!!?? Jon said, he got defensive and said, "Yes we are! Is that a problem?" The teacher replied, "NOT WITH ME!! I am backing him up 100%, so far he has done everything right and they can't stop him!!" He then informed Jon that he was actually going to go to seminary, but his wife got pregnant and he decided to become a teacher! He also said that Jonny has been reading scripture in front of the class and he lets him answer student's questions!! My son the evangelist! I am so proud! It is so comforting to know, BOTH of the boy's teachers are Christians! Makes sending them to public school a little easier!  He is struggling with believing he has cancer.  We took him to the doctor to ease his mind! We have to make another appointment for him to have the lab work done to prove to him, he is healthy! I pray he does not worry his entire life that he will one day end up with colon cancer!
Then there is Caylee, she is still struggling with her urinary stuff.  Today she went to CHOC and had an ultrasound done and an appointment with Dr Antoine Khoury! One of the top Urologists around.  They scheduled her for a Cystoscopy, bilateral deflux today. If anyone knows anything about that procedure, please email me!! (You know I will be googling the heck out of it also!)  Her surgery is next month at CHOC hospital.  She will only be under for 10 minutes, but when it is your baby, 10mins feels like 10 hours!!  The doctor said that this is the last procedure she will have before they have to start doing an even more invasive surgery, where they actually cut her!! She will be on a new prescription to keep the UTI's at bay until her surgery.  I know God has a special plan for her.  He holds my whole family in his loving hands!!

On a financial note, we are still struggling hard! As many of you know, our phones have been cut off! If you need us, call my parents house phone, facebook us or email us at Ciadamik@aol.com! We are using all the money we earned from the fundraiser strictly on medical bills! I don't want people thinking we are going out and flushing their money away on our personal bills, wants and needs. We did apply for Medicare and we did get approved for that! That will help us out tremendously!! That will pay our copays, deductibles and prescriptions.  The problem is, we are waiting patiently by the mailbox to receive our cards.  Once we get our cards we are in business!

Keep praying!! Pray for my kids. Pray for Joey to get the right prescription he needs! Pray for Jonny that God uses him to lead many of his classmates to the Lord or at least plant the seed! Pray too that he gets a peace about having cancer (or not having cancer in his case)  Pray for my Caylee to be comforted during her surgery and that it will be as painless as possible. Also pray that this will be the last procedure she will need to have done!! Pray for me to either get a second wind when it comes to chemo or that its His will I get to have a little chemo vacation! Pray for Jon, that his job remains supportive of our needs and that he keeps his sanity intact during all of this! Remember, God is listening, even though it might not seem so!!

NUMBER DROP!!!

I just realized that I never posted that we got a phone call from the doctor that my CEA numbers, that had been steadily climbing the past couple months, just took a nose dive!!!! They had crept all the way up to 72 and dropped to 61 in 3 weeks time!! The doctor usually waits to tell us my numbers from the previous visit, at the following dr appointment 3 weeks later.  He was so excited, he called us with the news as soon as he got the results!! I guess those little baby steps worked!! I didn't lose any weight, but didn't gain either, so I will take it!! Now my next appointment, with all the Easter candy and desserts around here, I will be SHOCKED if I don't gain any weight! AH WELL!!

Also, tomorrow night we will be having a fundraiser at Chili's restaurant in Yorba Linda off Yorba Linda Blvd!! All you do is come in to eat any time between 11am to 10pm and bring in the below coupon and Chili's will donate 15% of you bill to go to help me pay my medical bills!! So print out the below coupon/flyer or email me at ciadamik@aol.com and I will email a coupon/flyer for you to print out!

 

 

Also we have a praise report!!! We were accepted for MediCal!! Which means they cover almost everything that my private insurance does not cover!! The absolute most money out of pocket I will pay is $1000 a year!!! Right now it is $7500 individually or $15,000 for family! MediCal will start retroactively paying from the last 3 months and on!! The problem is, I owe almost $10,000 to St Jude from the previous couple of years.  Well, we have not even looked at those medical bills because we were told by my doctor not to worry about them because he can't stop treating me, so we didn't worry about them.  NOW, the human resource lady from St Jude is saying if we don't do something quickly and pay down these bills, if I ever go into remission, they will stop seeing me as a patient!!!! So, thankfully we will not be racking up any more medical bills because I qualified for MC , but I have got to get the old bills paid down now as soon as I can! I am so grateful to my friend Krista Parker for organizing the Chili's fundraiser! It took a lot of weight off my shoulders!!

 

So PLEASE... everyone take a night off from cooking to come eat and hang out with your friends at Chili's in Yorba Linda! Please wear your fight club shirt or royal blue!! Make sure you have the above flyer with you and bring some friends along! Even if you can not afford to eat out, come just to hang out and have a good time!! CAN'T WAIT TO SEE EVERYONE!! I may seem a little overwhelmed tomorrow, but please come up to me and say hello! I want to take pics with as many of my friends/supporters as I can!! Love you all and KEEP PRAYING.... HE IS LISTENING!!