Regusci's Rags

Quilting and family; keeping life in stitches!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Sorry for my tardiness on getting an update up!! But yesterday was a busy day. Not only did my mom have her surgery but we also had a family dinner night to attend at Sam's school (were he was going to be dancing and singing).

We are happy to announce that both events went well. Mom's margin cleaning was fast and recovery has been very easy. She is all ready up and about, she has been sewing all day long today.

Sam's dancing and singing was priceless. It was a Mexican themed evening and the kids Spanish teacher had taught them a Spanish partner dance and then song and dance. He did a great job and it was just to die for watching him twirl around with a little girl and having to be a little gentlemen. (I didn't know it was in him). The worst part was because of the surgery my dad was home with mom so he was not there to take pictures and I have misplaced my camera, so we missed the pictures!! =( I tried taking some with my phone, and will try downloading them later. If they are good I will upload them.

So all is good here. We are just taking it day by day. Wednesday is our next doc appointment, we expect to find out further about treatments then!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Weight lifting or "Wait before lifting"

As most are aware mom and I have been working out with a personal trainer for the last year now. We do everything with her cardio to weight lifting. Mom was even working out up to the days before surgery. Our trainer is very much into boot camp style training, so quite often we use 8-10lb weights and do 3 sets of 15-20reps of a variety of different upper body strength things in any given workout. So this morning, after my mom suggested for the fun of it lets take the kids to Starbucks for oatmeal and steamed milk, and I handed hear the the Starbucks across the table with only one lonely oatmeal in it, I had no idea of the scene that was about to unfold.......

My left handed mother reached for the bag, weighing in at I am guessing under 1lb were talking oz, I was holding above her venti latte.


She grabbed it, I let go after all this women was weighting lifting much heavier things in reps just a week ago.


Oh but then...The bag lost altitude at an alarming rate, but yet it was slow motion.


Nothing could be done, the venti latte was now a helpless victim, thrown down by the descending bag


....it was all over, latte..flew across the table like a waterfall cascading down all sides right into Serafina's lap, Mom's uggs and everything else in its path. Serafina was on her feet in her chair, Matteo did not seem phased, Sam grabbed his stuffed and ran for another table. Mom and I just laughed. Of course there was a line out the door, so the employees couldn't help us at that time but handed us paper towels and rags. We soaked, mopped, rung out what we could and then settled back in to finish our oatmeal and steamed milk. (Sam joined us now that is was clean again). Then....

Yes it happened, Serafina's steam milk somehow slipped straight out of her hands down to the floor and the flood happened all over again. Milk all over the uggs, flowing down grout, (thank goodness we had not given the paper towels back) we soaked it all up. It was then we decide to leave Starbucks, but not before I but a nice size tip in the jar!!

The lesson we learned was that maybe Nana, needs to wait (a little longer) before lifting things with her left arm still, she is definitly not up to her 8-10lb weights right now!

How is your Thursday?

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Margins

I remember in school my teacher always stressing about margins. Making sure you didn't write in the margins and they were the right sizes, etc. Well today I learned that when you have a tumor removed it is important that you pay attention to your margins.

We went today for moms follow up with the surgeon and all looks good, minus one margin. What the pathology report said was they removed all the cancer but on one side the margin was only 1mm wide. Well our surgeon doesn't like that he prefers the margins to be wider, that insures that they really got ever last little tiny cancer cell that might have like to jump off like a little flee. What does that mean...well....Friday as in the day after tomorrow mom is going back under and he is going to widen that margin. It actually doesn't sound that bad, he goes back through the same incision and recovery is easier then what we have been doing because no lymph's are involved.

Lastly we found out that a few lymph's meant he took 14 of them. Six of the lymph's had cancer and 8 of them didn't. Therefore they are confident that all the cancer that went to the lymph's is out. But due to the fact that they did find cancer in the lymph's chemotherapy and radiation will be part of her follow up treatment, to insure that she stays and is cancer free. Again we will not know exact treatment regiment until we meet with the oncologist and radiologist which wont be until after the next surgery now!!

Until Friday..

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Recovery(ing)

Well recovery has gone well around here. We ended up bring in a couple of these outdoor zero gravity type chairs for Nana to sit in. She found them to be the most comfortable to rest and relax. They stood up to their name, zero gravity, and mot of the pressure of her arm area. Here is a photo of her happily e-mailing, school I am sure:



After about the third day she was all about the house trying to sew, and be more of a productive member of the household. However that end in a huge afternoon nap!! A little to much to fast. All in all she is doing great. The hardest part is having a fully functioning brain without a fully functioning body. This morning holds promise though.

On a side note, my blogger friend Brianna reviewed a book that she loved and trusting her opinions I went ahead a purchased a copy. This week sitting around with mom allowed me a little extra time to read so I was able to start and finish, A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family. It was a great book. Though I don't consider my "nuclear" family larger. I do consider our family struchter larger as there are currently 9 members that live under the roof. Many of the principle still applied! Also Matt and I are not done expand our "nuclear" family of eventually we might be large. So if anyone is looking for a good read:

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Safe and Sound Minus the Mass

After a slow start to morning, the doctor's first surgery took longer then expected, mom was wheeled backed to her surgery which went off with flying colors! Her estimate time for surgery was somewhere between 1hr 15minutes and 1hr 45min, after 50min we were told she was out of surgery and everything went great.

They ended up taking out about 3 or 4 lymph nodes, and we will have the full pathology reports back on Thursday. Oh yes and they also removed the tumor!!!

Now Lynn is resting peacefully in bed with heavy narcotics. At least I think they are narcotics, they are some type of pain management drugs, and she has ice.

A cute story from today: our doctor whom is Dr. Hayashi, (for those of you not from the central coast, the Hayashi family is a well know family both in the medical community and in the agricultural community, particularly for their strawberries) mentioned a while back, jokingly, that strawberries just happen to help cure cancer, however only Hayashi strawberries. So in order to help the healing process today, Trevor and Jen made a special stop at the Hayashi strawberry stand and welcomed mom home with a beautiful fruit pizza... and after so many blogs with no pictures we finally have one of the cancer curing Hayashi strawberry heart fruit pizza:


Here we go!

The blog has turned into Lynn updates currently but that is ok, we will get back to regularly scheduled programing soon!

The new news this morning is we are headed out a little earlier then expect they want us at he surgery center at 7:45am. YEAH, in earlier out earlier as we see. Everything yesterday went well. Mom injections with radioactive ink went well, she was just glowing during American Idol!! HAHA!

A big thank you goes out to everyone who has offered to help out and who has helped out. We have such great family and friends! We have enjoyed great meals from a few, Thank you. We have had family said us awesome information on diet and nutrition, and yummy recipes! And big thank you to Noni, Nanny Zoe and Gramps, and Jennifer, whom are shuffling the kids over the next 24hr so that they will not be in my hair or at the house so Lynn can have a piece and quite on her return home. Oh yes and a thank you to the Kansas City crowd I hear a rumor that Velvet cream popcorn just might be buckled up next to Popop as I type!! OH MY GOSH, words can not express. Also to anyone I have forgot, thank you, you all are amazing and have been amazing.

Most of all thank you for your prayers and the your prayers for today. As you say your prayers today also keep in you prayers our good friend's Andy and Jeannette. At the same time mom goes in for her surgery this morning their son, Henry 23months, will be going in for heart surgery at UCLA, amazingly enough Henry surgery should be patient just kie moms! Technology is amazing!! Thank you we love you all and I will post late afternoon when we return home!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

A little poke here, a little poke there!

Just as we thought today marks the first day of surgery prep for mom! Today she has to go get all her labs done. You know they need a CBC like they order on all those doctor shows, plus a bunch of other three letter checked box things! There might even be one last x-ray or ultrasound today also, my guess is to make sure the cut the right part out!

Then tomorrow, Wednesday, she gets to head over to AG hospital in the afternoon for what they said would about an hour to get the dye (as I understand it) done for the lymph node part of this whole thing. For those who want more info on the procedure Google search Sentinel node biopsy.

After that the tough part comes, no food or drink (including water) after mid-night...How will she do it?

In reality, it should be that tough, she is currently scheduled to arrived at the Surgery Center (or as they, the doctors, all call it CSI) at 9:30am. We were told that time could change and would only change earlier not later. Good news. And as long as all goes as planed she should be home that same afternoon around 3:00pm. The surgery only last about an hour, as it is planed now they will start 10:30. Then you have to wait a certain amount of time after to make sure she is stable and all before they release.

Mom is doing great. She is charging around here trying to get a few things done so after Thursday she can just lay round and not look and piles of things wanting to do something about them. Her main concern now is she just doesn't want to hurt. I understand that, and some of that reading they send home..ouch...then you google search.....double ouch.....vicadin anyone?!?

Oh and on another note, the paperwork said she cannot drive for a week after the surgery. Oh yeah a week, guess that's why I am around! HAHA, now I am going to have to buckle Sam, Serafina, Matteo and Nana in every time we leave the compound! For now I am off to make breakfast.

Happy Tuesday

Thursday, May 14, 2009

No New Boob!

Today my mom had her long awaited appointment with her surgeon and it went great. We all feel like we finally have some questions to our answers.

1. He said congratulations you caught it extremely early, it is still very small.

2. There are lots of treatments available for this type, we/ my mom have choosen his recommendation witch is to just remove the lump followed up with radiation. He was very positive that this would yield the best outcome, ie complete recover, remission (whatever the term).

3. As for checking for weather the cancer is in the lymph nodes, there is a new technique they use so that they don't have to remove all or as many lymph nodes during surgery. Which is great because I guess removing lymph nodes can cause problems in the arm. So the day before surgery they will inject a dye that will show which nodes the blood from the tumor goes to first, as they would be the first nodes to get cancer. Then they only have to remove those first nodes to test for cancer in the lymph system.

So when will all this take place, NEXT WEEK!! Yeah we could not be more excited about that. The waiting game is no fun. The doctor asked, when would you like to do this? Mom answered, tomorrow. He laughed and said well we have to get insurance aproval so I cant to tomorrow but how about we get the ball rolling Monday. So Monday starts everything and the lump removal surgery will be on Thursday, as long as all goes as plan.

That is all for now, thanks for everyones prayers and love, as always I will do my best to keep the blog up todate next week!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Sam Turned Seven!!

I am going to be cliche for a minute, but it is amazing how fast time goes by. Honestly it seems like it was merely a year ago when Sam joined our family a wild, little boy full of love and excitement for the world. Now he just celebrated his 7th birthday. He is a big brother to two siblings, can read, add, subtract, and do other mathematics. He is picking up Spanish and Mandarin, is becoming a great artist, can ride a two wheel bike, and loves to dance in his all boy hip-hop class. We are so proud of who he is and just relish in his love for the world and excitement for things around him. Happy Birthday little man!

His party was this last weekend and in true Regusci/Foster form we decide to have a lobster party for a seventh birthday. Complete with races, fights and carrot cutting!!


Click to play this Smilebox scrapbook: Lobster Party
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Monday, May 11, 2009

CONGRATS!!! (with a little sadness)


We are very excited that our Uncle Jon has just received the exciting news that he was excepted into Dartmouth School of Business were he will be studying to get his master. However that means he will be moving across the country some time in August or September. Sadness. But so much excitement at the same time. We do look forward to having a great excuse to go visit Boston and it will make major holiday's even more exciting because Uncle Jon will be coming home!! It will be hard to get use to the fact that he is no longer 5 minutes away and most likely wont be here for ever birthday but the adventures he will experience and the adventures we will get to take to go and visit him will be well worth it all.


Congratulation Uncle Jon!! We Love You and cant wait to come visit you at Dartmouth!

And what post is worth reading without pictures:


Jon holding Serafina, just about 1 hour old!


Ringing in the New Year



Visiting at the office!


Even though we don't have a picture of it, Serafina's first steps were to Uncle Jon inside the house right before we ran outside to tell everyone else and take these pictures!


Camping in the Sequoia's

Teaching us about airplanes.


Letting us borrow his bathtub when we had no power!

I will not explain.



Helping put together our play structure.



Playing

Thanksgiving.


Teaching us how to drum.



and how to have fun.


Thursday, May 7, 2009

Girls Weekend


What does one do after hearing she has breast cancer? Well in our family you go on a girls weekend. But not just any girls weekend. You go with your good friend and trainer, Alma, who is in a fitness modeling competition and surround yourself with physically fit, scantily clad males and female. It was quite the weekend. We spend Saturday helping Alma prepare for her competition, and then hung around at a few photo shoots. Then that evening was the competition. Afterward we all went to Cheesecake Factory were we proceed to have drinks and eat lots of carbs!! It was a great evening/ weekend. Complete with a fire arlam at 2:30am going off in our hotel. Yes we had to evacauate and yes there really was a fire (small tiny one) but the fireman came and we sat on a curb with about 200 hundered other pajamed people while the fireman made a sweep of the building. All in all it was a great weekend and we had a great time. Alma placed 4th, and will be competing again in Vegas, wohow!

Enjoy our pictures for the event:

Drinks at the cheesecake factory!

Our 4th place winner!

The girls.

The winner circle.


The Boys.


A boy pumping up his muscles!!


The two cutest girls!!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Our Nana

For those who have not heard last Friday my Mom was diagnose with breast cancer (Invasive Ductal Carcinoma). We don't have much information for now. Today she had an appointment with her GP and he reassured her that right now it looks like it was caught early but we really don't know much once they perform the surgery to remove the lump they will be able to give us more info on the cancer and the treatment plan, etc. Then we will know a lot more.

Right now she has an appointment with her surgeon on May 14th and her surgery should be/will be scheduled within a week of that date according to her GP. Her surgeon is one of the best in the area so we are grateful for that. We are all doing great, mom is still working and getting her kids ready for state testing. Her principal and lead-teacher (whom is also one of her best friends) are working closely with her so that they can take over her class during testing if the need arises.

We are very thankful that this a very beatable cancer and mom is talking about what cup size she might get when this is all said and done!! =)

For now, please keep us in your prayers. As we get new information or updates I will post them here. So please check here and feel free to leave a comment.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

A Post From Noni

This weekend I am out of town having a girls with my mom and friend Alma. Alma is in a Fitness competition and my mom and I went along for girl time and to cheer to her on. This morning I received this e-mail from my mother-in-law who was watching the kids so Matt could attend a golf tournament, after reading it I decide the e-mail had to be posted to the blog. So hope you don't mind me posting your words Noni but here it goes, my first guest author Noni:

I just had to share with you,Jeremy came into town last night and stayed on the couch because it was late and his parents were going to be gone early this morning to help with the Wild Flower triathlon. The kids got here about 7:10. I told Matt to just bring them in jammies because that would probably be easier. I told the kids we would have breakfast, get dressed and then go to Walmart to look for a birthday gift for Sam. My thought was that we would get out of the house for at least an hour so every one could sleep in. Serafina quickly spiraled into a melt down because she did not like the pants Matt sent. I tried to tell her just to wear them and then we would pick a new pair at Walmart and she could put them on there. She would not have any part of it. After 15 minutes of trying to coax her I started loading Matteo in the car. She started really screaming, running through the house screaming. Karlee got up and tried to help, Jeremy gets up and says I am not ready to have kids and will not be ready for a long time. Of course Karlee and I started laughing. Once again the Regusci kids prove to be the best BIRTH CONTROL for the Scalzo kids. It is about as real as it gets!!!!!! Oh please do not think I think your children are not well behaved, they are very good kids, just a big dose of reality for TEENAGERS. So Tracy the moral of my story is THANK YOU for having real kids so the Scalzo's know the reality of being parents.

Thank you Noni, for the hilarious story!! By the way did she end up going to walmart? With clothes on her body or off her body?