A Slap In The Face, AGAIN!

Good Evening! 

So last time I wrote here, things were going AMAZING and I had nothing but great news to share! The next day, things already changed quite a bit. 
Ryan and I travelled to Oslo for round 5/6 and since I had been doing so well, we were expecting nothing but great news from the doctors. Unfortunately it wasn't quite like that. I had new scans the day of arrival at the hospital and then the doctors where going to compare them to the scans they had taken before and decide from there how things were going. Ryan and I had obviously decided that after round 6/6, I would be done, DONE and we have already kinda started celebrating (which I am sure a lot of you guys had done too). We found out that we started celebrating a little bit too early. 

After the doctors had looked at the new scans and compared them to the other scans, Ryan and I had a meeting with them before starting liquid sunshine 5/6 (what we thought). The meeting was what felt like a slap in the face! It was a tough one! When the doctors looked at the scans, they saw some new spreading in the liver, thankfully it wasn't a lot they said, but enough for them to not be happy with the treatment I was already getting. Everything else looked stable (my spine, my hips and my abdominal wall) and there was no sign of spreading to the lungs or any other areas. So I guess that's all great news! Something to be happy and thankful about. Buuuuut that liver wasn't working with us as quite as we wanted. SO now the doctor had made a new game plan! A completely different plan that was hard to wrap our heads around at first. And I think that is also why it has taken me so long to sit down and write a new blog and update everyone. It's been challenging to put all this into words. 

The new plan was instead of doing liquid sunshine round 5/6 that day, I was supposed to start 1/8!! Doesn't that just sound so horrible?! one out of eight?! It just seemed like a restart when I felt so close to the finish line. However, thankfully things did lighten up a little bit because instead of doing treatment every 3 weeks, I am now doing them every single week. So more frequent, but only one day of liquid sunshine instead of three each time. I know it's confusing and complicated! So instead of being done this week, I am supposed to be done about 4 weeks later (seems less horrible when you look at it that way, so I choose to do that). 
The day of the news, I started round 1 already. This new treatment is less aggressive, but is given more often (every single week). Except for the first round, I am doing the rest of them at my local hospital in Lillehammer, which is very nice. I get to spend a lot more time at home and I just go in for the treatment every Tuesday as outpatient (I go home when I am done on the same day). 

While I am writing this blog, I am actually connected and receiving liquid sunshine round 3/8. So far, this treatment has not affected my body as much as the other one, which I am very thankful for! I have been pretty healthy and been able to be myself a lot more. I have felt strong and been able to do most things. Due to these news, Ryan and I had to cancel our amazing trip that we had booked and looked forward to so so much! Unfortunately we aren't going to be able to go to Greece and Croatia for 10 days anymore, but we are trying to make the most of this new schedule that we have and do little things on the weekends between treatments. So the first two weeks we did little weekend trips! First we went to Bergen and met up with a friend from Alaska and my sister with her kids. It was so much fun and did so much for Ryan and I. Our hearts were filled and we were able to forget about reality for a little bit, which was much needed. The next weekend after, we went to Stockholm, Sweden and visited our lovely friends Li and Erik. They have an apartment in a great location and we had so much fun seeing them. We had a perfect trip with mixture of exploring and just hanging out with them and enjoying being together. Such an amazing trip! 

The morning after Stockholm, I woke up not feeling too great so Ryan suggested that we would take my temperature (if you're undergoing liquid sunshine and get fever, you have to contact your doctor right away). Unfortunately, I had a pretty high fever, so we called the local hospital and they told us to go in. Thankfully, at this point a lot of them know us there and they all treat us so well. We are so lucky how amazing they are. Anyway, I went through the ER to do some blood work and then I was admitted to "my floor" where I have open access and where I always stay when I am there. The blood work looked okay and the doctors weren't too concerned about an infection yet, but then they sent me for an x-ray, which showed that I had a pneumonia (lung infection). Unfortunately, I had to start antibiotics through IV right away and the doctors told me that I would not be able to do liquid sunshine round 3 the next day. It had to be moved one week. I was quite upset with that. Again, another bump in the road that just felt very annoying. But, I just had to keep my head up and try to recover from the pneumonia, get rid of my fever and build up strength again before round 3, which I am doing today!! I stayed in the hospital for 4 days, but then when my fever and pneumonia had gone away, I was able to go home and just take the antibiotics in tablet form. Always good to be home and not having to stay at the hospital :) even though they are super sweet there! 

The plan going forward is to keep doing liquid sunshine every Tuesday here in Lillehammer and then after round 6/8, I will do new scans and have a meeting with the doctor on how things are going. From there, the doctors will evaluate if this new treatment is working and if we will keep doing that for two more rounds or if they have to change things AGAIN! 

Ryan and I are trying to stay positive and optimistic and hope for the absolute best! We have learned that we can't celebrate too early though! I find for myself that it gets harder and harder to stay positive. Since this change, things have been a little more challenging mentally. I have had more days where things just seem very hard. However, I am still doing my absolute best to smile through it all and keep my head up. Thanks to Ryan, I am able to stay more sane than I otherwise would be. He is incredible and I definitely wouldn't be here and/or be able to get though this without him! We are sticking with all of our diet and we still believe that it is helping so much! Like I said earlier, my body is overall very strong and tackling all this extremely well. Most days, I act like I am not sick at all nor going through any kind of treatment. For that we are extremely thankful!! 

Last weekend Ryan and my mom ran Birken here in Lillehammer for ME and it was the sweetest thing! They both did so so amazing!! We had made shirts that they wore and all the cheerleaders as well (including me ;) and other family members). We just had so much fun the whole day! I also had extremely many people join from all over the world and tagging me on instagram and/or facebook, where they did some kind of activity for me that day! It made my heart so so happy! I love that I can inspire others and it really just gives me so much! You guys are the reason I am here and that I keep fighting every single day! So THANK YOU!! 
As I sit here at Lillehammer Sykehus at the cancer unit, receiving liquid sunshine, I just wanted to write a little update for everyone. I am sorry it has been this long and that I didn't explain the huge changes in treatment to everyone right away. It was a lot for us to wrap our heads around and then time runs away from you. 

Ryan and I are going to try to keep doing little outings and fun trips on the weekends between treatments to keep ourselves entertained and make memories. It's very important to us to keep living our lives as much as possible and especially during times that my health is good. So you will hopefully be seeing some fun pictures from fun trips :) As of right now we have soooo many places we want to go see and visit (classic us of course), we just have to figure out where we want to go first and so on. We will keep you guys updated on our plans! 

Thanks for your patience, thanks for sticking along and THANK YOU for your support, prayers and lovely messages! We are so extremely thankful for every single one of you! 

Now, let's keep spreading those smiles and make a difference in our world! :) 
- Maria