An Alan Update

I have not posted anything about Alan since our last Houston visit, so it's time. All in all, Alan is doing pretty well. He has completed a full month of the Afinitor. Side effects he has had are mouth sores, fatigue, body rash a few nose bleeds. As far as I can tell he has not had much trouble with nausea, but then again, he does not tell me everything. I mentioned before that he has to be on a strict diet...watching cholesterol and fats. At his last local check-up, his cholesterol was high and his triglyceride counts were out the roof....scary high. We were shocked with this b/c he has been doing VERY WELL with is diet. That just shows you how this medicine effects his body. We talked with his Dr. in Houston about this and they put him on Lipitor. I guess we will see when we go back to Houston July 13th how he is doing with the Lipitor. We freaked out over that one...it was bad. I know I am and I'm sure Alan is (without showing much emotion about it) getting anxious about our next Houston trip to see if the Afinitor is working. Please say a few extra prayers for Alan that day.
This past weekend we were working outside, early, trying to avoid some of the heat and Alan just got too hot and just about passed out....heat exhaustion. Cold shower and cold water helped, but that was an eye opener too. His body has been through alot over this past year and the heat just zapped him...quick! You know, sometimes I have to remind him he is on chemo...."CHEMO"...yes, very bad drug and it does bad things to your body put hopefully good things at the same time. Anyway, just wanted to give everyone an update and hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July!! Love and Prayers to all!

Camping at Maumelle State Park

So, the McCone family did a long weekend camping trip this past weekend. We stayed at Maumelle State Park which is actually about 5 miles outside of Little Rock and right on the Arkansas river. It was really pretty and a great camp ground. We stayed with Alan's parents in their new camper Friday night through Sunday night. Trent and Christian joined us and Kara, Michael and the babies joined us also. No, we did not all sleep in the camper. I'm sure you were thinking that.haha It was crazy at times, but it was nice to be with everyone.

Lets start with the camp ground area.

The neighborhood geese.

The AR river....O, and my kids!!

The river was right across from the camper. We were also just down from the Yacht Club so we got to watch alot of the large boats coming in and out. I picked out a few...big dreams!!

Speaking of Yachts, here are some tied up in the river by the only sandbar we saw. This picture was taken at the Pinnacle Mountain Visitor Center....about 3 miles from the camp ground. See the tractor at the bottom. Of course, Carson spotted that first!




Here is our "friendly" snapping turtle we found at the Visitor Center.

I'm not sure what this is, but it was pretty and blue. I'm sure it's rock at bottom. This is about as close to ocean colored water I will get to this year. This was also at the Visitor Center.

We did the Little Rock Zoo. It was hot and in my opinion, over priced. Did I mention is was hot. I'm not doing alot of zoo pictures. Sorry, lol!!

Hot kid #1!!

Hot kid #2!!

Alan and the kids on the carousal.

We ran in to Sydney's teacher, Mrs. Goodwin, and her daughter and husband at the zoo. They felt the same way we did...hot and tired!

Lets end the post with 4 adorable kids/babies. This is Grant.

And here is Ethan and Papaw!

Welcome to Mario World!

We finally had Sydney's birthday party! She wanted a Mario Brother's Theme. I know, how funny for a little girl, but her love is her Nintendo DS, so that is where this party idea came from. We had a great time and I hope the guest did too.

Sydney's invitation.

Sydney's Mario cake with a DS on top. I was so happy with her cake. Exactly what we wanted!

"Princess Peach" came to the party too!

I recommend a water slide for any birthday. The kids loved it. I rented this one here...Grinns And Giggles. They are in Hamburg and very reasonably priced and nice people. I did go down the slide...once. There is a picture of this, but not viewable on this blog...:-)!! Alan went a couple of times too. It really was fun...but cold!

Watch out people!! This is serious!

And there we have Sydney's Mario Birthday!

Alan Update

Alan has been on the Afinitor for about a week and a half now. The side effects have started to kick in such as fatigue, a few nose bleeds, a rash on different areas of his body and the major one at the moment are mouth sores. The mouth sores are pretty bad...you know, to the point that you don't even feel like eating. We had Dr. Malloy call him in a mouth wash and he thinks it has helped some. He is on this new diet, and has already lost some weight. He does not need to loose alot of weight, but b/t the diet and mouth sores, he has not been eating as much.

His back and leg are still bothering him quite a bit. So b/t having cancer and having to limp everywhere, he is not always my cheerful Alan. It's just hard and alot to deal with. I can tell when he does not feel good, although (like I told him), he can put on a good show, but I know different. His nurse in Houston and I emailed some yesterday and they were wanting to see Alan in Houston this week or next b/c of the mouth sores and a few other reasons, but we are going on our one and only family vacation this weekend (long weekend trip) and we are taking it!! Houston is just going to have to wait. I know that sounds weird, but we need this trip and the Dr. was ok with our decision. He said that if he gets worse next week, then he does want to see Alan sooner than the July 13th appointment.

So anyway, I guess that is about it. Thank you all for your support. Continue to pray for cancer patients...well, any patient for that matter. I don't know the statistics, but I can only imagine how many patients are diagnosed with some type of cancer daily. It's got to be overwhelming.

Sydney's Kindergarten Graduation

Let's see, I'm about a week behind with this post. Sydney graduated from Kindergarten this year. WOW, what a year. I remember it being about a week after she started Kindergarten that we found out about Alan's cancer (sorry to throw that in there). That being said, she has had a tough year too with mommy and daddy being gone alot, but she did amazing dealing with it! She has grown so much this year. It's amazing what they learn in Kindergarten...I mean, she can read. I don't think we could read like they do when I was in Kindergarten. She made all A's. I'm so proud of all of her accomplishments.

We had her Birthday party yesterday and hopefully I'll post pictures soon. I mean, she's only been 6 for about a month now, but we were just now able to get her party taken care of. The kids had a blast!! Mario Brothers Theme, lol.

Update on Alan soon too. Side effects have kicked in...ughhh :-(!!!

We are just about to wrap up T-ball, so I'll have a post about that soon too. Man, I've got alot of posting to do. Now lets see if it all happens!!

End of school...Sydney and Mrs. Goodwin

We never got a family picture....great!!

Sydney and her friend Alia.

Sydney showing her graduation gift from Alan and I that Mrs. Amber made her. She loved it!!

Her class.

The girls...L-R Sydney, Alia, Anna Claire, Laney

back row...Jenna Cate, Julia, Chloe, Lainey