An Alan Update!

I know, it's been too long since I have updated about Alan. Life is crazy...all I'm saying!!

Alan has been off his chemo now for 6 weeks. Did I mention before how nervous we were about this....well, we still are. We will be heading to Houston this Sunday. Alan will have scans Monday and see Dr's. Tuesday. If you remember the main reason they took him off his chemo was to see if it would help the pain from the possible bone infarcts around his right knee....well, the pain is still there, so that's no good!! I'm just going to say next week will be very interesting. Another reason it will be interesting is b/c we are bringing the kids with us and my parents are coming too. Looks like Houston is going to be our vacation spot for the summer. We had a beach trip planned to the gulf, but thank you BP for destroying God's creation of beautiful beaches. Please pray for all of the families affected by this disaster. It's so sad. Anywho, Houston bound Sunday and hopefully we will have a good trip and the kids will have fun with the things I've planned....museums, aquariums, movies, maybe a circus....anything with AC...haha!!

Two weeks ago Alan started throwing up. It got worse through the night...that's all I'm going to say. Thursday we got him on Zofran and that helped and of course he had no energy. Friday I let his Dr.'s in Houston know what's been going on, so they went back and looked at his last three weeks of blood work and noticed that his hemoglobin and hematocrit have been dropping. Basically, he needed blood. I started calling him Edward (for my Twilight fans, lol). I have to make light of a situation when I can...ok!! ;-) He was in the hospital from Friday til Sunday morning receiving 3 units of blood and fluids. He felt great when he left that hospital two weeks ago, but his recent blood work is showing his counts are dropping again and he is feeling sooooo tired.....can't keep his eyes open tired. He is going to our local Dr. today for blood work, so he might end up in the hospital again. I pray not!! His Dr.'s in Houston want him to have and EGD to see if he might have an internal bleed somewhere. He is scheduled for that in Houston next week...possibly Thursday.

When Alan's Dr. took him off his chemo 6 weeks ago and said "You are going to feel so good and have so much energy!!" Well, we are still waiting for that day. Alan has been sooooo sluggish this entire time.

Just say a prayer for us that all goes well next week. Alan will have is regular CT (chest, abdomen, pelvis) and he will also have another MRI of his knee.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and try to stay cool!!
Love and Prayers!

This one's for Sydney!!

Poor Sydney....I have not posted much of anything about her lately. I've been saying since May I was going to do a post for her, so while I'm sitting here (in the hospital with Alan, that can be the next post, but I will say he is doing better....his counts were low, had to get some blood), I'm doing a Sydney post. These are just pictures from the past few months

Softball 2010

Diamond Divas. We had a good softball season. Most of our girls should still be playing t-ball, but we all decided to move them up and they did so good with the pitching machine. They tied for 1st place!!

1st Place Divas!!!


Birthday Time

Sydney turned 7 in May. I swear we celebrated her birthday for a week. Anyway, here are some of the birthday girls parties.

They do love each other!!

I think this is cake #3.

Cake #2. Ok, I got Sydney a cupcake cake to take to her school. Stupid me forgot to put the candles on the cake and have the kids sing before I started passing out cupcakes, so Sydney fixed the problem and came up with this (above). That girl....she's so funny!! We lit the candles and I was waiting for this cupcake to blow up. It was pretty funny!

Regan (Sydney says this is her boyfriend.... WHAT???...I get tickled listening to her talk about boys...Alan thinks different...haha), and her very good friend Laney. Laney's birthday is just the day before Sydney's. You will see their party below.

This year Sydney celebrated her 7th birthday with her very good friend Laney. They shared a Build A Bear party and the kids had such a good time!!

Heading to Build A Bear!!

Two happy Birthday girls.

Silly, Silly

After Build A Bear, we headed to The Japanese Steakhouse. The kids loved it and were very entertained. It was fun...and yummy!!

The kids side.

The adult side...waiting for some grub!! yum yum

I loved Laney's expression. I think that fire was pretty impressive.

Cake #1!

Our crazy girl!! Wouldn't have her any other way.

Sydney got a rabbit for her birthday....among many other things. This is the penthouse her Papaw built for it. It's a pretty sweet house.

This is Thumper. She does kind of look like Thumper from Bambi, so....

Awwwww......

End of the School Year!

This is Sydney's teacher Mrs. Smith on the last day of school. We love her and will greatly miss her next year.

Here is my girl with her all A's award...along with two of her very good friends, Julia and Laney.

Well, I guess that has Sydney caught up. She is a sweet, smart and crazy little girl.

We love you stinker!!!

Back from Houston

As always, our crazy life continues!! I really want to make this short b/c we just got home from our 7 hour trip and I'm tired, but I really feel like I need to update.


Before we left for Houston, Alan had an MRI at our local hospital of his right knee. He has been hurting for about a month in this area. The report was possible mets in three areas around the knee or bone infarcts. Because of Alan's cancer, we felt like it was probably cancer. Our Dr.s in Houston had already viewed Alan's MRI before we arrived, so we were anxious about what their results would be.


Arrived in Houston Sunday, had scans Monday and saw Dr.s Tuesday. They confirmed Tuesday that it was cancer in the tibia and femur, but everything else in Alan's abdomen and chest were stable. That was weird to me that it would spread to the knee when everything else was stable, but whatever....we were waiting for the next step. The next step was going to be radiation to the knee. They set us up with the same Radiation Oncologist that did Alan's back last July. We saw Dr. Tae on Wednesday. After waiting, waiting and waiting a little longer, Dr. Tae did NOT think it was cancer but the bone infarcts. After consulting with 3 other radiologist, they also say bone infarcts. You're asking..."What's a bone infarct?" Basically it's when the bone does not get enough blood to that part of the bone and it dies. It looks basically the same as a tumor (apparently). So, back to Dr. Amato we go.




Amato was not completely satisfied with the bone infarct idea, but he went with it. He said without a biopsy, there was no way to be 100% sure, but hopefully it was the bone infarct. So, bone infarct...cancer...whatever it is....it is very painful for Alan. We finally get his back doing better and now this!! CAN WE JUST GET A BREAK?!!



The Plan:
Alan is going to be off all of his chemos for 4 weeks. This will be 6 less pills for him a day. Dr. Amato is thinking that if it's the bone infarcts, then it is probably caused from the chemo (there is a reason for this....too long to get in to that). Anyway, since Alan's cancer has been stable for a while, Amato thinks these 4 weeks will be ok for Alan. We will go back to Houston in 4 weeks for a repeat MRI and regular scans. If Alan's pain in his knee gets better, then we know it's the bone infarcts and caused by the chemo. Alan will probably feel pretty good for the next few weeks....being off of his chemo. That will be a very nice change!!

Also, being off the chemo should help clear up Alan's blood clots in his lungs. The clots are still there and large. Amato was very concerned about these clots still being there.

Thank you all for your continued prayers, love and support!! Our rollercoaster ride continues, but we are just holding on and letting God steer this ride for us. "It might be a crazy life...but it's our life"....hahaha...I'm sorry, I couldn't resist! We watched Kate plus 8 last night. Ok, I'm delirious.

Relay For Life 2010

May could possibly be the busiest month of the year for our family. It might even be busier than December! We have birthdays, relay for life, teacher appreciation, end of the year events and softball. There are probably other events I'm forgetting, but these are standing out in my mind. We've already had Sydney's birthday party and hopefully I'll be a good mother and post those in the next post, but right now I want to talk about Relay For Life.

I can't even begin to tell how special this event is for our family. Last year was my first year to join the Relay For Life committee. This year I took on the same role on the committee but we also had our first team for Alan...."McCone's Marchers". Our team was comprised of many family members and wonderful friends that dedicated their time and energy to our team...O and many of them dedicated sleep deprivation and stayed at relay until the early morning hours. Our team sold BBQ and Roast Beef Sandwich plates, "Hope, Strength, Prayer" wristbands and we also did face painting. We had a couple of pre fundraisers as well. All in all....it was a wonderful night and I hope that McCone's Marchers march every year at Relay and help raise money to find a cure for the diease that continues to take our friends and family away too soon. But, God is still Good...All the time!!

Thank you team members!!!! We couldn't and wouldn't have had the success without you and the help from our one and only God!! He made this all possible!

Alan stayed at relay until around 1am. He was a TROOPER!!! I know he was tired, but he was enjoying being around friends and seeing so many people. It was great. A quick Alan update. Alan's pain control is getting better and better. He is now able to sleep in the bed. It's wonderful!! He does have to use the walker, but that's ok...as long as the pain is better managed....baby steps. This past week has been better for him and we give God all the glory for that!! Alan told me he had a few people come up to him at relay and they told him how inspiring he is to them. Just hearing people say that, makes the pain and suffering worth every minute. I promise you...it does!

Ok, on to the pictures. I have so many more pictures and it was sooooo hard to pick which pictures to post. Some I even stole from friends on facebook b/c theirs were better...hehe.

I love this picture of Alan. Getting ready for the survivor lap. Alan did his in the golf cart.

This is Jeff Woods and Baker Coulter getting the survivor lap started. Jeff and Alan are good friends. If you follow my blog then you have read about Jeff. Baker is our pharmacist...so we see him on a regular basis. haha

Getting our tent prepared.

Gary, Sarah, Susan and Me!!

Nena, Mason, Christian and Amber preparing our BBQ and Roast Beef sandwiches. My dad did all of the cooking and it was wonderful...of course!!

"Hope, Strength, Prayer" wristbands we sold in honor of Alan.

Here is the McCone's Marchers tent!

Alan, Michael and Gary

My dad.

Gary and Patty Higginbotham, Gigi (my mom) and Nena (Alan's mom)

Papaw, Carson and Aunt Kara

The Burfords. Brady (purple survivor shirt) is one of Sydney's friends. This little man is a trooper and inspiration to so many.

Trent and Alan

Kayla...aka "KK" and Travis. I don't know what we would do without our KK.

Trent and Christian.

Joanna and her paint brush. She was one of our face painters and a long time friend.

This is Holly. She and her family drove up from South Louisiana to help with Alan's team. She approached me months ago about getting a team together for Alan and I'm so thankful the got the ball rolling.

Anita and my mom.

Our nephews...Grant and Ethan. Look at that curly hair...yes, it was hot!!

Amber cutting the cake.

Sydney and guitar!!

Silly little boy!


Carson just thought he was going to blow out that luminary....I don't think so mister!!

Sydney painting Alan's face.