And the Road Goes Ever On

For those that have been following Krissy's battle against cancer, you know that she's made huge strides and shown great bravery as she walks this path towards healing. I've said it many times, I don't know another person with as much heart and determination as Kris has packed into her tiny frame. Today she took another huge step towards her goal of being cancer free. After 13 years, she decided to resign from working at PROFITsystems and focus full time on her recovery and spend more time with our daughters. This Friday will be her last day at the office.

This was obviously a tremendously difficult decision for her to make, on many levels. She wanted to work. You don't realize how far from normal you feel until you're forced to take an extended leave from your job. The routine becomes a part of you and once it's gone you feel idle and even guilty at times. Our office has been absolutely amazing to both Krissy and I, so her decision to quit working was made even more difficult because we spend everyday around such great people. Of course, they're very supportive of her, and they've taken such good care of us for so many years that it's hard not to question whether this was the right thing to do. But it is, and will give her all the time and rest she needs to kick cancer to the curb.

This is also going to be challenging for our family. She's not taking a paid leave of absence, this is unemployment and I'll be the sole earner in the house. Not to mention our insurance situation will be shifting around, and we'll also be pulling Camryn out of daycare. This is a very positive change though, as Kris will get to spend much more time with the kids when it matters most to her. Cam is definitely daddy's girl, but she needs mommy's influence again now that Kris is able to keep up with her.

This big life changer is going to take some adjusting, and quickly, but I'm really very happy she made this decision now. I'd rather she take the time away from work to heal and focus on her every day challenges than force herself to work when she doesn't have the energy to put in eight hours. It isn't healthy and now she can work on herself instead of feeling like she's letting people down by calling in sick or not feeling her best at the office. I know, no one really feels that way, but when you're out all the time it can build up the guilt pretty quickly.

For me personally, I have some bittersweet emotions about it. I'm 100% positive this is the right decision for her but it also makes me pretty sad. I'm not sure how many of you know this, but Krissy and I have worked together for almost ten years, the majority of them just a cube or desk apart from each other. We met, became friends, fell in love, got married and had a child during our time at PROFIT. I spent every single day waking up with her, driving to work with her, working (and sometimes arguing) through the day at the office, then driving back home and spending the rest of our evenings together. I've spent more time with Krissy between work and home than any other human being in my entire adult life and I've loved it. So to know that after this week I won't hear her voice over the wall, or work together on a call, or know she's always just a few feet away from me will be tough to get used to. It'll still be a good place to work, but it will be diminished and frankly a bit lonely. But I know this what she needs to do and it's a small sacrifice to make for her to win this battle. I'd gladly work this job and nights as a junior apprentice burrito wrapper at Taco Bell if I knew it would guarantee her success.

So there you go, new adventures for the Lanza family are in the works, never a dull moment around this house! I'm excited for Krissy to begin this next phase in her life and recovery, and pray for the day when she can tell the world she is cancer free and ready to take it on full force.

G'night!

Day Twenty Four: Endings and Beginnings

Here we are, at the end of another week of treatment at Oasis. I'm so very ready to have Krissy home for a while, so we can concentrate on getting her well and living our lives with the kids. She will still have a long road ahead of her, and possibly more trips to Oasis, but for now we need to continue her home regimen and gather as much information as possible to help her completely heal. I'm heading out to the airport soon to pick her up, we can't wait to see her again! I also can't thank Lori enough for spending this past week with Kris, it's been huge for her to have someone so close share this experience with her.

So here you have it, their last day at Oasis for the time being. Thanks for tagging along for another week with us!

Well we are coming to the end of our stay here at Oasis, today was our last full day and Krissy had another full day of treatments. She received another O zone treatment, more Kemadalin, Vitamin C, Vitamin K and Perftec, so she had all the good stuff pumped into her before we are off to CO.

Before starting her treatment we headed down to the dinning area so Krissy could get some good nourishment, she was pretty hungry as she didn't have much for dinner last night. She enjoyed a bowl of oatmeal and had a bit of the fresh fruit. I have been spoiled with all this fresh cut fruit here and hope to continue that when I return home. At breakfast we sat with Joselyn, Alicia and her 2 sons who are from Sacramento. Alicia was here 5 years ago going through treatment as she was diagnosed with breast cancer. From what I understand her only treatment was at Oasis. She did do chemo here as well as all of the other treatments they offer and has had a clean bill of health. She is here this time for her followup at Oasis but also decided with her sons and husband to volunteer at the orphanage in Tijuana. What a neat family and how great to know that Alicia is doing so well with her health, gives everyone here hope for sure.

Krissy recieved her O zone treament and Perftec after breakfast so we both read a ton from our books. Krissy finished reading Lovely Bones and I finally started Eclispe, yes for those of you that know me I finally finished New Moon. :-) We then spoke to the Doctors about the results of Krissy's CT scan and the good news is there has not been any growth. Of course we were hoping for shrinkage, however the fact that there has been no growth is very positive. They are going to change 1 thing to her regime at home but are going to continue the same protocol otherwise. They seemed real positive so again continue all the wonderful prayers and positive thoughts for our beautiful Krissy.

After speaking to the doctors we walked to the pharmacy, the weather was a little cooler today, however the sun was shining. It was great to get out and move our legs a bit. Once we returned we went to lunch where Krissy ate pretty well, she had 2 treatments of Vitamin k and Vitamin C treatments after lunch so she knew she needed to get some more good nourishment. After lunch we headed back up to the room so Krissy could continue with her treatment. While waiting Debi called via Skype with Coral and Camryn so that was great for Krissy to talk to them and see their sweet little faces.

Krissy received both doses of Vitamin c and k, in between each we went to dinner, it was a quick dinner as Krissy didn't have much of an appetite after her 1st dose. Sandy and Stan were having a movie night tonight, the feature was Evan Almighty, however Krissy was getting her second dose of Vitamin c and k so I decided to stay in the room with her. I did go get some of the popcorn they were having which was a nice night time snack. Well that is it for today, tomorrow we are off early in the morning to head home. It has been an amazing week to experience, we have had our ups and downs it has been very spiritual and very hopeful. I feel so blessed to have been able to be here with Krissy on her journey to great health and heading home tomorrow to continue Krissy's journey of great health.

Day Twenty Three: Toldya It Was Corn

After a long day of work and a short evening of dinner, baths and bedtime, I unfortunately missed talking to Krissy over Skype. I'm getting this post in just before I turn in for bed, hoping we can talk more tomorrow. It's hard not seeing and talking to her everyday like usual! I love you babe, keep kicking ass. Now back to you Lori!

Last night was a bit rough, we had a bar down the street playing loud music until wee hours of the night and also a group of people in the halls by our room talking and laughing until somewhere around 11:00. After a rough night of sleep for both of us we were awakened by one of the nurses as Krissy had a ct scan first thing this morning. I am asking everyone to please pray for Krissy that she has positive results, nothing but lots of healing prayer and positive thoughts!! After her scan we went down for breakfast where we sat with our new friends Joselyn and Jewels, Joselyn is really having a hard time trying to find her inner strength and faith to continue her fight. Krissy is so amazing, after all she has gone through she is there for Joselyn, answering her questions and giving her inspiration to continue to fight. I still am not sure why this has happened to Krissy and why she is having to go through all of this, however her strength and faith in God is just speaking volumes when it comes to her fight and her will to help other people. I have always said she may be small but she is Mighty!! She is such an inspiration to me and many people her at Oasis.

After breakfast we decided to just relax in our room while we waited for Krissy's treatments to begin. She received the Immuno therapy where they have donors here at Oasis donate white blood cells, if you all remember Frankie and Cesa talking about it, this is where Krissy smells like creamed corn. It was funny, instantly she started to smell like it. They gave her a break in between her next treatments so we decided to have lunch. Today was International day and todays theme was Hawaiian so they had cute little center pieces made of fruit, we enjoyed pineapple chicken and rice which was very delicious. We had lunch with Melana, her son Trafon and Joslyn.

It was time to continue Krissy's treatment so back to the room we went where she received vitamin k and vitamin c. Today was not as nice outside it was cooler, cloudy and windy so we decided to stay inside. Once Krissy was done with the vitamin c we decided to go to dinner before she received her kemdalin and second doses of vitamin k and c for the day. The vitamin c does not agree with Krissy to well so she didn't eat much. Krissy was kind enough to go down anyway and I was able to eat, we did meet 2 more ladies, Renee and Rhonda from LA. Renee actually did 2 weeks of alternative treatments in Santa Barbara and is receiving additional treatment here at Oasis. Back up to our room we went for Krissy to continue her treatment, TV, reading, emailing and just relaxing.

That is all I have for today so until tomorrow.

Day Twenty Two: He is Always With Us

Holy cow I actually went to bed early last night! That's probably why it's going to snow after having had all this beautiful weather. I had a good talk with Kris and Lori over Skype last night, it was great to see her and know that things are going well. Since my evening was over with pretty quicky, I'm going to hand the reigns over to Lori.

Happy St. Patrick's day to you all!! There was obviously no green beer here today, they did have the healthy "green drink" that they put out at every meal, I just couldn't bring myself to try it though. :-)

We started our day just a little later as Krissy had a bit of a restless nights sleep, so we opted to sleep in. Once we got ready for the day we headed down to breakfast where we enjoyed the food and company. We sat with Joann and Dennis who are from Wisconsin, Melana who I believe lives in San Diego and Stan and Sandy who are amigos here at the Oasis, they are also from Wisconsin. Lots of cheese heads here at the Oasis (including me, that's why I can say that hehe!)

Krissy and I have really lucked out being here this week as we have had nothing but beautiful sunshine and warm weather so far. If it wasn't for our kiddos and husbands that we are missing so much, we may decide to stay. Anyway we did enjoy a bit of the morning sun by sitting in the Courtyard where we met Jewels who lives in Oceanside, CA, she is here with her Mom that has been diagnosed with ovarian (insert the c word here). What a neat person Jewels is, she was asking Krissy a lot of questions about Oasis and Krissy's story. Jewels like I, is so impressed and inspired by the love and overwhelming feeling of healing here at Oasis. I really enjoyed talking with her.

We decided to go inside to find out when they were going to start Krissy's treatments as it looked like she had a good day of different treatments today. They called her to go downstairs to receive the O zone treatment, where they take her blood and then through this machine add oxygen it and then give the blood back to her as it goes through a UV light, pretty amazing stuff! She came back to the room where she then received genoxal however, before receiving the kemdalin Krissy was feeling hungry so off to lunch we went. I must say this was probably the most disappointing meal we had so far, they had fish, rice and salad, it was not real flavorful. The juice I tried was not very good either, not really sure what fruit it was, so we both agreed to go to El Yogurt for dinner, which I was excited to try. At lunch though we did meet Jewels mom, Joslin who had a ton of questions for Krissy. What a nice lady, however she seems to be scared and nervous, she is new and not sure about everything lately. I think Krissy helped put her at ease somewhat so that was good to see.

Back to the room we went for Krissy to receive her kemdalin and watch Ellen. Krissy handled all of her treatments really well today and still had energy to go to El Yogurt for dinner. I must say I totally enjoyed dinner, a chicken burrito and beans, of course I had to try their frozen yogurt too. I had the strawberry and it was delicious, it was a really nice treat to get out for a bit and then enjoy a great dinner with Krissy. When we returned we went to the chapel for the healing prayer. Wow this was intense and words just cannot describe how I felt, I truly felt God's presence. He was there with his hands and heart on everyone and especially for Dennis, Krissy, Joslin and one other woman whose name I cannot remember. It was incredibly spiritual and emotional. I have always believed and trusted in God, however unfortunately when you get into your day to day hustle and bustle sometimes you forget he is there. This experience was such an eye opener and one I hope that I never forget.

Well it is now time for more of American Idol and then off to sleep, until tomorrow.

Day Twenty One: Little Blessings

Tonight we're on time and under budget! I'm really missing my wife this time around, the house seems so much more quiet and empty without her than it ever has before. It could be that I'm feeling down, as I learned that our good friend Sharon passed away on Sunday. I had prayed that she would find healing and be able to return to her life in Australia with her husband and two little boys, but unfortunately she lost the battle after slipping into a coma over the weekend. My heart goes out to her sister Jenny and to all of her family. Sharon made a big impact in our lives during the short time we knew her. At least I can take comfort knowing she's not in pain any longer.

Well it's getting late again so it's time to turn it over to Lori. Their day awaits!

Once again we had a great night sleep and woke up around 7:00am. Today we were both able to have full showers which made Krissy happy. We then went to workshop, what a great way to start our day. It was lead by Bruce and Vickie, we sang a few songs, said what we are thankful for, Bruce read from the Bible and ended with hugs all around. From there we headed to breakfast which again I enjoyed, we had banana pancakes with strawberries on top, yummy! Krissy has been eating really well here which is so awesome to see. We sat with sweet little Ferrin again and her Daddy, Matt. They are leaving tomorrow to go back to England, which will be great for them to get back home I am sure.

After breakfast we went back to our room where Krissy had her 2nd treatment of the week, today she received genoxal and kemdalin. We had a pretty mellow morning I relaxed, checked e-mail and read while Krissy received her treatment and took a nap. Once her treatment was done it was lunch time so off to the dining area we went.

Todays lunch consisted of spaghetti, which we were told the noodles were made of artichoke and wheat I believe, it was actually very tasty. We also had Oasis approved french fries and of course I thought of Frankie, I know he would have enjoyed them. The Oasis staff had put together a small little birthday party at lunch for Ferrin as her 3rd birthday is on March 28, so they had ballons, made a cake, had presents and a pinata it was so very sweet, unfortunately she was not really into it as I think she was tired. The thought was very sweet though.

We were blessed with a beautiful warm and sunny day so we decided to go to the courtyard to read and enjoy the day. We then returned to our room to watch the Ellen show for some laughs and decided it was to nice so went back to the courtyard. This time we enjoyed the company of little miss Ferrin, she had Krissy and I play boat, airplane and pretend we were eating pizza and strawberry pudding oh and we gave eachother pretend presents too. We have really enjoyed Ferrin these last couple of days and will miss her. We then went to dinner which was tasty and while dinner was going we had a sing along with Bruce and Vickie, it was a lot of fun and everyone really seem to enjoy it. This place just exudes Positivity, Faith, Hope and Love. These are the words that Oasis lives by, Hope, Faith and most if all Love! I have felt this everyday!

Well it's time for a little bit of TV before bed, Krissy is going to get me hooked on American Idol watch, until tomorrow.

Day Twenty: Back in the Saddle

Here we are again, Kris is back for her third round of treatment at Oasis and I'm home alone with the girls. I'm cautiously optimistic about this third trip, knowing that she is still early in her treatment cycles and that no change, or even a small change in the wrong direction isn't necessarily a bad thing. This is going to be a long road for Krissy and I have to be prepared for bumps in the road, no matter how discouraging they might seem in the short term.

Krissy left on Sunday and this time her best friend Lori accompanied her down to sunny Tijuana. I'm sure those girls will take lots of walks and watch The Sweetest Thing about a thousand times. So without further ado, I'm going to turn you over to Lori and let her show us Oasis through her eyes. I'm a bit behind posting their first day, so I'll try to have tonight's update written on time. I was pooped and fell asleep on the couch with Camryn :)

After a Great night sleep for both of us we woke up early to get our day started. It was a great start for me with a nice warm shower, however for some reason Krissy's shower was cut short, all of a sudden the water just turned off and we had no water in our room for about 30 minutes, ugh!! While finishing getting ready, a nurse came to draw blood from Krissy, little did he know he had his work cut out for him. Let's see after the 3rd and 4th vein he was able to get just a little bit, Krissy was so funny, she told him she must have left her blood at home. He then continued to try to draw more and by the 7th vein he was able to get a little more. Krissy handle it all so well and was such a trooper, I was just hoping her day would take a turn for the better and I believe it did.

Off to the cafeteria for some breakfast, I was looking forward to seeing how the food would be and I was pleasantly surprised, it was actually quite tasty. While at breakfast we saw Bruce and I met his wife Vickie who gave Krissy a big welcome hug and were so happy to see her. I was in awe of all the people who work at Oasis, many of them remember Krissy, all said hi and gave her hugs, it was great to see.

After breakfast we went back to our room where Krissy received her 1st treatment of the week which was Genoxal. Yay, they hit her vein the 1st time, Krissy was happy about that after what she went through this morning. Once her treatment finished we decided to enjoy the beautiful sunny day, so we went to the courtyard and read for a bit and also enjoyed watching a little girl named Farron, from England who was almost 3 years old. What a sweet little girl with a sweet little accent. We learned that her mom, Jo, had passed away yesterday, which was very sad news to hear. I know this news hit Krissy really hard, but also know that this will make her fight her fight even harder.

We decided to go to lunch where again enjoyed some delicious food and had great company. We met another couple who are Amigo's here at Oasis of Hope and also met Farron's daddy, Matt. He seemed to being going through all the motions, however after all he has been through he was still very positive with his road ahead for he and his daughter. Talking with him and seeing Farron again was really hard for Krissy, however in some ways I feel that God maybe placed them here for Krissy to meet so it will continue to give her the faith and strength she needs to continue her fight for great health.

After lunch we decided again to go enjoy this beautiful weather and took a walk to the ocean which is just a few blocks away. It was nice to get out, walk and enjoy the beautiful view and sounds of the ocean. We then went back to our room to catch up on emails, read and relax for a bit.

We headed down for diner and enjoyed an interesting meal of broccoli and tofu, Krissy opted out on that dish and chose to have the salad. We met 2 woman from Canada that sat at our table with us and are also true believers in the natural and holistic way of healing. From dinner we headed to the chapel for group where everyone told there stories and it amazed me how positive everyone was and the faith they have in God was so incredible. We are now back in our room for the night, going to watch a little TV and call it a night, until tomorrow.