HAPPY 17TH BIRTHDAY CAMERON:-)

Hi Friends,

Today is Cameron's 17th Birthday. I can't believe my first baby is 17 already! I'm so proud of the young man we've raised, though. He's an awesome person. If you want to call him to wish him a Happy Birthday, his cell phone is 805/630-9728 and he's done with school at 3:20. The homeschoolers and I are working on decorating the house for his birthday today. We also need to make his birthday cake and I need to run over to Wal-Mart for last-minute birthday gifts and balloons!

Yesterday, after I blogged -- I went and picked up Cam from school. Even though it was raining, the drive went better. Except that I had a killer headache and couldn't take any Dilaudid until I was done with my driving for the day! But as soon as I got home and verified that Bill was on his way to take me to the doctor -- I took the pain meds and they, at least -- dulled the pain a bit.

We collected all the kids who were playing at friends' houses and Cam and Molly watched the younger ones during my doctor's appointment. Bill took me (was glad he drove, lots of accidents in the rain!!!) and we finally have a treatment plan. Dr. Karpouzas and Dr. Cohen have agreed -- we are going to give CellCept 2-3 months to work. CellCept is the experimental drug for lupus patients. It's usually given to organ recipients to keep them from rejecting their organs.

So, I have a reprieve on chemo, and hopefully the CellCept will bring on a remission. I am moving up quickly to the maximum dose, which is 3,000 mg per day. I am also tapering off the steroids -- Thank God! All other meds will stay the same. I think I feel good about the decision. I basically asked Bill and the doctors to make it since I'm the one with the broken brain! I was wary about doing chemo again, because I end up going from an over-active immune system to no immune system. And then I catch every infection and keep ending up in the hospital. But my bloodwork wasn't good this time either. So, hopefully we made the right decision and this less invasive treatment will work! Just keep praying, please!

Last night, we made it back to Oxnard in time for Nate and Molly to go to Youth Group at church. They were pleased. We left Cameron home alone, so he was pleased to have some time to himself, too. And Isaac got a special treat because Bill, Isaac, and I went and grabbed some dinner after dropping off Nate and Molly. Then we stopped at the 99 cents store for birthday decorations and headphones for all of our new phones. We got home, unpacked, and it was time for Bill to pick up the kids from church. Then soon enough it was bedtime.

So, for today -- it's all about the birthday!!! I'll try to take some pictures and post them on Facebook later in the week. Have a great day:-)

Much Love,
Michele