July 15, 2011

We are home at last!!!!! We can't tell you how amazing it felt to see the Las Vegas city lights arise as we reached the top of the hill coming out of Boulder City. Those of you who have never experienced this, it's a sight to see.  As we were going through the Hoover Dam area you can kinda see the gleam of the city, especially the Luxor beam that reflects from the clouds in the sky and as you reach the top of the hill by the Railroad Pass Casino after Boulder City, you can see the most grandiose amount of lights in all colors that extend for miles.  Just breath taking!

I didn't take this pic, but just wanted to give you an idea.  Home sweet home!

Kass and I felt like we have been away from home for far too long.  Last night we arrived right around midnight.  We decided we would drive straight through for 17 hours just to get home once and for all.  We left Houston on Wednesday around 4pm and drove to Ozona, Texas (small little town in the middle of nowhere), it took us almost 6 hours. Our plan was to stop in Tucson, Az the next night to rest and stay with friends and then continue on Friday, but we decided we just wanted to be home.  We really have missed it!  The quote "there's no place like home" was truly the case for us this trip.

Check out our trunk! Doesn't it look like pharmacy exploded in it?

On Wednesday, before we left, was a crazy day.  We did our normal routine at the clinic first, but after that we had to meet with the checkout nurse, medical supply lady, pick up prescriptions, pay our balance and the next month's management fee, meet with the shipping clerk who will be shipping our medicine, pack our belongings, and last but not least, say goodbye to the nurses.  Needless to say, Kass was wore out by the time we did all this and she was so tired we didn't have time to say our goodbyes to Dr. Weaver, Kassidy main doctor at the Clinic.  :(  We sure will miss them all.  They were all very nice and patient with us.  They are all doing amazing work at this clinic and we appreciate everything they taught us and did for us.

Nurse Laura, Kass, Nurse Janna(our main nurse), & new nurse.

I will miss seeing this sign every morning!

Those of you that know someone with cancer and want to learn about the amazing work that Dr. Burzynski and his doctors are doing, here is the link for his movie through Amazon, it costs $3 to rent for 7 days. It's called "Cancer is Serious Business" Please watch, controversial or not, this doctor is saving lives.

http://www.amazon.com/Burzynski-Movie-Cancer-Serious-Business/dp/B004LKDIX6/ref=ed_oe_vdl

As we headed home on Thursday morning we received a call from the clinic stating that the doctor from Vegas who had agreed to oversee Kass had changed his mind.  He had sent a written letter to Dr. Weaver stating that he wanted his name taken off all the paperwork.  The nurse then stated that I would have to shut Kassidy's pump off till we found another doctor that would work with us and she would stop receiving treatments until the matter was resolved. We were devastated!

Per FDA rules one cannot leave the clinic without having prior authorization or this form called a 1572 that states a doctor agrees to do month physical exams on the patient, THAT's IT, a monthly physical. Ugh!  Immediately my body tensed up and I started to feel the stress creep up just like I had the previous weeks. We had worked so hard on getting this doctor to agree with and us and just like that, a change of heart.  I immediately called the doctor that had seen Kass right before we left Vegas, he's the one that was referred to us about helping us to getting Kass on a diet that would help her withstand the treatments better.  He immediately called back and agreed to sign whatever we needed.  Thank you Lord! Unfortunately, we would have to wait till the next day until his staff got everything done.

We do feel things happen for a reason.  Stopping the treatment for the day allowed us to drive without stopping so much for Kass to go to the bathroom and get home quicker.  I guess sometimes our prayers are not answered exactly the way we want to for a reason. Lesson learned!

On our way home, we decided to finally get a picture with the wonderful Arizona cacti that remind us of the old Road Runner cartoons. Beep Beep! We missed doing this on the way to Houston, thinking we would see them again on our trip there.  I made Ryan stop suddenly when I saw the perfect spot to stop at.  We took the picture at a perfect time, it was just dusk and the colors in the sky were gorgeous.  Arizona has some of the most amazing sunsets; last March when I was there running the Ragnar Relay, my team and I got to experience one of these amazing sunsets for the first time.  Another sight to see!  These days we marvel in the small things.

Beautiful AZ sunset!

Kass & I with the coolest cacti ever.

Cacti