A Fallen Soldier...

 {Photo by PFC Samuel Alicea - 7/31/10}

This morning, a fighter, my father's "twin" brother lost his battle with liver cancer. He was a soldier in the sense that this was his 2nd battle with cancer. Many years ago he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which was removed. End of last year or beginning of this year is when we found out his cancer had returned but this time spread to his liver. At that time, he wasn't given much time to live. His options were an aggressive chemo or let nature take its course. Without hesitating, he said he wanted to fight this and do whatever it took to have more time.

Immediately after his diagnosis, they started the aggressive form of chemo. A short time later, he went into remission, giving him what he wanted which was time. I did not get to see him while he was on chemo but from what I heard from my parents, he didn't look well at all, which obviously was expected. But when he went into remission he looked great. He looked better than he has in a while, as you can see in the above picture. Not too long after the picture was taken, we found out the cancer had returned.

Late last week, he was admitted into the hospital because his potassium levels were dangerously low which could cause all sorts of other unexpected problems but by Monday he was released. I believe at that time, a CT scan was taken of his liver area but the results were not released until the weekend. Saturday, he was starting to have some complications which landed him back in the hospital where they dosed him with morphine for the pain. That is when we learned that his cancer had spread and was now irreversible. When I visited him on Saturday, he was still pretty alert but would fall asleep on and off from the meds. One thing that was hard to see and hear was his breathing. There was fluid in his lungs that sounded kind of like someone sipping from a straw when the cup was nearly empty. Besides his breathing, his eyes were yellow, his feet were swollen and his stomach was extended all signs pointing to a failing liver. Come Sunday is when I was notified that he was going to be released to a local hospice.

Sometime either Sunday night or Monday morning is when he took a turn for the worse. His organs were starting to fail and his kidneys were only working at 20%. At his request, the nurses gave him the stronger meds to let him sleep so he didn't feel any pain. I just knew I had to see him just in case it was his last time. My hubby, my baby and I met up with my family to say what was our final good byes. Because of the medicine he was "asleep" but surprisingly he was able to hear us. He responded by slightly moving his thumb when my aunt was holding his hand and asking him questions. It was comforting to know he was still there.

I watched as he struggled for every breath he took with the sound of the fluid gurgling in his lungs. At times his breathing started to slow down and a few times he either let out a sound or he sounded like he was trying to catch his breath. Because we didn't know what we were seeing, we needed to the nurse to explain. Essentially what we were seeing was his decline. At that point, all I was praying for was for him to stay alive long enough for his 3 eldest children from Puerto Rico to arrive. They weren't going to arrive until about midnight.

We finally left and said our good byes around 9:30pm after being there 3 1/2 hours. Thankfully, his children did get to see him before his passing. According to my Mom, his children had arrived before his passing. After spending some time with him they decided that one of them were going to stay with him while the other two went to get some rest. Luckily, the nurse was there to stop them because at that time he was struggling for his last few breaths. That is when he passed at 1:15am.

Although he is now physically not on earth anymore we know he is looking down on us with my grandmother and my uncle Freddy. As my sister said, he has the best seat in the house. His passing is a huge loss for my family but now we can take comfort in knowing that he is finally no longer suffering.

Tio, because you were a fighter you have inspired us all to be fighters too! Your smile and stories will sorely be missed. An Alicea get together will never be the same. We pray that the Lord blesses your soul during this transition. God Bless and I LOVE YOU very much!

Help Fight The Battle...

And become one of Tanya's Soldiers in her battle with Hodgkin's Lymphoma!

On October 16, our team, Tanya's Soldiers, will be participating in The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Light The Night Walk: finding better treatments and cures for blood cancers so patients can live better, longer lives. I'm asking you to help by making a tax-deductible contribution! Please use the link below or the widget at the top right of the page to donate online quickly & securely. You will receive an email confirmation of your donation as soon as it is made. I thank you in advance for your support which will make a difference in the lives of thousands of patients battling blood cancers.


I really appreciate your generosity!!

Light The Night Walk: Click Here To Donate


To follow Tanya with her battle with Lymphoma, please visit her CaringBridge page.

Wedding DIY Projects... Looking Back

Since our 1 year wedding anniversary has just passed, I thought I would look back to my planning days and organize a list of all the wedding DIY projects and their How To for the future brides-to-be. Maybe some of you will find them useful to you :).

There were quite a few projects that my Mom and I did for this wedding to keep it more personalized. It made the wedding more unique and it fit our "theme" which eventually evolved into "all about us". I made sure this wedding was a full representation of us from the decor to the cake. One of the things the hubs and I have in common is that we love art and all the forms of it. I am more of a crafter while the hubs is more of the artsy type - painter, sketcher, etc., so you better believe that we were going to include this in our wedding. Unfortunately though, I was not able to document some of the projects that my Mom had completed - including the card box, centerpiece "place mats" and the card bag. Maybe one day when we have time (whenever that is), we can write it up for those that are interested.

Below are the How To posts for the Roddy Wedding DIY projects:

How To: Cake Stands

How To: Recycled Star Shaped Crayons

How To: Ribbon Topiary

 How To: Letter Collage

How To: The Coasters

The coasters were such a great project and great idea for a gift. I actually used them for gifts for my little helpers. I had some awesome family members and friends that gave up some of their time to help us pull this wedding together, so I wanted to make something for them. In the gift bags, I included the handmade coasters, a white and red wine glasses as well as a personal sized white wine bottle and red wine bottle.

For this project, I did not include the instructions in completing the project but I did include the link to the actual instructions that I found on Style Me Pretty.

Here are a few projects that I completed that I didn't have a How To for but are relatively easy to create with basic knowledge of software or tools.

The Photo Cards

The Candy Bags

The Candy Station

 The Card Box

As always, if you have any questions please leave a comment or email me at theroddybride{at}gmail{dot}com.

The Battle of Her Life

Today my little sister, Tanya, (OK, maybe not so little) will be undergoing her first chemo treatment. Two weeks ago she was diagnosed with stage 3 Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Back in May, my sister felt a lump on her left side of her lower neck. When she went to the doctor's office, the initial examination had revealed that there were a lot more lumps on her neck and shoulder area than the one that she found. Obviously alarming the doctor, she was sent for an ultrasound for the areas mentioned above. Unfortunately, the doctor was correct. Her left side of her neck and shoulder area was very mountainous looking. She had numerous small lumps all through out that area. Next up was a visit to the Ear, Nose and Throat specialist. After his examination, he believed that what she had was cancer so he ordered two biopsies. One was with a needle to take some tissue. This didn't provide conclusive results so he performed another biopsy to remove a section of the lump. Just by looking and feeling the lump, he was pretty sure it was cancer. The results for this biopsy did prove it to be Hodgkin's Lymphoma. After getting those results back she went in for a CT scan to find the location of the cancer. The CT scan results showed that she had the cancer throughout her body. It was found on her left side of her neck, arm pits, diaphragm, and pelvic area. So they gave her the final diagnosis...stage 3 Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Although saddened by the diagnosis, our family (including my sister) felt a sigh of relief for two things. One being that we now know what she had. Going weeks not knowing what it was that she was fighting was exhausting. Two, this is one of the best cancers to have. Yes, we know no cancer is better than cancer but of the 200 types of Lymphoma, only 1 is untreatable, which she doesn't have, and the mortality rate is approximately 5%. This is great news. Unfortunately, with her getting chemo she is more at risk of an infection that can cause death then the cancer causing death itself. Because of this, things have to change around her.

Last week she went through multiple tests. She had a cardiac and pulmonary test to make sure her heart and lungs were ready for the chemo. She also had a bone marrow extraction done last week as well to verify whether the cancer has reached her bone marrow. If it did, she will then need a bone marrow transplant. Since the doctor believes that this started about 2 years ago and that she is stage 3, my fear is that it has reached her bone marrow. I guess we will see once the test results are returned.

So far her course of treatment involves 1 - 2 hours of chemo every two weeks and radiation. The results from the bone marrow extraction will tell us whether she will need the transplant and when. Today and tomorrow will be the start of her treatment. She will be receiving her first batch of chemo today at 2:00 pm. This is when her battle begins.

Tanya is being very positive about her current situation and she is being fully supported by all those who love her. I ask that you too, keep her in your thoughts and prayers as she fights the biggest war of her life!

Thank you!

ETA: To follow her progress with battling this cancer, you can visit www.caringbridge.com/visit/tanyamarie. You can read her story, view pictures or leave inspiring messages to her on her guestbook.

Here is my sister as she is receiving her first round of chemo.

The Shred - Part Dos

OK, now that I received clearance from my doctor, I can now start working out hard core to get rid of this "baby fat." I am ready to take on the 30 Day Shred for the second time. If you recall, before my pregnancy I tried to take on this challenge in October of '09 but by the end of that week, not only were we moving out of town but I also found out we were pregnant. So because I didn't know any better (and it was an excuse), I decided to stop the challenge and resume once baby Roddy had arrived. Well now it is that time.

No ifs, ands or buts, I am going to get through this. I am in dire need to get my self healthy again and if I shed a few pounds and firm up in the mean time that would be a great bonus too. My ultimate goal is to be healthy but I also wanted to make sure that I get back to a decent starting weight before we decide to have Baby #2. Now, don't worry we aren't jumping on that boat just yet. Our plan is to wait about a year before conceiving again. There is just too much going on financially in our lives right now AND raising an infant is a lot of work (we already knew that of course). The lack of sleep and horrible eating habits have taken a toll on our bodies. We practically need this full year to recoop :).

So while I go through this, I plan on providing updates and if I am brave enough, maybe some before and after shots with my review of the program.

So for all you Shredders out there, do you have any advice for me? Prayers? lol

Wish me luck...I am definitely going to need it!

Saya @ 2 Months

I cannot believe how fast time is flying. My baby girl is already 2 months old. Below are a few updates on what's going on in Saya's life.



Saya Vittoria
Age: 2 Months

Weight: 12 lbs

Height: 22 inches

Milestones:

• She now smiles and laughs or more like squeaks so I now call her squeaker.
• She tends to stare more at things just trying to concentrate on the. The cutest is when she stares at her fist, she ends up crossing her eyes.
• She is still drinking at least 4 oz at a time but now every 2 - 3 hours. We are waiting for her to want to drink more at one time so the hours get extended.
• She is more comfortable sleeping on her back. Soon she will be making the transition back to her crib from her bassinet.
• She doesn't have full control of her hands just yet but she tries to touch or hit the toys in front of her.
• She can lift her head up when during tummy time
• We can lift her to a seating position just by her gripping her little fingers on our fingers.

Challenges:

• Her "witching hour(s)" still exist and will for some time but at least they are becoming fewer and fewer.
• She is still having issues with sleeping on her back but she is getting used to it.
• Being able to go to a store in the time period before her next feeding. If she is ready to feed, naturally she will be extra fussy and cry a lot (and loud) until she is fed. So shopping becomes more of a task especially if there is only one of us with her.

Sleep:

• She still gets up every 2.5 - 3 hours  (or sometimes more) for a feeding or changing then goes right back to sleep.
• Her current wake up times have changed a bit by a half hour or so.
• She is taking fewer naps during the day but they are lasting 2 -3 hours.

Appearance:

• Her eye color is now developing more. They still appear to be a dark shade of blue. She will definitely have lighter color eyes, we just don't know which way they will sway.
• Her hair still looks like the Charlie Brown hairdo but it seems to be getting a little darker and a little longer.
• She is now officially in 3 month clothing. 0-3 months are mostly too short for her but some are a little too tight.
• She is filling out more so now she has more baby fat rolls on her legs and arms. Just too cute though!

Saya on her 2 month birthday