Good morning! I’m still in bed…recuperating from the Cisplatinum chemo from yesterday. I double up on nausea meds….Zofran and I swear by the Compazine suppositories…..those help me sleep.  I’ll probably be here a few days but I’ve got a few good movies to watch. Lisa is bringing me some cake donuts this morning…..I think it’s the only thing I’ll be able to get down right now…..along with my diluted G2 grape Gatorade. Look at my cute, soft jammies from my friend Vicki. I can’t complain about anything right now: comfy bed, movies, donuts and jammies.

 

 

Yesterday was a long day but I get to meet some really great people. First of all, everyone at the doctor’s office had seen me on the news. I was a little embarrassed. Here’s the awesome part: I had someone ask for my autograph yesterday. A nice man who accompanies his friend for chemo treatment brought in my news article and asked me to sign it. First he stopped at my chair and asked if I was “Ashley, Lil Blue Boo”. It set off a chain reaction in the infusion center. One man across the room then asked the nurse if I was a movie star. She knows I’m not, but she told him she’d find out haha….and walked across the room to ask me. I told her I wished…..I wished that I was in Lifetime Movies. I watch so many of them I could probably jump right into any story line just fine!

 

 

I took about a 2 hours nap in chemo yesterday. I’d never been able to sleep before in there!  It was kind of nice.  Mr LBB has his hands full. He’s so busy with work and Boo….and then he like to accompany me to see Dr. L when we meet and then he picks up Boo and picks me up from chemo after that. And then he takes over the role of Mom and Dad all night, all morning…..he gets to take her to 2 birthday parties……one tonight and one tomorrow. But he has a great attitude about it all…..just looks a little weary at times.

Our drive home is only about 5 miles….so pretty at night in the desert:

 

 

Some yucky news this morning…..my tumor markers went back up this week despite the 2 rounds of Cisplatin. I asked Dr. L why I was so tired lately and he and Mr. LBB started laughing “you have no idea what this stuff is doing to your body.” I guess I just think things won’t affect me sometimes. Dr. L said that years ago before they had some of the drugs to counteract the side effects, they would hospitalize patients for about 8 months who were on Cisplatinum…..mainly for testicular cancer…..and it WAS like the movie Dying Young. I’m so thankful for medical advances and that I can do my treatment outpatient and just a few days are bad at at time.  I did notice ridges in my fingernails…..I never had those before. They are like tree rings…..each one marking a new round of treatment.

I’ll be resting all day and doing my “detox” regime tonight: detox bath, enemas, skin brushing, juicing. Goodbye toxins. Lisa is working on the launch of the Spring line today….so excited for that. I haven’t had to do a thing really except for design work. Today will be a crazy day. She rocks. She sent me a photo from the donut shop this morning…….she should be home any moment with goodies. Woot!

 

Make sure to check out Stephanie Corfee’s artwork for the Team Ashley auction starting next week! It’s amazing!

Oh my…..where did the day go?! It was a day of visiting so I was barely online for even a second today! My friend Shari was in town for Palm Springs’ first International Art Fair. She stopped by to hang out in the LBB studio for a while before she had to catch her her flight.  Boo and I met my mother-in-law Gale and my sister-in-law Christy for lunch and then Christy came back to hang out for the day. She flies back to the east coast tomorrow morning. We put her to work…..she stuffed bags of Choose Joy bracelets for us. We even had window washers today and Mr. LBB and his crew stopped by and Boo was home from school of course. This place is always buzzing and buzzing with activity and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Boo and I worked on her play room for a bit…..I’ll share that soon. This evening we went to my in-laws for dinner because Mr. LBB’s grandmother and 2 aunts are in town visiting. 10 adults and 4 kids running around. Phew. I think I just fell into bed!

The only photo I have from today is of Boo…..wearing one of my head scarves this morning. So cute. Her cute sweatshirt is a sample from last year’s Spring line…..made by Evy’s Tree exclusively for Lil Blue Boo.

 

 

Off to bed…..we have more visitors tomorrow.  I’m fitting in everything I can during the next few days because Thursday is my icky Cisplatinium full day of chemo and that means I’ll be out of commission for a few days after that.

XOXO,

Ashley

Today was such a special day! I’ll never forget it. My wonderful mother-in-law Gale and sister-in-law Jen threw me a special gathering: a “choose joy” lunch. They invited some of my closest friends and family to celebrate a day of love, friendship, encouragement, laughter…..and of course joy.

 

 

I was blown away by the thought and detail that went into everything:

 

 

The table was amazing:

 

My sister-in-law Jen is amazing at party details (remember Thanksgiving?…..or my niece’s cupcake birthday party)….I tell her she needs to start a business doing it….but she just likes to do it for friends and family:

 

 

The weather was beautiful and eating outdoors at Augusta Restaurant (in Palm Desert) was perfect with a guitar playing and a french speaking waiter!

 

I was so excited to see everyone! Seriously….I could barely sleep last night!

 

Some of my closest friends were there…..and our waiter commented on how he could tell it was such a nice group of women:

 

 

It was a table of laughter and new friendships too…….some of my friends were meeting each other for the first time:

 

Here’s the table-decorator-extraordinaire herself….Jen:

 

 

Jen and Gale asked everyone to bring gifts of comfort…..so I joked that it was my “cancer shower” haha. Gale said “let’s call it a comfort shower“…..that sounds nicer 🙂

 

Gale, Me, and Jen:

 

 

My sister-in-law Christy surprised me and flew in from Georgia!

 

Gale making a toast…..

 

…..and then making me teary:

 

 

Gale surprised everyone at the luncheon with a Choose Joy necklace:

 

Everyone was so excited that it disrupted the entire restaurant…..we all laughed really hard over that:

 

Starting to open up gifts I got really overwhelmed and emotional that so much love and support was there:

 

 

Every gift was so thoughtful and perfect. I was overwhelmed!  There were magazines, pjs, scarves, comfy blankets, healing teas, essential oils, comfy clothes, books, snacks, devotionals, journals, sharpies….even a cooler full of gourmet homemade frozen soups!

 

My step-aunt Nancy came down for the day which was wonderful since she is usually with Cole, my step-cousin who is healing from a traumatic car wreck. She even stopped to bring me some fresh donuts!

 

Mr. LBB and Boo made a quick appearance to say hi:

 

Lisa took all the wonderful photos. Thank you Lisa!

 

My friend Jenn made all the bows into a bouquet….and I threatened to throw it and everyone yelled NO!!!! I guess no one else wants cancer…..we all got a good laugh about that.  I think I’ll save it and burn it once this is all over with:

 

I’m am truly blessed to be surrounded by such love. It was just a small luncheon…..there are so many others, including all of you out there, that have been so supportive and encouraging. I’ve never once felt alone in this journey. So thank you for that. And to Gale and Jen……thank you from the bottom of my heart for my “shower”……it was truly a day of joy and fun!  I love you so much!!!