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Hi Everyone,
Just spreading the word that we are not allowing visitors for mom at this time. She has had a painful day today and we are trying to cut back on the stimulation. Thank you for your understanding and for all of your help. Love, The Mickelsons

8-14-14 More Changes

Well I thought I better put in a short update. It seems things have changed again just in the last week.
Mom has been sleeping a lot, especially during the day. I know people have tried to call or come visit. At this point mom does not have the energy to get up very often- or at all. So if you are trying to stop by for a visit- sometime in the evening might be best- and short visits are better. She would like to visit more but longer visits wear her out. Or you can come visit with Dad. He likes to talk ;)
Thank you for all your help and prayers- they are felt!

So.....

I'm just not sure how to begin this post... A picture is worth a thousand words, and we have three.

Yes, this tree fell on top of Mom and Dads house mid-morning July 4th. Yes, it shook the whole house and woke up a sleeping Brad who smiled knowingly...
"How did it fall?" you might ask. Dad decided it would be a great idea to chop the tree down by himself. It ended up falling the wrong way- obviously. Then Dad decided it would be an even better idea to climb onto the roof, stand on the branches of the tree and, using a chainsaw, trim the branches off the tree. Did I mention the tree is on the roof? Can you see his grey little head peeking through the branches? The tree then decided to slide off the roof, after having been relieved of the heavy branches, taking Dad and everything else with it. Long story shorter- dad landed on his back, got the air knocked out of him and ended up in the ER to make sure nothing was wrong internally. That is still debatable. He's got a few large bruises as battle scars, but other than that he was very, very lucky. And blessed.

Now on to Mom. :) Mom is doing ok. She is definitely starting to get weaker. We are thinking she's having some issues with anemia and some other fun things. She mostly stays at home now. If shes having a good hour or two she might try and go watch the grandkids swim or jump or play. It is uncomfortable for her to sit so she walks around a lot. If you go to visit her and she starts walking around just know that its not you! She just cant sit for long ;)
I have people ask if its ok for them to go visit Mom. If you would like to visit with her please do! You can call or text her and ask if its an ok time to come over. If she doesn't answer she might be sleeping. She does that a lot, so just try her again later. Some days she feels better than others. Some hours are better than others. She may feel horrible in the morning but feel pretty good by 7 oclock at night. That's just the way it goes right now. Long visits probably wear her out, but talking for a little while can be a stress relief. Sometimes people worry because they are afraid they will say the wrong thing, or they are worried they wont be able to handle their own emotions, or they have a hard time with the appearance of someone who is sick... all understandable concerns. My advice is- just don't worry about it. You're welcome. haha You don't have to talk about cancer or being sick or what the future holds... nobody really knows- even for someone who is perfectly healthy. You can talk about things that make you happy. Mom may cry when you visit with her - and that's ok. This is a normal thing for her right now- part of it is hormones (the cancer makes those go crazy), partly stress, and being tired. And part of it is that she is so grateful for all that everybody continues to do. People are so nice. Whatever the reason for the tears- know that its par for the course.
We still get together as a family quite often and try to do as much as we can together. We had quite the exciting camping trip last month, and decided we had had enough of that. Thank you to all who are helping out Mom and Dad. We really appreciate it.

5-22-14 Your Mother's Day was just not this much fun....

Wow. I am a slacker...
Lets start with some awesome pictures from Mother's Day!

Its ok to admit you're just a little bit jealous. Leave it to Brian to bring his mother pink sparkly boots with 9 inch platforms on Mother's Day. He also brought her a huge 5 lb chocolate bar that we also had fun with ;) They were both a nice reality break...

Mom made Sally, Stacy and I cute knitted slippers.

Brad invited some of his friends over from his Anasazi group that weren't able to travel home and we ate a lot of delicious food and topped it off with homemade peach ice cream...

No, these are not them- I don't have a picture of the Anasazi group. Although Im pretty sure Brad would not last nearly as long with this bunch...

Or this bunch for that matter...We finally got everyone together at the same time... Sigh... Professional pictures just do not seem to be in the stars at this time. Maybe we will try again.

For the past month things have been going up and down with Mom's health. She has had some really good days where she feels really well and "normal". And other days that are really not good and not normal.
This past week things seem to be going downhill again. She has a doctor’s appt. tomorrow morning so maybe we will have some more info about the next stages. We know things are changing, and her body is adjusting. We expect that - we just want to make sure we can keep the pain under control and allow her to be as functioning as possible.
She has had so much fun being able to hang out with some friends and go to lunch every now and then on good days. She LOVES all the cards, and letters, and flowers and gifts and food that has been sent. They keep her going and are all very appreciated.

4-7-14 Long time... no post

Nothing says "Happy Birthday!" like a trip to the Oncologist... Mom's birthday was April 3rd, and her oncologist appt. happened to be scheduled for that morning. She wasn't feeling too good, but managed to go out with Seth for a birthday lunch after her appt, and then home for a nap ;)
She had so many visitors and well wishes for her birthday- she felt so loved and had quite a full day.

Mom got some new outfits for her birthday

We sent out an email asking for your favorite memories or stories of mom- we compiled them all into a book and gave it to her for her birthday. So many fun stories! We made the book so that we could continue to add to it. If you did not get the email, forgot, or just ran out of time please feel free to continue to send us your stories. You can email them to Sally Jones at sallyjones61@hotmail.com or Becky Chatwin at cbchatwin5@hotmail.com

Sometimes it's hard to know what to say when people ask how mom is doing... you don't want to give every detail because privacy is nice to have... But on the other hand there are so many people who really do care and just want to know how they can help. I told Mom I would tell everyone that "the cancer is progressing nicely" -ha! Mom had such a good week (the week of her birthday). She had family in town and was able to spend a lot of time with them and do some short sessions at the temple- it was so nice. Now this week things have kind of gone downhill again and so we are learning to adjust pain meds and schedules. Sometimes the way she feels changes daily, other times its hourly. It all just depends on the day! So nothing too exciting is going on- we're just taking things as they come. We are also trying to get family pictures done... we cant seem to find a day when everybody is here- but miracles do happen!