Basement Project Stage 1

When we first bought our house we loved the idea of having a partially finished basement, especially since we couldn't really of made one work with our old house. The thought of being able to eventually host parties and have another place to relax was awesome, the only thing stopping us was this:

Hot mess, I know. I was reminded of it several times a week when I would have to go downstairs to do the laundry and have to walk pass it.

I woke up determined to get that room cleared out, I meant I was determined to get the hubs to help me take care of it..  So after a few hours, we managed to move, organization and throw away a ton of stuff, which then left the room looking much better:

Then we got busy painting the walls from the salmon-ey color to Dutch Boy 'Water Fowl' (C15-3):

And you're probably wondering why we painted the walls before installing the ceiling.  Well we do things when we have time for them and frankly installing a ceiling didn't fit into our time frame at the moment, plus we were not sure exactly what type of ceiling we wanted.

All the holes in the trim were filled, sanded and a nice coat of glossy white paint sealed the deal.

From there we had plans to work on the vinyl flooring.  It is beat up and desperately needs to be replaced.  We wouldn't normally go with peel and stick tile, but for this area we didn't want to fork out a ton of money right now and wanted a temporary fix.  So off to our second home Menards we went because I really wanted this vinyl flooring:

But it can only be ordered in sheets and cannot be custom cut.  With that said we would have ended up wasting money, plus we realized the color wouldn't have matched. 

Round two. Back at Menards looking for something reasonable and we stumbled upon pre cut rolls of vinyl flooring for $20 each and we found two that matched thinking it would be perfect.  We brought them home and that was epic fail #2, the flooring was WAY too dark.  I took a picture, but accidently deleted it.  Trust me, way too dark.

After that fail, we went back, returned the rolls and found this tile:

We were kind of hoping to crank out this project, get the quarter round down and check off another thing on our list, but the thing about peel and stick tile is the only way it can work is if it sticks.  The hubs laid down one tile and it popped right back up. (Yes we took off the backing on it too, so it wasn't operator error).

So back to the store we went...again.  Crappy peel and stick tile returned and we raised the white flag.  We decided that the gods were working against us and took it as a sign to take a break and not worry about the floors.

We were able to make some progress besides the fact that we totally failed the floor and managed to get some can lights installed.

What's next?  Drywall.  Even a healthy Emily is not strong enough to help with the drywall, so we will have to enlist the help of a friend or two to assist the hubs in finishing that part.

Plan Of Attack

To say that I am impatient is an understatement.  Throughout this journey I have not been able to deal with the anxiety of the unknown and with only having two more Herceptin appointments left until I start Tomoxofin, the anxiety of what my future holds was a very scary thing for me to deal with emotionally.  I said here that I found the most amazing Genetic Counselor and she set me up with an appointment with Dr. David Dimmock to go over my options regarding my Li Fraumeni diagnosis and scheduling scans, tests and go over my game plan.  The knowledge that this man possesses about Li Fraumeni and the TP53 gene was a breath of fresh air.  I always bring my mom and the hubs with me to appointments like this because the amount of information told compared to what I am able to retain in such a short period of time is impossible, so having them there helps to remember the pieces that I don't, and needless to say I was VERY happy they were with me!

I was delighted to find out that he, along with a few other doctors had a little pow-wow about my case on Monday.  Apparently I'm a unique case.  Like I said here, both my parents were tested and came back negative to carrying the gene mutation, which makes me de novo, which is a special word that means somehow it just started with me.  Kind of neat, and scary at the same time. I knew I was always a unique kind of person, but to realize that 7-20% of people who carry this already very rare mutation are de novo is kind of crazy and on top of it in so many words I found out that my TP53 mutation has a mutation on top of it (kind of).  The geneticist told me that they were able to determine that my TP53 mutation has a Truncating Mutation which puts me at the lower end of any percentage chances I have of getting another cancer.  So, in a hypothetical situation, just say the chances of getting Leukemia were 10%-25%, having the Truncating Mutation would mean I would have be on the lower end (10% chance) of getting Leukemia in my lifetime. (I actually am not sure on the exact percentages but I'll take the small sliver of positive out of this situation).  To learn more about Li Fraumeni and TP53 and how it works, or doesn't work, this article is amazing!


He proceeded to go over all of different surveillance methods that I will be going through:

• Colorectal cancer surveillance (Colonoscopy)...Just what I always wanted.
• Skin cancer surveillance....Yahoo!
• Sarcoma surveillance (Whole body MRI scan)...YOLO.
• Brain tumor surveillance...If I have one.
• Leukemia surveillance... Lovely.

On top of that the hubby and I have decided to move forward with the PGD testing next March.  My anxiety is through the roof not knowing how many of the embryos are affected, if any, or all.  So by at least having an approximate time of year, gives me the peace of mind that at least we can get this process rolling.  I will be scheduling an appointment with Dr. Estil Strawn to go over the process, timeline and all of the details.

So in a nut shell, I will be getting a crap ton of phone calls in the upcoming week to get all of this scheduled before the end of the year.  Why would I want to jam-pack the rest of the year with this many appointments and fun stuff? Definitely not because I want to, but more because I'm on a roll and with my deductible already met, why not?

I am so happy to have such a team of doctors surrounding me, but at the same time it scares the crap out of me that I have to have a team of doctors.  Saturday I was working and the entire time I kept thinking about "the worse case scenario" and what if a cancer comes back.  I obviously know I would do anything and everything to take care of business, but having those thoughts scare me.  I try to just push them to the back of my mind and think on the positives but I feel that a lot of times those scary thoughts overshadow the positive.  I guess it's human nature to always think the worse, and hope for the best.  Well, all of this stress has been weighing on me and unfortunately the hubby had to deal with the hot-mess of his wife when I got home from work.  He is a saint, my rock and without him I don't know what I would have done.

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer I was scared out of my mind, but thought, "All I need to do is get through this and I'm golden and I can move on with my life."  I knew I was strong enough to beat it, but finding out about the Li Fraumeni Syndrome scares me to the core because it is something that no matter what I do or how much money I can scrounge out of my couch, if cancer wants to get me, it will.  If it does, I fight again, that's my nature.  Right now I just need to remember to stop worrying about stuff that I cannot change and enjoy the happy moments in my life.

To end this on a VERY positive note, amongst some of the negativity in my life, when I initially met with the genetic counselor at Froedert and wanted the second genetic test done she also advised that I have another vial drawn and sent off for the Family Prep Screen Test to primarily test for Cystic Fibrosis because if I was a carrier, then the hubs would get tested and if he carried then during the PGD testing the embryos could be tested for that as well. This test is a simple blood draw, usually costs approximately $100, but is almost always covered by insurance and tests for a variety of diseases and mutations that a parent can pass down to their child. 

Here is a list of the 101 diseases that are tested for.

Well, when I asked her about my results she said that she had received them and frankly she was nervous to open the packet.  She also said that most people are a carrier of some sort of disease-causing mutation but to my delight she gave me the following results....

"No known or potential disease-causing mutations were detected"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I am not a carrier!!

DIY Window Well Covers

Our dog loves frogs.  Tiny ones, larger ones, bright green, dark green.  She is obsessed.  For weeks she would stalk the side of our house, looking in every window well for the frogs that likes to sit in them.  Most of the time they were filled with old leaves that if they moved June bug thought they were frogs. 

 

There was one night we had a bon fire and we had her outside.  Well, she would not leave this one frog alone that was trapped in our window well.  I told June to leave the frog alone.  By the way did I mention she is GREAT at listening. (NOT!!)  Well about five minutes after telling her to stay away from the window well, she was running from it, with a frog leg flopping out of her mouth.  Disgusting to say the least and we never found the body. 

 

That night was the last straw for us.  The next morning we went to Home Depot, Menards and Lowes looking for window well covers.  They all carried two similar styles.

 

source

 

OR

source

 

Frankly for our situation, with a VERY motivated springer spaniel, we knew that neither would do the trick.  The last thing we need is for June to be able to see into the window well, she would probably end up breaking the cover.  The blue ones weren't terrible, but they did not have the size that we needed.  Instead we took things into our own hands and DIY'd some of our own and LOVE the way they turned out!

 

 

Here is what you will need if you want to tackle this:

• 3/4 inch plywood
• Plexi glass
• Vinyl lattice
• Polyurethane
• Screws
• Siding

 

The hubs measured each window well and transferred that to a piece of plywood.  From there he cut out each one, and penciled in for the interior cut.  After he was done with both this is what he was left with.

 

After each one was cut I went and applied a few coats of polyurethane to them.  As you can tell the left one isn't and the right one is.  This will hopefully keep them going strong through all the beautiful weather Wisconsin gets throughout the year. 

 

Once they were dry, or almost dry, the hubs took the plexi glass that we purchased and cut out an identical piece to match the ply wood (without cutting out the middle). 

After the plexi glass was sitting on the frame, the hubs took the vinyl lattice and cut it out to match.

He then pre-drilled holes (so the plexi glass wouldn't crack) and screwed the lattice and plexi glass into the plywood and bam, we had custom, DIY window well covers.

We did run into a predicament when we placed the window well cover on.  June came over, sniffed it and nudged it off.  Fail.

The hubs had a brought this project to a whole different level of custom when he grabbed some of the extra siding that was laying around in the basement and cut strips and screwed them into the plywood.

We had Project: DIY Window Well Cover completed and June bug, although she was a little upset about losing her areas to snoop around in for frogs, she has survived, and no other frogs have perished.  The frogs can thank us!

 

Confirmed

I had a second genetic test done at Froedert a few weeks ago and have eagerly been waiting for the results ever since.  I was very excited to meet with this genetic counselor and within five minutes in the room I was in tears.  Not tears of fear, or being mad, but tears of pure happiness because she was so knowledgeable.  While I was still scared for the outcome of the test and my future, as well as our embryos I felt comforted by all of the information she was giving me.  At the end of the meeting, I went over to get my port accessed and they drew five vials that were sent off for the second test.

Well a few days ago I got an email from my genetic counselor telling me that the results were to be coming in and she wanted to contact me.  I had this really happy feeling and kept thinking, well if she wants to tell me over the phone then it must have come back that I don't carry the TP53 gene mutation.  That was not the case for me.  I got a call the next morning and she told me that the test came back and confirmed the same results from the first test. 

It utterly sucks.  My family and I were really banking on that there was something wrong with the initial test, and that I did not have the TP53 mutation.  I held it together while I was on the phone with her, and she told me that she was going to be sending over a bunch of information regarding different base line tests, scans and doctors that I should get in contact with.  I lost it when I got off the phone.  I held out every little hope that it wasn't true, that the facility was wrong and I could go on with my life in a more "normal" fashion. 

My husband has a way of explaining things to me when I'm upset that really helps calm me down.  He told me that this type of testing is SO new to the market and insurance companies are just starting to cover it, that there are more people walking around with this mutation and do not even know.  I do not want this to come off in a bad way, but for some reason that comforted me.  There is not a lot of knowledge or information collected regarding Li Fraumeni and the TP53 gene mutation.  Apparently there are only a few hundred people who have been diagnosed, but I think there are thousands upon thousands of people who have it and just do not know or do not want to know.

While I am scared for my future and a recurrence, but I am working on having an amazing team of doctors to keep an eye on me, I just wish there was a way to fix all the fears I have in my mind.

On a lighter note, I'm healing every day.  I have soreness and twinging pains where the muscle was reattached from my initial surgery and on the side from where I had the second surgery done, but it is tolerable.  Just recently I formed a beautiful abscess on one of my surgery scars which is causing a radiating pain through my armpit and upper arm area.  Normally I wouldn't have been concerned, but this is the side that I had 20-some lymph nodes removed so I was most definitely worried about infection.  I met with my doctor and she prescribed me some antibiotics which will hopefully help.  Only time will tell!

Now I have to come up with a plan for getting the embryo's tested.  Maybe robbing a bank to come up with the money? Or maybe an easier and safer thing I can do to start out is just look for a foundation that might offer assistance.  If anyone knows of one, please contact me.