A Time for Friends

Dear Friends and Family,

It has been a busy time in all our lives since my last post. Tyler and Courtney have been weekend warriors working furiously on the Spitfire. They are having such a blast, and making some great progress.

Courtney's last CT scans were completed several weeks ago, but the Denton oncologist did not have any scans to compare them to, since all of his recent CT and PET scans had been at MD Anderson. They had sent them off for MD Anderson to read, and got the results back this past week. It was tough news to hear. He has new active tumors in his liver and the tumors in his lungs are larger. The doctors had always gone back and forth about the tumors in Courtney's lung, "were they scar tissue, or tumors?" They always had remained stable, but on this scan they had changed. This gave the doctors the information that they most likely were tumors. Courtney will complete this round of chemo and then the doctors have a couple of other chemotherapy regimens that they can try. The problem is, that the tumors eventually "learn" that you are trying to kill them and adapt to whatever current chemo you are on. It appears that Courtney's tumors have "learned". I will keep you all posted on the next step.

On a wonderful note, we had some great visitors down this weekend to lift up Courtney's spirits! Joe and Pam (long time friends!) came down from Canada to visit. Bob and Teresa (Sue's brother and sister-in-law) came from Arizona. We were also joined by many other friends including The Moody's and even our friends Jeff and Amanda stopped by. We had a long 5 hour dinner at Villa O in Dallas, it was great to catch up! We laughed and enjoyed the evening and for all of us it was a great escape.

Bob and Teresa spent Sunday at the Hanson's and the guys pulled out the old Porsche that Tyler and Courtney had started to re-do a couple of years ago. With the intention of selling it, and using Bob's ebay skills, they pulled out all the parts and photographed them. I think it was just to much for them to bear, and they remembered why they bought it in the first place. So now, we have our next project after the Spitfire, a 1966 912 Porsche! Tyler then cooked for all of the family that night, a wonderful dinner! We were so sad that we had to leave and that Bob and Teresa had to get on a flight back to Phoenix the next morning.

Thank you all again for your prayers and support of our family. Courtney appreciates all of you, and it lifts his spirits to know just how many people care about him. Thank you for keeping up with this blog, I will update again soon!

Love,

Ashley

Harley's, Spitfire's and 90th birthday's...oh my!

Dear Friends and Family,

The Hanson family has been super busy since my last post. We headed to Nebraska on August 7th for Grandma Billie's 90th birthday party. Sadly, Courtney was still feeling pretty under the weather from his last chemo treatment, so he and Max stayed home. Sue, Tyler, and I had a wonderful time catching up with family. We spent some very relaxing days at the Weber's home on Johnson Lake. Since I met Tyler, I have been hearing about the wonderful days at Johnson Lake in Billie's house there. It was so nice to finally get to see this famous site!

The weather there was absolutely perfect. It stayed in the 70s and 80s, a much needed respite from the humid 100 degree days we've been having in Texas. We tubed our hearts out on Johnson lake and I think some of us forgot how old we have gotten. Tyler could hardly walk the next day and Lacy broke a rib and has some internal bruising! But we enjoyed every minute of it!

Grandma's party was amazing. She is so sweet and loved by so many. It was a joy to see her celebrate this wonderful milestone in her life. It made me proud to be a part of such an incredible family. Lacy helped make a scrapbook of her life, which took some amazing organization on her part. The night before the party, Grandma B spent the night with family at was at the Barrel, a famous Hastings landmark of burgers and beer! She made the comment that she had never ridden a motorcycle. Well, the Bienkowski's jumped on that and found a family friend that had a beautiful Harley. He pulled up to the party the next day, to take her on a ride! She climbed on like a pro behind him, held on, and they sped down the highway past the cornfields! She loved it! It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day!

This past week, Sue had rotator cuff surgery (on her right shoulder). We were pretty worried that it was going to keep her down for awhile, however we should have known better. Tyler and I visited them this past weekend and she is feeling good, taking minimal pain medication and up moving around. She just has to wear a sling and go to therapy three times a week for 6 weeks. She is such a trooper. She says that if Courtney can go through what he has been through then this is "easy". I say, "hardly," since this is famously one of the most difficult ortho surgeries to go through, but the drive in this family is amazing.

Courtney is feeling much better now, and the boys worked on the Spitfire this past weekend. They are making a big headway on it, and enjoying every minute of it. It is good to see them having fun restoring Tyler's old car.

Well, I will post some pictures of Grandma B's famous ride and of the Spitfire, I hope you enjoy! I must give credit to Gracie, future photographer, for taking many of the photos at Grandma's party! Thank you always for your prayers and thoughts.

Love,

Ashley

A Harley Ridin' Grandma

Grandma B's party

Spitfire restoration

Starting chemo

Courtney starts chemo next Monday, June 22. Dr. Jan and Dr. Curley (Courtney's oncologist and surgeon) conferred about Courtney's treatment plan. It was decided that Courtney should complete six treatments instead of just three. It will be the same drugs as last time, since his cancer responded so well to them. It is tough to hear, we were hoping that this might all be behind us this year.

We also originally thought that the chemo dose would be reduced as well, and it will be, but only because of his major weight loss. We are worried about the side effects that he had to endure during his past treatments, peeling hands and feet, hair loss, nausea and more. Courtney has been such a trooper through it all, he has just been feeling so well lately and we don't want that to go away.

We enjoyed lunch together today, and the Hanson's did a little shopping. We ran from destination to destination since it was so hot! I will keep you all updated on his progress through chemo...

Love,

Ashley