Christmas holiday updates

The holiday break has been in full swing at the Martindale household.  The girls have been enjoying and making the most of their time off school.  We've had a decent amount of sleep overs, friends, and hanging out at home!  Tom and I spent Christmas eve morning getting his 4th chemo treatment of this current regimen.  His weight continues to hang out around 143lbs and his labs looked good.  Good news--his CA 19-9 came down this week after our mini rise last week.  It's 109, so heading back in the right direction!  

Chemo side effects are about the same, fatigue, achy joints/muscles...and a new one of skin irritation/rash.  It's primarily been showing up around hair follicles, so his head and beard area have been itchy or some painful bumps.  We've been working with suggested shampoo, face wash, and creams in attempts to be more comfortable.  Not sure if this is something that will persist with his chemo or if it will resolve at some point.  Time will tell.  

We had a chance to enjoy Christmas with twist and ordered BBQ for the meal, but had our Christmas cookies and Tom's favorite no bake cookies.  The girls are prepping for New Years tomorrow, so I'm sure we'll end up with some delicious snacks and lots of chaos, assuming Tom and I can make it until midnight 😂      

I almost forgot, we got some "good" news this week!  Wells Fargo has finally told us how we need to pay for our ongoing benefits for this next year.  We've been trying to find out this information since 11/3/2025.  Thank heavens for small miracles--it was stressing us out that we'd end up behind in payments and they'd cancel insurance.  

I've been mostly off work for the past week or working remotely, so we are spending a lot of time doing a few projects around the house and errands, cleaning up Christmas decorations, and ubering the girls around (or paying Viv's gas to do it)  This is also an off week of chemo for Tom, so it's been nice to be able to move a little slower, not go somewhere if we don't want it, and sleep in several days.  Scarlett told me not to wake her up this morning because it was the weekend (on Tues)😆  Unsurprisingly the dogs are loving the extra people being home, even though they had to get haircuts earlier this week!    

 We will be busy in Jan/February as Scarlett starts Club Volleyball on the weekends and we have our new Mayo trip mid January.

We continue to appreciate all your love and support for Tom and our family as we continue on our day to day path.  If so inclined add a local family, who has hit some bumps in their current health journey, to your good thoughts and prayers as well.  They are someone that Tom and I are keeping in mind ongoing.  I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and have a fantastic New Years!  🎉

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