A Special Request from Me!

Before Alice came around I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Jeanne Louie Tawatao. This post is for her husband Rommel. This guy is funny! Sarcastic (I like that in a person myself! It’s almost a friendship requirement!) He’s a great Daddy. Awesome husband. (I heard stories!! Yup, Jeanne gossips! Sorry Rommel, someone had to tell you!!) Rommel rocks that bald head like Bruce Willis! He’s a hard worker, veteran and all around GREAT guy!! Now, Rommel is truly fighting for his life. PLEASE!! Send a lot of prayers their way!!!

Welcome to my Light The Night Walk Fundraising Page

I am walking in honor of my husband of 7 years, Rommel Ian Tawatao. Rommel is also a father, brother, son, uncle, friend, and my hero.

About a year ago, Rommel noticed that he was constantly feeling tired, coughing excessively, and developed a fever that would not go away. The coughing had become so severe that he was coughing almost nonstop for 2+ weeks, and had trouble breathing. After multiple doctor’s visits and several ER visits and 911 calls, he was officially diagnosed with Stage 2B Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (a type of blood cancer) on November 2, 2012.

Chemotherapy was started within a few days at Kaiser Hospital in San Diego. The coughing was finally controlled with a lot of steroid medication. The plan was for him to have 12 treatments of chemo (6 cycles) over 6 months, then radiation for 4 weeks, and life would go back to normal.

Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. After the 6 cycles, the cancer had progressed and Rommel ended up being in the 10% of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma patients that did not respond to conventional chemotherapy. He was reclassified as having “Refractory Hodgkin’s Lymphoma”, but still Stage 2B. He then had 6 more treatments of a different cocktail of chemotherapy drugs, which decreased the tumors, but did not completely obliterate it.

The next plan of action for Rommel is high dose chemotherapy, then autologous stem cell transplant at City of Hope in Los Angeles. Autologous stem cell transplant is a process in which healthy stem cells coming from your own blood or bone marrow are placed back into your body intravenously to help your bone marrow start to work normally again. After this process, Rommel will be inpatient for approximately 4-6 weeks, as he will be immune-compromised.

Currently, Rommel is trying to get into a clinical trial that would help improve his chances of reaching remission. This study involves getting targeted radiation before starting on high dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplant. As someone who works in a cancer research lab himself, Rommel has done some research on this treatment, and we are very hopeful that this will work for him. This treatment is currently used in the treatment of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and the hope is that it will work for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma as well.

Needless to say, it has been a rough and exhausting year for our family. Although we try our best to keep things as normal as possible for Hayley (and our own sanity), it has been undeniably challenging, stressful, and frustrating. Thankfully, Hayley is a very happy 3-year-old, and she keeps us laughing on a daily basis.

For the most part, Rommel has tolerated the effects of chemo pretty well so far. He had some nausea and fatigue, but anti-nausea meds and staying in bed and resting helped a lot. Going bald only seemed to remind him of his days in the Army. The hardest part has been having to give himself injections in the stomach whenever his blood cell counts drop too low. He has been working at least every other week (even during chemo), and I have been working intermittently as well. Rommel has been to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, but Hodgkin’s is by far the biggest battle yet, and I know he will continue to fight.

This whole experience has been incredibly humbling for our family. We are so fortunate to be surrounded by such supportive and thoughtful family, friends, and neighbors. We are so appreciative of everything — all the prayers, help babysitting, people bringing us food, dog sitting Phoebe & Mojo, organizing fundraisers (Thanks to our Team Captain, Kim!), rides to the hospital, and just being there to listen!

We would really appreciate your support in our Light the Night Walk at Petco Park in San Diego. Your donation will go towards lifesaving research for a cure, and support people suffering from leukemia/lymphoma. If you are local, you are welcome to join our team and walk with us on Friday, November 8th. Thank you for your continued love, support, and prayers! Hugs and kisses from me, Rommel, and Hayley!

I’m Refreshing My Blog (and Bust Ghosts)

Updating old blog content is a bit like digital archaeology: you head in to dust the archives and end up unearthing questionable life choices from years ago. Between the over-filtered photos and advice that’s aged like room-temperature milk, the past can be… loud.

The Ghost in the Machine: Lately, I’ve been dealing with a resident spirit: The Ghost of Peanut Butter and Whine. This digital poltergeist has been causing chaos behind the scenes:

The Vanishing Act: Deleting images and leaving empty boxes where helpful tutorials used to be.
The Link Graveyard: Sneakily swapping my trusted brand partners for sketchy “AI Crypto” links.
Font Sabotage: Reverting my modern, clean text back to “Geocities-era” antique fonts.

The 2026 Refresh Plan: I’m giving my archives a facelift to keep my blog traffic climbing and my readers happy. Here’s my step-by-step exorcism:

Exorcise 404s: Running a broken link checker to find and fix every dead end.
Modernize the Recommendations: Swapping outdated 2019 products for my 2026 essentials.
SEO Deep Clean: Updating metadata to ensure my focus keywords are in the headers and the introduction for maximum impact.