02-26-2011 Saturday

Feeling pretty good today. Not much of an appetite but I've been forcing myself to eat healthy stuff and drink lots of water! Yesterday, I washed my hair in the shower and noticed that LOTS of it was in the shampoo lather. So, I rinsed and then just rubbed my head under the shower stream for a few minutes. When I shut the shower off, about 3/4 of my hair was in the tub! This morning, when washed my hair in the shower most of the rest fell out. So, this afternoon, I buzzed what was left! It was a little weird to look at my head with no hair at first but I'll get used to it. I'm surprized how sensitive my scalp is to warm and cool and how shiny the skin is! Lord, thank you for not giving me a head thats shaped too weird. Amen!

02-24-2011 Thursday

Catherine and I spent the day at the Cancer Treatment Center for Chemotherapy Treatment #2 today. Another all day session. Jody came to visit but Grant had to work and Melissa has a bad cold. The treatments went well until that last one. They pushed it at a little faster rate this time, and my blood pressure went up and my pulse jumped into the 120's. Nothing dangerous and I felt fine but I had to watch my levels tonight to be sure they came back down (which the did). Brenda (my awesome nurse!) told me to start taking B6 vitamins to prevent numbness and loss of feeling in my fingertips and toes (there is a medical name but I can't remember it) which is a possible side effect of Taxol (one of the chemo drugs that I get). She also told me to apply Tea Tree Oil to my fingernails and toenails because sometimes the nails will separate from the nail bed and possibly fall off and apparently Tea Tree Oil can prevent that from happening. I would rather that NOT happen thank you very much! As always, I thank God for getting us through another treament and another day. He truly does pour His blessings out on us every day and we so often take them for granted!

02-18-2011 Friday

I felt good enough to go into work everyday and work through the whole day! (A couple of those days I was running out of energy believe me!) I must admit I didn't do much in the evenings though... I was pretty much wipped! It was good to get back into a semi-normal routine and see all of my co-workers on a regular basis again. Health wise, I started getting a better appetitie and not as achy. However, the one thing that I knew would happen but didn't really want to admit started late in the week... my hair started falling out. Little by little so far, but it will continue. Oh well, It's not like I had long hair anyway. I got a nice surprise from a bunch of my DISKek "family". They all signed a really nice card and gave me gift cards to Amazon and Papa Murphy's! What a great group!! Thanks again all of you! And I can never for get to thank God. I do every day! I don't feel so overwhelmed anymore. I believe that God has more in store for me to do here on earth. And if thats not in His plan, then I've got a place in His Kingdom. We all do when we accept Jesus Christ.

02-13-2011 Sunday

Went to church today and sang with the worship band. When we went to church last week, I took one of my nausea pills to be sure I wouldn't get sick at church. Unfortunately, the pill also caused me to get VERY drowsy! I barely made it through church and lunch with the family. No more of those pills unless absolutely necessary! It was great to feel good enough to sick with the band! And I have to let everyone know that my/our church family at Prince of Peace has simply been awesome! We've been gettin cards and hugs and emails and hugs and calls and hugs!! Everyone has just... treated Catherine and our family and me beyond what ever expected. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!! (By the way, if you're reading this and looking for a church home and family, you need look no farther!) Thank you God for all of your blessings and strength and forgiveness and love!!

02-11-2011 Friday

I worked from home all this week. Thank's again DISTek and Deere for allowing me to do so and God because I have a job that gives me that opportunity. No major sickness throughout the week. I had some "lower digestive track" issues (if you get my drift) which made things a little uncomfortable but nothing else too major. I just feel very tired, kinda achy, and not too much of an appetite. I had another blood test this afternoon and everyone was happy to see that my counts were still in the normal range... lower but still accepatable. Chemo tends to overwork the blood cells so they thought they might have to give me a shot to kick by bone marrow into gear to produce more. But they didn't have to so... HOORAY! So far my tubby little body is working well enough to keep up with the demand! Every little thing like this convinces me more and more that God truly is in control of this situation (and all of our lives) and it's best to let He and the Doctor's and great nurses do their jobs!

02-07-2011 Monday

Catherine walked over to meet me for my 8:00 AM appointment with Dr. Ryken in the Covenant Clinic building. He went over the MRI and confirmed Dr. Rotenberg's tumor type diagnosis. He said he estimated the tumor to be about 2.5cm and located between the auditory canal and the brain stem on the left side. I told him that I was getting my hearing back and he thought that was probably because of Deximethizone (steroid) that I had to take for the chemo. He agreed that the cancer treatment should take precidence since the brain tumor is a slow growing type. He said that surgery was possible but it would probablu take 6 hours just to get to the tumor and that recovery would be at least 4 - 6 weeks. He thought the more likely treatment would be Stereotactic Radiation which is a computer and image guided technique that directs radiation only at the tumor. We also discussed the fact that one of my chemo drugs (called Avastin) has been shown to be effective on benign brain tumors as well as malignant tumors... so maybe we'll actually be treating both of my tumor types at the same time! God does work in mysterious ways! Thank you Lord for putting a little more hope into this once completely dire situation! You truly are an awesome God!!

02-03-2011 Thursday

Today is my 52nd birthday. It is also my first day of chemotherapy! Talk about irony! Treatment went really well. Catherine and I arrived about 9:30, my actual treatment started around 10:45, and they flushed my port with saline and pulled me off around 5:00. Thankfully, I had no reactions to any of the meds which everyone is thankful for. By the way, my nurse, Brenda, is just awesome! Grant and Jody came around 11:00 and had lunch with us stayed till around 1:00. Then Pastor Dapelo came and visited. Melissa and Courtney came and Pastor talked for a little while and prayed with all of us before he left. Then Melissa left around 3:00. It was a long day but it was nice to visit with everyone and experience their support and love. I don't know how, but God uses those times of trial and tribulation to bring out the best in people. He truly is an awesome God and I have an awesome family!!