More News!

First of all, let me apologize for not blogging sooner. I absolutely have not been up to it. Since Tuesday night I have been in bed non-stop in quite a bit of pain.

We went to the new doctor on Tuesday afternoon and we really liked him. We were both nervous because 2 doctors and several nurses said that he's very difficult to get along with. It surely didn't seem to be that way to us. We were thankful.

What he said was that there are multiple masses in my abdomen and pelvis. I thought (hoped) that they were cysts, however, he said that I am too old to have cysts.

He was going to take all of my tests downtown to Karmanos. He has a particular radiologist that he is confident of reading them.

He says we have two options: 1: surgery - or leave them. He prefers not to have to do surgery, but in my opinion, I don't believe these things can stay here. Lots of pain in my abdomen.

We asked him if I have surgery doesn't that mean that as soon as you would open me up wouldn't that mean it spreads when the air touches it. That is a myth he said. What really happens is that once you cut on someone it opens up entire new blood supplies to the cancer. So myth or not, it doesn't sound good at all.

I have to meet again with the Oncologist on Thursday. Barry & I aren't sure I will make it that long until I would have to have something done.

If you were one of the 29 people that came to our house on Monday to pray, thank you. If you prayed where you were. Thank you. It was an awesome move of God.

My appetite is not anything like it used to be but I am sure that the doctor will put me on that stuff again.

Now even though they are giving me doom and gloom, I am still expecting healing! Remember BY HIS STRIPES. STOMP!!!!! STOMP!!!!! STOMP!!!!!

Love you all! Will write again when I am up to it.

Something New!

Something new has come up. I posted that I haven't been feeling very well and now we know why. My stomach has been hurting for a little while, but because it has masked itself as a UTI we couldn't possibly have been ready for what it really was. I began bleeding along with this UTI and it really wasn't bad at all, I just figured it was part of the UTI, it was not red blood, kind of brown. Not so!

The Uro-gynecologist called me late on Wednesday and said that they could get me in on Thursday at 11 am. Ok, we couldn't seem to get a referral because my primary care doctor didn't know the reason Dr. Momin wanted to send me there. Finally at 10:40 yesterday morning I found out that the referral was ok'd.

I got into this doctor and he was so nice. What was better for me is that my sister's daughter-in-law's sister works there. That made me comfortable, well at least as comfortable as I could be.

We weren't there long and the doctor came in. He told me he was gonna put this probe in me and see what was going on. I wanted to tell him that I didn't need him to check my tonsils. I mean that thing seemed so long. As he was probing I was yelling. He pulled out the probe (finally) and said that there was too much blood and fluid. The blood was red. Not good. He sent me downstairs immediately to have an gyn-ultrasound. ANOTHER probe. That was didn't hurt. The lady was very gentle. They sent us right back upstairs to the doctor. We were there only about 15 minutes and the doctor called us back in. He had already called my Oncologist and informed him what he found.

They found multiple tumors with the largest one being 13.9cm. Barry asked him how big that is and he said for two of his fingers it is 3cm. He said it is the size of a cantaloupe. He also said that it HAS to come out immediately. He also said the lining of my uterus is quite thickened. Not a good thing either. He said my Oncologist was waiting for me across the street...off we went. Oh yeah, one of the first things he did say is that it is not definitely cancer, although suspicious. He must have told us that at least 3 times...how encouraging!

The Oncologist said first of all, this is not definitely cancer...he told us that a few times also. He said that it could be cysts. I have to have a CAT scan on Tuesday morning at 7:00 am. Then I will possibly see the surgeon on Thursday. They are going to call me with that. I will probably have surgery the next week, if not next week.

I just got off the phone with the Cancer Center to see if I had to go get blood and no, I don't. My platelet counts were good. The doctor was concerned that I may have lost so much blood that I would need a couple of units of blood today but thank the Lord, I don't! That would have taken at least 6 hours. I didn't think I lost that much blood but what seems like a little to me may have been a lot!

Although it doesn't sound good, that is when God can and does work in these situations.

Do we understand this...absolutely not. Are we still gonna stand strong...absolutely!

What we are asking is for everyone to join us in prayer. If you can join us on Monday night before I have to have the CAT Scan on Tuesday morning, that would be wonderful.

Another thing is that I have gotten several PET Scans and Barry asked the Oncologist if this showed up in the last PET Scan which was July 3rd. Nothing was there at that time. I can't believe I could grow a cantaloupe that quickly!!!

Love and appreciate you all and all of your prayers!

By His Stripes....Indeed!

The Joy of the Lord!

Tristin (T)


Kaitlynne (K)


Bella


Gracie

1. Knowing that I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ and that his angels surround me. What a wonderful Savior!

2. Having the best husband possible for me. Now don't get me wrong, he's not perfect for someone else, just me!

3. Bear being blessed with a wonderful job that pays well and has wonderful benefits. You just can't outgive God.

4. Having a family that loves me. Am and Chad. Thank God. Many families have no relationship at all.

5. Now comes the best...the grandkids. Kaitlynne (K) has always been special to me. She's our 1st and so that makes her special. She loves reading. She's pretty calm most of the time.

6. Then comes Tristin (T) what an absolute joy! He's a handful but a wonderful handful. I wouldn't change anything about him.

7. Bella - her smiles absolutely lite up my life. How could you not just love her. I love when she talks her gibberish to you. She will look you straight in the eyes and tell you something VERY important I am sure.

8. Then comes Hudsyn...hurry, hurry, hurry. Not really, but we can't wait. She's gonna be loved more than she can even imagine...if you imagine stuff like that in the womb.

9. Gracie - she is so pretty and such a little tomboy/princess. I don't see her near as often as I do the others but she is precious to me.

It's been a rough week or two for me and I was telling Bear the other day that everything that we get to do is like a milestone to me.

We got a new car this week...that was an important milestone.

The kids came over last night..that felt great, except that I didn't feel so good.

We are planning to get away for a couple of days and that too is a milestone.

The baby will be born in early October (8) and then Dani's birthday is the 10th, K's is the 11th she will be 8.

At the end of October we are going to Gatlinburg for the kids to enjoy Halloween down there. They decorate so beautifully. We are all excited about it too.

November is T's birthday. He will be 4. December will be Gracie's birthday, she will be 4 also.

Then comes Christmas...what an exciting time. Christmas is SO fun with little ones. It's fun explaining Christ's birth to them also because they are like little sponges. They soak up EVERYTHING you tell them!

Thank you Lord for your Joy!

The Joy of the Lord is my Strength!!! Nehemiah 8:10

Just In Case Your Were Wondering

I apologize for not blogging sooner, but I just haven't had the energy and didn't think I had anything interesting to say, so, here goes...

I went in Wednesday to get my blood tested for the treatment on Thursday. When I got there yesterday I told the ladies that I thought I had another Urinary Tract Infection. They looked at the numbers on my blood test and agreed. My appointment was 9 am, so we were sure we would be out of there by 11:30---wrong!

This time when they paged the doctor he called right back and said to give me another hour's worth of anti-biotic. They did. I was finished at 11:20. Hurray! When he called into the cancer center to see what they wanted, he told them to tell me to wait right there that he would be in to see me.

Well, he didn't get in there until nearly 4 pm. You talk about tiring! The good thing is that there were two families that I have grown up with at church. We have all been married 29 years, our mom's all died 20 years ago...lots in common. While that certainly isn't an ideal situation, because that means everyone has something seriously wrong with them, it was great to spend time with them...ok, not that much time. Even that long got really boring! Actually, one of my friends was getting her blood tested because her blood is so low...I haven't been able to get in touch with her since we left, so I don't know what her results were.

I guess I don't understand all of the time we had to spend there. Usually people in the Cancer Center are sick and surely don't feel like waiting that long. Thank God he is a good doctor!

Anyway, we he FINALLY got there, he read the blood test reports and didn't seem to think that the blood levels were high enough for this to be an infection. He wanted me to go see a
Uro-gynecologist. I called that doctor and can't get in until September 4th. What a long time to keep hurting. I am going to see if Am's doctors have one of those Specialist in their office. Well, Am checked with her doctor and they recommended the same doctor that my doctor did. She said they told her he is phenomenol.

The doctor also took me off of all medications until we can find out what is going on. No more Erbitux either.

Thank you all for your continued prayers. BY HIS STRIPES!!!!

Food

Ok, we are sitting here at the Cancer Center waiting to get this infusion of Erbitux. Apparently Dr. Momin forgot to write the complete order for the drug, so we wait. There is a call into him currently. I don't know if he forgot or if he didn't write it until he found out about the blood tests.


As I was writing this the nurse just walked in and said she still hasn't heard from the doctor but that my CBC came back and it was good. She said as a matter of fact, it is good enough to frame...thank the Lord. That means the infection is gone. Now we just wait. It is 2:10 and we were supposed to be done by noon, but now we are still 2 hours away...it gets pretty frustrating! Apparently the pharmacy hasn't sent the anti-body yet.


Anyway, while we were sitting here, Barry was looking on the Internet on his computer and he said hum...I said what and he said I was looking at some chicken to smoke. I started laughing at him. I told him that all he thinks about lately is food. You see, he bought himself a smoker back a couple of months ago and he uses it alot! I mean a whole lot! The food tastes so good! He loves it. He loves to barbecue and he loves to cook and NOW he loves to smoke...food.


So far he has smoked a turkey; smoked ribs (several times), a brisket, a pork butt and hamburgers. Being that I don't particularly care for meat, it's not a big deal to me. He is getting ready to try some chicken; pork chops, some steaks and jerky. He's so brave. So far the only thing he didn't care for and took an enormous amount of time, was the pork butt. He made pulled pork out of it.


If you have smoked anything lately (besides your smoker, Duane, let us know and maybe Barry will try it!


Hungry yet?

He Knew Me, Yet He Loved Me!

Sometimes I can feel so selfish if things aren't going my way and certainly for the last while now, they haven't been. I was saying last night at Life Group that I have always been able to have anything I wanted pretty much. God has been better to me than I have been to myself.

I have a wonderful husband, daughter and son-in-law and grandkids (even if Tristin did take my wig off today and laughed). He's so funny!

I have felt as if most days lately that I haven't been very good to God. I realized that as I was praying, I wasn't praying sometimes, I was ordering Him what to do. The audacity of me! I didn't mean to, but when I stop and think about it that is how I feel. I have apologized to God for that and I am moving on. I could feel condemned over it for a long time, but that wouldn't get me anywhere. Instead of asking Him to heal a certain area I would say I need this healed.

I want to make sure that even though I am going t-h-r-o-u-g-h this time in the valley that I will still walk up that mountain and be who God wants me to be.

There's another old song that Ronnie Hinson wrote that always touches my heart and it says:

I’m not on an ego trip,

I’m nothing on my own

I make mistakes I often slip,

just common flesh and bones

But I'll prove someday, just why I say, I’m of a special kind

For when He was on the cross, I was on His mind.

FOR HE KNEW ME, YET HE LOVED ME (That's so amazing in itself)

He whose glory makes the heavens shine.

So unworthy of such mercy.

Yet when He was on the cross, I was on His mind.

Health Update!

I haven't felt very good maybe the last three or four days and just couldn't figure out what it was. I am trying to learn to take cues from my body. I haven't had a fever and have kept going but just felt kind of yucky.

Today I went to begin the new routine of Erbitux. It is something that I don't want to do, but am sure it is needed. I weighed myself at the Cancer Center and found I lost another pound since last Thursday. I haven't had much of an appetite this week. Then I discovered why.

I believe that I have another Urinary Tract Infection. They checked for that and didn't have the results when I left. My White Blood Count was 15.4, which indicate infection. I also have been coughing some and ask the doctor about that. He sent me for a chest x-ray and I don't have the results of that yet either.

He could not give me the Erbitux today because of the infection. He did however, give me an hour worth of antibiotic. He also gave me a prescription for the next 10 days for the infection.

He does want me to come back next Thursday to begin the Erbitux.

I may get a call tomorrow from the doctor's office and maybe not, just depending on what the x-rays show and what the urine test shows. I don't think they will call if he has given me the right antibiotic. So many now are specific to what is wrong with you.

You know, I am so excited to hear Cancer Free!!! I am so ready too.

Love you all!

BY HIS STRIPES!!!