Happy Birthdays

How could I have forgotten!!!!

My son in law just had his birthday on Wednesday. We will have cake this weekend when they come up. (can't find a picture will do later)

My second daughter had her birthday today. She will not have cake as she is fighting a systemic yeast infection...so her sweet husband said..."where shall we go shopping."

If my reminders are not working....I do forget where I am as well as what is going on.

Love them all!!!!!

The Journey to MD Anderson clinics

The journey to get to the clinic was like a hike to a cabin in the woods.

We maneuvered our way through the maize of the traffic and turns from downtown Houston to Holcombe Blvd next to M D Anderson Hospital. There, they told us to use the valet parking. We parked....went in, there they routed us to the skywalk (remember the hero can barely stand for long now let alone walk long distances.). That was up two floors. At the skywalk, they did have a golf cart (club cart) that the hero was able to lean on to ride over to the Mozy Bldg. I walked, as there wasn't anymore room, to take his walker over. WALKED...the equivalent of 4 blocks!. The building was 4 blocks away! I found out we could have parked next to the building. Ask me if my sore ankle was tired. We arrived with the blessing of an MD Anderson employee who pushed the hero up in a wheelchair from the skywalk to elevators U to go to the 8th floor to his appointed clinic (remember I still had to push his walker). Surprisingly, we made it and we were only 5 min. late. I really was surprised. We filled out his papers. This was at 11:15am. Then proceeded to picnic...I had brought his lunch...he ate well...no nausea this time. We found a puzzle they had on a coffee table and settled the hero down on the couch and I focused on figuring out the puzzle. Finally at 2:00 pm, the hero said, "can you see what is happening". So much for thinking they would be on top of things. I went to the desk, and asked. She looked surprised...and said who is the patient? I told her...she was like "oh darn...we goofed" all over her face. She said let me talk with the in taker. We were in in 10 minutes. From that time on, it went well. He was given a patient number. I have to send back more papers, like proof of citizenship, residency in the US etc... The doctor was a full doctor not a resident with faculty. He was very astute, asked questions, took notes, paid attention, and really very nice. I have a habit of calling these young doctors "the little doctor" even if they are 6 ft tall. He caught the references and laughed and said he knows what he will be called now.

The plan at present is to reevaluate what all has happened since the last treatments. That means new labs, c-scan, obtaining records, etc., once those are in hand, then he will decide which direction to go. It will take a little while, but that will let the hero's wound to finish healing. We are 3/4ths there now. Some chemotherapy treatments are not an option any longer since he developed gangrene before. No matter, the hero is encouraged that someone is listening to his needs, and that is probably worth more than treatments right now. He had lost down to 155lbs. (a 10lb drop) since the gangrene infection.

The picture I used is from classroom clip art. I have hiked to cabins up in the mountains just like that, when I was younger, of course. Love the feeling of hmmmm not aloneness, but calmness, and peacefulness that comes from separation from crowds.

The next step in our journey has begun. Pray for us. We pray for all.

Unexpected Blessings

The sun always comes out after the storms.

This last week has been a long hard one. After hurricane Ike, we discovered that we were monetarily short. I looked at the pantry and said well, we will just have to live on food storage for a week or two. Faces from the peanut gallery. Not to take away blessings from some wonderful people (so I won't mention their names), I want to say we were blessed by a sister from the ward who came over to "get a hug" and bring by a pot roast and cookies. We did recognize the blessing. The pot roast fed us for at least 4 meals and some of the meat served to furnish barbecue meat for my son's lunches. We just ate the last of the potatoes with our lunch after church today. Another sister came by with meat and soup left over from her job which is at a catering company, and another sister brought by deer sausage...none knew of the situation of these next few weeks so it was really testimony building of how our Heavenly Father watches over us in our need. We are taken care of until this minor financial challenge is over.

The hero has been overwhelmed with the kindness of others. He has been having huge amounts of pain and our biggest challenge right now is keeping nourishment in his body. He has lost more weight. We will be going to MD Anderson Cancer Hospital for evaluation since John Sealy UTMB is still closed. That will be on Wednesday. I will update after that.

I had told you I would write about my son's motorcycle...have to take pictures...He is not cooperating.

clip art is from a teachers clip art web site...

Get Above the Circumstances

[Having wonderful smelling herbs around are so uplifting.
I love rosemary. I have it just outside the door. It is nice to run your fingers through the limbs and what a lively fragrance. Pineapple sage is both sweet and pungent. The flowers attract the hummingbirds. Oh, I forgot to tell you we put up our feeder and had hours of fun watching the many hummers work together and fight for the the nectar. The hero said they are hard workers but can be mean too! ; ) ]
Here it is Oct. 16, 2008 almost a month since my last post. As I was glancing over the previous post, I believe I neglected to let you know that at the end of July, the radiation oncologist looked at the hero's ct scan again and discovered that the results had been read backward. That instead of going backwards he had been improving in every area. Sigh. The truth is we have been trying to get back to treatment since then. The radiation Dr immediately contacted oncology (chemotherapy) and told them to get him back in the program. Well, 4 weeks later an appointment was made...the hero was in the hospital, so ... they reappointed him to come in on Sep. 13th. Hurricane Ike was a factor and all appointments were canceled. Here it is a month later and we are now trying to find the serving clinic since Galveston hospital of UTMB John Sealy is still trying to dry out and mold clean up and remodel after the water damage done.


We keep getting teaser calls saying that things are being worked on then silence for a week until we call again, only to find that things are still in confusion.


I have suffered from stress which created an acid condition in my body that caused joint pain and muscle spasms. Our daughter and her wonderful husband have blessed us since my walking and the hero's right now are compromised. They are wonderful. With the loving care of a great friend that knows herbs my condition has begun to reverse itself. The arms are almost a okay and the knees are now walkable.


The gangrene wound is healing very well. I am excited at that progress. But he has been having extreme pain in his buttocks, so that is worrisome. One doctor suggested some of the problem might be over congestion of the lymph nodes trying to clean out the dead gunk. Most likely...so I have turned to alternative medicine once again to try to open and move the lymph system and help the liver which will be overloaded. So much...you would think that some of this would be addressed by the medical system unstead of just more medicine to help pain. I am venting sorry.


Our goal has been to focus on smiling and being uplifting to others. Usually we succeed, but sometimes the hero has his head down under the circumstances and we have to pull it up so he can see the angels around him. God has blessed us greatly. It is nice to know we are able to make decisions for ourselves and that there are helping hands at every turn.


I will post next about my youngest son and our experience in his getting his motorcycle license.


Life is good.