An Eagle done

This was the Eagle Project.

The project was done last April, but due to his father's health condition, the ceremony was postponed. The project was done for a neglected park in the small city we live in. His brother, father, and fellow scouts came out to help him accomplish this goal. He made picnic tables to increase their options for picnics.

The Scout Master explaining the meaning of being an Eagle Scout.

After the ceremony,fun, and food, we took time to pose together.

Below was the fun, a friend who has a TRex Car had given the dad a ride and it was arranged for a fun trip around town for the new Eagle.

The dad approving the mode of transportation.... yeah right he was having a ball himself.

We are proud of our new Eagle and hope he continues forward.

A Future Sweetheart

The granddadE is glad to have his chance at holding a real valentine's day gift. A new granddaughter that is a sweetie.

Of course, the grandmomE had to have her moment. I can't wait til she can follow us around.

Her birth was a wonder. Her mom slept through the majority of the labor and the doctor arrived in time to catch her, no one knew she was crowning because her mom was asleep, and the nurse was at lunch. When she returned she checked and called for the doctor. It was special watching her emerge into life. The aunts said that was just not right.

Home and Organization

We are at home for a couple of weeks trying to sort out all our mess that was left for us. A basket full of mail, a broken dryer, dry plants, and multiple boxes of storage that needed to be cleaned out. It is a wonder at the amount of paper that can be accumulated in a couple of years.
I am glad that I have been given the throw it away and keep it simple spirit to overcome my tendency to be a pack rat.
There is a more than the usual need to put things in order and be kept in order.
Just talked with the Cancer nurse and they are putting the next round of treatments in order.
Will find out tomorrow or Wednesday where we are going.
Being home and playing with my grandson was a real treat....he is a doll. Terrible twos and all that aside we have fun with GranddadE giving wagon rides....(kills two birds with one stone, the hero gets sunshine and the kiddo gets fun outside of the house.) His mom should be having her little girl any day now.
Later

One New Step and the Completion of Another

Meet my Handsome blue-eyed red headed grandson. He heralded the start of his new life last week after serveral false starts. Because of treatments it was 3 days later that we got to meet him. This was the second grandchild delivery I missed, not a good trend.

In the mean time, we have finished the first radiation treatments, with a big question mark as to if there will be more. Ned is distressed that their only plan had been to reduce the size of the cancer not remove or destroy the offending cancer. It was supposed to help reduce his buttock pain but that has not happened yet, and we are done. Sigh.

We have been approved for have chemotherapy. I say approved because we had to apply for treatment financial aid as the cost of one drug alone is at the $140,000 amount.

He will be receiving AVASTIN®, in combination with intravenous 5-fluorouracil- (this interferes with metabolic machinery in synthesis of nucleic acids) based chemotherapy and Eloxatin (oxaliplatin)[ which first mechanism an alkylating agent attaches alkyl groups to DNA bases. This alteration results in the DNA being fragmented by repair enzymes in their attempts to replace the alkylated bases. Second mechanism by which alkylating agents cause DNA damage is the formation of cross-bridges, bonds between atoms in the DNA. In this process, two bases are linked together by an alkylating agent that has two DNA binding sites. Cross-linking prevents DNA from being separated for synthesis or transcription. The third mechanism of action of alkylating agents causes the mispairing of the nucleotides leading to mutations.

If anyone can explain the alkylated agent in layman terms, I would appreciate it.

I am now really pushing to have the correct alkalizing diet in place since that is the one that has the best effect on colon cancers, and lung cancers.

It was refreshing to visit with the pain management doctor. She knew kenesiology, understood aroma therapy and is certified in accupuncture. I have felt more comfortable with her than anyother doctor. She also did problem solving not just application of a medication for a specfic complaint and also did great teaching using a skeleton and diagrams. Best I have seen so far.

Tomorrow is another two tests, I have to pick up the pickup and trailer to pick up citrus for the spring. I will have to leave my hero alone, but the only place I have to take the test is back at home. The librarians down here have said they don't proctor.

A diller a dollar a 10 o'clock scholar. I must be off to bed.

Nite all

All Things Are Spiritual

Tonight was uplifting to both my sweetie and me even though right now we can't carry a tune in a tin can. We pulled out the hymnal and sang some of our favorite songs together. Words like I know that my redeemer lives, The Lord is my light, so why should I fear, The Lord is my Shepard, no want shall I know, I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me, When faith endures. What comfort those words and music of the hymns offered. We finished singing. My sweetie had me transcribe some emails he had been meaning to send. Then he was ready to relax for the night.

We are facing many challenges, but the blessings of knowing we are not alone is of most comfort. We have made our peace that the future is in the hands of the Lord and we are accepting of whatever lies ahead.

May those who read this be blessed by the spirit of God to feel His love for them too.

Getting to Know You

That is my feeling on Plant ID. I love plants and I love knowing their uses and characteristics. However, the Scientific names feel like a nemesis for me. Thank goodness 46 years ago I had an excellent Latin teacher or I would be up a creek without a paddle. I am enjoying my Interior Plant class. I am not as imaginative as many of the other students, but I love playing around with arrangements and plantings.

Today we went into meet with the Radiation Doctors. The question of itching that started with surgery and is now a red flat rash at odd areas along the back and shoulders came up. Some of the medications could be the cause and possibly shingles. However, it is not burning pain, rather itching to drive you nuts. We applied aloe vera and a blend of essential oils tonight and the redness had dimmed by bedtime. I will ask the Chemotherapy physician if essential oils can be used on his feet or through diffusion in the room while they treat him starting at the end of February. He will be given IV iron X4 to build up the hemoglobin that has been low before the surgery.

Right now we are having some conflict in that I keep feeling like he is not taking an active role in learning about how to help himself and has all but collapsed. Part of it is the fatigue from the radiation and part from low iron levels. The other part is the medications for pain that dull and depress and keep the patient from being active...they say activity and nutrition is most important then give them drugs that depress appetite, activity, and mental alertness. What is this.

Sigh

Will sign off for tonight.

Oh yes...forgot to note a funny I saw today near the seawall. As everyone knows parking on the beach can end up with some not very nice droppings on the car. Well, today, as I was sitting at a red light, I looked up and saw a cloud of seagulls right over 4 cars. A driver of one of the cars had thrown something out of the car on the ground. Instantly the seagulls arrived, covering the sky above the cars. The other drivers were like....Quick! Light CHANGE!...I just smiled.

Preparation

January is the time to prepare our soil, it is a time of preparation, so, we turn our thoughts to learning about what we want to achieve. If it is production large enough to produce enough vegetables or fruit for canning, then we will need to figure out what how much we are wanting to have canned. For a family of 4 in our Texas area, we need 10 to 15 ft row for Beets. Beet root is a good vegetable for fighting cancer.
Lettuce, a row of 10 to 15 ft. long. I like the Baby Mescalin, "Cut and Come Again" variety by Renee's Garden Seeds. The mixture of light and dark leaf lettuces give a better source of vitamins in the salad mix and is a plant you can cut and will grow some more. You would first plant half the row, then two weeks later, the other half. Beans need a 15 ft row. of 30 plants once again planting at two week intervals so you don't have to harvest all at once. A great source of b vitamins. Squash, allow a space of 4-6 ft square, plant 2-3 plants of yellow and zucchini at 2 ft intervals. Great for salads when small and casseroles when larger and relish if gets larger. Tomatoes 10-15 plants of Roma for canning sauces and dicing canning as they are firmer. We like to also have about 3 plants of cherry-type tomato the Juliet is easy to grow as well as the Sweet 100. Celebrity Bush is easier to control and makes a good slicing tomato about 4 plants. Studies show that diets rich in tomatoes appear to give lower risk of certain types of cancer, especially cancers of the prostate, lung, and stomach. The thought is that the lycopene which gives the tomatoes their color is the source of help. A row of radishes about 4 ft to add some zest to the salad.
We have moved our citruses to the south side of the house where they can have a micro-climate area that may protect them enough from the occasional 27 degrees we get. Eating the citrus with the albedo and pulp give a measure of cancer fighting help against colon cancer. This is interesting reading. http://carcin.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/bgi318v1.pdf We decided we wanted organic citrus without the cost.
We are adding a few blackberry and blueberry bushes to our sunny fence area. I discovered a study done by Monica Giusti, an assistant professor of food science at Ohio State University, and her associate researchers which discovered from laboratory experiments on rats and on human colon cancer cells that the chemicals that give color to most red, purple and blue fruits and vegetables appreciably slow the growth of colon cancer cells. Well, we must work on making a change in our diet.
I am at the hospital with my sweetie. He just spent 5 days since surgery on an Auschwitz diet. How could a registered dietitian give red colored jello to a patient they are watching for blood. Give him salty greasy broth and a ton of apple juice. The colostomy will change his dietary habits but I have found a great deal of information on the subject that will allow me some leave way in his incorporating healthy nutrition to prevent the worst side effect of the cancer which is malnutrition and loss of skeletal muscle. Now that the surgery which blind sided him is through, we can work on on our adjunct therapy to prevent the chemo and radiation from doing him in.
I say blind sided because he agreed to the surgery based on the information that they would surgically removed the cancer after the radiation and chemotherapy shrank the cancer. Now they are telling him that that will not happen and have told him they are buying him 2 months to 2 years of life. He is not really happy with their morbid predictions and I feel that it is not conducive to cultivating a fighting spirit in a patient to do that to them. Worst scenarios are not psychologically building to those in pain. My belief is and has been, that only the Lord knows the appointed time and you do all you can to treat your body like a temple and let him do the rest.
I know that the year spent fighting to get our daughter free from her addictions and restoring her son to her took a great toll on his health...now we must continue to overcome and he will be healed if the Lord so wills it.

New Year "looking for improvements where ever I can find them"

My sweet grandson found the seed catalog and decided it was time to plan for the spring garden.

It is hard to do so when I see my hero appear to be withering away.

I was upset with the health care system, but my posts seem to be being blocked so maybe I need to wait a bit before sharing my thoughts on that.

I am starting my Interior Plant course...it seems to be interesting.

More at a later time.

Excitement, Oh Yeah!

Three something goods have happened in the last two days.

(My toothy critter expresses joy so well to me)

1. I have a 3.0 average in my classes.

2. My son has a 4.0. I told him that that was just wrong....lol....

3. We have restarted the process to get my sweetie into the medical system. They had dropped his information.

Things are looking good. One thing I have not mentioned is the leaning toward natural eating and fiber and some herbs when people talk about cancer. These are great methods of prevention and building up the immune systems, but are useless in treating the masses once they are there. One has to research the methods that have worked, but are not accepted by the regular medical society, because it was not patentable, or it was not a controlable method, or approved protocol by the drug companies. At present,we are working with Colloidal Silver and Graviola orally with fewer baking soda enemas. Since one of the cancer masses appears to be in the perianal tissue, methods that reach beyond contact were needed. He says that within minutes of taking the solutions that he feels "alligators in his rectum". The most worrisome result is the bleeding and expelling of the cancer parts as the tumors deteriorate. One does not have a way to see the results of the treatments inside at home, and doctors can not assist because the AMA and drug companies would ruin their credibility and take away their practice. Sorry about being so graphic. We have wondered what other people have felt and gone through, so we decided to just share how it is. I was reading about perianal cancer and it appears that most of the cases are in hair glands in that area especially tissue that would be from misplaced tissue that did not migrate to the right place when the embryo was forming. Interesting.

Nearing the end of the semester

Excitement.

I finished my arboriculture class....Made a B!

Angels were watching out over me.

Now the challenge: I still have the soil class to go.

My sweetie and I are still in a holding pattern doing the kitchen treatments waiting on the medical community for the "come on down".

I was just finished giving him a treatment when I accidently smashed his finger...Ouch! says he, I said well.....I took your mind off the other hurt.... With a painful grin he said ...if you weren't so funny I would have to hurt you....; )

He is my sweetie.

He has been experiencing herxheimer's syndrome with a large die off of cancer cells. We were blessed with a reminder from a wonderful homeschooler's blog that we were forgetting the need for increased water consumption.

Now I must get back to my studies...needed a break.
The Christmas tree is lit up no ornaments just lights. It will have to wait for the tests to be over. It is comforting to have it there just like it is comforting to have knowledge that our Savior was born, and lives, and loves us bunches.

Beauty is all around

We have been in the hospital for the last three days. My hero began hemorrhaging on Wednesday night and we had to go to the emergency room. They chose to give him blood. His hemoglobin was 9 which was marginal. Three days later and 4 units of blood later they are releasing him to go apply at the State Hospital for conventional cancer treatments. They basically held their hand up and said "Talk to the hand" don't want to hear anything about it, when we tried to explain the treatment we were trying to do.

We are praying about the situtation and are trying to make wise choices. In the mean time, looking out our window, it is peaceful watching the wind rustle through the trees, and the fluffy white clouds saunter past in a beautiful azure sky.

We have enjoyed talking with our children and feeling the love and care emanating from them.

The high light of the hero's day was playing ball at his bedside with his eighteen month old grandson and talking with his out of town grandchildren on the phone. One of his greatest pains is being unable to make the trip to spend time with them.

Grandchildren are a delightful part of life,and makes enduring worth it.

Friends are also a special part of our life. There have been past bishops, home teachers, stake presidency, and huging friends come by. We had a couple come by just to help us by witnessing Medical Attorney Power of Attorney forms. For them to drive 40 minutes to do that for us is really an act of love.

I have to change gears now and take care of matters at hand. I need to really focus on my class work. We nearing the end of the class and all projects are coming due and it is hard to work on projects and provide care in the hospital. The hospitals are short handed and when there is help they are not patient care oriented.

Changes and Fact Finding

Today was good. We finally have gone into have the second cat scan for a comparison of how much progress we have done in the cancer treatments. I will say that I feel a measure of holding my breath. He needs the positive feed back to build him back up.

Took my second exam. Sigh. As usual I studied and focused on what I thought would be on it...and missed the professors focus. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

The tool guy has fixed our trailer up and we will begin moving my nursery. I have lost my garden. The new location will be a wholesale lot that will sell plants retail also. I am disappointed, but the owner is the boss and I will give in to his request. The goal now is to increase sales and make it somewhat better.

Have enjoyed visiting with my granddaughter on the phone. She remembers me. Can't wait for the holidays!

Can life be just too much?

I have been so engulfed with dealing with my hero's absorption of his pain, and trying to find time to do my school work that I have become numb. My poor nursery has become a disaster; because one, I am not there and two, the workers became disheartened when the decision was made by corporate to move it to a new distant site. I am in a dilemma as to how to pull both myself and my nursery through this challenge.

I know it is possible, I just need to stop and breathe, and think. Right now thinking is difficult because the needs are overwhelming.

Sigh.

Showing off the newest addition

This is our new princess. Of course, the GrandmomE has to be in the picture too. I want her to know I was there when she was born. As you can tell she is full of expressions and animation.

What a joy.

Steps forward and Steps backward

My daughter had been having abdominal pain since last Thursday. We called the doctors message service, because I could not feel her fundus. No one called back. Since she had left the reason for having called, she did not think to call back when there wasn't a response. Early Friday she felt a bit better and decided it was her over reacting. However, by midnight the pain had increased and on Saturday she was in bed. Her husband had gone to a special session at their church and would not be back until 5pm. She wanted to wait. At 4pm, she began to feel hot and the pain increased. Her temperature was 100.4 F orally. I had her call the doctor again. She called and since her temperature was a raised, they asked her to come into the hospital. Her husband arrived at 6pm to find her packed and ready to go. His parents were here....his mom thinks the baby is "BEAUTIFUL". She is...
They admitted my daughter for postpartum endometrosis. [The doctor said one in 10 of their patients come back with this problem. I think that is a lot and a result of lack of post partum instruction.]
As for the rest of us, well while the couple "languished" in the hospital, the two grandmas' had a blast caring for the granddaughter. The grandpas' doted and shared funny stories. The grandmas' also spent time working on family history.
While we missed them, we did have a fun time together. The other grandma makes wonderful cookies and spaghetti.
Love to all
Oh btw, my hero had excellent treatment results last night. After the treatment, for the next two hours he sloughed off dead tissue and related cancer cells. It is working, but today he is tired and feeling sore from the tissue slough off
HUGZ

Reunited

How wonderful it was to see my hero walking out of the terminal to meet us at the car. I could tell the week long IV treatments had taken their toll. He looked tired. Of course, only 2 hours of sleep the night before had not helped either. Our daughter does not have a regular bed. She has a queen air mattress. That sounded okay, I knew though since I had to sleep cross wise to keep the sheets on that there would be trouble when there was two of us. Besides being challenging to get up....hold on the the side and pull or dump yourself off..., turning over in the night resulted in the mummy affect. The sheets let go of the side of the mattress and curled themselves around our legs and bodies, now getting up was more complicated. When I went into the kitchen and my hair was like it had been in a light socket, everyone knew the answer to "did you have a good night?' Mostly it was just good to have his presence back beside me.
Things are better today. He had a treatment last night that helped. He also loved holding the new bright star for the future. She is a cutie. We have been giving her subliminal messages when she is a sleep...."When you hear this voice you will smile" " When we call you will want to talk." Hope it is not too obvious that she is special to us. : )

I am enjoying talking with him about my class, the environment around here, and just sitting and watching the hummingbirds. Tomorrow we will help the kids put up a hummingbird feeder. Good thing to do as they are running low on flower nectar right now.

I was listening to my professor lecture today. The pictures of improperly planted trees are so real. When I drive through older neighborhoods in the Houston area, there are many examples of what she said was NOT a good thing to do, ie. plant a large tree too close to the house, sidewalk, septic. We have had many people come in to our nursery looking for answers to their now challenges...a referral to an arborist is usually the best answer. Our new customers are advised of how important it is to consider the height, and width before placing a plant. At least we are on the right page so far.

Only two more days and we will be going back to Texas. It has been a most pleasant break. ; )

California has its pretty spots

All my life California has been mostly large cities in my mind, because that was all I read about. Between earthquakes and fires, when my daughter said that they were moving to a town about 1 hour from LA, my heart sunk. But here I am. Last night, we went looking for land for their future. I was amazed that 10 minutes out of their town, we were in the mountains and it was beautiful.
The trees and flora are interesting and appear in spite of the dryness to be flourshing. (Must be from spring thaw.) When I got out to walk, the feel of the land was soft from mounds of decaying pine needles. I love the conifers here. [There were shrubs I must look up and perennials that worked great in the dry climate. I can tell I have some homework to do in California flora, if I am to help my daughter landscape when they build.] I could tell that the land has never been worked where we were. However, my son-in-law felt it too far and too primitive for them to achieve a home before their lease ran out, so it was back to looking for them. It was helpful to me to drive around with them looking at the surrounding area. The area is nice and with more flora will continue to be prettier. Definitely, it is not what I expected from all the newspaper and news media information. Interestingly, the people in the mountain area were all fire conscious. They had firebreaks and store a certain amount of water for fire fighting. They appear to be provident in their planning. There is wind energy used for most of the area. I love the wind mills they use for energy. They fascinate me with their size, movement, and utibility. Many though use solar energy for their homes. If it weren't for the earthquakes, I would consider coming here. But for now...a week visit with my sweet granddaughter and her parents will do. Plus, I don't feel so bad about where they live.
More later

Several New Beginnings

On Monday, August 27, I began my horticulture classes again. The subjects are Urban soils and Arboriculture. Information easily applied to life. My professors are very nice and patient with me. I will finish.

On Friday, I flew to California to be with my 4th child for the birth of her first child. A beautiful (even if I say so myself) little girl. Taking online classes makes it so much easier for me to juggle my life. My hero is lonesome though. He will fly out on Sep. 6th. I have missed him a lot. It will be nice to be reunited after a week. I just don't sleep as well when he is not there.

My first daughter has decided to start writing again. She has a blog that is fanfiction on Alias Smith and Jones. She says she needs the practice.

So far the site looks good.

My second daughter is working hard to hang in at work until her dad comes back from California. She is having her third child. However, it has been 12 years since her last child. She is so excited. Her sons have been working hard to adjust to a new step dad and new schools this year. The boys are liking where they are. The oldest was moved up to advanced band because he does so well.

My son got to have his first do nothing labor day. He laughed and said for the first time, besides when he went on a mission, he did not have to work on the farm with dad on Labor day. He slept in and watched old movies. His wife sent out a help email...Funny bunnies.

Life is not easier nor is it overwhelming. Things are good and are best when done with a smile and some laughter. My hero said he hasn't had a good laugh since I left. How sad...he and those around him should be able to find light hearted jokes or conversation that can be uplifting. I love to laugh and enjoy life to the hilt. I sat on my daughter's patio looking at the mountains and desert in the distance thinking how wonderful it is to be alive and how beautiful our surroundings are. I think that is why I find learning more about horticulture exciting. As I studied about climate, etc., I could see how just a little more attention to the plants around us can do so much for the next generation.

Now don't think I'm going political or environmentalist. I think it is all about stewardship and that involves everyone.

Update on the treatments

I began saying we were choosing an alternative treatment. I should say that it chose us. We were in the process of trying to be accepted by John Sealy UTMB when all processes of communication with them was stopped by the offices and no appointments were made. I had found from a wonderful herbalist friend of a Doctor in Italy, Dr. Simoncini,who has a very informative website. I started trying to implement his treatments at home but began to have questions. I emailed him when what to my surprise, he emailed me back. What a blessing in our lives. He hadn't any reason to communicate with us...we haven't paid him any money, but he has continued to assist me in making decisions along the way. Two weeks ago we began the treatments of Bicarbonate of Soda IV. At first we were not sure that they were being effective, however, we began noticing that there were definite changes going as the week went on. Although Dr Simincini did have us stop for 2 days when my hero's temperature raised to 100 degrees. The 6 days of IV treatment was followed by 6 days of enemas of warm bicarbonate of soda solution. This treatment is what causes most of his discomfort. We have seen tumor passed and a continued increase of strength so he has only missed two days of work. Not to say he hasn't been stressed. He has lost 35 lbs, most of which he was able to do without! But has started lifting small bar bells to restrengthen his arms.

A Continued Journey

The family has fussed at me for not posting enough...They are right I have been amiss. There is much that I have not been good at documenting.

This last spring my daughter won a major battle in her effort to stay sober from drugs. ( At present she has been sober for 1 year and 3 weeks.) She got her little son back that had been denied her by an unrighteous in-law. Bryan is a jewel. He can twist you around his little finger with just a glance. Yes, I am a proud grandmother. We love having him with his mother and
being able to spend time with him.

In April, my Wonderful husband, who is so much a real part of me, was diagnosed with colo-rectal cancer. Apparently considered stage 3 to 4. We had Cat-scans, biopsey, etc. done.
We do not have insurance. With this consideration, and the knowledge of the sloooowness of the medical paper work system ( I am a retired RN), we decided to seek assistance from our friends who have knowledge of natural treatments.