Awake in a clean, quiet house....hummmm... kind of lonely. I wish everyone would wake up already! It looks like things are in order for next week. Thanks to all of the help at the shop, and all of the help at the house, and all of the help running here and there, and many, many, many prayers from all of you, we made it through a very challenging week! I can't say enough how much we appreciate all of you who are helping us so much.
It looks like things are in order for Dr. Diaz to come on Monday. We will see Dr. McCollum on Monday at noon, and Dr Diaz should arrive Monday evening. We are looking forward to learning so much as we know very little about all of this "natural healing". And, of course, we are hoping God uses him to bring comfort and healing to Mark. Mark seems excited about his coming and is MORE THAN READY to get started.
This week, we have been doing all of the things that the Dr. suggested we do until he returns. Marks has been the guinea pig for the juicer (to give the nutrients he hasn't been getting in his diet), and the herbal teas (to detoxify his liver) and the castor oil compresses and charcoal and clay poultices (to relieve inflammation and pain in his liver area). He says that nothing has been too bad so far! He has also had a couple of ozone treatments (oxygen therapy) to rid him of the build up of toxins. The way I understand, Dr. Diaz will be doing more of the same type of treatments when he is here with the addition of infusions. We will let you know as he educates us.
Praying for a great relaxing weekend and good things to come next week.
Love you all, Missy
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
WoooHooo.
Mark is sleeping soooo well. Unfortunately, I am not! His scratching woke me up which started my head to spinning with all of the things I am behind on! The jaundice is making his skin itch terribly. I think he scratches without even knowing. I was wide awake, so I felt like God was giving me an opportunity to be productive!
So many things have been happening. It is unbelievable the way everything has some together. We have been in contact with Dr. Diaz several times since the last post. The latest news is that he will be coming here to treat Mark "extensively" for one week. I must be honest to say that I don't know exactly what that means! And it is amazing that it doesn't even matter! What is important is that, by the Grace of God, a prayer has been answered. A prayer to bring the answers and lay them before us because we are too weary to go get them. Ask and you shall receive! We know that Dr. Diaz is, at present, in Mexico gathering supplies to treat Mark. Treatment will include a combination of nutritional therapy, infusions and alternative therapies. Another house call?! I think I better pinch me. Is this for real? I can't be for certain yet so we just go with the flow as we have no other option. Also, we have been in contact with the oncologist regarding Mark's liver function. He is aware of his labs and the severity of what is at hand, but is concerned that the obstruction msy not be able to be relieved due to its location. He said we would discuss this when we returned on the 31st.
Mark is doing fair. He is resting better. His energy is very low although he has brief spurts of normalcy every now and then. With him being less able to "run" as we are used to, we have been very fortunate to have some visitors to come and lift his spirits. He really appreciates the visits and it is so nice to see him enjoying himself in the presence of friends and family. These guys below had a great time reminiscing on Sunday. They may be older, but they remember like it was yesterday!
Thanks so much to all of you for your constant support. You keep us going with your notes, cards, food, lights, prayers, visits, help at work and at home, help with the kids, and on and on and on. We could never be making it without all of you.
With so much love, Missy
So many things have been happening. It is unbelievable the way everything has some together. We have been in contact with Dr. Diaz several times since the last post. The latest news is that he will be coming here to treat Mark "extensively" for one week. I must be honest to say that I don't know exactly what that means! And it is amazing that it doesn't even matter! What is important is that, by the Grace of God, a prayer has been answered. A prayer to bring the answers and lay them before us because we are too weary to go get them. Ask and you shall receive! We know that Dr. Diaz is, at present, in Mexico gathering supplies to treat Mark. Treatment will include a combination of nutritional therapy, infusions and alternative therapies. Another house call?! I think I better pinch me. Is this for real? I can't be for certain yet so we just go with the flow as we have no other option. Also, we have been in contact with the oncologist regarding Mark's liver function. He is aware of his labs and the severity of what is at hand, but is concerned that the obstruction msy not be able to be relieved due to its location. He said we would discuss this when we returned on the 31st.
Mark is doing fair. He is resting better. His energy is very low although he has brief spurts of normalcy every now and then. With him being less able to "run" as we are used to, we have been very fortunate to have some visitors to come and lift his spirits. He really appreciates the visits and it is so nice to see him enjoying himself in the presence of friends and family. These guys below had a great time reminiscing on Sunday. They may be older, but they remember like it was yesterday!
Thanks so much to all of you for your constant support. You keep us going with your notes, cards, food, lights, prayers, visits, help at work and at home, help with the kids, and on and on and on. We could never be making it without all of you.
With so much love, Missy
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Hello All
I have so much to catch you up on, so I will try not to be too wordy. I know, impossible!! But here goes..... The ski trip went well. The kids had a great time. They got to ski with friends and really seemed to enjoy themselves. I got to ski as well, but am most thankful that Tessa went with us, as well as so many friends. I joked alot about tessa being the stand in "baby daddy" for Mark I hope she wasn't offended!. I have nothing but gratitude for her. It was a huge help. Mark had a great, relaxing, quiet first day. He said he got to sit around, watch westerns, drink coffe and do nothing without feeling any guilt about it. Day 2 was a little different. He (being a man) decided he could get out and ski. It was all good for about 200 yards. Let's just say that he really doesn't have any of the energy he already knew he didn't have. But being a little stubborn, (much like myself I suppose) he needed PROOF! So after 2 and a 1/2 hours, lots of rest breaks and several discussions about pride, I threw in the towel for him and he got a ride down. TNot one of his better days. The drive was not easy, but he was glad he went and even more glad to return home to his own bed.
On Monday after returning we had the dreaded CT Scan. Always hopeful, I had my doubts about getting any good news. We have been seeing subtle changes over the last couple of months that have made me skeptical. At any rate regardless of his physical status, there is no doubt that mentally he is in a much better place. He is closer to the carefree, joking, friendly guy everybody loves to see. Wooooohooooooo.
So, about the scan..... Certainly, we did not see what we had hoped for. Everything that was there previously has grown somewhat and everything we couldn't see by scan before is now visible. Although very disappointing, we were not real surprised. And so we go back to the drawing board. I begged for a sign letting us know what we should do next. If you don't believe God hears us, then you might as well tune out now. It is no coincedence that my mother came to us to get permission to call Maisy, and Maisy in turn called us and we in turn called a doctor who happened to be in WF treating a patient, and he in turn showed up at the Uniform Shop and spent over an hour with us. Can you believe it? "A house call". Does that really happen anymore? Dr. Diaz was very interested in helping Mark if we so choose. He practices alternative medicine. He counseled us and gave us much insight that we needed to hear. While we aren't certain exactly what the next step will be, there are a few certainties.
Mark's status is changing in spite of chemotherapy.
The treatment for progression of the disease is more aggressive chemo, resulting in more misery for Mark. Basically, Mark is looking at chemo in some form for the duration of his life if he chooses that route.
There are alternative treatments available that might be beneficial in treating symptoms of cancer and possibly even resulting in remission of the cancer.
We have nothing to lose in trying something new.
No matter what decision is made we know that we are not going to impact God's plan for Mark, whatever that may be. His plan will be carried out in spite of us.
We returned to Dr. McCollum today. He was very concerned about Mark. The obvious is the scan with progression of the disease, but also his weight loss and his liver function and resulting jaundice. There was a mixup in labs that were drawn, and therefore, he was missing information that he needed. Even still, he laid our options on the table. In conventional medicine. The options are few. One chemotherapy is out due to his compromised liver, and one has been proven ineffective for Mark's cancer. The third option is to go back to the original regimen used following the initial surgery. It is a trial and error option. They offer a 30-40% chance that it would have some effect on the cancer. not in the way of cure, but possibly in providing more time. There are no guarantees, and Mark does not wish to endure that again. It certainly becomes a quality of life issue. Quality is very important to us. Even before Mark's diagnosis, he felt very strongly about being able to enjoy life and enjoy each other.
At this point, we are discussing and researching all options and are to return to Dr. McCollum on January 31st to finalize a plan.
I will do my best to keep you up to date. Love to all, Missy
On Monday after returning we had the dreaded CT Scan. Always hopeful, I had my doubts about getting any good news. We have been seeing subtle changes over the last couple of months that have made me skeptical. At any rate regardless of his physical status, there is no doubt that mentally he is in a much better place. He is closer to the carefree, joking, friendly guy everybody loves to see. Wooooohooooooo.
So, about the scan..... Certainly, we did not see what we had hoped for. Everything that was there previously has grown somewhat and everything we couldn't see by scan before is now visible. Although very disappointing, we were not real surprised. And so we go back to the drawing board. I begged for a sign letting us know what we should do next. If you don't believe God hears us, then you might as well tune out now. It is no coincedence that my mother came to us to get permission to call Maisy, and Maisy in turn called us and we in turn called a doctor who happened to be in WF treating a patient, and he in turn showed up at the Uniform Shop and spent over an hour with us. Can you believe it? "A house call". Does that really happen anymore? Dr. Diaz was very interested in helping Mark if we so choose. He practices alternative medicine. He counseled us and gave us much insight that we needed to hear. While we aren't certain exactly what the next step will be, there are a few certainties.
Mark's status is changing in spite of chemotherapy.
The treatment for progression of the disease is more aggressive chemo, resulting in more misery for Mark. Basically, Mark is looking at chemo in some form for the duration of his life if he chooses that route.
There are alternative treatments available that might be beneficial in treating symptoms of cancer and possibly even resulting in remission of the cancer.
We have nothing to lose in trying something new.
No matter what decision is made we know that we are not going to impact God's plan for Mark, whatever that may be. His plan will be carried out in spite of us.
We returned to Dr. McCollum today. He was very concerned about Mark. The obvious is the scan with progression of the disease, but also his weight loss and his liver function and resulting jaundice. There was a mixup in labs that were drawn, and therefore, he was missing information that he needed. Even still, he laid our options on the table. In conventional medicine. The options are few. One chemotherapy is out due to his compromised liver, and one has been proven ineffective for Mark's cancer. The third option is to go back to the original regimen used following the initial surgery. It is a trial and error option. They offer a 30-40% chance that it would have some effect on the cancer. not in the way of cure, but possibly in providing more time. There are no guarantees, and Mark does not wish to endure that again. It certainly becomes a quality of life issue. Quality is very important to us. Even before Mark's diagnosis, he felt very strongly about being able to enjoy life and enjoy each other.
At this point, we are discussing and researching all options and are to return to Dr. McCollum on January 31st to finalize a plan.
I will do my best to keep you up to date. Love to all, Missy
Sunday, January 9, 2011
I'm Back.
Did anyone notice I was gone? I am sure everyone pretty much gave up on me! When I got on this morning, I couldn't believe it had been almost 3 weeks since posting. Wow! So long I am not even sure where to start!
We had a nice Christmas. While not what we were hoping for, it was very enjoyable to get to be in the presence of wonderful family. We had hoped that Mark was going to have a couple of good weeks with his break from his chemo. Not so lucky this time. He spent much of the break pretty out of it, never really recovering and getting back to himself. Finally, after a return trip to the doctor after Christmas and some new medications, he perked up and we got to see the old Mark for a couple of days. It was like a breath of fresh air ( or maybe even a little slice of Heaven!) So exciting to see him cracking a joke or just being able to spend a day with us - awake! That was a great weekend. Unfortunately, along with our trip to the doctor came another round of chemo and the misery that comes along with it. At present, he is drained of any energy and is eating very little, with ongoing stomach challenges. We are looking forward to then end of treatment this week. Praise the Lord!
LOOKING BACK- (Okay, here comes my flight of ideas!)
Santa was good to the kids. The boys have only had one chance to shoot their paintball guns. They are ready for warmer weather! Abby was pretty excited about her American Girl Doll clothes and accessories and has started sewing on her new sewing machine she got for Christmas. The look on her face was priceless when she saw for the first time how the pieces fit together to make a dress. She couldn't believe she had made something, and she was hooked!
A huge thank you to my sister, Deanna, for spending a few days with us. She worked so hard at cleaning up old projects and just cleaning in general. Some things - no, many of them have been sitting for a loooong time. I'm thinking since May when we turned our world over again! PRIORITIES. It sure is great to have some of those things out of my sight!
We made it through inventory! Not as smooth as our first year, but probably ignorance on my part made the first year so easy!! Always learning!
No sooner was football over did basketball begin and after school practice, and games (of which I have not gotten to see), and concession stand working. Austin enjoys being a part of it all. Abby had her first game this weekend. She has been practicing for a while now and has been anticipating this first game. It was a pleasure to watch these girls. Some of them are quite competitive (I won't mention any names!) We are really going to enjoy watching these girls grow up together. Landon has taken a little hiatus since fall. Not necessarily on purpose, but it sure has been nice for our schedule.
Abby has a new voice teacher. She was such an inspiration in just one visit! She makes her work hard and will definitely refine her singing, but Abby seems to respond to her and is excited to learn new things.
Another county show has passed. I am so proud of all my kids. They did well at the show, but even more than that, they have been responsible and have worked hard since getting the chickens in mid-November. After they showed in the beginning that they had it under control. Mark and I took a huge break from chickens this year. We didn't even have to be in charge! I know they didn't pull it off without a lot of sibling "Love", but nonetheless, I hope they take a lot of pride in what they accomplished. Thanks to Mark's sister Judy, my Mom and Dad, and Tessa for coming the couple of days before to help get it all together, and to brother Danny for helping get the birds ready to show. The kids placed 2nd, 3rd, and 5th with their chickens at the show and did well at the premium sale last night. We are so thankful to those buyers who reward these kids for their hard work. Thank you! They also had entries in the Home Ec show. Abby placed second with her doll clothes that she made. Austin placed first for his dipped candy, and Landon had the best overall quickbread entry qualifying him to sell it in the auction!!! And to think, he really wasn't so much interested in taking it to the show, he just wanted to eat it!!!
LOOKING FORWARD We are headed to the mountains this week. We are taking the kids skiing. I can't help but feel it is a little bittersweet. The kids are so excited and ready to go, but I am afraid the trip will not be easy on Mark. We will be surrounded by many friends who will take good care of him I know. Throw in an extra prayer this week that God graces him with strength and renewed energy that he hasn't gotten to enjoy in a while (and it will be okay to sneak one in there for good snow too!)
And when we return, Mark will have another scan done. He is scheduled for the 17th in Wichita Falls and then will return to the doctor in Dallas on the 19th.
Love and a very blessed New Year to everyone. Missy
We had a nice Christmas. While not what we were hoping for, it was very enjoyable to get to be in the presence of wonderful family. We had hoped that Mark was going to have a couple of good weeks with his break from his chemo. Not so lucky this time. He spent much of the break pretty out of it, never really recovering and getting back to himself. Finally, after a return trip to the doctor after Christmas and some new medications, he perked up and we got to see the old Mark for a couple of days. It was like a breath of fresh air ( or maybe even a little slice of Heaven!) So exciting to see him cracking a joke or just being able to spend a day with us - awake! That was a great weekend. Unfortunately, along with our trip to the doctor came another round of chemo and the misery that comes along with it. At present, he is drained of any energy and is eating very little, with ongoing stomach challenges. We are looking forward to then end of treatment this week. Praise the Lord!
LOOKING BACK- (Okay, here comes my flight of ideas!)
Santa was good to the kids. The boys have only had one chance to shoot their paintball guns. They are ready for warmer weather! Abby was pretty excited about her American Girl Doll clothes and accessories and has started sewing on her new sewing machine she got for Christmas. The look on her face was priceless when she saw for the first time how the pieces fit together to make a dress. She couldn't believe she had made something, and she was hooked!
A huge thank you to my sister, Deanna, for spending a few days with us. She worked so hard at cleaning up old projects and just cleaning in general. Some things - no, many of them have been sitting for a loooong time. I'm thinking since May when we turned our world over again! PRIORITIES. It sure is great to have some of those things out of my sight!
We made it through inventory! Not as smooth as our first year, but probably ignorance on my part made the first year so easy!! Always learning!
No sooner was football over did basketball begin and after school practice, and games (of which I have not gotten to see), and concession stand working. Austin enjoys being a part of it all. Abby had her first game this weekend. She has been practicing for a while now and has been anticipating this first game. It was a pleasure to watch these girls. Some of them are quite competitive (I won't mention any names!) We are really going to enjoy watching these girls grow up together. Landon has taken a little hiatus since fall. Not necessarily on purpose, but it sure has been nice for our schedule.
Abby has a new voice teacher. She was such an inspiration in just one visit! She makes her work hard and will definitely refine her singing, but Abby seems to respond to her and is excited to learn new things.
Another county show has passed. I am so proud of all my kids. They did well at the show, but even more than that, they have been responsible and have worked hard since getting the chickens in mid-November. After they showed in the beginning that they had it under control. Mark and I took a huge break from chickens this year. We didn't even have to be in charge! I know they didn't pull it off without a lot of sibling "Love", but nonetheless, I hope they take a lot of pride in what they accomplished. Thanks to Mark's sister Judy, my Mom and Dad, and Tessa for coming the couple of days before to help get it all together, and to brother Danny for helping get the birds ready to show. The kids placed 2nd, 3rd, and 5th with their chickens at the show and did well at the premium sale last night. We are so thankful to those buyers who reward these kids for their hard work. Thank you! They also had entries in the Home Ec show. Abby placed second with her doll clothes that she made. Austin placed first for his dipped candy, and Landon had the best overall quickbread entry qualifying him to sell it in the auction!!! And to think, he really wasn't so much interested in taking it to the show, he just wanted to eat it!!!
LOOKING FORWARD We are headed to the mountains this week. We are taking the kids skiing. I can't help but feel it is a little bittersweet. The kids are so excited and ready to go, but I am afraid the trip will not be easy on Mark. We will be surrounded by many friends who will take good care of him I know. Throw in an extra prayer this week that God graces him with strength and renewed energy that he hasn't gotten to enjoy in a while (and it will be okay to sneak one in there for good snow too!)
And when we return, Mark will have another scan done. He is scheduled for the 17th in Wichita Falls and then will return to the doctor in Dallas on the 19th.
Love and a very blessed New Year to everyone. Missy
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