New Week

Wow! Do you here that? Absolutely peaceful quiet! Nothing but the wind blowing and the sweet whisper of Mark resting beside me. How I wish he would open his eyes and act like none of this ever happened and it was just my imagination!

Our weekend started with a little fall injury on Friday that has been a thorn for him the rest of the time. Unfortunately he hurt his backside. Not good when that is about the only side that is comfortable to be on. We are praying hard it resolves quickly so he can rest more comfortably. Ironically, Saturday was his best day in a while. He woke up almost perky! He asked for breakfast, ate 2 eggs, toast, juice and milk, and wanted to go to the home and garden show! His ambition ended up being a little bigger than his energy would allow, but he did get out for a ballgame and a visit. He even got to meet the newest great niece and nephew. He held one in his arms while we met the other long distance on Skype. That is plum amazing. The things we can do with technology! In his words, "It was a great day."

It didn't quite carryover to Sunday. Sunday was a sleepy day. He was up for a few visitors, but spent the rest of the day recovering from Saturday I suppose.

Hope everyone enjoys all of God's blessings in your new week! With love, Missy

Thursday evening.

Mark had the sternal wire removed on Wednesday. He did very well. It is healing quite nicely, and he is glad to have relief from that pain. Thank you so much Dr. Obney, Brandi and Keith for making it all work. We are so blessed by such good people. The rest of our week has been pretty up and down. Mark's condition is about the same. Still very tired and sleeping a great deal. His appetite and eating are minimal. He started having visits from the supportive care nurses. They will be coming once a week to check on him. They are helping to try to make things better for him, right now focusing on his energy and his appetite. He is taking medication for both of these, and we are hoping to see some improvement there. They have been very attentive, and it is a relief to have someone to call on for any needs that we have.

Muncle Mark has a new niece and a new nephew today. That is right. Two babies born 9 minutes apart to two sisters who are several years apart and live many, many miles apart. AND, both babies weighed the same amount. God is good. While the proud grandparents couldn't be in two places at once, Judy happened to be here and got to be the surrogate grandparent for little Julia. And, on top of that, I could stay with Mark that because I didn't have to be at the hospital to work. WoooHooo!

Thanks for all the continued love and prayers. Still praying for a miracle, Missy

Catching up.

I can see I have much catching up to do. It has been a while. I do apologize, I just can't keep up sometimes. The blood was great. Unfortunately the wait to get it was a little exhausting. There was almost instant relief, and he even said he felt better the next day, but then he was back to very tired again. Dr Diaz was here through Saturday. His treatments were very limited over the last 3 days due to Mark's lack of tolerance for any activity. He was pleased with a couple of things as he left. He feels that Mark's jaundice has improved slightly. He says that the tumor that he has been palpating since the day he met Mark was unchanged. He says that there is some passage of bile through the liver and he is pleased that Mark has been able to eat without nausea or vomiting He left instructions for care while he was gone and promised to keep up with how we were doing regularly.

By Sunday, Mark had great difficulty getting going in the morning. He feels he doesn't have the strength or energy to keep up with his nutrition, supplementing, and treatments. It was a very emotional morning at the Brown house, but it was nice to have some quiet time with the kids to visit and answer questions. Doing so brought a certain peace in the house. Mark can relax now knowing that if he doesn't have the energy to get up, he doesn't have to. If he is not hungry, he does not have to eat, and especially something that doesn't taste good to him! He had a great day with visitors. The kids and I got to see him laughing, visiting, playing dominoes, holding our newest nephew, and actually enjoying himself. Thanks to everyone who lifted his spirits on Sunday. Today was a fairly quiet day, and tomorrow we see about taking care of a broken sternal wire that is causing Mark a great deal of discomfort.

Thank you God for all you have provided for us along this not so yellow brick road. We know so many good people who have taken such good care of us. Thank you for placing each one in our lives at just the right time as you carry out your plan. Please God, give us wisdom and give us strength as I cannot forsee how I can possibly find the magnitude of strength necessary within myself.

Someone pinch me!

I can't believe the world we are living in. Who would have ever thought Mark and I would be where we are now. It is like something out of a dream, only not such a good one. We are still up and down on that roller coaster all the time, or maybe it was the see-saw, you're either really high or really low. You remember how it was always fun to try to balance the see-saw perfectly still in the middle - perfectly balanced? I would take a little of that in our lives right now. I am ALL FOR just a plain ole right in the middle, straight up boring!

Mark remains very, very tired. Dr. Diaz is back and Mark has had some improvement since the weekend, but he is just too tired to be able to keep up with his treatments. Sometimes it is hard to just hold his head up. While we know that the condition of his liver is contributing to this, it is also probable that his low blood counts are not helping him out either. Mark desire is to gain more enegy so he can keep working hard with Dr. Diaz. Last week was a really positive week and he is hoping, that he can get back to that point. He will go for some blood today and God willing, that will give him extra energy. He will follow that with some more time with Dr. Diaz, so busy day for him today.

Love to all, Missy

Fishing trip.

The weekend didn't turn out quite like we wanted. Mark was very low on energy, so getting out of the house took so much out of him. Nonetheless, he did make it out to the fishin hole in Wichita with the kids and Danny and Sherri. The kids got to catch their own lunch. Then they help clean and cook the fish and even learned how to eat whole fish right off the bone (a first for me too. I sure was glad he cut the head off before he put it on my plate!) This picture was the last fish caught for the day.

Abby Singing

Just thought you all would enjoy Abby's latest performance. The girls all did a great job at Grace Care Center for their music recital. Abby was a little anxious about youtube. She doesn't want someone to find her and try to get her! What a smart girl! So, you will have to use the link below to get to it. I couldn't make it a true link, so you will have to copy and paste it into your browser search. Thanks and hope you have a great day.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2FSf_i11dM

Off for the weekend.

We are so excited about having the weekend off. It is supposed to be BEAUTIFUL! Hope that holds out. Mark is so ready to get out of the house, go for a drive, and soak up some sunshine. If it were only just a hair warmer, he would probably have the jeep out for the drive. (I don't count that out yet!) Dr. Diaz finished up a week here on Friday. About midweek, he decided he would like to stay longer with Mark. He sent for his family from New Mexico so that he could spend time with them over the weekend. They have travelled to Dallas to worship at a church there on Saturday and then possibly attend with Aunt Judy and Uncle Donny on Sunday. He actually made a special trip back to Scotland on the way to Dallas to meet us. I was with Abby at a basketball game, but several of Marks family were here and got to meet his wife and 5 young children. We can't thank them enough for the sacrifice they have made in sharing him with us during this time.

Dr Diaz left instructions for the weekend, mostly in the way of diet and supplements. Mark will rest from all "physical" treatments over the weekend. I have to tell you all what an AMAZING man Mark is. I think it is really important to let you all know how very sick he is, and yet, if you saw him, you might not realize the magnitude of it. In fact, if it weren't for his color, I would speculate that you would have no idea what was happening inside of his body. The picture on paper is far different from what we see in him in person. I promise that it is God's work that is giving us each day with him. A friend asked me yesterday, "How do you explain him feeling better, and being able to get out...and DRIVE!" He is a fighter, and he has gone many, many rounds, not just in the last two years, but throughout his lifetime, but most importantly, he has the best man in his corner! Each day He gives us is truly a gift, I can "Only Hope" and pray for lots and lots more gifts. Coincidentally, that is the song Abby is singing today, "Only Hope". It comes from the movie "A Walk to Remember". I watched it with the kids last night. Abby sings the song beautifully, but she had never seen what the song was really about. Let me just say it had been quite some time since I had seen the movie, and I didn't even remember what the song was about! Consequently, I bawled through much of the movie! It was good for me though. It reminded me that sometimes, "miracles don't come in the form that we want them to." Sometimes miracles happen when we don't even realize it. While saying, (or typing in this case) those words is barely possible for me, accepting them seems almost intangible right now. And so, I will keep asking, and praying, and begging for a healing miracle in Mark.

I can't thank everyone enough for all that you have done for us. The magnitude of people praying for him is a constant inspiration to us. So many people asking for a renewal of his health. I just wish I knew what the secret was - how God chooses those he is going to heal. And in the bible, it was so fast. He said to rise up and walk, and it happened; he laid his hands, and they were healed. So I have faith that in the blink of an eye, if He chooses, it can happen!

Mark is feeling fair. He is not having pain, but is very tired and tolerates very little physical activity. He is eating well and does not suffer with nausea or vomiting. His digestion is about as good as it has been since his bowel surgery in January of 2010. He is able to visit and is likely to have something witty to say make you laugh. He is an inspiration.

Many of you ask about the kids. They are doing really well. We are very open with the kids. They know how sick he is and they know that he will only be healed through God. They are very receptive and responsive with Dr. Diaz and he includes them daily. They respond fairly well to the ever-changing agenda in our home. In our busy world, they have definitely been trained to "go with the flow". That is definitely a challenge for them sometimes, but they really try hard to make it all work, and I really try hard to let them be kids!

We love you all, Missy

5 Days Complete

Dr. Diaz has been with us for 5 days now. We are so appreciative of all that he has done. Mark continues to do everything he is told. He is working so hard. sometimes just the trip from one room to the other in the house can be very exhausting for him. There are several treatments that also seem to zap all of his energy. He most always bounces back after a good nap though and is ready for what up next. He has still been very appreciative of the salads that he has gotten to eat and has even taken a liking to the fruit plates as well. Today was the first day he got to eat some meat. Red meat is more difficult for the liver to process. In light of this, it was NOT one of his options. It was grilled chicken instead with a vegetable salad with guacomole sauce. He ate well.
As for progress, It seems very sloooow. While Mark and I both agree that things are better than they were a week ago, it is still hard to be patient (gosh, there is that dreaded word again!). After all, Mark has been "sick" for over two years. Would we really expect that to go away over night? (I know, that is what I would like too!)

The biggest plus is that Mark has only had 2 doses of pain medicine in the last 5 days. That's is pretty good when compared to the 3 a day that he was up to when we started all this. This tells us that there is some difference in the inflammation in his liver, and possibly change to the tumors themselves. As far as the jaundice, there are times it is looking a little better, but then he gets in a different light and I change my mind. Tonight, as I watch him going to sleep, he looks about as good as he has recently. We will see in the morning.

Dr.Diaz has returned to the place in WF he is staying. We Are hoping that he is able to return to us in the morning in spite of the weather that the TV tells me we are going to get.

Hope everyone stays warm. Hope I have covered everything you had questions about! I better go now before I type some garbage on here as I fall asleep! Love to all, Missy

Pretty good day

Day three of treatment went fairly well. We celebrated some success today. Today's treatment was focused on squeezing the bile out of the liver using a very acidic oily solution. This irritates the liver and can produce a violent reaction either in the way of vomiting or diarrhea. Mark was fortunate to only have some moderate cramping and no vomiting. However, he was able to eliminate the solution which was the desired response. Dr. Diaz says that this is a sign that the bile will be able to move out of the liver. He was very pleased. This also meant that Mark was able to eat today - sort of! It actually means that he and Dr. Diaz will eat together. Today on the menu was soup and salad. I promise it was a salad like none other than Mark has eaten. Many raw vegetables and some Braggs aminos to dress it up. You should have heard him bragging on it. I wanted to just fall out over him eating it without complaining, and he was going on about how good it was! We think he must have been really hungry from the fasting! He kept trying to get the kids to feed him more. He was actually complaining of being hungry. He hasn't done that in a very long time. Mark slept most of the day, but he woke in rare form. After the good news and the OK to drink a sprite, he started being a little feisty. By days end, Dr. Diaz felt like he could see a some improvement in his jaundice. I can't say that it was real noticeable, but maybe after we sleep. The days end with Mark's favorite part, the MASSAGE! It's a great way to end the day and make him ready for bed - where he has been resting quite well - without pain medicine! It has been 42 hours since he last needed pain medicine.
A big thanks to all those who have been shopping, cooking, running, and taking care of kids. We love you, Missy

Wow!

That is just all I can say. Dr. Diaz has been here just one day and I am blown away by him. This is so unbelievable that I think I could pinch myself and wake up, but I sure don't want too. If you only knew the flood of thoughts that run through our minds continuously. So this morning (or last night - it all runs together) I am thinking that God might have sent an angel to my house! Nooo, I don't think I have lost it. I feel like I am in one of those Lifetime Christmas shows! The only reason I am not 100% certain yet is that the angels on TV and in the bible for that matter always disappear when their task is complete. Hmmmmmm?!

I wish you could see the smile on my face and the warmth in my heart from what is happening at the house on the hill. I thank God that he has kept us in the house long enough to get to use the back porch for "healing" purposes. I know that Grandma and Grandpa have huge smiles on their faces. To think that the added on concreted floor and screeded in porch and all of its history is being utilized in an amazing way. Thanks Uncle George and Aunt Betty for allowing us this opportunity. While our time in the house may be limited, the memories here will last forever.

So while our most pressing issue is Mark's healing, no doubt we are witnessing spiritual and emotional healing as well. Dr. Diaz makes it very clear that he does not work miracles, but God does and through prayer God hears and answers. We just have to keep doing our job and let him do his. Dr Diaz is open to visitors during Mark's treatment. There are times that there is a need for privacy, and this is the reason they are in a separate room. I would encourage you to come out. I know Mark would love to visit and hasn't been up to getting out as much. I know many have asked for more detail on what type of treatment Mark is getting. I will try to outline more of that in another post. In a hurry to get back home. Missy

The Dr. is in

Dr Diaz arrived last pm approx 7pm. He arrived at the place he was staying and I encouraged him to stay there and start to our house fresh this am. He came out about 0900 and visited for a while about his plan. They got him set up and the work begins! Dr. Diaz is a wonderful person. I wish you could all be here to hear his story and how he came to do what he does. I have been contacted by several people who know of him and are very encouraged that we have found him to work with us. We are fortunate that God has brought him here. He definitely is ministering to us in more than one way. Many thanks to his wife and children in New Mexico who are sharing him with us. I said before that one can't possibly deny God's presence in all of this. These things don't just happen by coincidence. Mark was chosen for this experience and God has BIG plans for him through all of this.

Part of the plan this week is to fast for several days getting his nutrition from juicing. We have been doing this for a couple of weeks now. It has worked well because Mark's appetite has been very low and this way he is able to get nutrition from less volume. So tonight it is catfish for "the last supper".

I will try to keep you posted on our adventures here. Hope everyone is warming up!
Love, Missy

On the road

Dr. Diaz is on the road. He sent a message saying he left at 430 this morning. I have no idea when he will arrive. I honestly don't know where he is coming from or how fast he is able to travel. Just sending prayers for a safe trip for him. Kids are out again today. I think this is starting to cut into our summer! (Which I can't wait for, by the way). More later, Missy

Everyone warm?

It is soooooo cold. Nelda, you must know that some rooms are definitely warmer than others! One bright note is that the "girls" room is not near as frigid as it used to be. I remember not even worrying about dessert because it was too cold in the room to go looking for the dessert!

Mark and I got out of the house today. Mark insisted that he was going to drive to WF. A big thanks to Chris, Donna, Austin and Landon who shoveled a road through the huge drifts of snow so we could get the pick-up out. We ran a few errands, did a little work, and got to visit with Grandma and Grandpa. It was a pretty good day and he has felt fairly well today.

We heard fro Dr. Diaz this evening. The snow has ended there and I 40 has re-opened. He plans to leave at 3-4am. He says this will put him at 287 at approx 9 am. We pray he will have an uneventful trip here.

The kids are out yet another day tomorrow. I think they are a little stir crazy as well. Austin actually said he might be ready to go back to school!

Hope all is well for everyone. Love to all, Missy

Just another test.

Well there had to be some challengesin this great plan, right? I mean could it really all have happened so easy? It wouldn't be for real if there wasn't some kink in the road (or snow!)
We heard from Dr. Diaz a couple of times today. He is anxiously awaiting the ability to be able to travel. He started out at 5 am this morning but was forced to turn back due to dangerous roads and very low visiblity. We had a pretty good lazy day here. Some cards and a little tv, a couple of movies. It seemed each time we got an itch to go drive and check the place out, then someone would have a good "getting stuck" story for us. We played it safe and had a nice quiet day. Hope everyone else did the same. Love to all, Missy

What Happened to the Weather?!!!!

Can we rewind to Saturday? What happened to my beautiful weather. While the snow is beautiful also, I could do without the incredible winds. I feel like the Little House on the Prairie is gonna be pick up and land somewhere else - like with Dorothy and Toto in the Wizard of Oz!

We are anxiously awaiting Dr. Diaz's arrival. Unfortunately, we haven't heard how far he has made it or if he even was able to leave New Mexico. We do hope he is all right and pray for his safety if he is on the road. I expect we will here from him soon.

As for yesterdays appointment, we were able to visit at length with Dr. McCollum. He had located some of the genetic testing that he had ordered early on that answered one of our questions. There is some "targeted" therapy that could be of assistance in treating Mark. This means that rather than treating all cells, the cancer as well as healthy cells, it would Target only the cancer cells. It seems that about 50% of colon cancers are of a non-mutated form and can be treated with this medicine. Mark falls into this group. This medicine (an hour infusion) targets the protein that sends the signal to the nucleus of a cancer cell telling it to divide and grow. It blocks that signal from being transmitted. It has few side effects outside of a skin rash that occurs and resolves after time. The drawback is that it works best when combined with chemotherapy. Mark is still firm on no more chemotherapy. It can be used as a stand alone treatment with about a 20% chance of shrinking tumors up to 50%. He gave us the literature on the drug Vectebix and told us to think about it and see if we wanted to consider adding to whatever alternative treatment Dr. Diaz has to offer. We also discussed a liver procedure to relieve Mark's liver of the build up of bile due to the toxins. He discouraged this saying that a stent would not be likely and a tube placement would present risk and likely alter his quality of life. He was very caring and supportive and will help Mark in whatever treatment he chooses. He says he has had many, many patients utilize complimentary treatments, some of which he was even convinced were effective! We are hoping for the same luck!

Mark is resting, as is the rest of my house! Looks like a pretty lazy day at the Brown house. Makes for great rest! Much love, Missy.