We're Done

Here is a picture confirming the end of the very last treatment. Not a great picture, but definitely documentation of finishing this leg of the race! He is so excited, and when he is feeling a little better, he will be anxious to tell the world. Just waiting now for more good news to come from final scans. Enjoy the last day of your weekend everybody. Much love, Missy.

WoooooHoooooo!!!!

Oh joyous day!!!. Everybody do the happy dance. Today is the beginning of the end of chemo. Just 48 hours away and we can celebrate!!!. Mark says we are going to celebrate with a bonfire. to burn the "bag" that carries his pump!!! God is good. We have been so fortunate through all of this. Even through the up and down and good and bad, we have always been able to focus on the light at the end of the tunnel. Every now and then we felt like we needed a little better perscription glasses to see it, but we could always count on a brighter day. Those days came and went for several months now, but Mark is so looking forward to them being here to stay. A couple of new updates. ....

The final oncology appointment is August 19th. Praise God. There will be no love lost in walking away from there. We do really appreciate the wonderful girls in the infusion area, and Shannon has been a Godsend. Thanks to all of you. The doctor will give orders for his final scans (which I have tentatively on the schedule for August 25th.) Dr. Kourlis's office at Baylor has been so wonderful in scheduling and changing and ordering. Many thanks to Yolanda at his office. We see him on September 1st and figure we will get a surgery date at that time.

It has been so long since I have been on here. Like "Aunt Nelda" said no news is good news. Treatment #11 was fairly unremarkable. Mark was drained and rested most of the weekend. While he rested, the kids got to enjoy a few days with mom and dad in the metroplex. They had a great time bowling, going to the omni theater and the botannical gardens. A huge thank you to mom and dad for helping them get away for a little while.

Austin finished conditioning camplast week and started high school football this week. No sleeping in any more. He is doing so well and is becoming a young mand right before my eyes. He hasn't complained about the workout yet. Today is day three. We will see??? Landon has decided to play football as well. He is a little anxious about football as an organized sport. I am just glad he runs pretty fast. I told him that was key to not getting hurt - don't let them catch you! Abby has taken up shopping! She loves to try on clothes. I enjoy shopping for her way more than myself. The only trouble she has is accepting that I get the final say!

Miss hearing from you all. Hope all are well. Believe me, I know how hard it is to keep up. PRay for good test results in two weeks, Missy

Just to clarify.

Mark acquired the kids set of golf clubs legally from a friend of his at the hospital. They are Landon/Abby size and they have been hitting around with them. All on the up and up for sure. Also, Landon wants to let everyone know that he has an e-mail address. speedydude1998@yahoo.com
He is pretty proud of it, so feel free to send him a message in your spare time.

Missy

I'm Baaaaaaack!

Well I haven't been anywhere really. Lacking a little motivation these days. I get home and really just want to do nothing. Not very productive of me and really hoping this "stage" passes very quickly before I drown in things to do.

Mark is in the middle of treatment #11. He is wearing the fashion pump as we speak. Things seem to be going pretty well so far 24 hours into it. I am not for certain, but he is so pumped about being almost done with chemo, that it would take a whole lot to get him down. We are so, so, so excited to be almost through this stage. We were a little bummed by our doctor visit. Dr. D. doesn't quite see our plan the same way we do sometimes. Imagine that! We were all set to be done with chemo and move on to the heart surgeon. I will have to cancel that appointment and push it forward a couple of weeks. The oncologists wants to see him two weeks after the last chemo which will be the 19th. He will then order his final scans and give his release from the cancer standpoint pending the results of those scans. Hopefully this will not delay the actual surgery, but we will see. Still planning that for mid September.

The rest of us are always on the go. Landon spent a whole week with Grandmother and Grandaddy. Austin is in conditioning camp and Abby is going to drama camp. I know, I know, do we really need any more drama? She loves it though and gets to perform with their group tomorrow at the Kemp Center for the Arts.

Hope all are doing well and everyone got to enjoy the beautiful rains that we did. Love to all, Missy

Long Time, But Getting Closer!!!

Hey, It's Landon, saying "I ain't seen ya'll in awhile!" As you all know, my mom hasn't posted in a while, so I'm filling in again! My dad had a chemo today and he is feeling just fine. He even played golf with Abby and I using a golf set he says he didn't "Buy," he "Accuired?!? We are all still doing fine and can't wait until the chemos are over.

Hotter than Heck!

Wow, we suffered through only one day of Landon's baseball and I am sure glad we are not doing it again tomorrow. Of course, the reason we are not is that we did not fair so well in the tournament today! We were a little outclassed.....and overheated, and we were just sitting in the stands. Praise God for whoever provided the recent canopies over the bleachers. Oh well. chalk it up to experience. We did get in a little R and R at Danny and Sherry's. We camped out there and invaded the pool and the air conditioning in between games! Austin missed the heat and is having a great time indoors at the Diocesan Catholic Youth Conference in Dallas (per his 11:30pm call last night).

So far so good with this treatment. We took his pump off on Friday and so far it hasn't been to bad. He did sit out in the heat and that has made his hands a little worse. He does complain of food not tasting good either. Other than a few small things, it hasn't slowed him down.

Right now he got a late craving for some steak. Sooooo, 10:00 pm and we have the grill going. It's even pretty late for the Brown's. Must be the 2 1/2 hour nap we took today!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Love to all, Missy.

Great Weekend.

We returned safely from Lake Whitney and our traditional 4th of July family reunion. Great turn out. I am not for sure on numbers, but about 70. The kids had a great time. We now have two accomplished skiers. Austin and Abby both have taken off. It is so fun to watch them progress each time. Landon was quite successful himself as he won the hold 'em tournament. Don't think he got the card playing skills from me. He prefers the indoors to the sun, Can't say that I blame him with temperatures the way they were. Mark enjoyed some r and r indoors himself. The heat was a little much. He did go out on Sunday and watch the kids ski. I think he had thoughts of skiing himself, but never quite got to that point.

Treatment # 10 starts Wednesday. We are a little anxious about these final treatments and what new things he might have to face. We shouldn't even try to anticipate, because we know that it is out of our hands. One day at a time.

We missed Amber at the lake. Hope you enjoyed a little one on one time with new baby Abigail. Will and Anna we look forward to the next time you guys can make it for the reunion. And Helen, so many thoughts and prayers were lifted up for you this weekend. We know you would have traded places in a heartbeat. We will pray for God's healing as you near your surgery time that brings you one step closer to overcoming this battle.

Much love to all, Missy.