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.

Happy Beautiful Saturday Morning!

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

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

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