New News

I am not sure where to start. Good thing for computers. I think I have deleted my first sentence like 4 times. I think I will start with the good. We have the most awesome family and friends ever. We just spent a wonderful day at the lake with friends, food, fun and lots of SUN. The day before was church and lunch with family and swimming with more family. The night before we got to have family visit for the night and on Friday, guess what? Supper with more family. You guys mean more than you can imagine to us. You have been the light in the storm over and over again.

And so, we call on you yet another time. (Gosh, not sure how we will ever repay you!) But we are in need of some big prayers. You may have heard that Mark had a CT scan last week. It appears that that nasty "C" word has come to visit again. I say visit as we do plan on this being temporary! And if it knows what's good for it, it will make a short stay! I hesitate to go into too much detail as he will have the very definitive PET scan tomorrow. Yes indeed, you know I will update and fill in the gap tomorrow. In a nutshell, he has several areas showing up on his CT scan that appear to be metastasis from his original cancer. There is a chance they could be something else. We will see if the same areas appear on the PET scan tomorrow. Appointments are in the works at Baylor Dallas and in Wichita Falls. I will find out more on both of those tomorrow.

I guess our struggle now is not only in getting the awful news, but also in knowing exactly what to do about it. Specifically, with doctors and facilities just to start. I would ask that, in your prayers, you would ask for Him to lead us only to the best. I am not sure I can say that we and especially Mark are prepared for another fight, but we know that in time God will give Mark the strength to kick this thing in the booty yet again.

I know I am leaving you with a lot of questions, but I will post tomorrow with a question and answer to be a little more thorough. Also, I know many of you are more facebook people than blog people. I (unlike Mark) am not real facebook literate. I think I will continue to keep the blog separate from facebook. (Your right, because I really don't want to learn anything different right now. If you know of somebody who checked the blog before, please mention that they might return to the blog for their updates.

With love, Missy

Saturday, January 23

By now you must know that things are either really good or really bad when I don't have time to post. Fortunately for us, Mark recovery has been phenomenal. He was kind of down and at home on Monday, but bounced back on Tuesday beautifully. He went to work the rest of the week and has done so well. He is not 100% in the diet category, but that will happen over time. He has progressed from liquids, but has stayed with soft foods that don't require a lot of breaking down. It is definitely a learning process, but he is so happy to feel more "himself" than he has in a while. Once again, GOD IS GOOD!!!!!!! He has a follow up appointment next wednesday. We are expecting it to be pretty uneventful!!

We're home!!!!

Well I'll have to catch up. I came home to work and be with the kids on Friday. I had plans to go back Friday night, but I kind of got too tired to drive back. Judy stayed with Mark Friday night. By 930 the next morning when I arrived, he was a different person. Obviously feeling much better, moving better and being ornery. Dr. Hurley came in to see him and advanced him to full liquids and made a plan for him to go home! Mark was ready and was fine with going home on liquids. Basically he will just have to take eating slowly and do what he can tolerate. Everyone seems to be different in how quickly they are able to eat again.

He was so glad to be home. And, just when I thought he was going to lay down and take a nap, he decided to go hog hunting! He looked out the back window, saw the hogs and just had to go. Never mind the gun got too heavy for him to carry, so he had to hand it off to me. I think a little adrenalin has been pretty good medicine! And at least we are one less hog anyway.

He had an okay night after about 330am and as we speak is watching the cowboys try to pull out another playoff game.

Many, many, many thanks to all of the help from everyone keeping things going at home. Donna did an awesome job with the kids and mom and dad were great to help her also. It means the world to us to know that the kids were in good hands.

Thanks to everyone following and praying, Missy

Did I really say that?

How many times do we preach to be careful what you ask for. All I wanted was a plan. But what I typed was "waiting on the doctor to come and maybe something will happen." Shhhaaammmee on me. So the doctor came at 2:00. He changed dressings, advanced his diet, removed his iv fluid, changed his medicine, and said we would negotiate the possibility of getting to go home tomorrow. I know that he was not off of the floor before Mark was telling me he didn't feel so good. I thought it might of been the sight of his open incision, but when it didn't subside with time, I knew something must be up. It really might have started earlier because he didn't have an appetite at lunch either (he thought he just couldn't stomach another pureed meal!)

He spent the next six hours feeling pretty poorly. I got them to give something for nausea, but he didn't get much relief until he was finally sick. Relief lasted a short time. Soooooo, he never got that regular diet that he wanted. He really hasn't eaten much since am and nothing since noon. He is back on an iv and iv meds for nausea and pain, had lab work done and is facing an NG tube down his nose if it persists. We have called on all the prayer warriors because he would really like to fore go the tube. At present he has been resting for about 30 min, so maybe it will continue.

And I promise not to mention our boredom again!!!! Much love, Missy.

Waiting

We are PATIENTLY waiting to see the Dr. this am. I thought this was going to be some nice downtime, but we are BORED to death. He has played cards some (of course he wants me to report that he beat me repeatedly), gone for walks, gotten cleaned up, eaten some more liquids, read magazines, slept, aaaaaahhhhh. Anxious for doctor to come and something to happen!
We'll let you know.

Good Morning

It's Wednesday morning now. The night wasn't too bad. We have certainly had worse. Vital signs and bathroom every couple of hours was about the extent of it. All of the nurses are very impressed with how well he is doing. Yes, he does have the big head over it! That is great with me. So glad he is recovering so well. The doctor was just in. While Mark thinks he is ready to come home, Dr Crim doesn't quite have the same plan for him. At any rate, he does get to have some full liquids today and got some of the wires and tubes off today. More later, Missy.

Midday on day of surgery.

We are in room 452 and Mark has been pretty sleepy. He has a morphine PCA for pain and is doing pretty well with that. He has had some liquids and has been up to bathroom. That wore him out considerably, so he is back asleep.

It is hard to believe that his first surgery was one year ago tomorrow. Quite a different picture we are seeing this time. He is already where we were on about day three last year. Thank goodness we left out the trip to ICU and the blood pressure problems, and the horrible pain and the morphine troubles. We are so blessed. He repeatedly does tell us that someone really big must have punched him the stomach though. Hoping for some good rest, but they have already prepared us for the vital signs every 2 hours! Missy.