Sunday, Dec 28th

Today, Steve and I celebrated our 17th anniversary. Praise God for bringing us together so many years ago! This morning, I was thinking back to our wedding. Some of you were there - at Wesley Chapel UMC. Remember the orange carpet and my red bridesmaids dresses?!? Ohhh, the memories - ha!

Steve had a rough morning today. He wanted so much to give back to the church by playing the guitar for the Offertory Song. He showered and dressed. We got to the church. He practiced his song, but just could not make it. He was physically exhausted. He was weak and very nauseous. I brought him home and he slept for hours. He was finally able to eat and seemed a little better this evening.  We were even able to enjoy a movie - Eagle Eye. (It's a pretty good one if you haven't seen it - action packed.)

I am so thankful for the time I have to be here for him and with him. We are truly enjoying our family time together, even though Steve is getting cabin fever : ) Bless his heart, he has been stuck in this house for over 2 weeks now! Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. God bless you all. 

Friday, Dec 26th

Today was a better day! Steve was more alert today and had a much better appetite. He took his normal naps, but was awake and aware for good bits of the day.  Praise God for his daily blessings!

Merry Christmas!

Well, it is Christmas Day evening. Can you believe it? Months of preparation and then the day is over before you know it. I pray that each of you had a fabulous day with your family and friends. 

What a different Christmas day we had this year. Steve had a rough time. He has had a lot of nausea and pain in his stomach. He has been so very weak. He laid down on the sofa and dozed on and off as we opened presents this morning. He slept a majority of the day. He was not able to eat anything until later this afternoon. Then he kind of rallied for the evening. We were able to spend some time with him this evening. 

My parents were able to spend the day with us today and help us keep the mood light and happy. We played games and laughed a good bit. What special memories : ). 

Please continue to pray for us as we take one day at a time. Steve's medicines and chemo are effecting him more than I realized. He forgot to take his medicine yesterday. This has caused some repercussions. The girls and I will need to be more hands on to care for him. We are praying that this is that low point the doctor was talking about and that he will get better from here. 

Merry Christmas to you and yours. Take care. 

Busy Day!

We had a very busy and exciting day today. This morning at about 8:30am, a good friend of ours from church, Michael Bennett, brought over around 15 wonderful teenagers to work in our yard. We had additional help from our neighbors, Jonathon and Christopher, as well as more friends, Ken Sinclair, Paul Gold, Bob Tavares,  John Roy Harris, and Christian and Christine Einertson! Our whole front yard was cleaned and chopped of all debris.  The wall around the creek was finished on one entire side! New steps were built on to the pigeon loft. Wow! What a busy, fun-filled and productive day we had. Thank you to everyone that came out and helped today. God bless you and Merry Christmas!

Steve is doing pretty well all things considered. He took several naps today to get him through. He would get up and go outside to interact with everyone (his favorite thing to do in life!), then come back in and rest some more. He was telling all kinds of stories to all the kids : ). 

He can tell he is feeling a little more run down with each passing day. At night, he can only sleep for about 20 minutes at a time. Then he wakes up and tries to go back to sleep. He usually gives up about 5 or 5:30am and just gets up. Then he takes naps during the day to make up for it. 

We are all getting ready for Christmas. Hard to believe it is only 2 days away! (I've got some last minute odds and ends to tie up tomorrow!) Take care. Enjoy your time with friends and family - as my grandmother always reminded me - you are making memories each and every day! 

God bless!

Saturday

Well, Steve got through Friday okay. He has developed the hic-ups. Last night he even hiccupped in his sleep : ). Remember those beds in the hotel rooms that you could put a quarter in and it would vibrate? We'll I felt like I was sleeping on one of those - only it was broken! 

Today we went back to Emory and Steve got his shot of Neulasta. This is a medicine that gets his body to produce more white blood cells to help keep him as healthy as possible despite the chemo drugs. This medicine makes some people achy from flu-like symptoms. 

So far, Steve is tired and weak, with a good bit of nausea. He holds his stomach when he walks. He feels out of sorts, but he is still in good spirits. 

We feel very blessed to have met with a pain specialist who is coordinating all of Steve's medicines through this whole process. In all the years we have dealt with this, we have never been able to get Steve's pain under control. Now, Steve is already able to see a bit of difference as far as his pain is concerned. Praise God for that! He has been through so much. 

We just received a call from Steve's brother, Ed (in Virginia). His mother has fallen and fractured her hip. Please keep her and Steve's brothers in your prayers, as they deal with this. 

Thanks so much!   

Thursday

We had a long but fairly good day yesterday at chemo. We were there from 7:30am until 6pm. The entire time Steve was hooked up to an IV receiving all the medicines and fluids he needed for his first day. Of course he was talking to and joking with everyone all day long : ) Thanks to the lovely Atlanta traffic we got home about 7:30 or so. What a tiring day. 

Today Steve has a half day of chemo. He will begin feeling the effects soon. This morning he was feeling nauseus, but that is the only difference he has felt so far. 

I will try to keep this blog updated for you all. Feel free to email me at lkb0282@bellsouth.net if you have any questions. I will do my best to answer on a timely basis.

Have a great day.

Wednesday, Dec 17th

Yesterday we heard from Steve's doctor, Dr. Grist. He took Steve's CT Scan results to his weekly tumor conference. After conferring with his peers, he called to let us know the plan. Steve will do chemo before his surgery. 

There is cancer in Steve's jaw bone. They will need to remove that and do some reconstructive surgery. This means Dr. Grist needs to put together a team of doctors for the surgery. So, surgery will have to wait until sometime in January. In the meantime, they want Steve to do chemo as a precaution. While we have always been told this would be a "last resort" type of thing (there is about an 8% chance that it will help with this type of cancer), the chemo will attack anything in Steve's body that could be in there that they have not discovered and hopefully keep the cancer he does have at bay until surgery. 

Steve is starting chemo today. We will be here at Emory all day (from 7:30am til about 6 or 7 tonight!). Then Steve will come back tomorrow and Friday for shorter days. On Saturday we come back for an injection and blood work. Then in 3 weeks we will return and do another 4 days of chemo (I believe we are scheduled for January 6th - 9th). After that he will have a new CT Scan and surgery will be scheduled. 

They say that Steve will feel okay for a while. His lowest point will be 7 - 10 days after the chemo treatments. I am thankful that I have 2 weeks off and will be home to help him through this first round. 

As always, Steve is joking with the doctors and nurses. He wants to know if he will lose his hair! One doctor replied, "You don't have any hair to lose!" I know that he is scared and tired of being brave. We will just be taking one day at a time, one foot in front of the other. Thank you for your continued prayers!

Hello Again

Good morning. I am writing to try to keep you in the loop on Steve. He went to the doctor on December 1st for his monthly check-up. The doctor found two spots in the bottom of Steve's mouth (on opposite sides) and took biopsis. On Thursday, Dec 4th we found out that the results were positive for cancer. So, Steve was scheduled to have a CT Scan on Monday, Dec 8th. Because of some confusion at the hospital, he was sent home and rescheduled for Wednesday, Dec 10th. So, he went yesterday at had his CT Scan. Now we are waiting to hear those results from the doctor. The scan is going to tell the doctor how extensive this surgery will be. At this point we just do not know. It could be any number of things. We know there will be more surgery, but not exactly what will be done. 

Keep us in your prayers. We are praying for wisdom for the doctor and grace from God to get us through this once again.