Great weekend!

We enjoyed our weekend together! We were able to spend lots of time with each other. Steve had a rough morning both Saturday and Sunday due to the mucus that built up overnight. He had to work hard to clear it all out and ended up vomiting too. He was left weak and weary. Once he got his second wind, he kept himself busy with little jobs (sweeping the porch, helping with laundry, he even helped mow the grass and bow the drive on Sunday!).  for the first time in 16 years I mowed the grass! Have I ever told you the story about the time I surprised Steve by mowing the grass?

Steve was working long hard hours managing a local fast food place. One Friday afternoon, I decided I would surprise Steve and mow the lawn. That way he could come home and relax - not having to worry about the yard work. We could go out to dinner and spend some time together on Saturday! Needless to say, it did not go over well. (The way Steve tells it, he had looked forward all day to coming home and working outside in the yard to relieve the stress of the week!) 

Steve came home, came in the house, and said "what idiotic teenager did you pay to massacre my lawn????? " Being the newlywed wife that I was, tears came to my eyes and between sobs I told Steve that I mowed it to surprise him. He said and I quote, "Don't ever touch my lawn again!" - HA! Boy did that one come back to bite him you know where : ) So, with his supervision, I helped mow the lawn yesterday!

I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Steve doing the mundane things of life. By Sunday night, he was looking chipper and had some nice color in his cheeks. Today seems to have been a good day for him too. He even cooked some chicken for us for dinner! We all enjoy sitting together in the living room watching some NCIS or Bones reruns each night. Life is great isn't it? It's the small things that count. 

Some of you have mentioned that you like to have specific things to pray for. Well, here are a couple: please pray for Steve to gain weight, for his leg to hurt less, and ultimately for him to be able to swallow. Also, please pray for the insurance to approve my appeal to pay for Steve's formula.  Thank you so much! 

Enjoy this beautiful weather. God bless you all.

Friday, Apr 24

Once again, we have had a busy week. We have had 2 very strong storms. The one yesterday really took a toll on our vegetable garden. Hopefully it will all perk back up. 

Alli had her 12th birthday on Wednesday. I took her and 3 friends out for an Italian dinner tonight. They are all downstairs singing and watching movies right now. She seems to have enjoyed her birthday! 

This week was CRCT State testing for us. It makes for a long and stress filled week for everyone involved. Thank goodness it will be over on Monday. 

Steve has had a rather long week too. His cough has continued all week long. He went to the doctor today to see what can be done for his cough and his sleep-ness nights. He is now on 2 new medicines. One of them (who knows which one!) is already making him dizzy to the point of fainting again so we will see how it goes. When he got on the scale today, he had lost more weight!!! It is just so frustrating. I'm looking forward to summer so I can be here to make sure he is getting enough calories during the day. The nighttime feedings won't help if he isn't getting enough during the day! 

Steve is feeling very down and out. He is at the stage of apologizing for being a burden to us all. He is very frustrated because he has not seen any marked improvement in quite a while. I am working on finding a speech pathologist who specializes in swallowing therapy. I am hopeful that this will be helpful to Steve. I figure this whole process is much like grieving. Steve will go through an entire gamut of thoughts, feelings and emotions. All we can do is love and support him along the way - and pray without ceasing of course. 

I have struggled with a couple of things the past few weeks. I am still working with the insurance company to try to get them to pay for Steve's formula. It is such a red tape process! Speaking of which, I finally finished and sent in a Social Security Disability form for Steve. Boy, was it long and tedious. Unfortunately, he really could not help me. His throat has been hurting so much that he hasn't been able to talk much, and his thoughts are not really focused either. Now, we wait. I sent in an application to get help paying the insurance deductibles, but have not heard anything yet. 

And lastly, I have been fretting about the need to teach summer school to make some extra money this summer. After praying about it  I really feel that this is something I cannot do. I need to spend my summer taking care of Steve. If any of you know of any work I can do over the summer from the house, please let me know. I am actually pretty computer savvy and can type well too. It's not that I don't want to work, I just feel the need to be home with Steve to oversee his food and medicine. 

Do you ever find it hard to not worry about the future? I am constantly thinking and planning ahead. Many times I forget to stop and smell the roses despite the message of God's word : ) Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Thank you for all your support!

Weekend

Well, we made it to the weekend!  Steve is doing a little better. On Thursday I left for work anticipating taking Steve to the emergency room that evening. But when I got home, he had been able to keep water down all day so we were able to start on food. We used the pump all night and were able to get 1000 calories in him. Steve still has a cold and is coughing and feeling weak, but at least we can get the calories in again.

Today we got out in the garden for a little bit and planted some veggies. What a beautiful day! We couldn't have asked for anything better. Afterwards, Steve took a nice long nap to re-coop. Now we are enjoying a nice evening watching some t.v. shows. One of them is a favorite of ours - a british sitcom called "Keeping Up Appearances". It is a hilarious show about a precocious woman that reminds us so much of someone we know! It was nice to sit and laugh together. 

Enjoy the beautiful weather and count all your blessings. God is so good!!

Mid-Week Update

Steve is not having a good week. He has caught a cold of some sort. He is coughing and has a raw sore throat. The pump arrived on Monday and we started feeding him at night, but now he is vomiting again. So, we are back to square one. We will let his stomach rest tonight and start over again tomorrow. We appreciate your prayers for his healing!

Happy Easter!!

Sorry for the delay in my posts. We were enjoying Spring Break so much! I stayed busy painting from sunrise to sunset for 7 days in a row. I'm afraid I was so tired that I did not find the energy to keep this updated : )

Steve had an up and down week. He was able to take Becca to the gym and get to a nursery to buy some blueberry plants. He did some planting too. We spent time watching movies, took Becca driving (or should I say went with Becca while she drove), and thanks to Bob, their pigeons won big in this weeks race! On the other hand, Steve was tired and weak and even had chills. Yesterday Steve was sick to his stomach and it is still upset today. His weight remains down. Each time the scale goes up a few pounds, it goes right back down. Partly because he is trying to be more active and is therefore using more calories than we can get in him. 

Steve and I went to see our general practitioner on Thursday. He suggested that we get a pump and give Steve continuous feeding all night in order to get more calories in. Our goal is 2500 calories. Hopefully we will get the pump on Monday so we can start that soon. I am praying that the insurance company will pay for the "formula" we need to use because it is quite expensive. We just have to get his weight up at least 20 pounds! He is soooo thin and weak. The good news is that his pain is pretty much contained to his leg now and we are weaning off the heavy pain meds soon! 

We had such an awesome Easter Sunday! Busy, filled with lots of friends, family, fellowship and worship. Christ has risen indeed! I just loved seeing the church so full of life and the Holy Spirit today. I know Steve enjoyed himself, and he is very tired. He even spoke to Alli's confirmation class about prayer this morning. (She said he did such a good job that she was close to tears!) I expect he will sleep most of tomorrow to make up for the excitement today. In the meantime, the girls and I will head back to school - ugh! Only 6 more weeks (that's 30 school days - not that I'm counting - ha!).

Please pray for Steve to gain weight and strength this week.  Pray that our insurance company will come through for us. I plan on focusing on the songs we sang at church today to carry my "Easter high" with me all week long. God bless you all. 

Visit to the Gym!

Many of you know that Steve and I meet at a gym. He was the manager and I was a customer. While we were dating, we spent many hours working out together with the weights and the stairclimbers. Boy, we were in the best shape of our lives... then we got married and comfortable and life happened. In December before he found out he would be taking chemo, Steve joined a gym down the street. Although I'm not sure I would call it a gym. It is more like a mall! It has an indoor and outdoor pool (with slides for the kids), a rock climbing wall, a cafe, a store, etc.  He did not have the opportunity to use the gym because of the chemotherapy.  

Since Steve has lost so much weight, he decided he wants to get "buff" while he is thin! So, he activated his membership again and went for his first trip on Friday morning. In his text message to me he stated "It was harder than I'd hoped". I can imagine that in his mind he would be able to do a lot more than he was able to. He tried the treadmill and the bicycle but they caused his leg and ankle to hurt too much. So, he used some light weights on his upper body instead. He will have to take it slow and work up to the things he wants to do. He would like for us all to join him this summer. We'll see how the cards play out with that. 

Today, Steve's leg is VERY sore all the way up into his thigh. Ahhh, the dangers of exercise - HA! Of course, that did not stop him. He went with a neighbor and rented a tiller to finish the garden and a few other beds in the yard (for the roses of course). Thank goodness Tom took over the tilling part. I tried that last week and thought my insides were going to come it from the earthquake it caused in my body! (Obviously I need to spend some time at the gym!)

And so, Spring Break begins. I have plans to paint all week. Steve is already talking about all the places we can go and the things we can do! Go to the guitar store, work in the garden, go for a drive in the country... I guess this might turn out to be a busy week  - but at least it is time I can spend with him. 

On a side note, we learned something new this morning. Steve left early to get the tiller and did not take any meds or food beforehand. He came in when they got back and asked me to help him get some food in his stomach. I guess we tried to put in too much too fast because it all came right back up. He says "Hey! Now you can tell everyone you make me throw up!" Is that supposed to be a compliment???? Somehow I don't think so. His odd sense of humor at work again : ) 

Doing Well

Steve is doing well this week. He was able to get out of the house and meet some friends for coffee. He walks out to the garden each day and piddles. He also spends time with his pigeons. At night, he is anxious to get out of the house, so I try to take him somewhere - even if it is just to the drug store to pick up a prescription. He says he feels very restless. With Spring Break next week, we will be able to spend more time with him, so hopefully that will help him feel less frustrated. We have joked about going out for drinks. Steve says, I wonder how much a scene it would cause for me to have a beer through my peg tube - HA! Since we've been to the bookstore, Home Depot 4 times (ugh!), the drug store, Wal-Mart, Target, Blockbuster and the grocery store, we are running out of "exciting" places to go : ). We watch a lot of movies together and have spent some time in the garden. I know he wants to do something productive. He is hoping to start going to the gym this week and work on his strength. That should help too. He's lost weight and now wants to get "buff". How in the world will the rest of us measure up after that??? No pressure!

Take care!