Family Reunion

All my siblings got together for the first time since my mother passed away in 1988.

Diane, Brenda, and Donna on my balcony June 2014.

David [NY], Diane [TX], Pat [TX], and Donna [IN] at Donna's 50th High School class reunion. 

Four Generations

Holly came over today to go through pictures for a photo tree she bought. She is feeling better now that she is off the chemo until after her sinus surgery June 1st.

Here are four generations of beautiful strong women. My daughter, myself, and my mother when we were 10 years old. My granddaughter will turn 10 in June.

Home again

Holly is back home after a week in the hospital. It took the ENT to diagnosis where the headaches were coming from. Sinus headaches hurt when you lie down and spinal fluid headaches hurt when you sit up. They canceled the sinus surgery she had scheduled for Friday. Otherwise, it would hurt when she laid down and when she sat up, which would be a real mess.

Apparently, because of the chemo she didn't heal from the spinal block. So, every time she sat up spinal fluid would leak causing severe headaches. They did a spinal patch, injecting some of her blood into the area where she had the spinal block, Friday night. She finally started feeling better Saturday and went home Sunday. They have rescheduled her sinus surgery for June 1st.
Thank you for keeping our family in prayer. Praise God it wasn't a brain tumor...praying it will stay that way! Praying she will be able to rest in The Lord and learn how to handle the pain...she has a long road ahead.

Back in the Hospital

Thanks everyone for keeping my family in prayer. Holly is back in the hospital. They took her off of chemo for a week until her liver enzymes and blood work got better, then she took another shot Friday. You have side effects when you get off chemo and then when you get back on it. It has been really difficult for her that they keep taking her off and on. Sunday she was really sick, had a fever, dehydrated and had extreme head pain. Corey took her to the emergency room early Sunday morning.

They gave her a spinal tab and ran a lot of tests. Holly was admitted into the hospital Sunday afternoon. They were giving her fluids, antibiotics, nausea meds, and all kinds of pain medication. Nothing was giving her any relief. She was in so much pain she was screaming and crying, which only made it worse. I tried acupressure on her hands then worked on her head, of course, praying the whole time. She did start to calm down by the evening.

They have had Holly on all kinds of pain medication that wasn't giving her any relief. Tuesday they tried an opiate nasal spray which has brought the pain down to a 5. We are still not sure of why she is having all the pain. The CAT scan was negative for a brain tumor. Praying there is nothing in her brain that just hasn't shown up. She is scheduled for sinus surgery Friday. They are taking her off the chemo until after her surgery, which means more withdrawal and reaction when she starts up again. The opiate is highly addictive also. Praying she will not get addicted.

Holly

Just wanted to update everyone on how Holly is doing. Thank you so much for keeping her and her family in prayer. Holly is adjusting to the chemo. They are keeping the pain and nausea under control. She is starting to loose hair, but she had a lot of hair so it is hardly noticeable. She just started physical therapy to soften the scars and work on the range of motion in her neck. She was hoping to get the plastic surgery to smooth out the scars this summer, but they want her to wait until she finishes the chemo next year.

Since Melanoma is such an aggressive cancer she has spent a lot of time in dr offices, getting scans, and blood work. She will see a Dermatologist every 3 months for the first year, then every 4 months. She recently was having really bad headaches, so they immediately order a MRI and Pet Scan. No Cancer, Praise God! She did have impacted sinuses. They tried medication without success and she is scheduled for surgery later this month. I suspect the chemo has lowered her tolerance of other allergens.

All and all she is doing remarkable well. Of course, she has good days and bad days. Struggles with the pain and fatigue of the chemo and taking care of two small children, especially an exceptionally precocious three year old. She was accepted into Nursing School for the fall and that has had to be put on hold. She did finish her degree in Logistic Management and will be having her graduation this Sunday. Please continue to keep her in prayer. Thank you.

Holly

My daughter has decided to take the Interferon treatments for the next year. She goes in for a PICC [peripherally inserted central catheter] line Jan 5th...then starts IVs everyday for a month and shots for a year. They said she was too young not to get the treatments..."think about your daughters...how would you feel if a year from now the melanoma came back." It Seems like a lot of side effects to be only a 10% more effective.

Of course, Melanoma is a very aggressive cancer, so they have to take drastic measures. It is difficult to walk that balancing act of how much damage do you do to a body compared to... if you don't get it...Melanoma kills in a matter of months. It doesn't respond to chemo or radiation. Interferon works on speeding up your immune system. It is not as toxic as traditional chemo, but still has lots of side effects and lasts for a year.

I do understand their concern. I just found out the tumor was rated high risk because it went so deep. They also said her daughters were now at high risk for getting Melanoma. There is a genetic factor. I don't remember if they told me what type of cancer my mother had...too much to deal with at the time. She did die in a matter of months. Please continue to pray for healing and wisdom.

In Remembrance

My Father was born in Cozad, Dawson Co., NE. He was a Renaissance man. He learned carpentry from his father and built our family home including the kitchen cabinets. He played trombone in his high school band, then played in a swing band as an adult. He also played the saxophone, violin, and organ. He was so proud of his organ just like the one on Lawrence Welk. He taught himself whatever interested him. He built and flew his own airplane. When televisions became prevalent he learned how to repair them and started a small repair business. He also taught himself how to repair watches and anything mechanical.

He was a mechanic and always wanted to take everything apart and put it back together. During World War II he wasn't required to serve since he had loss the hearing in his left ear as a child. His sister was living at home during the war. While her husband was in the service she worked in their parent's grocery store. It was necessary to have a car because she was pregnant and needed transportation to the doctor. My Father took the car apart and put it back together just to see if he could do it. His sister was apprehensive about this since she was not so confident in his abilities. The car was put back together and ran wonderfully except she was again distraught when he would use up her gas rationing.

My Father worked at the city power plant. While he was there the company who installed a new generator, was so impressed by his work they offered him a job. In 1955 he went to work as an erectional engineer installing turbine generators around the world. With all his frequent travels we rarely saw him. During one of his infrequent visits home he was at the city power plant trying to help them get more power when an accident occurred, completely burning his entire body. I was still home at this time and went with my Mother to the emergency room. I was the only child to see this horrendous sight. He was taken to a burn unit then to dialyzes. He died 3 days later from kidney failure. He was only 45.

All I can remember is that he spent hours playing the organ and we always had to watch Lawrence Welk when he was home. I remember him teaching me how to use a slide ruler. Mathematics seemed to be the only thing we had in common. My sister's have a lot of memories. It is difficult to believe we grew up in the same house, since our experiences where so completely different.

Christmas Present

Emma took care of the class frog for the Christmas break. Coreyn loved it!

Christmas Past

Holly's Story

My daughter was born with a Spitz nevi skin lesion on the Left side of her neck. It had remained small, about the size of a pencil eraser, until she was 22. She wasn't interested in having it removed until it started to change.

In 1999 she took a Caribbean Cruise for her honeymoon. She noticed the mole was beginning to change on the cruise. It got larger and turned darker. Maybe it was affected by the intense sun exposure. She decided to have it removed by her family physician and they said the pathology came back fine.

Six years later the mole grew back, it was removed by a surgeon in a local Hospital. Margins were said to be cleared. It took a long time to get the test results. It went from the local pathologist to Chicago and then to Mayo Clinic. They determined that it was Spitz Nevus and not Melanoma.

A year later the mole grew back again. It looked the same as in 2005. She had it removed by the same surgeon in the local Hospital. Margins were said to be cleared. Tests done on it said that it was Spitz Nevus again.

October 2009 the mole comes back again. This time it looks different and grows much faster and larger than before. She went to the same surgeon from before November 2009, he said it was a Keloid scar and injects the area several times with steroids. He said it would cause it to shrink and eventually go away. The area continued to grow larger over the next several months. She was concerned some, but mostly annoyed.

The same surgeon put ear tubes in her daughter's ears the spring of 2010. When we went in for her check-up she asked him about the spot on her neck. It was getting a ring of red around the growing tumor. He looked at it and said she should see a dermatologist.

She was not able to get into the dermatologist until the end of July 2010. The Dermatologist, Dr O, thought it may either be the Spitz Nevus coming back or just a Keloid scar. If it was the Spitz Nevus she would have to have it removed again because of how close it is to Melanoma, but if it was just a scar she would not. Dr O did not think it was Melanoma; she even made the statement “It is not Melanoma, because you would be dead by now”. Dr O said she wanted to do a biopsy to confirm what it was.

August 2, 2010, two punch biopsies were done. They said that because of her history of having Spitz nevus in the past it may take a few weeks to get the test results back. Holly did not give it too much thought. She was still just annoyed that she may have to get it off yet again. It didn’t dawn on her until the beginning of September that she had not heard from them yet. She called the office and inquired about her results. She was told that they were still doing some tests and that they had to send it to the State University Hospital for another opinion.

This was about the time when she started to worry. The next call was about a week later when the Dr said that they would have to send it to California because it was still inconclusive. She told her at this point they had ruled out a scar, and that she would definitely be having it removed. The Dr O told her to think about when she would like to have the surgery. This is when she really started worrying. The Dr didn’t go into detail, but she knew. If they had ruled out a scar that meant they were inconclusive about whether it was Spitz Nevus or Melanoma.

More time went by then she got a phone call on September 29th from the Dr’s receptionist. She is usually very bubbly, but this time she was very monotone. She said that Dr. O was in seeing patients, so she would like me to come in tomorrow and see her. I knew that it was bad news, had it been good news she would have called me back when she was not busy.

September 30th,When we went to the appointment she explained what the different pathologists had found. Dr O did tell her that the pathologist thought she may have been misdiagnosed in 2005 and that it was Melanoma then. She informed her then about the size of area that they would have to remove and that she would have a skin graph done. Dr O still did not feel confident in the diagnosis and did not want to label it as Melanoma quite yet. She wanted it sent to a Spitz Nevus specialist in Ohio and then go from there.

October 6th is the day she officially got the word that yes it is Melanoma and that they had misdiagnosed it in 2005. We were devastated. Dr O was trying to be optimistic, but Holly knew that Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer. The fact that she had it since 2005, just meant that they may not have caught it in time to not be dangerous. She went to the local hospital that night for blood work and began preparing for surgery.

October 27th Surgery day at the University Hospital. Holly was nervous, but glad to be on the way of dealing with this so she could get on with her life. They got her checked in and the nurses and Anesthesiologists came and introduced themselves to us. She told the Anesthesiologists that she wanted them to put nausea medicine in her IV before they woke her up because of her history of having nausea with anesthetic; they assured her that they would.

The first thing they did was the lymphogram. This consisted of them injecting the tumor two times with radioactive dye so that they could map what lymph nodes it drained to (The X-ray technician said it that it feels like a bee sting. She said it was much more than a bee sting!). After the injections she had to wait about 15 minutes to give the dye time to drain. He then took X-rays, they didn’t show any drainage, so she had to wait again. They did this about three times, then the surgeon came to find her because it was taking so long.

When she walked back to where we were the surgeon told us about the test. He said that it was good and bad. Good because of course we don’t want it to be in the Lymph nodes, but bad because it could be strait back where the test can’t see. He said he would have to use an instrument during surgery that picks up the dye to see if it drains anywhere else.

During the surgery he did in fact find two lymph nodes that it drained into, one on top of a lung and the other strait back behind the tumor. The surgery was only supposed to take 2-3 hours, but ended up taking about 5. He had to take off more than he thought. She had a large pad stapled over the skin graph, so we could not see that area, but we were pretty surprised at the size of the scar on her neck and the donor site; she has about a 12 inch incision on her stomach. She also had a drain tube sticking out of the right side of her chest that had to stay in until it quit draining a lot.

Holly was pretty out of it when the Dr came in. He told us about the lymph nodes he found and that they were sent to pathology to see if they were cancerous. He said it would take about 2 weeks to get the results. She was very nauseous when she came to and doesn't remember too much about the days after surgery.

The next week was really painful and uncomfortable. The pad they had stapled over her skin graph was pulling her shoulder skin. It looked like meat hanging from a hook, it was that tight. Any movement of that area was painful. She had to wear clothes that buttoned up because she could not move her arm to put on a shirt. The pain pills made her have an upset stomach and constipation. So it was a tossup at times which symptom was worse.

November 2nd she went back to the surgeon to get her staples out. He said it looked good and was reassuring that as it heals it will shrink in size and fill in more. It looked really sunken in because of how swollen the skin flap area next to it was.

It took about 3 weeks for the swelling to start going down and the skin graft to get more natural coloring. The bruising on her stomach is starting to heal. She is still unable to lift anything or drive. Her neck has very limited movement. She can use her right arm, but still has limited movement with her left.

November 21th the surgeon calls and said they found more cancer on edge of the tissue they removed and she will need more surgery until they have clear margins. He said the pathology report on the tumor showed some scar tissue, some Spitz Nevus, and areas where the Spitz Nevus had turned to melanoma.

December 1st, my birthday, Holly has her second surgery. I had the flu and stayed home. It was only going to be a simple surgery, so I didn't think it would matter if I was there. I stayed home and prayed. Everything worked out great!

Holly was able to go home that afternoon. They gave her all different medications so she didn't get sick. It wasn't necessary to do a skin graft. She actually has more movement on her neck now. The surgeon was able to fix the tightness from the skin pulling on her neck while he was working on her.

December 13 Praise God! We got the news that they didn't find any more cancer in the latest tissue they removed. She will not need any more surgery. She is scheduled to meet with an oncologist to discuss further treatment.

Please pray for wisdom for her and her husband. They are deciding on whether to continue on with traditional aggressive treatment or a holistic nutritional approach.

After the second surgery.

December 14th she had my follow up appointment with her surgeon from my second surgery. He said that she was looking good and healing well. One of the reasons that the case was so hard to pinpoint was that when they looked at the tumor that was removed from the first surgery, they found not only Melanoma but Spitz Nevus and scar tissue. This makes staging the case difficult because one of the factors used in staging is the size and depth of the tumor. She asked him to refer her to another Oncologist.

December 23rd She met with a new Oncologist. 

January 5th She decided to take the Interferon treatments for the next year and went in for a PICC [peripherally inserted central catheter] line ...then she will start IVs everyday for a month and shots for a year. Because her tumor went so deep her cancer was rated stage IIB Melanoma. Melanoma is a very aggressive cancer, so they have to take drastic measures. It doesn't respond to traditional chemo or radiation. Interferon works on speeding up your immune system. It is not as toxic as traditional chemo, but still has lots of side effects and lasts for a year.

She was hesitant to get the treatments since they only are 10% more effective and have a lot of side effects, but they convinced her she was too young not to get the treatments. They told her..."think about your daughters...how would you feel if a year from now the melanoma came back and you hadn't done all you could." They also said there was a genetic factor with Melanoma and now the girls are at high risk for getting it.

January 10th She had the first chemo treatment . They said the first week shouldn't be too bad and next week will hit like a brick wall. It is a long process, about 2 hours, of blood tests before they start... IV fluids and nausea medications... Tylenol for the pain... Then they mix up the chemo. That only takes about 20 minutes to drip. It made her really cold and gave her a terrible headache. It still made her nauseated and she threw up the first night. I can't imagine what next week will bring.

Photos removed due to abuse.

Times and Seasons

It seems many people are going through a very difficult season these days. Whether from financial difficulties, stressed relationships, or poor health; the sources are endless; the need for a change of season epidemic. Too many are suffering in a winter of discontent. Do we just endure the long winter or can we change the season. If I can take liberty with Shakespeare..."Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of [God]"... Through Christ our winter is made a glorious summer. The presence of the Lord will bring us times of refreshing in the midst of our drought.  

"Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord," (Acts 3:19) 

To change our season we need to repent and be converted so that our sins may be blotted out that a new season "may "[is allowed] come. To repent means "to change one's mind" (Webster.) If we change our mind...the Lord will change your season. He will change the winter of our discontent into glorious summer. When we change our mind...our thinking... we don't change the winter...we change the discontent!  Daniel 2:21 says God can "change times and seasons." If you don't like the season you are in... change it.

I have just gone through a particularly difficult season. As many of you know I have a constant battle with my health. It was getting difficult to deal with my basic needs and my doctor had just given approval for me to get home health care. Needless to say I didn't have a lot of strength. Then the most bizarre thing happened. I "accidentally" took the wrong medication and fell asleep during the afternoon. When I woke up my entire apartment was flooded. At first we thought the drain had clogged and the neighbors washer had drained into my apartment, but somehow my washing machine had turned itself on and overflowed. All I could do was cry, because I didn't have the strength to even pick anything up.

Praise God The housing authority came and cleaned the mess and moved what wasn't ruined to an apartment across the street. I still had a lot of stuff on the floor and spent a day trying to wash some of the things that had gotten flooded. I used the washer all day and didn't have any problem. Then the next night it happened again. Somehow my washing machine had turned itself on and overflowed again! Now, I am thinking something supernatural is going on. Is God wanting me to move or the devil harassing me?

My daughter has been wanting me to move back to Indiana for sometime. She had applied at a HUD apartment complex and I had been on the waiting list. I was thinking maybe I would return to Indiana in the Spring. I was not too crazy about going through Indiana winters. I love the Texas weather, but after going through the flood I realized it is not good for me to be there all alone with no family to help. My Senior Life Team Leader, has done a lot to help, but I didn't want to keep being a burden to her. She had just brought me over a freezer full of food and supplies because my refrigerator a few weeks earlier had went out and spoiled all my food.

So, I am over at my new apartment, overwhelmed with furniture and boxes everywhere, trying to get my services turned on. I hadn't started cleaning the cabinets because it took a while to get the gas turned on for hot water. Then maintenance came in with a new stove and when he moved out the old stove the entire side of the cabinet was covered in thick green mold. Then I started opening the cabinets and realized they all were covered with this green webby creepy mold. My lungs became extremely irritated and I could not stop coughing. All I could do was cry out to the Lord.

I didn't even have the strength to take care of my basic needs, how was I going to deal with all of this. I was sitting with my cell phone in my hand, praying how am I going to deal with all of this, when the phone rang. It was the Indiana apartment complex. She said " I know you wanted to wait until the spring to move, but I have an opening in November and wondered if you might me interested." All I could say was this is God. I called my daughter and of course she said I needed to get out of that apartment immediately.

She called my sons and in a matter of days they drove from Indiana, packed my things in 4 hours, and drove straight back. Thank God they are young and strong. I moved out Oct 22 and was only able to take the few things that would fit in a small truck and car. I gave my neighbor a lot of my stuff and in return she made sure everything got cleaned out, so it all worked out. I spent a few weeks with my daughter and am now in my new apartment. It is bigger, nicer, and mold free! It has taken a while, but I am starting to get back on my feet. I only have a few more boxes to go through.

Praise God for a change in my season! I am living comfortably in my new apartment and just spent Thanksgiving with all my children. When you change your thinking from despair to rejoicing...you can change your season from winter to summer. We still have financial difficulties, stressed relationships, or poor health, but through Christ we can change our mourning into dancing. Through Christ we can choose to be joyful and content in the Lord. For…the joy of the Lord is my strength. We can change the winter of our discontent into a summer of rejoicing.

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds." (James 1:2)