And The Wait Begins

Today is Tuesday but I wanted to update you all that Monday I went in and had a CT Scan to see if there was any good news from the first Radiation treatment that I did. I wont find out till Wednesday afternoon when I meet with my Doctor. We are hopeful that it is going well and we will let you all know on Wednesday.

Dreaming of the Future

Here I sit listening to some Hawaiian music and remembering several great trips that we took to Hawaii in years past. One of my goals is to someday make it back there. It is funny but once you go there you get it in your blood and you just want to go back.

I am really tempted to take my Ipod to a tanning bed place and put my sunglasses on and sit in my swimsuit on the bed with my Hawaiian music playing in my ears and letting the heat of the tanning bed bring back all the memories. Of course I would have to spray the room with Plumeria Flower spray so it would complete the effect.

Aloha Everyone.

New Name

As you all know, our Daughter was married in the summer of 2008 and we are just now getting around to adding our great son in law to the group of fighters. Matt, sorry for the delay.

Now we are going to be known as the Five Fighting Hearts but will still keep the same web address on Blogger so we don't have to change it. it would be too hard to deal with.

any way, now we are the Five Fighting Hearts.

The Liver

Well,

I had not really checked so I didn't know how big the Liver is, but I found a picture of an example of the body and size of the parts inside. If you look at this picture, (you can click on it and it will enlarge) You will see the area's that were operated on me. I no longer have a Gall Bladder and my Pancreas has had 1/3rd removed. The Duodenum which is where the Stomach starts into the small Intestine has had about 3 feet removed. That was all done on the surgery.

now, I am having Radiation on my Liver and as you can see it is rather large. They do it in two sections. The first Radiation treatment was on the right half and the second will be on the left.

Now you are all up to speed. I feel great after the first treatment and have been back to work and doing fine. Right now I have no side affects from the Cancer. It is like everything is fine. And I just as soon keep it that way.

Keep Smiling. We are all blessed in one way or another.

Radiation Treatment

Nurse Randi getting us all set up

All hooked up and hating it

Bye Sweetie

Food at last

All done and ready to go home

Evan had his first radiation treatment for the right lobe of his liver and it went well. We arrived at the hospital at 6:30 in the morning and were quickly assigned a room. After he was all set up they wisked him away from me to start the radiation treatment. He was gone for about 1 1/2 hours and when he returned he was still very sleepy. After his treatment the nurse came to talk to me to give me instructions as well as answer any questions I might have. I had hoped that this treatment would take care of all of the tumors and that we wouldn't have to do anything further but the nurse said that this will not treat all of the tumors and we will probably have to continue battling the tumors for a long time to come. This was very hard for me to hear but I will put on my battle gear and once again place my faith in my Heavenly Father.

On our way out, Evan did really well and didn't pass out in the hospital hallway this time. teehehehehe He is home and is suffering with a little nausea and is having some pain. This is all normal and was anticipated by the doctors. They sent us home with an arsenal of meds to help counteract the effects. The pain that he is going to experience will be due to the tumors dying. The next step is to have another CT scan and visit with the doctor the week of Feb 9th. We don't know when they will want to do the second treatment for the left side of his liver, but we will let you know everything as we hear it. We love and appreciate all your support and prayers.

Blog Counter

I had a Blog Counter at the bottom of this page that shows how many times this Blog gets hit but for some reason it stopped working and I havent figured out why so I just deleted it. I dont think it really matters any way. I am sure that not that many people are really checking this Blog.

Today is Friday and just to update my Blog I will tell you what is going on.. We have noticed that our new house has a leak in the master shower that is dripping a little bit of water into the basement so we are going to tear into the tile and look and see if we can fix it easily. We might have to end up tearing out the whole base of the shower and putting a new pan and tile in and that might cost us a lot so we are hoping that is NOT the case.

JayDee called us this morning and told us that her Fridge died during the night and she now has a lot of warm food. She came over this morning and borrowed our coolers to put stuff in and see if she could save any of it before it all goes bad.

I also got a call last night from JayDee who found out that a good friend of mine had a heart attach and died on the 5th of Jan. so we will be attending his funeral tomorrow. I was sad to hear the news, but I guess when it is your time to go, the good Lord just takes you. We are all going to miss him. He was such a good guy.

I guess that is all the bad news I can share with you today. Remember, I dont like the bad news. I want a world of good news so let me think of what good news I can tell you.

The price of gas went up about 20c over the past week which isn't good news but hey, it is down like $2.80 over the past year so we are now paying about $1.40 per gallon. Now that is good news.

You can also check out http://www.saltlakegasprices.com/ and it will show you the cheapest places to gas up any where in the country. You just have to put in your city.

I guess other than that, the best news for now is that it is Friday afternoon and I am heading home for the weekend and that is really good news. It is always nice to have a couple of days off to replenish the body and spirit. I hope all of you have a great weekend and keep in mind,

"I may be lost, but I am making Great time !!

Radiation Treatment is Scheduled

Well, the Mapping went fine and they have decided that I am okay to get the Radiation treatment in the form of the Theraspheres. I am scheduled to go in on Jan. 15th in the morning and will be there for just about 2 hours.

With any luck I wont pass out this time.

Twas The Night Before Christmas

And all through the house, every creature was stirring and our house smells like cookies. Well Done cookies at that.

We are all ready for Christmas, now if we could just fall asleep and stay asleep all night. If this Christmas is like any of the past ones, Julie will be up all night and around 3:00am she will nudge me and ask if it is time to get up yet. Oh the joys of Christmas.

What A Day At The Hospital Today

Well, today was the big day for my mapping. We had to be there at 6:30am which was fine, then they took me in and started to hook me up to all the hardware and all of a sudden I started having panic attacks as I flashed back to the time I was there before.

I started feeling okay up till they told me that they would have to shave me again to prep the area. That is were I lost it. You just lose all manhood when they do that to you so I was not feeling good at that point.

The good news was that they only shaved my legs in that area just enough to make a 1/2 inch incision. I was now feeling pretty good. they then rolled me down to the operating room and gave me the drugs to get me loopy before they started. It worked.

When I was done, I woke up and they said I had been there for a while but was still recovering so I went back to sleep. Later they gave me lunch and then told me I could go after they took out my IV. That is when it went bad. I ate my lunch, got my IV out and stood up to go and got sick and had to vomet my lunch right out.

I then felt okay so we started to leave and I got on the elevator and went down to the first floor and I started to black out so when I got out of the elevator I dropped right to the floor and was close to out.
Note to anyone reading: When you pass out in a hospital, you get a LOT of people that come running. I looked up and found about 10 people that were standing above me calling for help and asking me how I was feeling and checking my blood pressure. They finally got a gurney and put me on it and took me to the ER. I told them I didnt want to be checked in there so they just let me sit on the chairs outside of the ER and watched me for a while. after about 5 minutes, I started feeling fine so we stood up and left.

I tell you, it was really strange having so many people fuss over me. I have always been on the side lines watching other people have that type of stuff happen to them. I really felt like an idiot but oh well. I guess it was the safe thing to do.

So now I am home and letting my leg heal up so that I dont start bleeding. I was told not to drive today but other than that, I am fine.

We really never found out what made me pass out but I think it was just that I was still groggy from the meds and should have waited a little longer before trying to get up and leave.

Now we have to wait for a couple of weeks and then they will call back and set up the day for the Radiation treatment. Then back in for a repeat.

I will keep you posted.

Just for Fun

So today I am posting a picture of my fourth grade class here. Yes, that is me in the back second from the right in the yellowish shirt.

Okay, now that you have had a good laugh, let me point out the really funny thing.

If you look at the top left hand corner, you will see my sweet wife Julie. Yup, that is her, right there in my fourth grade class with me.

We have known each other a LOT longer than the 20 years we have been married. It makes it interesting when we look at this picture because we both know all the kids and can point them out easily.

Here's to Good Ole Times !!

Latest Dates for my Cancer Treatment

So here it is, the middle of December and I am gearing up for Christmas and Radiation. I don't know which one I am least looking forward too. At least the Radiation treatment wont come with lots of boxes and wrapping paper that I have to find a place for right?

any way, so here is the deal. I am scheduled for a CT scan on the 19th of Dec. They want to do that to make sure that everything inside looks normal and ready for the mapping.

Then on Dec 23rd I will be going in for "mapping" which is where they will do an incision into my groin and into the Arterial artery and they will shoot die into my blood and watch it via live X-ray and see where it goes. if that goes well then they will proceed with the scheduled Radiation treatment on the right lobe of my Liver.

That will take place about two weeks after the mapping but the exact date will not be determined until I do the mapping. I will keep you all updated on when that will be.

As for Christmas, I am not really the type that gets excited for this holliday, (unlike my wife) and this year is no different. I cant believe that we are only a few weeks away. I think I am more excited for January 1st so I can get this year over with. It has not been the best of years and the only good thing that came of it was that our Daughter was married and is happy.

well, thanks for stopping by.

Cody having the Time of His Life

Here is Cody in our backyard the day that they poured Cement at our home, he was having the time of his life.