Posted in Just Our Day-to-Day Life

I hope and pray that I am able to get back to blogging again.  Even with the computer fixed, I was away so much this week that there was little to no time to blog.  I spent most of tonight catching up on things that should have been posted long ago on the Blubber Blogger Blog, so will only have time for a short update here. 

Thanks again to everyone for all the prayers and emails of support.  I appreciate knowing that so very many people care about the trials our family has been going through lately.  They just seem to never end.  I know that there must be an important lesson in all of this that the Lord wants me to learn, that I just "haven't gotten" yet, and I wish I would learn it real quick, so that life will settle down a bit!  

Dad is doing pretty well, although the new oral chemo has him all broken out in a very irritating rash that is driving him bonkers.  The flip side of this is that the oncologist says that those who have the rash the worst are heavily correlated with tumor shrinkage, so that is a positive.  Dad's blood thinning meds have his pro-time up to 2.9, and it has to stay there for at least 2 weeks before they will do the TEE and cardioversion.  He is so concerned about this, because the last time he was on blood thinning meds, he ended up in the hospital several times for heavy bleeding, and once required transfusions.  So this is obviously something we would like to request prayer for.  He HAS to stay on this dosage in order to try to get his heart back in proper rhythm, so we really need God's help in this. 

My mother-in-law had her first chemo a week ago, and is still doing very well.  The new lump they found is supposedly scar tissue from the surgery, but they will be keeping an eye on it just in case.  She got to drive her car for the first time since the mastectomy a couple days ago, and boy, was she happy about that! 

Yesterday I went with my dad to the doctor for some tests, and then we went to Columbus to visit his sister, my Aunt Mary, who had her colon cancer surgery on Thursday.  She did exceptionally well with the surgery for being 88 years old, and jokingly told us that she should have this done more often, just to get all the compliments she has been getting about not looking her age :-)   The doctors feel that they have gotten all the cancer out, and that the tumor was not attached to anything else, and that there was no lymph involvement, so she will not need any follow-up treatment.  This is a real praise, because she is dealing with leukemia, and the chemo would have wreaked havoc with her blood counts and aggrevated that leukemia. 

Dad and I ate at Damon's on the way home.  It was yummy, but my fellow Blubber Bloggers will not think well of me if I tell them how many ribs I ate!  I ate like a good girl today to make up for it, though.  Dad and I have gotten to share some special times with all these doctor visits, and I am glad for that. 

A dear family friend, and a cousin of my grandma's, passed away this week, and we had to go to the funeral home yesterday.  That was hard, as she was the same age as my mom and dad.  On the way there, we drove by my childhood home, and guess what??? It wasn't there!!!  The new owners had apparently decided that it was beyond repair, and had burned it to the ground.  My dad and I were in total shock about this, and both had to shed a few tears.  We had some very happy times in that house, and felt badly that the new owner hadn't let us in to see it and say good-bye, and take a few momentoes, as he said he would do if they decided to tear it down.  It was hard to see my childhood home a heap of smoldering ashes.  I did take a few bricks from the fireplace that I used to hang my stocking on back home as a momento, and the charred front door knob.  I hope that it will clean up a bit....

We also stopped at my dd's shop to visits her and all the doggies.  It was on the way home from the hospital that my aunt is in.  My other dd is apprenticing under her sister to learn to groom, too, so she was also there, along with my new "great-grandpuppy."  My granddaughter got a beautiful Golden Retriever pup for her 8th birthday, and Daisy was there at work playing under the grooming table.  She is adorable!!!  While there, I found out that Chelle's top groomer quit the other day.  This is TERRIBLE timing to find out that our best groomer has quit, as we had all the scheduling set up so Chelle could be home when her boys come to stay permanently June 16th.  Now we have to start from scratch trying to figure out how to keep her home most of the time.  I can't believe this girl would do this on such short notice.  She has been with us since before Chelle went into the hospital for bedrest, and has been our right arm, and so very dependable.  It just was not nice to up and quit with hardly any notice when she knows what all is going on.  Very, very rude and inconsiderate, and I would have thought better of her than that.  

Another thing that I just found out yesterday is that my son-in-law Doug's dad, who he just reunited with after nearly 30 years of not knowing whether he was dead or alive, is in ICU in South Carolina, dying of kidney and liver failure.  Doug has been a different person since finding his dad again, and finding out that he had not been abandoned as a child as he had been told, and NovaLynn adores her new Grandpa.  I am just sick to think that Doug could lose his dad right after finding him again.  The doctors told Doug after he got to SC that there is only about a 5% chance that his dad will live.  Please pray for him.  I know that God can make good come out of this, and that if He chooses to, He can spare his life.   Doug needs more time with his dad, and I hope that God will intervene and let him live.  It's a long story, but Doug really needs his dad in his life, and has been so happy and "different" since finding him again.  I wish that I could make this all better for him.  He is a good son-in-law, and it breaks my heart to know how badly this is hurting him. 

Well, tomorrow is Mother's Day, and my dd Chelle is getting a GREAT Mother's Day gift....her 2 new sons will be coming to visit!  Isn't that cool???  They will be here tomorrow through Wed., then go back to finish school, then Josh and Chelle will be driving out to bring them home for good on June 16th...just a few short weeks away!  There will be a BBQ on Tuesday evening when I'll get to meet Ronald and Thomas for the first time.  I can't wait!!!  

Love to all, and thanks again for your continued prayers,

Kathy