June 26, 2008

I’ve been at Lake James Christian camp all week with my daughter, Shelby. We’re having a great time, and I’ve been healthy all week. Thanks for your prayers for this blessing!

The time I’ve had at camp has been almost better for me than the kids. There’s something about being immersed in classes, singing praises, and spending time memorizing scripture that is reenergizing. Today, for example, we did memory work and saw an astronmy presentation by the Stardogs (www.stardogs.com) and I played dodge ball with the faculty and kids. It rained heavy today, so we weren’t able to go swimming or fishing in the lake. We go home tomorrow night, and then I return on Sunday with my daughter, Savannah. We’ll be here through Tuesday because this is her first time at camp.

My favorite verse this week is “Now you know the truth (about God), and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32. We’ve been learning about myths related to Christianity and how the Bible is the whole truth. The speakers have been wonderful.

If you’ve ever wondered if your kids would like camp, I’d strongly suggest giving it a try. Lake James is great, but there are a lot of other wonderful camps in this area. Kids have a great time, keep active and play hard. They also come home really tired…which can be a blessing!

Thanks for your prayers.

Sandy

June 18, 2008

I’ve been wanting to write about my husband, Mark, for quite a while. He is so special and precious to me, and he’s been my fortress through this storm. I am treated like a queen, and he never complains. There are so many small ways that he takes care of me, and I’m not going to bore you by sharing them all.

The Lord blessed me with a wonderful husband after failing at my first marriage, which is a miracle. I have learned so much about marriage, parenting and myself by being married to Mark, and we’ve grown together. I haven’t met too many men who would rather spend time with their wife than go fishing, play sports, hang out with their friends, etc. Throughout my struggle with cancer, Mark has been by my side every chance he gets, and he puts the rest of his life on hold to take care of me. He’s by my side at doctor appointments and scans, and he gets my medicine or massages cream into my sore feet when I need it. We’ve been married almost 13 years, and he still opens the door for me from our vehicles or anyplace we go.

A lot of people have shared with me that they think I’m strong, and I’m not disagreeing. But there are two sources of the strength that I’ve been able to lean on, and they are my husband and my God. I know that Mark and I are the perfect team, and our faith, friendship and love grow each year.

I hope that husbands who read this will find ways to cherish your wife and show her that she’s the most important person in your life. Don’t wait until she has cancer or some other tragedy to love her. May God bless your marriage today like he’s blessed ours.

We love you.

Sandy

June 16, 2008

Mark and I met with Dr. Aggarwal this morning, and we are going to “stay the course” with my current chemo treatment for another month. She gave us several options, which included trying another chemo, but we decided to continue what I’ve been taking to see if it works. If there’s not enough positive result in a month, we’ll change the drug combinations then. She’ll probably also schedule another scan in July to see how the treatment is working.

I’m feeling pretty good but still dealing with pain in my pelvis area. I also start taking the Xeloda again this week, so we’ll see how it goes.

This is a very busy month for our family. The girls are in Vacation Bible School at our church every morning this week, and they’re attending Girl Scout camp in Markle every afternoon this week. Next week, Shelby and I take off for a week of church camp at Lake James (I’ll be a dorm mom), and the next week I’m going with Savannah for her first trip to church camp at Lake James (3 days). I’m somewhat nervous about going to camp while I’m on drugs and having pain, so please pray for my stamina.

It’s really important to both Mark and I that I spend as much time as possible with the girls, so camp will be a great experience. I attended camp as a kid at Lake James and always loved it. The girls are really excited, and they actually want me to attend! Whitney also attended camp when she was little, but she never wanted me there to bother her. This is a nice change!

Thanks for your prayers and comments. We love you.

Sandy

June 11, 2008

I am so glad that I decided to ditch the wig this week. It’s 87 degrees today, which is too hot for extra hair! We hope my hair keeps growing back to something normal for me, but this is better than being bald. I also love the blessing of having curly hair (although it’s probably temporary).

I’m feeling better because I’m managing my pain medicine more closely. This almost feels like a normal week…no appointments, sticks or scans. I’m taking part of the day off on Friday, and we’re hoping for hot weather so me and the kids can go swimming at the Markle Pool. They love to swim and play in the water, and I like laying in the sun and playing with them.

Thanks for all of the heart-felt and warm comments that have been sent recently.

Sandy

June 9, 2008

Thanks to everyone who has contacted me over the last few days. It is very encouraging to hear from you, whether it’s through this blog, email, phone, cards, etc. I’ve had a long weekend that I don’t relish experiencing again.

I stayed home from work on Friday to enjoy the day with my girls, but I ended up vomitting and sleeping on the couch most of the day. I also missed my neice’s graduation, but I couldn’t sit for that long. I was also vomitting on Saturday afternoon. I think my chemo drugs are causing this problem, but I’m not sure. I started feeling better on Saturday night, so we went out to eat. We got home much later than I thought and my pain medication ran out of oomph ahead of that. I was in terrible pain until I had a chance to take my medicine again! My whole pelvis ached and was in severe pain. After my medicine kicked in, however, I felt better and slept through the night.

Sunday, we went to church and then helped my sister with Michelle’s graduation party. I felt great all day, because Mark was watching and keeping track of my medication schedule. As long as I keep taking the pain medication every 4 hours, I’m doing okay. I also ate on Sunday, and that helped.

Today (Monday), I started my 1 week break from Xeloda, which I think causes the nausea. This should help relieve that symptom for the week. We’ll see. I hope so.

I’m excited to share that I went to work today without my wig for the first time! I’ve had enough of the wig and have enough hair to not look too funny. It’s still not close to my natural hair, but it’s better than being bald. This may sound silly to some people (to be worried about looking bald), but I have never wanted to look like I had cancer to the general public. This is mainly for the protection of my kids, but it also seems to make some adults uncomfortable too. My hair is VERY short and an ugly color of brown/gray, but Mark and I are going to fix the color this week. He actually likes to color my hair, and we have fun laughing at the process!

Everyone has been telling me to stay strong, but I must admit I met my limit with the pain on Saturday night. I can be tough through a lot of problems, but tolerating that type of pain is unbearable. I hope it doesn’t continue for long, or we learn how to manage it appropriately.

Thanks for continued prayers and support.

Sandy

June 4, 2008

AWEFUL! That describes the two MRI’s that I had yesterday of my spine. I’ve been through many of these scans before, but none of them were as bad as yesterday’s test. I felt terrible from the pain medicine wearing off, and I had to lie perfectly still, stuffed into a tube, for over 1.5 hours. I’m not normally claustrophobic or afraid of the MRI tube, but I was ready to call it off and crawl out before the test was over! My back really hurt and the machine was much louder than normal, even with my earplugs.

I did my best to keep focused on prayers and worship, but it was impossible to relax. By the last 15-30 minutes, I resorted to singing my favorite hymns and children’s worship music in my head to keep from going nuts. This might sound silly to some, but it usually works for me.

I’ll call Dr. Aggarwal’s office today to learn the results of these tests. Unless she finds something major, then I think we’ll continue on the chemo drugs at the new, increased dosages. She told us that if my pain goes away over the next two weeks, then that will be a great sign that the chemo is working. If the pain doesn’t go away, we have “several options to still try”.

Today, I’m feeling much better, but I’m being careful not to get behind on pain meds. Mark and I appreciate all of the comments, calls and concerns you’ve shared with us this week. This has been tough on all of us.

We love you

Sandy

June 2, 2008

Where do I start…it’s been a long weekend. I was really sick on Friday and in lots of pain. I even threw up at Bob Evan’s when Mark and I tried to have dinner. Yuk. The doctor on call had me restart my nausea and pain medications, and they both seemed to help. I tried to go to class on Saturday morning and church on Sunday morning, but I ended up leaving early from both. The couch was the only comfortable place to be.

Mark and I saw Dr. Aggarwal this morning, and the CT scan on Friday night showed there is cancer in my stomach wall lymph nodes. With the recurring spot on my liver, too, she has restarted my chemo drugs at a stronger dose. She’s not convinced the lymph nodes are causing all the pain, so I have to go for another MRI tomorrow of my thoracic area and lower spine.

We need your prayers through this agony. The news wasn’t as bad as we feared, but the persisent pain and continuous testing have frayed our nerves to the limit. I’ll start my chemo tonight and we’ll see Dr. Aggarwal again in two weeks to check my progress. I’m not giving up the fight, but I’m tired.

Sandy