Hope

I made it through yesterday afternoon at work. Not the most productive but I did what I could. Last night was a bit more hopeful.

I spent yesterday evening at my parents discussing plans and eating chili and corn bread. Anyway, dad spent a lot of time on the phone with his siblings discussing things. My aunt says we're not done fighting. She contacted Cancer Treatment Center of America and another place and they're also looking into a more holistic approach. We're hoping to know more as soon as today. If these options tell us the same thing, we're going to have a big BBQ at my aunt and uncle's soon to celebrate Chuck's life and then a very intimate funeral will be done when he passes. As my dad was reminding Susie last night; Chuck knows where he's going so the separation will be brief and then we'll spend eternity together. We're continuously praying for a miracle so I won't allow myself to dwell on any of those possibilities right now.

I received the following email from my aunt this morning:
"Well, the doctor says that the past couple of months of chemo didn't do any good at all. The cancer has grown and he is stopping all treatment. He said continuing the chemo would cause more trouble then it is worth. The cancer has not spread to any other organs or anywhere else in the body, but it has grown within the liver and isn't getting any better."

"I will be calling Cancer Treatment Centers of America and also MD Anderson Cancer Center to find out if we can get a diagnosis from them. If our insurance will cover the cost we will be traveling to Phoenix and Houston to get their opinion before we totally give up. We have not given up on prayer and really appreciate all you have sent our way. Please continue to keep us in your prayers and thoughts and I will try to keep you all updated on our results."

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers... They are appreciated. Please continue to pray for my uncle and our family. Specifically for my aunt and their kids and grand kids.

A note to my CO family - though miles apart, we're sending love and prayers your way. I love you guys and my heart aches for what you're going through.

Heavy, heavy, heavy heart

The results from my uncle's last scan just came in. He's been given 2 weeks to 2 months... As I start this post I'm struggling to find words. All I can think is "why does the answer to our prayer seem to be no, Lord?" I know liver cancer is a tough battle without much hope but that doesn't mean that I wasn't holding out hope for this situation in the same way I do for others that I love who are battling cancer.

As I try to go about the rest of my day; putting coherent thoughts together, getting work done, and planning for another trip to Colorado, all I can think is that we're not ready to say goodbye. WE'RE NOT READY TO SAY GOODBYE LORD!!!!

I'm going to spend a little time in Romans 5 tonight.

Your prayers would be appreciated.

Milestones - Update 9 on Dad

Its been a busy couple of weeks... I think I'm back on top of things at work so I'm now tackling an update on dad.

He had two appointments last week; one with the surgeon and the other with the infectious disease doctor. The surgeon was very frustrated to learn the details of what had happened with the surgery. He's been performing these surgeries for 6 years and dad's is only the 4th case with infection. (In my book, that's a great track record.) That's the good news. The bad news is that, of the other 3 cases of infection, only 1 was due to infection being "carried in." The other 2 cases were due to infected hardware or sutures used to repair the rotator cuff, requiring complete replacement and a second rotator cuff surgery.

We won't know what type of infection dad has until he's off the antibiotics. Typically, he would have several weeks of the IV antibiotics and then several months of pill antibiotics. With the possibility of a second surgery looming, dad and his infectious disease doctor have decided to keep him on the pill antibiotic until a time when it would be more convenient to do another surgery - aka after bike and hunting seasons.

There are other good things that came of his appointment with the infectious disease doctor. Number one is a more aggressive treatment of the infection. The CO doctors put him on 500 mg dosage of the IV antibiotic. His new doctor has upped that to 800 mg. This will cut his total IV time from 6-10 weeks to 4-6. Also, instead of dad having to run into Grand Rapids weekly to change the dressing and port on his pic line and check his bacteria levels, he now has a nurse that comes weekly to the house to do all of that.

As to the title of this post, Monday dad will be returning to work. Yay!! Huge milestone. The doctor has signed off on him driving himself so for the last week he's been working on the details of that (similar to the special tools and tricks he had following the motorcycle accident). As of Wednesday, his pain level was decreasing and the evening chills have all but disappeared. He's been working all week to prepare himself for sitting at a desk all day by working at their home computer and tackling little projects around the house as well. Dad's not one to sit around so he's more than ready to get out of the house.

Praises - continued healing, ability to go back to work (this is a selfish praise for me as well as I don't realize how reliant I am on him here until he's not a part of my "team")

Prayers - continued healing, no recurrence of the staph infection once he's finished with the antibiotics, clarity of thought as he returns to work, safety driving

Home - Update 8 on Dad

We're home!! We pulled in yesterday afternoon around 4:30 and I nearly kissed the ground from excitement. I'm serious - its rough being trapped in a two seat convertible for two days. The backseat, where I spent most of my time, is cramped, drafty, and noisy. All whining aside, we had an uneventful trip.

Weather-wise, other than a lovely snow storm in South Haven, we either made it through an area just after a storm hit and the road was cleared or just before it came through. In KS there was mile after mile of frosted and frozen trees - Gorgeous! No photos of course :( We came through IA just after a snowstorm and passed about 10 spots where vehicles had slid off into the median or the ditch. Several had already been pulled out or were in the process of being pulled but of the others that were still there for our gawking pleasure, there were two still resting on their roofs. Yikes! Praise God for protecting us.

Another interesting factor in our trip was the temperature. The temperature outside steadily dropped as we traveled through CO, NE, KS, IA, and IL, but it grew warmer as we neared home. When mom pre-started our car yesterday morning at our hotel in IA, it was -13° with a windchill of -31°. DOUBLE BRRRRRR! It was kind of fun to watch the temperature gage go up and down as we drove from state to state. No comments please - you try and find things to entertain three people in a 24 hour car ride :)

Dad's condition continues to improve. He meets again tomorrow with Dr Jabara (MI Surgeon) for a second follow up appointment. Thursday he has an appointment with the Infectious Disease doctor that Dr Hackenberg (CO Infec. Dis.) referred him to. As I said in a prior post, he will continue to meet weekly with the Infectious Disease doctor until the bacteria is out of his body. It typically takes about 6-10 weeks. Each night he has an infusion of Cubicin to treat the staph infection. After we got home last night, and following our celebratory family dinner, mom walked through the process with Steph and Leah. As Brenda so adequately put it, any monkey can do it. Its tedious but not difficult to figure out so it'll just become part of the nightly routine around the Turner home.

One other point of interest - The staph infection that dad has is a type of epi-infection. Epi infections are skin based infections. This means that either an instrument or person that was involved in his initial surgery had not been properly disinfected or cleaned and skin bacteria was transferred into the surgical site and joint. There is no way of knowing who or what or even how but an epi infection is a slow growing infection with potentially fatal results if not properly treated. Dad left the operating table with the infection but the effects weren't noticeable until over a week later. If he would have tried to return to MI for treatment, the likelihood is high that he would have lost not only his arm but potentially his life. Praise the Lord for good doctors and the good sense to listen to their advisement.

Praises - safety in travel and continued healing in Dad's body.
Prayers - dad continues to have sweats and chills, mainly in the evenings. Each time his temperature is taken, it checks out, but the whole process wears him out. His shoulder continues to heal and ache. Before the trip, he was doing well with little pain but now he has some level of constant pain.