WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2009

Two good days in a row! Michael is feeling great this week. I keep telling myself it probably won't last, but who knows. Today is our third day of Chemo for round two. The red devil (adriamycin) will be stopped tomorrow evening and he will have two more days of Vincristine before going on just fluids. His appetite has remained strong. He gained 6 lbs. from Monday until today, probably all the fluids they are putting in him. He doesn't mind going in to the ambulatory treatment center for the fluids half as bad as I do. It is so boring.. . . . . .4 hours worth of boredom. Talked with Kay Dixon today and she said Ronnie was doing well. Said they were trying to get his blood pressure regulated and his pain stopped. Will try to visit with her tomorrow. Hope you had a good Wednesday and we are hoping to talk to Dr. Ravi to see if possibly we can come home over Memorial Day weekend.
Love to all.

Terri

OUR DAY SO FAR

We are sitting here in the chemo treatment room having fluids administered. Our appointment was at 2:00pm and we got called in about 3:40pm. Felt like we were at home. (Ha!) They told Michael they will take about 3 hours today to administer and then they will change the bags of chemo and we will be on our way. These are some of the nicest folks I have ever been around. Everyone here acts as if they are concerned about all your needs and not here to draw a paycheck. Kay Dixon called us this afternoon and we will try to make contact sometime real soon. We were in a hurry to get to our 2:00pm appointment and was unable to meet them, but will. Pray for Ronnie as he will have having surgery tomorrow I think. Michael's surgery is so rare, we have not met anyone else here who is being treated for Ewing's Sarcoma. Michael's appetite is wonderful. He had a chicken fried steak and french fries for lunch and an ice cream sundae for breakfast this morning. When he was younger, I wouldn't have let him eat ice cream for breakfast, but as long as he eats, it doesn't matter. He is in wonderful spirits and has a good outlook. Hasn't been sick any since starting this round of chemo. What an awesome God we serve and looking foward to the CT Scan next week to see what God has done in his life. I am going to brag on my son for a moment. Everyone here at the hospital is very impressed with his manners. Said he is a very polite young man. I think Marc would be very proud of him if he were here. Will write more later.

Love to all and keep the prayers coming,

Terri and Michael

First day, Second Round- May 11, 2009

Happy Birthday Daddy! Today was a very trying and tiresome day. Arrived at the hospital about 10:00am for the catheter infusion to be used to administer the chemo. After the infusion, you go for an x-ray to make certain the long line catheter is where it needs to be. They advised that the catheter had a hook (like a shepherds hook) on the end of it and they sent us back to infusion therapy to have it corrected. Two nurses with large syringes force pump fluid into the catheter at the same time hoping that that will correct the hook problem or they will have to take that catheter out and put in another one. After 8 syringes of fluid, they sent us back to x-ray and sure enough the hook had straightened out. Off to the the chemo department. They administered 4 hours of pre-chemo fluids and instructed us on the use and care of the chemo pumps and sent us home. I was so exhausted I could hardly hold my head up since I had worked at home Saturday night until 1:00am Sunday morning on embroidery and did the power point for church , the trip to Houston on Sunday and then today. The bed sure felt good tonight. Michael slept well with his back pack by his side. His catheter is in his right arm this time, and the bag of fluid weighs about 20 lbs. He is a real trooper. The only complaint he had was that he didn't know it was going to take 4 hours before the chemo pump was attached. We go back tomorrow for another 4 hours of fluid and re-filling of chemo. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts on our behalf. Everyone needs to watch for Scott Garcia. . . .. .he is getting his head shaved in support of Michael. Thanks Scott for all you do to encourage the Wolfman. Keep the calls and thoughts coming our way. We should be back to our house where we stay by 7:00pm tonight. The cell phone doesn't work too well in the hospital. . .Michael is back on his ice cream diet with chocolate syrup. Had some for breakfast this morning.

Love and Prayers for all,

Terri and Michael

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all of you wonderful mothers and Happy Birthday Dad from Michael.....you were the greatest and still are. God bless you!

Back in Houston

Well, thought we would let everyone know of our daily happenings since the last posting. We went to the doctor Friday morning and received a very good report. Was told that the tumor was shrinking good by the swelling in his right leg disappearing. His right leg went down two days into round 1 of the chemo. The doctor had told us that he did not expect this type of response until after the second round of chemo which starts tomorrow. On the was back to our home away from home, Michael and I decided we needed an 'OLNEY FIX' so we came back to the house and packed up what we needed to take home and within 30 minutes we were on our way north. We arrived in Olney about 7:00pm and got our don antonio fix before we even went home. Our two little girls (Lucy and Amanda) and little boy (Max) were so glad to see us. They wouldn't let us out of their sight all weekend. Michael spent most of Saturday recuperating from the hard trip home and I spent it embroidering Cowboy Roundup shirts for next weekend. It is very disappointing that we will not be able to attend it since we start ROUND II of chemo in the morning. We won't have to be admitted to the hospital this round as they will put a pump on Michael that can administered at my brother-in-laws house. We will have to report to the hospital daily for a new bag of chemo and blood work. Continue to pray that we will continue to get encouraging results from the chemo and this ordeal will be over soon. The doctor was very surprised and shocked that Michael's body had responded as much as it has. I told him before we left his office that we had the Great Physician on our side. He had no response at that but hopefully he will see the Miracle that God can perform and want to know more about our God. Hopefully Michael and I can help plant that seed during our visits. He told us he expects Michael to be in remission when this is over. PRAISE GOD! God is still on His throne. It was wonderful seeing everyone at Cowboy church this morning and we will be back real soon we hope.
Love to all,

Terri and Michael

GOING, GOING, Gone!!!!!

Michael just rubbed his hand through his hair and a handful came out.
Looks like the hair is going. He has always wanted a burr cut
and looks like he is going to have one. I just wish I had
brought my camera to take some pictures of the red hair because
they say it may come back in black and curly. Some red heads have
been known to do this after the red devil chemo.

GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME

Well, thought I would let everyone know we are having a wonderful God-given day. It is amazing how good God is during the lowest valleys. I guess if we were on the mountaintop all the time we would never grow in the Lord. Had blood work done today and it is really coming up. Looks like we are good for another round of Chemo on Monday. Have an appointment with Dr. Ravi on Friday of this week so see what we are to expect next Monday.

Here are lab results for today.....
white count 9.4
hemoglobin 9.4
platelet 323
creatinine .7
sodium 142
potassium 4.2
chloride 107
carbon dioxide 28
magnesium 1.8


Praise God for bringing them up to this. He has been up most of the day and is feeling pretty good. Even had a question for Andy when he called. He asked me the question this morning and I told him that sounded like an Andy Graham question to me. It was about the catholic faith.......

Keep on praying for a miracle. I want to go for a scan one of these days and the doctor come out and tell me there is no sign of Michael ever having cancer..

Let us hear from you all. Our phone number is 940-564-6220 and it is better to call after 7:00pm so we will be able to talk.

Terri and Michael

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Greetings from Houston.....Today has been one of the worse days since we have been here. Michael's counts may be up but the fatigue is worse today than it has been since we had the chemo. For the first couple of hours upon getting up all I could do was sit and cry. Guess I needed it. Michael wants to go home so bad to see everyone. He just doesn't understand why we have to have treatment here instead of Wichita Falls. I told him MD Anderson was where we needed to be for him to get over this and God had opened up a lot of doors for us to know this is where He wanted us. He couldn't hardly go this morning....finally went to Target and bought his some sport pants with elastic so he can keep them up. He was very tired by the time we got home. He has dropped 50 pounds. He can put his jeans on and they fall to the floor just like he has dropped a wet towel. He was wearing size 38-40 pants and today we bought him some size L with elastic. The hair is still red but we understand it will probably start falling out next week after a couple of days of chemo. Go in tomorrow for lab work again. We are expecting a good report. Pray that God will get us through this week and next week with Chemo going. He really dreads the IV catheter put in his arm Monday morning before being admitted to the hospital.

lab results for Monday, May 4, 2009

Well, we got our lab results..... and they are much better....In fact Michael is feeling somewhat better today. Hopefully he will build up and ready for another round of Chemo next Monday.

white blood count 8.8
hemoglobin 9.7
Platelet count 239
Sodium 144
Potassium 4.2
Carbon Dioxide 28
Magnesium 1.8

"You can trust God not to let
you be tried beyond your strength,
and with any trial he will give
you a way out of it
and the strength to bear it." I Cor. 10:13

Hope you all have a great Monday evening and we will write more tomorrow.

Love to all and thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

Terri and Michael

MONDAY, MAY 4, 2009

WELL, THOUGHT WHILE I HAD A MINUTE I WOULD UPDATE OUR WEEKEND HAPPENINGS. SATURDAY WAS MICHAEL'S A(ADOPTION)-DAY. WE MADE A TRIP TO BEST BUY TO GET HIM A GAME. IT DIDN'T TAKE HIM LONG TO DECIDE ON WHAT HE WANTED AS HE WAS PRETTY TIRED ALL WEEKEND. HE HAS STARTED TO EAT SOME NOW, BUT THINGS DON'T TASTE RIGHT. HIS COUNTS WERE NOT MUCH BETTER ON FRIDAY, BUT HOPEFULLY THEY WILL BE BETTER TODAY. WAITING ON OUR CALL FROM THE HOSPITAL ABOUT RESULTS. HARD TO BELIEVE WE HAVE HAD THE TROOPER 22 YEARS AS OF LAST SATURDAY. MY OH MY, WHAT A BUSY 22 YEARS. DIDN'T KNOW IF WE COULD MAKE IT OR NOT, BUT WE HAVE AND PRAYING THAT WE WILL HAVE 22+ MORE YEARS. WE HAVE A BIG GOD AND HE IS WORKING AS WE WRITE. WE UNDERSTAND THAT THE CENTENNIAL WAS A BIG SUCCESS BUT WOULD HAVE BEEN BIGGER HAD IT NOT RAINED SATURDAY MORNING. I HAVE BEEN DOING SO WORK AT THE OFFICE VIA COMPUTER. MICHAEL IS ASLEEP ON THE COUCH. HE GOT A LITTLE WINDED THIS MORNING WALKING FROM THE GARAGE TO THE LAB AT THE HOSPITAL. HE IS VERY PALE. WILL WRITE MORE WHEN THE LAB RESULTS ARE CALLED TO US.
THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO IS TAKING CARE OF EVERYTHING AT HOME. YOU D0N'T KNOW HOW MUCH WE APPRECIATE ALL YOU DO.
LOVE YA'LL

TERRI

LAB WORK DONE

Well, we had lab work done today and the white count went up to 400 from 300 on Wednesday and the platelet count went down to 99 from 173. We should see these increasing the next few days and hopefully will be up enough for another round of chemo come May 11th. He has had a pretty inactive couple of days as he is very fatigued and doesn't stray too far from the bed or couch. The weather here is beautiful today with just enough humidity to make it sticky and the mosquitoes to try to attack. We are staying in the house due to all the excitement of the swine flu.......I need to get some more antibacterial hand sanitizer but you can't find it in the stores anywhere. Will write more later. About time for another round of meds. I'm getting pretty good at dispensing all the drugs.

It was certainly hard to see Wanda and Ronnie Stroud say goodbye for a while, although Michael said they deserved it since they had been here for 7 weeks. We would have liked to have jumped in their suitcases and made the trip with them. Ronnie is doing well and has gone home to get some R & R before being under the knife. It has really been great to get to see them periodically. Kinda makes me feel like I am home working. They have been a tremendous blessing to us and encouragers. Thanks guys!

Thanks for thinking and praying for us......We should would like to make a trip home, but guess we need to obey dr.'s orders.

Terri