Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday:

Mom woke up pretty well rested and with quite a lot of energy.  She noted that her mouth felt a little swollen, and took a pain med.  After we ate breakfast, she and I worked on a little project for Keith.  We were able to get that finished, and then had some lunch.  In the afternoon, we went outdoors to sit in the sunshine.  I got out my pruners and she started in pulling weeds!  I told her I thought she had better watch out not to overdo it.  She hasn't been taking her pain medication, only about every 6-8 hours...or when it starts to bothers her.  Keith had arrived home from school and we ate some dinner after he and Dad worked on the lawn mower.  Mom and Dad went to bed around 10:00 and seemed to have a good night.

Thursday:

Mom and Dad slept in until 7:45 today.  When Mom came out into the kitchen, she said her face was swollen again.  To me, it looked even more swollen than yesterday.  With that, I thought it wouldn't hurt to give her doctor's office a call to just check.  The nurse returned the call by mid-morning and said, it will do that as she had been given steroids during surgery to keep the swelling down.  It's starting to wear off now, so she may experience some more swelling.  She will be going into her post-op appointment on Monday afternoon.

This morning, Dad watched his TV show, Matlock, and Mom worked on another little project to help Keith out, while I worked on yet another project of sorts for Keith.  She finished her project and had a little lunch and now is taking a nap.  I just wonder if she felt so good yesterday and the previous day because of the steroids.  Today, she seems to not feel as good as yesterday, most likely from overdoing things.

I just want to share that Keith and I would appreciate your prayers for us as well, for an unspoken request.  We SO appreciate all the prayers for Mom and Dad.  Today, I noticed that when Dad got his sandwich for lunch, he sat down at the table where Mom and I were already sitting and he put out his hands to pray.  God just may be starting to work on his heart.  We sure keep praying that way.

Update on Mom...

The doctor was in around 6:30 a.m. to visit Mom.  He said she was doing good and could be discharged.  At 1:00, I went to pick her up, and she was back to her spunky self.  I was amazed how she was doing.  She had such a positive experience at the Lacks Center.  When she got ready to leave, she told her nurse, if she ever had to go back there, she wanted the same room!  haha!!!  She also asked her if some of the nurses that she had could come in for a picture.  These are the awesome ladies that helped care for Mom. 

As for her medication, she's been taking her Vicodin only when she needed it.  So far, she only took one pill around three o'clock.  Thankfully, the Lord has answered our prayers and the pain has just been minimal.  It will take her three to four weeks to heal.  She will stay with us at least until she has her post-op doctor appointment on Monday, May 21.

Yesterday was a hard day physically for my Dad.  He's been recuperating today as I've been his "strict" nurse and making him only eat liquids most of the day.  Poor guy, he's hungry, but he knows it's best for him for now.  We were able to get him some over-the-counter medicine and he seems to be doing much better this evening.  Hopefully, he'll be able to return to a more normal diet tomorrow.

Thanks to our wonderful friends and family for upholding her in prayer.  We have certainly appreciated them. 

Update on Mom's Surgery

Praise the Lord, Mom came through her surgery like a trooper.  She had 3 molars removed along with bone and into the sinus.  The doctor will check her very early tomorrow as to how she's doing and then again later in the morning as to whether or not she'll be released tomorrow.  Dr. said he didn't want to just release her and let her go until she's ready to come to our house.  He said the pathology report would not be ready until the end of the week.  That will tell whether he got it all, etc. 

Thank you for your continued prayers.  She has some time now for recovery.  Pray she'll be able to manage the pain, etc.  The doctor wants to see her in a week.  So, she will most likely spend the week with us until she sees him and he can tell if she's ready to head home. 

Would also appreciate prayers for my Dad.  He's been quite upset about all this and today it took a toll on his body.  He didn't eat or drink much today and just pray he'll feel better once she's back to our house to begin her recovery. 

The Lord is Our Strength...

Today is the day that Mom has her surgery.  It will be 3:00 at St. Marys Hospital in Grand Rapids.  We will be heading to the hospital around 1:00, and will certainly appreciate prayers.  After celebrating Mother's Day yesterday with my neighbor friend, Ilene, Mom is in good spirits today.  She's looking forward to getting through this and on her recovery. 

We just can't thank you all enough for keeping us in your prayers.  (Thanks to whoever prayed for me last night to get rest.  I was up twice in the night and feel right back to sleep, which is very unusual for me!)

We shall keep you posted when we hear anything.  In the meantime, your thoughts and prayers are giving us all the strength to get through this.  "The Lord is my strength and my refuge...."

Update on Mom

Last Friday, Mom had her doctor appointment (yes, another appointment, with yet another doctor!) here in Grand Rapids.  She met with an Ear Nose Throat Specialist who will be doing her surgery.  He said he would extract two teeth, plus the bone the teeth are attached to, which will in turn leave an opening to her sinus cavity.  There will be no reconstructive surgery; things will hopefully heal all on their own.  As you can imagine, it will be painful for some time.  They will give her some medicine to manage that.  Her surgery is scheduled for late Monday, May 14.  This will be an out patient surgery with an overnight stay.  They want her to stay for observation and make sure she's doing good before leaving.  After the surgery, she is coming to our house to stay for at least a week, depending on how well she's feeling etc. to return home.  We'll play it by ear to make sure things are going okay before she returns to Ludington. 

Please pray for the doctor to have wisdom as to how much bone around the area of the two teeth needs to be removed, and that he will be able to remove the whole tumor without any other complications such as infection.  Also, pray for quick healing and recovery for her...and the pain to be minimal. 

In times like this, I don't know how people that don't have the Lord in their life handles these situations.  I am so grateful for you, my family and friends, who are upholding our family in prayer.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  God is the Great Physician and Healer, in Him we will trust.

Fun Times and Serious Times

Prayer Requests and Updates

Friday, I went to the doctor with Dad and Mom to their appointments at two different doctors.  First, we arrived at Dad's appointment.  The doctor came in and come to find out Dad's stress test results, echo-cardiogram and chest x-ray results were not to be found.  After the doctor left the room a couple of times, he returned with some results.  He said, "He doesn't have any heart issues other than having an 83 year old heart."  Somehow Dad got out of the stress test without them taking a chest x-ray.  Therefore, he had to go have one done after his appointment.  Thanking the Lord Dad has no serious heart issues.  He wants him to do some walking to get some exercise.

After Dad's appointment, we went directly to Mom's doctor which is located two floors from Dad's doctor.  The doctor said her second biopsy came back as malignant squamous cell just as the previous one.  The doctor is still baffled as to why she has this type of cancer in her mouth.  For a good laugh, Mom said she must have smoked too many cigars in her younger days.  (Mom has never touched an ounce of alcohol or tobacco products of any sort.  Usually, people that do drink or smoke are more apt to have this inside their mouth.)  She will be referred to another oral surgeon, who specializes in reconstruction of the face/jaw and who also pulls teeth, along with a referral to an oncologist.  Both appointments will be in Grand Rapids.  If she has something done, surgery or radiation therapy, she will be able to come to our house afterward and not have to drive back and forth everyday to Muskegon. 

Mom's options:

1.  Surgery:  at least two teeth pulled and some upper jaw bone removed and reconstructed.  This would include time in the hospital until she can get back to eating.  This would be done in Grand Rapids.  She will be meeting with an oral surgeon to discuss her questions regarding this extensive surgery and recovery time etc. 
2. Radiation Therapy:  Also done in Grand Rapids (other choice would be Muskegon).  This would most likely be 4 times per week for about six to eight weeks.  She will be meeting with an oncologist to discuss her questions regarding the treatment itself as well as side effects and long-term issues as well as quality of life afterward.
3. Do nothing.  She is considering her age and wonders if it may be even better to not do anything regarding this cancer and have Dr. Hengy keep an eye on it, since this is the type of cancer that is slow-growing.  She's also considering her quality of life following either of the above options etc.  Please pray for the doctors to have wisdom in treating her, and wisdom to give her clear and concise answers to her questions and to be able to talk in a way she will understand what is going on.  Also pray for Mom to be able to have strength to go through whatever she does decide to go through and strength and wisdom to make the decisions to come.   

We just want to thank our wonderful friends and family for keeping us all in prayer.  It seems like every week, Mom has been seeing a doctor for one thing or another these past months.  We are also thanking the Lord, her pneumonia is clearing up and she's feeling so much better.  Her strength is getting better as well.  We do ask you continue to pray as we all go through this journey with her and Dad.  I just have to add, I had a very sweet time with Mom and Dad the last few days.  Sweet memories for sure.

Fun Stuff!

Mom had received some photo frames for Christmas and has been waiting the photos to put in them to hang on her freshly painted living room walls.  After deciding how she was going to arrange them, we decided to make templates out of paper and then hang them in place of the pictures to make sure we would hammer the nails in the proper place without making Swiss cheese of the wall.  For her birthday, Keith and I gave her another collage frame and put family photos in that as well.  In order to do that, I had to scan some old photos in order to finish the frame to hang.  We had fun hanging the pictures!  We even had to drive by her old house where she was raised to snap a photo for the collage frame.  

Yay!  The final template is measured!!!

The finished project!!!

 More fun pictures!!!

The house where Mom grew up.

MORE FUN STUFF:

 

My Easter Weekend Adventure

Thursday afternoon, I left Grand Rapids and flew to Washington, D.C. to visit Jess and Andy for the weekend.  Jess picked me up and we headed to Andy's office in the city and picked him up.  They were so gracious to let me stay on their "spare" sofa bed in Andy's office.  Thanks Andy, for sharing your space!

Friday evening, we were invited over to Ben and Candice's for a cookout along with Sam and Veronica.  We had such a great time with delicious food and wonderful evening of fellowship....and a lot of laughs!  Thanks Sam!  : )  Keith called and we got to talk to him briefly.  He was having a good trip.

Saturday, Jess and I went out and shopped for a little bit.  Then, came back and Jess planned her Easter dinner menu.  Then, she and Andy went grocery shopping while I stayed at their apartment.

Unfortunately, because of my daily health issues, I was not able to attend Easter service with Jess and Andy.  However, I was able to watch the live service from Calvary Church in Grand Rapids via the Internet.

Sunday, after they returned from church, we took photos of each other.  Jess talked me into doing this photo challenge through her friend, Allie Lehmann's blog.  The first challenge was to take a portrait of someone. We took each others photos.  Then, we took some pictures of Jess and Andy downstairs in the lobby of their apartment building.  

Jess took this pic of me for submission.

I took this one for submission.  (By the way, we had a fun time with Andy's nice Nikon D-300.

Jess made a delicious ham with brown sugar glaze along with a delicious peach ginger sauce for the top.  She also made roasted potatoes with green beans in a tarragon sauce, and Pepsi Cola salad.  They made homemade pies in their pie maker for dessert.  YUM!  I just have to add, Jess is probably the only person I know that would try something new on guests.  She loves trying new things, especially on the weekends when she has time to make things from scratch.  Easter dinner was definitely another success! 

I awoke to this beautiful sight every morning. 

 Monday was a day of mixed emotions.  It was the day I departed for home, and also the day that Keith and the Dominican team were making their way home as well.  However, they wouldn't get back until the wee hours of the next morning, 4:30 a.m. or so.  Jess dropped me off at the airport and my flight had been delayed about an hour.  Apparently, they had serious mechanical problems with the original plane, so they had to make a switch of planes.  I didn't end up getting home until around 8:30 p.m.

Thursday, before I left the house, I had left a spare key hidden in my car which was parked inside our garage.  I also made sure by using the key several times before I left to make sure I could get back inside the house.  My very good friend, Pat, had volunteered to pick me up from the airport.  She waited until I got the key and unlocked the door to the house.  I went to unlock the door of the house and it would not unlock!  Oh no!!!  Now what was I going to do?!?  I jimmied the lock with the key several times and still it would not work.  Pat called her husband, Steve, to come.  He also tried it, but ended up going through a window and unlocking the door.  What a fiasco!  So, Steve left.  Pat and I stood at the door for a bit and I showed her the original key and put it in the door.  Then, I put the new key in the door and it worked!!  Pat and I stood there and she said, "That is bizarre!!!"  I had her try it as well, and yes, it did indeed work!  Unbelievable! So, I got inside the house at 9:00 p.m.  I am so grateful that I had Pat pick me up as I had originally planned to just take a taxi.  I would have really been up a creek, if I would have done that.  I most likely would have gone to my neighbor's house.  Sometimes you just have to wonder why things such as this happen.  

All in all, I will have to say I had a wonderful trip to visit Jess and Andy.  I loved just spending time with them.  We didn't really do any sightseeing this time.  I did get a chance to do a little bit of shopping before I left.  I just soaked in every moment I had with them.  It was great!

Keith arrived home the next morning very tired out, of course.  He came in and we talked for some time and then went to sleep.  He took the day to rest and try to regain his energy to prepare to return to school today.  He had an excellent trip.  I don't have photos as yet to post from the trip.  The one day they worked at a house pouring cement, etc.  Well, apparently they were served some juice and that's the culprit that made 5 out of the 7 kids working there sick; Keith also was sick for part of the day, but did feel better in a short time.  He ended up going right back to work the next day.  The kids all worked very hard and did accomplish very much.

Thank you all for praying for Keith and myself while we were both traveling.