Quick update

Dave has an appointment!!!! Praise the Lord. Dave will see a doctor at MD Anderson on Oct. 11th. Please pray for us not to be anxious, for the wisdom of the doctors who will treat Dave, and for our children. I'm sure there are so many more things, but those seem most important right now. I'll update again soon....or maybe Dave will.

Kids Market and still waiting

Yesterday I did my Fall shopping trip at Kids Market. This is one of my favorite days. My friend Kim and I spend the whole day shopping, just the two of us, no kids......its so much fun. Although we don't take our kids with us, they are the main topic all day...... since we are shopping for them. This was good for me especially right now, to be able to get away for the day. I got them lots of really cute things. The best part of it is how excited they get when I show them all their new clothes. That makes it all worth it.

So right this minute we are still WAITING!!!! We are supposed to hear from the hospital today. We have found ourselves getting a bit anxious, but what good does that really do? Hopefully I can give more details later today!!

Latest Update

The last few days have been interesting. Come to find out, the lab who was holding the biopsy tissue was waiting on a release form from MD Anderson. However, at the time I was not a patient at MD Anderson (yet). Finally, a local Doctor, who is one of our band parents, referred me to MD. She also worked between the various institutions to get the tissues released. We would have been waiting indefinitely otherwise!

MD now has everything they need from us and we are waiting for the Doctors to discuss everything before we know what the plan is. So we may actually know something early next week!

Thank you praying!

Dave Swinney

Late Night Ramblings

This is about the third time this week I have attempted to write down my thoughts and give somewhat of an update on Dave. Right now it is very quiet in my house. I am sitting in the school room typing and everyone else is fast asleep. So peaceful!! I said before I have attempted to blog several times this week. I would get a few lines down and just quit and think ...no one wants to hear all that rambling.....and you may not, but I am just going to have to write from where I am right now....and that may include some rambling, just like if you were talking to me in person :)

So as you may have guessed, we are still waiting. We are waiting on all of Dave's medical records to arrive at the hospital so that we can get an appointment. I am praying that when I call in the morning that everything will have arrived. So I will post more on that later when I know more. Please pray that we would get an appointment soon.

We have been through many emotions this last week and a half. We are so busy, so there's not much time to sit around and dwell on it. Those times of dwelling on it come for me late at night and sometimes in the middle of the night.

Dave and I were able to go rafting with the Campus Outreach students from JSU yesterday. It was so much fun. God is really working in the lives of those students and it was great to get to spend the day with some of them.

Our kids are doing really well. We are very open with them about what is going on. They have questions about it every now and then....we answer them....and then they go back to playing or whatever they were doing. We hope to keep things as normal as possible for them.

I hope my next post brings news of an appointment date.

Praise You in This Storm

I was sure by now,God, that You would have reached down
and wiped our tears away,
stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen
and it's still raining
as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain,
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away.

Chorus:
And I'll praise you in this storm
and I will lift my hands
for You are who You are
no matter where I am
and every tear I've cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry to You
and raised me up again
my strength is almost gone how can I carry on
if I can't find You
and as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away


I lift my eyes onto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth
I lift my eyes onto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth

by Casting Crowns

What we know so far.....

This all began when Dave was in Russia and started having some pain in his lower back and lower abdomen. He went to the doctor when he returned home and they did a cat scan and found a tumor. We then went to Birmingham and he had it biopsied. The doctor at this point was not worried at all. He said we should know something in 2-3 days. We then found that they sent it to Johns Hopkins to be looked at further. So yesterday the doctor called and let us know it is cancer. We waited three weeks on this information...three long weeks.

This is what we have learned.......it is called Leiomyosarcoma of the seminal vesicle. It is a low grade cancer. It is a very rare cancer. Daves doctor(urologist) has never seen this before.

We were able to sit in this morning while several doctors discussed his case. This was good for us.

This is our plan right now......We are seeking the right treatment options for Dave. We want to do something now. Waiting is hard. We are looking at the options and hoping to get an appointment at the treatment center soon. I'll let you know more about that as we know.

These are things we know......We know God is sovereign. We know He is good.

I thought about this exert from The Lion ,the Witch, and the Wardrobe this morning.......

'If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than me or else just silly.'

'Then he isn't safe?' asked Lucy.

'Safe?' said Mr. Beaver. 'Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.'

Psalm 119:68 You are good, and do good, teach me your statutes.
Psalm 106:1 Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!