Dave is doing much better today. He has been up alot more for the past two days. He slept alot better last night. The night before he was up all night. Not sure why he was having trouble sleeping but we were glad he slept better last night. Today he said "the days are really long". He is not use to being home this much and having nothing to do. His job right now is to get better. I had to change the bandage on his arm today for the first time. They require you to take two classes before you can get the supplies you need to do the heparin flushes and change the bandage. Dave said he was ready so I got all the supplies ready. I wish you could have seen the look on Dave's face while I was doing this. I have been doing the heparin flushes everyday, but this was the first time for the bandage change. He looked terrified. Definitely did not look like he had any confidence in my nursing skills. I am a Home Economics teacher by trade and have been a stay at home mommy for the past 10 years. Never had aspirations of being a nurse. So anyway I followed every single step and now he has a new clean bandage. I only have to this once a week. The reason it is such an important task is because the line runs into a major vein and you do not want any infection.

He said that every day has brought its own set of challenges. Whether it be the nausea, or exhaustion, or sleeplessness each day has been different.

I will have to compile a list of some of the interesting thing the kids have said and just write down some of the conversations we have had. It's bound to make for some interesting reading. I'll save that for another post.

We have been in Houston for two and a half weeks. It seems like so much longer than that. This week Dave only has to go for blood work. No appointments. The same for next week. His next appointment with Dr. Ravi will be Nov. 11. This is about the same time he will begin his next round of chemo. He is feeling alot better today. He is still really tired but the nausea is much better today.



The kids are getting adjusted to their new home away from home. We keep having to remind them that they live in an apartment. Its hard for kids not to run and drop stuff and simply be loud, well it is for our kids anyway. We have had two days of school so far. That is going well. Mama is still here with us, so she has been a big help with school. She has also been keeping our laundry done and making yummy meals. We will miss her when she goes home next week. Giny will be glad she is coming home to help her with baby William. He will arrive next Wednesday morning (unless he decides to come before then).



Driving in Houston has been an experience! So far I have driven down two different one way streets and nearly turned down the wrong way on a highway. People really like to honk the horn at you here. I am learning the roads though. I know my way to Super Target very well :) And our apartment is very close to the hospital. We mostly use the shuttle though. There are some museums close by and the zoo is near here also. We will have to get out and explore soon when Dave feels better.

A new hair cut and moving day

The last few days have been rough for Dave. He has had alot of nausea and been very tired. He had his first blood work this morning and all his labs were good. After his labs this morning he went for a hair cut. He looks very handsome with this new style. He said he looks like the other pastors at our church now.... :) ......with the exception of Aaron and Bruce.






These are pictures Mama took of us waiting on the shuttle back to the hotel.

We are moving into an apartment today. Living in a hotel room has proved more difficult than I thought. For one thing there is stuff piled EVERYWHERE!! This move will give the kids an area to play outside (Samuel has alot of energy he needs to run off) and a kitchen table where they can do their school work. Yes, school work.....they seemed surprised at this. I guess they thought they were on vacation. This will also give Dave a place to be alone when he is feeling bad. Also, we will have a kitchen so we can cook some vegetables!!

Hopefully Dave will start to feel better in a few days. He has been trying to take walk in the afternoon to keep his strength up. We know so many of you are praying for us and we appreciate it so much.

The kids made it to Houston safe and sound Friday night. Two of my sisters and their husbands brought them along with lots of our stuff. We are so glad to have them with us. We are all sad that Tracy, Bradly, Lori and Ryan are leaving tomorrow. We all cried and said our goodbyes tonight. Erin seemed to be the most sad of the kids. We cried for a while and said she didn't understand why they had to leave. She has such a tender heart. My mama came with them and she will be able to stay with us to help with the kids until Giny (my other sister) has her baby.

Today was the hardest day for Dave so far. We went this morning and they disconnected his pump so he is done with the medicine for this round. He has to go in for an injection Sunday morning and the next two weeks will be checking blood and platelets every other day. Then he will start the second round of chemo. He has been really tired the past couple of days. The nausea has been really bad today. He spent most of the day in the bed. He did get up for a while to watch the Alabama game and take a walk. The nurse said this may last for a few days. We are taking good care of him. Abby has been trying to keep the room as clean as possible and making sure his medicine is close by. She is such a big help. The kids actually went swimming today. It's October!!! We shouldn't be swimming...we should be wearing coats and drinking hot chocolate. I think its going to get cooler next week...Thursday to be exact. But the kids will swim until then.

Samuel has been running down the hall all day playing football. He has two jerseys....#12 and #22. So he would change jerseys depending who he wanted to be at the time. He has had this on all day. He wore this out to eat and to several stores today. This was an early birthday present from his Aunt Lori and Uncle Ryan. Needless to say, he loves it!!

2 days down

So far so good. Dave is doing really well. He has had a little nausea. He woke up last night around midnight and I gave him some medicine and he slept well for the rest of the night. He is trying to eat several small meals throughout the day. This will be a tough job for me making sure he eats enough. You know how some people eat for enjoyment, well Dave eats to live. I love to read cookbooks, look at recipe cites on the Internet, cook food, think about food, and especially eat good food. Dave just eats because he has to. So my mission is to keep him from losing weight. We went to the Super Target yesterday while he was hungry so he picked out lots of good food he will eat. I had to take two classes on CVC care.I took them both today. Tomorrow I have to demonstrate that I can do the heparin flush, change the cap, and change his bandage. So that is what we have been up to. We hope to have a more permanent address in the next few days. Just one day now until our rug rats arrive. That will surely liven up this hotel. For those of you with little ones who watch "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody" on Disney, as you can just imagine, that is what my kids think this will be like. Thanks to all of you who are praying without ceasing.

Tomorrow is the day. The day it all begins. We are ready. Dave will begin chemotherapy at 8 am. Today Lindsey (Dr. Ravi's wonderful nurse) went through everything you never wanted to know about chemotherapy. Somehow it doesn't seem as scary now that we know more about it. He also had his PICC line put in today. The day started with him having a migraine but turned out to be a good day. We can both feel that people are praying. So he will go for treatment tomorrow through Saturday. Then for blood work on Monday Wednesday and Friday until November 11. That is the day he will see the doc again...unless he needs to before then. Speaking of November 11....that is the day our baby boy will be 8. We can hardly wait to see those kiddos on Friday. Tracy and Bradley have had their hands full with 6 kids for the past two weeks. Erin had strep throat, Samuel had a migraine and maybe a stomach bug, and they have all had some other stuff going on So Tracy and Bradley will need a vacation after they bring the kids to Houston. We have gotten to skype with them and they love that. They get so silly on the camera.

So as Dave would say.....Lets Do This!!!

Restful Weekend

This weekend we have gotten to explore this community. A few blocks away from our hotel is the Reliant Stadium where the Houston Texans play. We are very close to the hospitals. And there are a bunch of hospitals in the medical district. There is a Wal Mart close by...gotta have that. There are some stores in walking distance which will be nice when we just wanna get out and walk. The kids will love that there is a Toys R Us very close by. We went to church this morning. We found a church through the 9 Marks website. It was good . So much like Grace Fellowship. The people were so friendly. The first guy we met works at MD Anderson as a Sarcoma Research Assistant. This will be good to have a church to visit while we are here when Dave feels like it. We already miss our Grace Fellowship family so much. What a support system we have there.

So it has been a pretty restful weekend. Tomorrow we have an appointment to get educated on the catheter they will put in for chemo. Tuesday they will put it in. Wednesday is his first treatment. I think he will have treatment Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Then the kids will be here Friday night. Soooo ready to see them. Also, it's warm here. I'm really, really ready for some cool...cold weather. Maybe by Thanksgiving we can wear a sweater :)

Friday's Appointment

I know everyone has been anxiously waiting with us all day. Dave will begin chemo on Wednesday. He will have 2 rounds then Dr. Ravi will check to see if the tumor has changed. Each round is 3 weeks. 3 days of chemo and every other day he will have blood work. All of this will be outpatient. He is glad about that. If the chemo is working, he will continue with more rounds and then check the tumor again. Then he will have radiation then surgery. The path report from this week revealed that everything was essentially unchanged since the fisrt ct scan. This has been a long day. Thank you all for praying for us.

Friday

Today Dave will see the doctor at 1:45. We will have a plan for the near future after this appointment. We have been looking at places to live while we're here. We are so ready for the kids to be here with us. Kids have a way of taking your mind off of things.

Dave's tests results this week have been good. Our doctor from Anniston has been able to look at these this week and let us know this info. So thankful for the little bits of good news. I'll update after the appointment.

Todays Appointment

Today's appointment didn't go as we had hoped. The difficult thing about LMS is that it moves through the blood stream. It also can't really be graded. Dr. Ravi is concerned that it is already traveling to other parts of the body. Dave has lots of tests this week and he will see Dr. Ravi again on Friday. So this is the plan. Dave will begin chemotherapy on Monday here at MD Anderson. Dr. Ravi said that after a few weeks he will be able to tell if the chemo is working to kill the cells. Then he will have radiation followed by surgery in about 6 months. They are watching the tumor react to the chemo and radiation before they remove it. Dr. Ravi is glad that he is able to treat Dave from the beginning. Had the tumor been removed, he feels like more cancer would have occurred elsewhere in the body. Chemotherapy is a must!

Today was difficult. So please continue to pray for our family. Our kids will be joining us here next week. We miss them!

Today during the pep rally the students, faculty, and parents all wore purple LMS ribbons to honor Dave. This was such a sweet time. One of his precious students prayed for him in front of the whole student body before the pep rally. Here are a couple of pictures I got.

Our family after the pep rally

The Senior Band Members

This is the site to read more about LMS...... http://www.nlmsf.org

Family Photos

Last Monday we had some family pictures made. Thank you to Millie Nelson...she is the best photographer ever. This was such a fun photo shoot. The weather was perfect. It was rainy and cloudy up until time for our pictures. Then as we were beginning, we saw a beautiful rainbow. It was great. So here are a few of our pictures.

handwriting today

Today for Handwriting, I asked Samuel to write a story. I gave him a cute little sheet of writing paper with a big truck on it. I told him to write about anything he wanted to write about. This was his story just as he wrote it...spelling and all :)

My Momy and Dady are goeing to Texas.
I am not goeing to crie.
I am goeing to stay wis my aunt.
We are goeing to hav so much fun.
I am goeing to get my new DS gam.
The End

I almost cried when I read this. A little background for ya....Samuel does not spend the night away from home... EVER!!! The only times he has had to in the past year is when Dave and were in Hawaii and when we took another short trip.....and when I was in the hospital. He just wants to be at home. So, a couple of weeks ago he and I took a walk on a Friday afternoon. I got a chance to talk with him about his Daddy and how important it is for him to go to this hospital. It was like after that that he was OK with whatever we needed him to do. Amazing. So for him to actually be somewhat excited about staying somewhere other than home, and somewhere Dave and I aren't going to be is pretty great!

Tomorrow we will work on that spelling :)

The Weekend

The first picture is of Dave and Samuel watching the Alabama game last night. He never misses and opportunity to cuddle with Daddy on the couch.

Today we had a baby shower for my youngest sister Giny. She is expecting baby #2 in about a month. William will definitely have plenty to wear. I have never seen so much blue!!

Dave is ready to see the doctor. We hope to have a pretty normal week of school and activities this week. The kids are looking forward to spending the week with Aunts and Uncles and cousins while we are gone. We are so thankful to have so many people who love our kids. That will be one thing we don't have to worry about while we are gone.