First let me ask you to make your way over to the right side of the page and vote on Dave's hair color.  I will leave this poll open until the 10th.  Just a fun little way to pass the time while we wait on it to grow back :)

After church this morning, I told our pastor Carlton, he didn't have to call me out in his sermon.  When I tell you about the sermon you will know why I would think he was talking to me.

 His text was Matthew 6:19-34.

Lay Up Treasures in Heaven

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust [5] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. [6]

Do Not Be Anxious

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? [7] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

I realized today that my anxiousness(anxiety, stress, worry), especially since Dave was diagnosed with cancer, comes from my need to be in control.  I guess I have always felt the need to control things, but at this time in my life I have felt even more of a need to be in control, especially as chemo made Dave sick, we found ourselves having to live away from home...... and there really was nothing I could do about it.  I was reminded today that worry is sin.....but it is a respectable sin. It's a sin we will talk about...sometimes even as if it is not sin.   So how do we stop this sin?  Verses 22 and 23 tell us....keep our eyes on Jesus.  Don't take our eyes off of him and look at the cancer or whatever it is that is causing anxiety.  If we will trust Him for our eternal security, how much more should we trust him with our daily issues....what we will eat, what we will wear, our fiances, even Dave's cancer.  How many days has worrying added to my life...none. 

Hebrews 12:1-2
12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Amen.

If you would like to listen to the entire sermon you can go to our church website....the link is on the right side of the blog.

Update from the doctor visit

We flew back to Houston yesterday and met with Dr. Ravi today.  He said NO MORE CHEMO !!!!   The next step is meeting with the urologist and surgeon and then the radiation therapist.  So overall this has been a good day.  We are flying back home tonight and will return to Houston around May 10th for all those appointments.  Dave is looking forward to his hair growing back, the swelling  going away, and the pain and fatigue in his legs going away.  I told him i was going to put a survey box on the blog to see what people thought his hair would come back like......curly, grey :).........we'll see.

I also wanted to say how sad we have been about the tornado damage in Alabama. It has been unbelievable seeing the pictures from all over the state.  We continue to pray for the people who lost everything. 

All tests done at UAB looked good.  No blood clots.  Still having swelling.  Next update will be after scan results Friday.  Thanks for continuing to pray.       Exhausted.      Bed.     Good night.

cancer stinks...really it does

This post could be a mile long if I wanted it to......but I don't want it to be that long.  We brought Dave to UAB on Monday because the swelling has gotten really bad and after emailing with Dr. Ravi we knew he needed to be checked out.  So we got here around 3 yesterday and they admitted Dave last night.  They are checking him to make sure there are no blockages in his abdomen.  Then hopefully they will up his dose of lasix and get this fluid off!! He actually feels good other than not really being mobile.  We are still scheduled to fly to Houston on Thursday morning.  I am overwhelmed and just want to scream......but I'm in the hospital room and that might alarm the nurses. I wonder....do doctors really want you to ask questions about your treatment...or is it just politically correct for them to say they do.   So that is what  I am thinking about today and what we are doing today.  I was so looking forward to being home for some bad weather...guess I'll just have to enjoy the storms from Birmingham. 

they're not bluebonnets.....but they sure are beautiful!!!

We had a very good weekend.  We were able to attend all of our services with our church family and spend time with both sides of our family on Saturday and Sunday.  We were hoping Dave would be doing better by now.  He is still having a lot of fluid in his legs and just not feeling so great.  Please continue to pray for this swelling to decrease and also that this tumor will be gone.....or at least will have shrunk significantly by Thursday.  We love being at home.  Just wanted to give a quick update, now to get the kids busy with school work. 

has it really been a year?

This time last year I had just had what was suppose to be a routine surgery.  This is the post I wrote last year about my experience.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Routine Surgery.....what's that?


On April 14 I went in for my outpatient gallbladder surgery. Everything went fine and I was back at home by 5pm. I was having the normal to be expected pains that come with surgery, but overall I was feeling good. My Mama was staying with me and I sent her home Thursday because I thought I would be fine alone on Friday. So I was alone on Friday morning, went upstairs to fix me a cup of coffee. While my coffee was brewing I watered the plants in my sun room. That's when it started. The pain that lasted until the following Wednesday. I thought it was gas pains from the air used during surgery. That was the longest day and night of my life. By Saturday morning, it was unbearable. Dave loaded me and the kids up and headed to Birmingham. Mama and Giny met us in Lincoln. Mama came with us. Giny took our kids. I guess I thought we would get to the emergency room and my pain would magically stop. Well that didn't happen. No amount of morphine would stop the pain. I just cried and prayed. By 5pm I had been admitted to the 5th floor, where I spent the next 12 days. It was determined that I had a bile leak. They took me to surgery at 10pm to do an ERCP. This is where they go down your esophagus and install a stint where the bile was leaking. It didn't work!! He was able to put a slit in the sphincter which alleviated the pain for about 24 hours. Tuesday he attempted this procedure again. It still didn't work, probably because my abdomen was so swollen. I looked 9 months pregnant. It was really unbelievable. So days are passing with no answers, no relief from the pain and I was really afraid. My Mama and Dave were with me constantly. They held my hand alot while I cried and prayed. I would just beg God to help me, to stop the pain. Wednesday morning I had my final surgery. The doctor went in and irrigated my abdomen and put in a drain. FINALLY!!! the pain stopped. Then Friday the fevers started. They would spike to almost 103. I had been given a pain pump so when my fever shot up I would just sleep. But in order to ever get out of the hospital I had to start working on it. I first had to get rid of my pain pump. I walked the halls as much as possible to build my strength. At one point the doc said I could go home as soon as I didn't run fever for 24 hours. Well there was never a 24 hour period when I didn't run fever. Then on Tuesday the doc was going to check out my drain, and we find out it was stopped up, as in not working!! It hurts me to even type the rest of this. Just remembering how bad this hurt. I had to go to the CT lab to have a new drainage tube in. This is on my right side above my ribs. It hurt soooooooo bad when they took the old one out and put the new one in. They didn't give me anything before this, I wish I had been put to sleep. I have cried alot this week. So that is where I am now. I am in my hospital bed, on what I think to be my last night. My Mama is asleep in the chair beside me where she has been 8 of the 12 nights I have been here. Dave has been home this week with our kids. The girls have SAT testing this week. I know it has been good for them to have Daddy home with them this week. I am so ready to be home with them too! If all goes well, I will be home by lunchtime. So many people have prayed for me this week and I could never tell you how much that means. God has brought me through a tough couple of weeks. I have learned alot. Dave has learned alot. I'm sure our kids have learned alot. I still have a long way to go. Where the drain tube is it feels like someone punched me in my ribs. I'm weak. As soon as I am able I will walk to build my strength. Hopefully the worst is over. I will never look at surgery as "routine" ever again.

An Update From Home

We are definitely enjoying our time at home.  We have been able to see some of our friends and family and look forward to being at our church for all the Easter services.  Tonight we were able to spend some time with the JSU Campus Outreach students at Christy and Jason's house.  This was kinda their last time together before everyone goes there different ways for summer.  It was so exciting to see how much they have grown since we left back in October.  Some of them are going on overseas missions for the summer, a couple are going to beach project, some are going to school, and some are going home to spend the summer with their families. We can't wait to get home and be involved with them again.  Jason and Christy picked it up when we left and it has been amazing for us to see how well everything has gone.  We are so thankful for them.

Dave is doing pretty well.  He is still having a lot of swelling and retaining a lot of fluid.  This adds to the difficulty he already has walking due to the neuropathy.  We are hoping this begins to go away the further he get out from chemo.  So this is the plan.....Dave and I will fly out to Houston next Thursday for his scan and we will see Dr. Ravi on Friday and then fly back here on Friday night.  He will then present the case again and see what they say.  We are hoping to be home through Relay for Life on May 6th. 

The girls are spending some time with their baby cousins.  They have missed them so much. I have gotten use to being with the girls so much....I really miss them when their not with me.  Samuel started complaining of a sore ear this afternoon so I ran him up to the after hours clinic and of course he had an ear infection.  I cannot tell you how bad I did not want to go to a doctors office....but  I'm glad we did.  They gave him a shot so he should be feeling better soon. He and Erin both got to shoot their BB guns with my Daddy yesterday.  They got them for Christmas, but have not gotten to shoot them much in Houston.   So what have I been doing?  Soaking up every minute of just being at home.  I pulled out the crock pot today, dusted it off and cooked some chicken.  Now it feels like I'm home when I get the crock pot turned on, the dish washer on, and the washer and dryer going.  Ahhhhh how sweet it is to be home. :)