Doctor Visit

Todays visit with Dr. R went well. He was not happy with the fact that Dave had not been given his steroid and assured us he would handle that. Dave will begin his next round of chemotherapy on Jan 6. This is the same Gem/Tax that he just completed. Now that we know he is supposed to take the steroid it should not be such a bad round. His Next CT scan is scheduled for Jan. 24. Then he will see Dr. R on Jan. 25. This is a day we look forward to and dread all the same. If the tumor is shrinking we will move on to two more rounds of Gem/Tax. If the tumor is not shrinking or has grown we will stop chemotherapy and start radiation. Then have surgery to remove the tumor. The reason it is so important for the chemo to work is that if it shrinking the tumor we know that it is killing the seeds that may have traveled to other parts of the body. It has been amazing how God has given us grace to make it through this. I have to take this minute by minute. Yesterday we went to Bethel Church. The pastor talked about Gideon. Most of us know the story of how Gideon defeated the Midianite's with 300 men who were armed with trumpets and jars. He didn't have the biggest army and all the latest equipment. Why? Because God didn't want the Iraelites to be able to take credit for the victory. You know how we like to take credit for things God does. No one else would be able to take the credit for the victory. God really used this to speak to me yesterday. Whatever God chooses to do with this cancer, He will be glorified.

Well, now I must go get packed. We are heading home for 8 days!!! Hooorayyyy!!! I can't wait to see our family and friends, go to church at Grace Fellowship, sleep in my own bed, drive my van, and see those beuatiful mountains. If you are not busy tomorrow night the 28th, you should watch The Kennedy Center Honors as our friend Jamey Johnson honors Merle Haggard. Gotta love that old country music :) I hope you all have a Happy New Year. I'll check back in after the first of the year, unless something really exciting happens that I really need to tell you!

Christmas

This is what our house looked like on Christmas day. We sure missed being home on Christmas. It was cold in Houston....but no snow!! We did have a good Christmas here though. It was emotional for me and Dave as everything seems to be lately. We could learn from our kids though....they said this was the best Christmas ever. They are happy as long as they are with us. We enjoyed having family here for a few days before Christmas. We went to see the new Narnia movie on Christmas Eve. We also went to the Christmas Eve service at Bethel Church. It was a very worshipful service. Christmas Day was good. The kids got lots of fun stuff. They each had a gift card to Target that a sweet Secret Santa sent to us. Instead of using it for themselves they wanted to buy me and Dave a gift. So Dave and I got some fun gifts too! Our Christmas dinner was Chinese Buffet. I thought it would be quiet and not crowded, but apparently alot of people eat Chinese buffet on Christmas day. We are looking forward to going home for a few days. Due to the New Years holiday Dave will have a break in his treatment. This will let us spend about a week in Alabama. Maybe we will get to see the remnants of that snow at our house.

Down below is a slideshow of our December in Houston. Enjoy the pictures !!

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Wow. What a busy week this has been. My days are beginning to run together. Dave has been feeling better today. We found out he was suppose to be taking a steroid along with his chemo. How did this get overlooked? Not sure. But it seems he would have had a much better weekend if he had been taking the steroid. Maybe we could have avoided a trip to the ER. Well its neither here nor there now.....we just have to make sure to ask more questions and not let this happen again.

We have been enjoying the week with family. I have had the best time with my sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews and my mama and daddy. Yesterday we all went shopping......a man walked by us and said.....wow, you are a big pack of people. That made us laugh. It was a fun day. We went to the Bass Pro Shop and then walked around an outdoor shopping area. Today we all went to the Johnson Space Center. This was great!! We went on the tram tour and got to go see the control room which was totally cool!! Afterwards we went to a neat little town called Kemah. We walked on the boardwalk and let the kids ride a couple of things. We got back to the apartment around 7:30. Then Tracy, Lori, Giny, Mama, and I went to the Galleria and Target. This was so much fun. It has been so good for me to get to spend so much time with them this week. We laughed til we cried tonight. Then of course we came home and cleaned up and washed a couple of loads of clothes. : ) We had a picture taken of all 20 of us at the space center today...I'll post that soon. Well it's really late so I should try to sleep.....or go wash more clothes. Hmmmm....hard decision. Any way, Dave see's Dr. R on Monday then we get to go home. yay!! If you don't here from me again, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas.

We got home from the ER around 4 am Sunday morning. Dave has continued to run a fever all day. It has stayed between 99 and 100 all day. He feels so bad. He told my sister that this is the worst he has felt since he found out he had cancer. So sad. I feel very helpless. I take his temp, make sure he takes his medicine, give shots, change bandages, and try to make sure he eats and drinks. But I can't make him feel better. I treasure the days when he feels good. When he feels like joking and laughing. If you have ever heard Dave laugh you know what I mean. It's his distinct laugh. Samuel laughs just like him. I love to be in another room and hear him laugh while hes watching TV. It makes me smile. Hopefully he will start to feel better and be able to enjoy Christmas. Tracy and her family arrived yesterday along with Abby. Everyone else along with Erin and Samo will be here tomorrow. Tracy and I are going to cook a big dinner tomorrow. We are all (all 20 of us) gonna squeeze into our little apartment for a meal and I am gonna enjoy every minute of it.

update

The fever has gone down and he is feeling better. They have been giving him fluids along with pain medicine and antibiotics. We will know if there is more infection in a day or so. He had a headache and he was also very dehydrated. We will go home in a couple of hours after he has had enough fluids. Gotta run get his prescription filled. I'll update again tomorrow.

A trip to the ER

Today Dave started feeling really bad. He has been achy, which we knew was a side effect of this chemo. He started running fever this afternoon. The doctor told us if his temperature ever gets above 101 to go to the ER. His temp stayed at 100.9 for a while. So we waited.....Dave did not want to go to the ER until it went over 101. So we are now at the ER at MDA. They are running test trying to find the source of the fever. Hopefully it's nothing, but we can't be too careful. I'll post again when we know more.