Tuesday, 31 March 2009

Tuesday, 31 March 2009

Thank you in advance for coming here and checking in. I hope this blog is serving it’s purpose, to let all of you know how I’m doing. If anyone wants to know more about anything, just let me know! I have time…..

The Good Lord continues to work His magic in our lives. Two wonderful things have happened in the last few days! First, my Mom QUIT SMOKING!!!!!!!! Yippee! Hooray! Thank the Lord. I was (and continue to be) so proud of her when she told me I cried. If any of you out there are ex-smokers, you know just how hard it is to kick that monkey off your back. I believe God makes it really easy, as long as your have FAITH! If you get a chance in the next day or so, call Mom and congratulate her. Positive reinforcement is very very important! Drop her a note or a card. Me, I’m getting her flowers!

And if that were not enough, my cough has noticeably decreased over the past few days, I no longer wheeze like a steam locomotive at idle on a siding, and I am feeling better all around. Dr. Zimmerman, Dr. Rasp, Dr. Chang, and Dr. Kidder all said that once the cancer starts to shrink and die due to the chemo and the radiation, that this was going to happen. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic (Mickey Mouse said that back in the late 70s), and what modern medicine can do right now is well beyond that magic stage. God works thru all of us, and I think He works overtime thru our doctors, nurses, health care workers, scientists, and many others just to name a few. Add these people to your prayer list, as we owe them so very much.

And speaking of nurses, I spent the last part of last week with one of my two most favorite nurses in the entire known universe, and I loved every minute of it. Sis, thank you so very much for watching out for your little brother. Right here in public in front of God and everybody I want to tell you just how special you are as a sister, a friend, as one of my angels. I’ll never be able to say thank you enough. I love you without measure.

One of the things I will remember most about staying with Gena is the piece of artwork she has hanging on one wall of her house. It has probably been there for forever, and I’ll bet I have looked AT it dozens of times, but I never READ it. It is a simple phrase that describes so much:

“Faith, Family, Friends, Forever”

To me, this sums up most everything we need to know about life, and more importantly, it does it in the correct order (at least for me). Once again, God talks to us all the time, if we just take time to listen. Thank you for that as well sis!

I start radiation treatment this Thursday at Parkview North. What a fantastic group of people there! Treatments will take about 10 minutes, so I will spend 4 times longer getting there and getting home than I will actually getting treated. Cool. No waiting! Dr. Chang is my radiation oncologist, and a very impressive doctor.

And I also will be heading down to IU in April to talk to Dr. Lawrence Einhorn, just to get an overall second opinion on treatment plans in general and mine in particular. You may have heard of him before. He is maybe the best of the best in the business. I am 100% certain I am getting the absolute best care available, but always good to get another opinion.

The entire tribe made it back from Florida, and they managed to drag the bad weather with them. Geez, the snow on Sunday was a bit depressing to say the least. No one had any adventures coming back, thanks God for getting them here all safe and sound. My good friend Dave dropped by to visit yesterday on his lunch hour (actually it turned in to 2 ½ hours) just to say hi and get caught up. That was really nice, thanks Dave. When you are on home detention (without actually doing anything wrong from Judge Wallace’s point of view), any break in the routine is a good thing!

Thanks to each and every one who has sent me a card, a note, or said a prayer. I would not be able to do any of this without all of you, my A Team, leading the charge. I remain forever grateful.

I will end this entry with a recent picture of one my heroes, whom I love and respect so very much. You should see him over on the right side of the page somewhere.

Thanks to you all and God bless!

Mark

Tuesday, 24 March

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Top of the list is to say thanks to Jess and my friends at Lakeview - I just saw where Jess put a link to the blog right on the main page. God bless all of you guys, I do miss you!

Second day of chemo is in the bag, one more day to go and them round 1 of 4is complete. I meet with the Dr. Sunshine (the radiation oncologists) tomorrow at 3:30 pm to find out what all that will involve, and then get started on the radiation treatments probably Thursday or Friday.

I did not have any problems with the first day of chemo. I get two meds, Cisplatin and VP-16. The Cisplatin is the one that will make you sick, but thanks to God working miracles in modern medicine, they give you anti-nausea meds at the same time to negate any nasty side effects. When I got home in the afternoon, I did feel a bit like I had went 2 rounds with George Foreman, but the current version, not the younger in shape George. He can hit hard enough today to make you feel pretty bad, but I don't think he's got the KO strength anymore.

In any event, I took one of the three different nausea meds they precribed, took a nap, and woke up feeling better, just some mild aches and pains. The hot tub took care of those, and I had a great night's sleep.

All that worry for nothing... Thank you God for once again carrying us across another hurdle.

Let's all get behind the Boilers and the Spartans to continue their runs in the sweet 16. I'm rooting for Purdue (go figure), but at this level you just have to want all our Big 10 teams to do well, even poor old University of Michigan. (Those who know me know that just to write that ast little bit must mean I have fundamentally changed...)

Bolier Up, and thnaks so very much for tuning in, taking time to check up on me, for your thoughts, and for your prayers. They mean everything.

Until later, safe travels and God bless!

Mark

Sunday, March 22

Thanks for tuning in!

Tomorrow will be my first day of chemo. I went to an educational class on Friday that Lutheran sponsors, and what great nurses they have there! (Not quite as good as my sisters, but pretty close). Some of the stuff they taught I knew, but it is what I didn't know and these fine people took time to teach me that made it well worth the trip there. Lutheran Hospital runs this teaching clinic for free, which served as a reminder to me that there is something you can find in your life to be grateful for every day, as long as you keep you eyes, mind, and heart open.

I'll bore everyone you with the details later on. There are three general classes of side effects, those that will happen, those that might happen, and those that rarely happen. Of the ones that will happen for sure, it is not the loss of hair that will be the hardest to handle. Quite the opposite actually. I will wear that as a badge of honor for being able to do this fight in the first place.

The weakening of your immune system, and how you have to deal with that, will be the hardest for me. I don't get to go to Walmart and watch the weekly child beatings or catch up on the latest fashion statement from our rural brethren (Carhart is known around hear as the Dekalb County Tuxedo). That goes into the plus column. On the minus side, I will not be able to go to church, which I will miss the most. I will not be able to go hang out with my Auburn Fire Department brothers and sisters, which I will miss second of all.

However, God never tasks us without knowing we have the tools to deal with anything that comes our ways. I have this laptop, which will be my connection to the world for a while. I can listen to services right here anytime I want. I have more scanners than any one person should own, so keeping up with the AFD is easy enough. And of course there is email and this blog. I'll be AOK.

Anyone who knows me knows just how much I am grateful for, how proud I am, how much I admire and respect all of our men and women in uniform who serve our country, both here at home and all around the world. The sacrifices that these heros have made in the past, are making today, and will continue to make in the future, to preserve our rights as Americans to free speech, the freedom to worship, to protect our Constitution, is beyond my scope of understanding. Our son is a US Marine, so I get to have another of my greatest heros come home every chance he can. I am so very proud of him and what he has accomplished, and I think back on how I got here today. I was to young for Vietnam. I was to old for the Gulf War. I never seemed to be able to fulfill my duty to my country in the way that I wanted to, in the way that past and future generations of US servicemen and servicewomen will be there when they are needed. I believe God had another war in mind for me to fight and win, and He has been preparing me to the best of His ability. I am ready to stand in and do my duty, you can count on that. Adapt, improvise, and OVERCOME!

God gave us a beautiful day today. Warm and sunny. Tomorrow promises to be even better, in many many ways.

Thanks for listening, thank you for your thoughts, and thank you for your prayers. God bless all of us.

Mark

Saturday, 21 March, first day of spring!

(This is an email I just sent out to many of you, so you may have seen this already)

All,

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update from the most recent visits with the docs.

The PET scan came back clean, which is really really good. I take no credit for it, this one was all God's doing. The only place I have a problem is the mass in my right lung. Dr. Zimmerman said that we caught this really early, and he is quite surprised that there just is nothing else there.

Personally, I'm not. I have had God's A-team sending our prayers for weeks now. Powerful stuff indeed, and I am one very grateful man.

Matter of fact, Dr. Z said that I am the healthiest cancer patient he may have ever seen in his practice. Again, I take no credit.

I got my head examined yesterday morning. No joke. Brain MRI. Dr. Z wants to make sure the PET scan wasn't lying or missed even a miniscule blip of anything. His nurse says he is a bit OCD about the small details, which is a good trait in an oncologist.

I will start the first of four rounds of chemo on Monday at 8 am. Each round is three days of treatment, six hours the first day, one hour the second, one hour the third, then stop and repeat 4 weeks later. So that will take 12 or so weeks to complete. I get to keep my hair for about two to three weeks max, after which I will look like:

Eric
Shane
Kojak

and a few more of you. ;-) Nothing wrong with emulating those you look up to in life, that's what Dad says.

Radiation will start sometime next week. I meet with the radiological oncologist on Wednesday, and they get you all semi-permanently tattooed with aiming points. The radiation treatment will be 5 days a week for six weeks.

Best I know so far the side affects aside from saving money on shampoo and razors will be some nausea about three to four days after chemo starts, and that can be controlled pretty well with meds. The fatigue will set in about then as well, but I really don't think it can be much worse than the fatigue of having pneumonia for four months. (By the way, I still have a little of that kicking around as well). Dr. Z did say that on the whole I may actually feel the same or better, as once the chemo starts to shrink the mass, I will start breathing properly, get air into all of my lungs, clear the last of the crap out, and best of all STOP COUGHING! I will rate that as yet another miracle the minute it happens. The radiation will irritate my esophagus quite a bit after a few weeks, which will make eating and drinking a bit of a pain, but again that can be helped with meds.

It would appear that my travel ability will be really restricted due to the radiation treatments for six weeks, unless it is something that can happen over a weekend. I am not real happy about that because that impacts my work, but in the bit scheme of things, I'm not going to utter a peep. And on top of that, the chemo slaps your immune system around pretty good, so two weeks out of every four I can't be exposed to anyone sick, which is really home detention. Small price to pay.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your thoughts and prayers for me an my family these past few weeks. They have made such a difference in our lives and I do not think I will ever be able to fully describe what it feels like for us. I have been blessed with many great people in my life, and all of you folks are at the top of the list. God bless each of you, and thank you once again.

Mark

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Pretty easy day today. Lots of light duty emails to deal with from work, couple phone conferences. I bet everyone I talk to on the phone regularly will appreciate it as much if not more than I will when I can quit this stinking coughing!

Tomorrow is when I go see Dr. Z and hopefully get my treatment plan underway. I'm a bit anxious about what will be happening, but the Good Lord has taken away any fear. I have none, none at all, and I will credit all of you and your prayers for taking away that fear. I had am image cross my mind while I was talking about how much everyone's prayers mean to me of the Verizon Wireless commercials. You know the ones, where at the end of the commercial the camera pans out and you see this huge crowd of Verizon people. Well, if you panned the camera of my life out wide right now, you would easily see what I feel, my own version of Verizon support, except the people in the crowd are my family and friends, and they all have angel's wings, because they are indeed all angels.

Thanks and God bless everyone!

Mark

Hi, and welcome! Just like my home, the door is always open, everyone is always welcome, and no one is allowed to rush away.

I had the last in a long series of tests yesterday, a PET-G scan. This is the one where you get shot up with glow in the dark particles, then get to sit back in a really nice recliner for an hour and take a nap, followed by another nap for 30 minutes on a table stuck in a long tube. Just about like an MRI, but without any noise.

I go see Dr. David Zimmerman this Thursday at 1:30 pm, and I am pretty sure that Dr. Z will have my treatment plan all detailed out in terms of what, where and when. I will share that with all of you as soon as I can. Not sure yet what the treatment will be, but I am going to do my part, and I can do that because of your prayers. Beth Horrum gave me a framed picture of an enormous rock being held up in balance by a single guy. The caption Beth put under the picture says "The task ahead of you is not greater than the strength behind you". I look at the picture, and what the caption says to me is it is not what you see, a lone guy doing the impossible, but what you don't see, and that is the strength of hundreds if not thousands of loving caring people flowing though this one man, that makes a difference.

Each of you make a difference to me, and for that I love all of you. God grants us many blessings each and every day. Never overlook a single one, be stong and have courage, and God bless you all.

Mark