A Faithful Journey - Mission Accomplished!

Today, my sweet daddy went to Heaven to meet our Lord.

I've been flooded with emotions in the last 8 hours. He was a special, special man who loved his family, his friends, his faith, and his Father. What a blessing.

For the past months in the hospital he was just saying he wanted to go home, then last week we got to bring him home. Then today...he got to GO HOME!

His journey inspired so many people.

Journey complete - mission accomplished - GOD IS GOOD!

Moving Day

If all goes as planned today, Dad will be moving home this afternoon/evening.

If you're cheering, thank you - but we ask that you prayerfully be cheering! Is there such a thing?

We're asking all our prayer warriors to pray that this transition is smooth and this is what dad needs to PERK up and get his strength back. Being in the hospital has been a challenge mentally and physically, our hope is that being at home will give him some peace of mind and give him a jump start!! He is still very, very weak.

Hospital bed and electric lift are being delivered soon. A transport company will then move him from the hospital to the house.

I will keep you posted when I know more.

~Karyn

My mom always said...

"if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all!" Well, that's why it's been almost a month since I posted anything on the blog. I didn't have much NICE to say. To be honest, I've struggled with finding the positive in any of this lately! The last month was rough.

I've lost count, but I think we're on like day 75 of him not being at home. I would see my dad lay in that hospital bed and think "how can he come back from this, he's so sick?" I was doubting he could ever get better and I know God could see through my prayers. I vented to one of dads very best friends in the world, James Bailey, the other day and he gave me some encouraging words, "Never forget that even things we can't believe will happen are NOT impossible for God." Then I walked in to see dad this Wednesday and he was so much better, he was the best I had seen him in months!! It's NOT impossible for God!

PLEASE PRAY that he can get strong enough to stand up from the bed. That's what has to happen so he can go home! We need dad to walk. After laying in a bed for 70 something days the muscles forget what they are supposed to be doing.

We want him home for Thanksgiving!

He's got a long way to go to be 100% but getting out of the hospital and being HOME would help him so much! Also, please keep praying for mom. She's taken off until Thanksgiving to take care of him. Being the caretaker takes its toll, she is worn out.

Thanks for your constant prayers and support!

~kj

10/19/11

Dad is getting to move out of ICU. Woo-hoo! Now, he's not 100%, he still has the stomach infection he's been fighting and his body is very, very weak. He also has some swelling in his arm, last time that happened there was a blood clot, we will have to wait and see. We're just praying him being out of ICU will help - it's depressing in there!

We did get awesome news, his folks from work have donated him vacation through December! AMAZING! Wow, what a blessing, God is good!!!

He'll be on the 2nd floor at Mercy, I'll keep you posted about if he can have visitors.

Thanks for your prayers.

~kj

Our Faith

We are relying on God to get dad through this! That's all we've got - OUR FAITH!

He's still having hallucinations/psychosis, and he repeats himself over and over. He wants to prove to us he knows words and can read and remember things. He didn't pass a swallow test (I act like I know what all this means, but I don't) so they are giving him food in a tube that runs up his nose tonight. It's difficult to see, and we're praying it stops soon. The first day he was humorous, which was good - mom and I needed that good laugh, you know the kind that make you cry! It was good to laugh....but now, we're ready for it to be done. They are saying it should stop, that the meds still haven't metabolized - so we're waiting for that to happen.

Please pray that the doctors will CLEARLY be able to see what the next steps should be for dad. Things seem so murky, like they aren't sure! Just please pray they ARE SURE what needs to be done and they know what steps to take. Please pray for my sweet mom too! We know God is in control of our faithful journey!

So, I don't really think my dad would be very happy with me if I didn't go on to say this...if you're reading this blog and you don't have faith - if you don't know Jesus - if you don't have a peace knowing there is something more than this life, something amazing - then PLEASE reach out to us! Even if you don't know us, that's okay! Our family would love to share our faith with you! We know that even though this is a sad, scary, frustrating, uncertain time for our family - dad's going to be fine! No matter what, he'll be fine! God is good!!!!!!

Peace & Love

~kj

10/12/11

Wow. This has been a day.

First off, most people know that my dad's parents were moved into Tealridge Assisted Living last Monday. Unfortunately, we found out today that Papa really needed to be in the memory care area. So my 2 uncles, their wives, and DJ and I moved them into the memory care area tonight. Tealridge has been really great to work with them. It was challenging and sad for my Nana, but it's the best for Papa - he's safe there and that's what we need. His safety and peace for Nana.

The reason I'm letting you know about the history with Nana & Papa is to also say that they don't really know EVERY detail about my dad right now. {They just left their home town of over 50 years and moved here...we're taking one day at a time with them!} They know he's at Mercy. They know he has a stomach infection and they can't really be around him since their susceptible. That's about all right now - and that's plenty!

So now about dad. Mom showed up at Mercy ICU this morning and there was a hose up dad's nose. My mom started asking questions and found out that he had been unresponsive since last night. They did several tests and scans and did everything they could to figure out what was going on. His brain looked good, no stroke, no bleeding, and no clot from what they could tell. So why is he unresponsive!?!?! (Like I'm meaning can NOT wake up!) This is what they are saying - he was given a dose of pain meds on Tuesday evening for the pain and since his kidneys aren't just working 100% the meds sit in his body and don't process correctly. They are SAYING he should be awake by in the morning. Well, they're saying and we're praying.

So that's our today.

We are firm believers that God's plan is so much better than ours! We (mom, dad and I) have all struggled with control - we like to control situations. We can't control this - what we can do is rely on God to get us through and we can rely on our friends & family to support us and pray with us.

Recent Events...

Sorry I've been bad to post lately.

Here's some recent events

• Dad was moved to a skilled nursing center several weeks ago


• He was very tired but was making some progress, worked with physical therapy and speech therapy


• He walked 15 feet with his walker - awesome!


• Started not feeling great again


• Got an infection


• Got moved back to Mercy


• Trying to get stronger again, he's very weak


• He was too weak to do 2nd chemo treatment, we will have to see if he can when he's strong enough


• We're taking one day at a time!

Dad has asked for no visitors at this time. He's so tired and even though he LOVES seeing people, he can't rest well with people popping in and out. Please keep praying for strength & healing, and pray for mom too she's pretty worn out.

Thank you all for your continued support & prayers.

Searching & Praying

It doesn't look like dad is going to be able to get into the Mercy Rehab wing or into Jim Thorpe either, due to the fact that he physically can't do the rehab exercises for 3 hours or more each day.

At this point mom is looking into some other places for him today. (The hospital is ready to move him, they can't really do much more.)

So, when you pray please be specific (we are firm believers in specific prayer requests)...

• We need him to get accepted into a GOOD physical therapy facility (his insurance only approves a few places, pray that one is good)



• We need the team there to work with him and get him stronger



• Please pray that these chemo treatments work! (He'll have another one in about 20 more days.)



• Please pray for my mom, she's tired. Working, checking on things at home, and going back and forth to see him 24-7 is hard on her.



• Pray for dads will to fight!

Thank you for being our prayer warriors!

~kj

Not much to report...

It's been a rough few days for dad, multiple health issues have come up so are we just taking one day at a time. If these issues get cleared up in the next few days they will move him to the rehab wing of Mercy.

I thought he seemed better today, and maybe he didn't seem so exhausted. He did have a bout of nausea today, but never vomited so that's good.

Thanks again for your encouragement, sorry I don't have more to report!

God is good!

Day 1

Well dad started the 2 day chemo last night, he did pretty good so far. The next one starts tonight. He is still VERY tired and weak. His legs really hurt him and he's obviously scared to stand for fear of falling again (because he's so weak.)

They are trying to give him protein supplements since he's not eating much. Today's protein was a shake...he was not a fan they will try something new in the morning.

Please keep praying for his strength. If you want to send an encouraging card, I'm sure that wouldn't hurt anything ; ) their address is on the right side of the blog.

Thank you all for loving my wonderful parents!

God is Good!!!!!

Options

Yesterday when the oncologist came in he mentioned another chemo treatment he could try. It's an IV treatment that hopefully will not cause neuropathy side effects. It's 2 days on IV then off for 21 days (then repeat.) I mentioned to the doc that dad would need some kind of care for those 21 days since we can't physically care for him at home. He said he would try to get him accepted into the rehabilitation wing at Mercy. He was there after the spine surgery, not his favorite place on earth but it hopefully will be a good thing for him. Please pray they accept him. It's basically a rigorous 3 hour a day workout. He has to build his strength back up - and right now when physical therapy comes for 30 minutes if he says he's too tired they say, "OK". Rehab wing doesn't say "OK" they say, "sorry you're tired, now get up!" He's gonna love it. {smirk}

We know God has a plan in all of this. Pray that He is glorified through all of it. Of course we want his body to respond well to this treatment, we want him to be accepted into the rehabilitation program, we want the cancer to miraculously go away - but we also know we are not in control. We know God is in control and we're trusting in Him to see us through.

God is Good,
Karyn

3 Years Later

So many of you have been asking about dad. In the last few weeks his condition hasn't been great. He fell at home about 3 weeks ago and he went to the hospital. He has severe neuropathy that was caused due to the chemo he was on. After that fall/incident he came back home and he had some hard weeks. We were so blessed that a few men from mom & dad's bible class stepped up and offered to be at the house with him during the day since mom was starting school.

This past Friday he went back to the oncologist and they admitted him back to Mercy. He was tired and weak. Then Sunday morning his blood was low (bone marrow or plasma wasn't doing what it was suppose to...I think, to tell you I don't really remember what wasn't working right! It was one of those.) So the blood really perked him up yesterday - it was the BEST he'd been in weeks! We knew he was feeling good, he was so ornery!!!

At this point we aren't sure if there are very many local options here for treatment. There is a Cancer Treatment Center in Tulsa and there is a large hub of doctors that treat dads cancer (multiple myloma) in Arkansas so that my be an option.

So now what?? Tomorrow we hope the oncologist is back and we can get some direction. What direction? We're not sure. We know God has a plan.

You all have faithfully followed his journey and prayed for him for the past 3 years - thank you and KEEP IT UP!

I'll keep you posted as I have more info...

God is Good,
Karyn

The Harvest

Dear Friends and Family,

Well, after a year of non-blogging, I think it is time to get back in the habit of making and keeping contact with everyone. I said at the outset that I would not write if there wasn't something to say. And, with the changes that are going on right now, I think I need to tell you about the new things that are happening with me.

Some of you know that I am undergoing stem cell transplants. If you do not know, the stem cells are my own. They harvest the cells, put them on ice and then put them back in my body. I have been on a medication (Neupogen) for about the last week and it is boosting my white blood count so my blood will successfully carry the stem cells through my blood stream. I had a little surgery on Monday to put in my line ports -- I call the ports my "in faucet and my out faucet". I will keep the lines until after the cells are infused back into my body. The surgery wasn't very painful so I hope I can get used to the ports being there.

When I came in yesterday, they could not do the harvesting because my cell count was too low. I have no idea what the numbers represent, but I was told that mine were a 3.8 and they want it to be a 10.0 So, they sent me over to Dr. Holter's office (Holter is my stem cell specialist) and they gave me 4 shots. One of Neupogen and one shot of Mozobil. Now between these mediciations we are looking at about $30,000 worth of medication. I'm not sure I am worth all of that. Today, when I'm finished, they will send me back to Dr. Holter's office and she will give me another set of shots.

Today they actually started the stem cell harvest. I got to the Oklahoma Blood Institute at 9 AM and they connected me to the harvest machine. The blood is taken out of my system and cycled through the machine. and the stem cells are collected -- then, tomorrow we'll do the same thing again, and every day until they have the cells needed. I've been told they need 200,000,000 -- but who knows. I just know they will harvest enough for two infusions. Everyone here at the Ok State Blood Institute is really very nice, and extremely helpful. I really appreciate their kindness and care.

After the harvest I will continue with my physical therapy. The weakness in my feet and legs (secondary to the damage to my spine due to the cancer) has Dr. Holter a little concerned and she wants me to get stronger. So, hopefully the physical therapy will get me a little stronger and I can go ahead and get the transplant / infusion sooner rather than later.

I won't bore you with a lot of chatter today, but I will try to keep a little more information coming on a regular basis. I would just ask that you pray for me and for Debbie. All of this is quite difficult on us and we are thankful for any and all prayers on our behalf. We thank you for your care and concern.

God continues to take good care of me, and we rest our faith in him. You know King David put his faith in God and God cared for him and he was even called a "man after God's own heart." I hope to continue to be the kind of man God wants and needs for me to be. So keeping my faith in God is my ultimate Goal -- and whatever he plans for me is what he wants. Please pray that I can keep my faith in our Heavenly Father.

Grace & Peace to all... --Bob