Something to Celebrate!

Well, when we met with the surgeon on Monday, November 9th in Houston, John had actually already had all of his testing complete that morning except for the MRI. We waited a long time for the surgeon to see him, but maybe it's because they were waiting for all of his results to come in before they talked with us. His blood work, CT scan, and x-rays all came back clear. Thank you God! The surgeon was also impressed with the lack of scar tissue in his arm from the radiation. He thought John must've been really diligent with his physical therapy. Yeah right! I think it was just staying active and using the hand/arm...and not to mention being right-handed probably helped him with continued use of the arm. So, all that remained was the MRI. He got a call on Tuesday, his 33rd birthday, that the MRI came back clear as well! Praise God from Whom ALL Blessings flow! What a great birthday present! We arrived home to 3 sick kids, and 2 sick grandmas from Houston, so we are just now getting back into the swing of things where I can post! Everything seems to be going okay for the moment! We just take life one day at a time these days! Thanks for your continued prayers and support!

He'll have tests done here at home in February, and we are already scheduled to go back to Houston in May...

Back to Texas We Go...

John's first follow up appointment is scheduled for Monday, November 9th. I'll actually fly to San Antonio, TX on Thursday, November 5th for a Mary Kay fall retreat with the group I spent time with while we were in Houston this spring. Then, I'll hitch a ride with some of them back to Houston from San Antonio on Sunday. John and I will meet up on Sunday evening at the Rotary House...the hotel connected to the hospital. On Monday, he'll have appointments all day long...losts of test and sitting in hospital waiting rooms. I think he'll have blood work, a CT scan of his chest, a chest x-ray, an x-ray of his arm, an MRI, and an appointment with the surgeon. His last appointment is the MRI at 6pm on Monday, so we will have to wait until Tuesday morning to get a flight back home. I guess I'll post again sometime after our trip to give you an update.

Our Trip Down Under

John and I did still get to take our trip to Australia in August. We really had a great time, and it was so good to see our friends!

Our Awesome Summer at Home

Well, needless to say, we were quite excited to be home. We hit the ground running, and we haven't stopped since then. Our summer went by so fast, but we really enjoyed it! It's hard to even remember everything that we've done. John and I celebrated our 10th Anniversary on June 18th shortly after arriving home. We did pick up the Mary Kay car the night we arrived home. Then, we rode as a family in it in our local July 4th Parade. Jackson even held up a sign that said, "My Mom Can Help You Earn a FREE Car Too!" It was too cute! We had a yard sale and sold our red furniture, crib, strollers, and Johns Mitsubishi Galant that we bought after our 1st year of marriage. A little sad to see all of those things go, but we know that God is starting a new chapter in our lives now. I've been back to Dallas (yes, back in Texas, again) for our annual Mary Kay Seminar and Awards Night. It was a lot of fun to reunite with my new Houston friends, and it's always an amazing learning experience. Then, we headed to Gatlinburg for a family vacation with my mom's side of the family. There were 23 of us that stayed together in the cabin. The following weekend, our neighbors invited us to come stay in their camper at the lake for the weekend. Needless to say we only survived one night because Jocelyn was up screaming most of the time. Bless her heart. I think she is cutting her final 2-year molar...and the last baby tooth we'll have to endure! Wednesday, John and I leave for Australia, a trip we've had planned for months, before the whole situation with his arm even came about. Thank goodness his company was willing to let us continue on with our trip, and praise the Lord that John is physically healthy enough to go now. He just has a cover for his forearm so it won't be exposed to the Queensland sun. We just made plans to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and we'll most likely go SCUBA diving in the Great Barrier Reef! For those of you that don't know, John's company also has a division in Australia. In April of 2007 a family from Jennmar Australia came to the states for 12 months...I guess to learn a little about how things are done here and to teach the plant here how things are done in Australia. All I know is that he was a huge help to John when starting up his new plant! His wife was also a huge blessing us upon the arrival of Jocelyn. They love babies, and their boys were 8 and 11 at the time, so they were more than willing to lend a helping hand with our little ones! We promised before they left that we would come visit them when they finished building their new house. So....here we go...as promised! I'll try to remember to do a post about our trip when we get back. I also wanted to update everyone to let you know that he has a CT Scan scheduled for September 17th here at Bristol Regional Medical Center. I have no idea when we'll know the results from that. We are just following doctor's orders that they gave him when we left Houston. Then, in December, he'll return to Houston for a similar checkup. Thanks for all of your continued prayers and support! We are so blessed!

Goodbye Houston...Hello Home!!!

We are finally headed home in the morning. Tomorrow is John's last treatment. The plan is for the kids and I to go to the hospital with John. Anytime a patient takes their last treatment, they get to ring a bell in the hallway for everyone to hear. So, the kids are going to help him ring the bell! Yay! We've pretty much gotten the apartment cleaned up, and all of our stuff is packed. We'll just finish loading the car in the morning and go! We are just praying for safe travel and a relatively uneventful day tomorrow! We discovered this morning when loading the back of the car that when I took Jackson and Joy out for donuts earlier in the week...and bumped a concrete pole while backing out...I put a pretty good smash in the corner of the back of the car and the bumper. I got out to check it, but I thought I hit it in the middle of the bumper. So I didn't see anything at the time. Ahhh! So, I guess we'll be getting that fixed along with our lock when we return home.

Oncologist Today

Just thought I'd give you all the update that John met with the oncologist today! It was such a blessing to go ahead and get that out of the way, and to have a chance for him to meet with them to know what the plan is from here. The surgeon said that he may never get feeling back in his index finger and thumb because of the nerve that they had to move to remove the tumor. It's the nerve that many of us refer to as the "funny bone" and he said that even breathing on it could cause that kind of long-term damage. So, the fact that they had to pick it up and move it really caused him to lose feeling in those 2 fingers. Otherwise, his news was positive. He just has to go for some testing every 3 months locally. And then, he'll come back to Houston every 6 months for a checkup to make sure there is nothing else developing. I really have a peace about it that he will still be under their watch and care for at least the next couple of years, but that, for the most part, we can now put this whole thing behind us! He has 5 more radiation treatments, and as soon as he is finished with the one on Thursday, we are cleared to go home! Praise the Lord! I've already made arrangements to pick up the new car on Friday afternoon of next week! The kids are looking forward to that. I got a call yesterday confirming that we as a family get to be in the Lebanon 4th of July Parade in the Mary Kay car! The kids are so excited! I'm thrilled that they get to be a part of this because they have done so much to help and encourage me along the way! This car is just as important to John and the kids as it is to me! I guess that's it for now. We are headed to the Space Center in the morning, and we plan to go to a Houston Astros game on Monday night. Then, I guess we'll start packing and preparing to head home! Thanks for all of your love, prayers, and support!!!

2 Weeks From Today!!!

The doctor told John at his appointment yesterday that we can go home 2 weeks from today right after his radiation appointment!!!! Yay! So, we'll be packed up and ready to head for home as soon as he is finished! I must say that it's gone by a lot faster than I thought it would. We'll be ready to go home in 2 weeks though and get back to life as "normal."

Overcoming Fears

I had a thought cross my mind yesterday that this experience has really been a lot about overcoming fears...for all of us. Fear of a loved one getting cancer, fear of losing your spouse, fear of losing a unit we worked so hard to build, fear of leaving a new manufacturing plant with no manager for an extended period of time, fear of "going under" in the water, fear of jumping in the pool with no floaty, fear of identity theft, fear in invasion of privacy and property, fear of the ocean, fear of waves, fear of being knocked down by a wave, fear of scary people, fear of being lost in a big city with no map, no GPS...and no air conditioning in the car! ...the list goes on! I guess I've realized that we've overcome a lot of fears through this experience...because we had to...and because God has given us the peace and strength to get through it.

So...that brings me to our recent events...fear of the ocean!...and I grew up in the Orlando area going to the Atlantic Ocean for 3 1/2 years...I love the beach...but I still fear the ocean in some ways. We were sitting around yesterday afternoon with nothing to do and fussy, stir crazy, cabin feverish, tired kids. I mentioned to John that we needed to just go for a drive so they could get a nap. I didn't care where we went...I just wanted to put them in the car, let the hum of the engine put them to sleep (now with air conditioning), and enjoy the peace and quiet as we drove to wherever the Houston rodes would take us. John must've thought it was a good idea b/c he said, "Let's go to the beach!" So, within about 30 minutes, we packed everything and the kids and headed to Galveston Island for a couple of hours of beach time and some quiet nap time along the way...about 1 hour of driving time.

The kids LOVED it! They loved playing in the sand! They loved running on the beach! They loved being loud and not being hushed because of the neighbors. And most of all...they loved the ocean! Mommy was terrified that a big wave would come and sweep my babies away, but even Joy...who seems to be hesitant of many things, got right in there and let the waves knock her down and get her hair and face wet...with no floaty or anything. She won't even do that at the pool!

Galveston has done a lot to rebuild the beaches and the buildings since we were there in March! There is still a lot to be done, but I was impressed with the progress! We went to a family beach that you pay to enter, and they are using the money to help with the redevelopment. What a great idea! That same beach had construction trucks all over it last time we were there! There was a guy sitting right by us that was acting really strange, and as we were pulling out of the parking lot, the police were arresting him! Great?!? Everything is an adventure!

By the way, John noticed later that the lock on the driver's side of the car is completely smashed in, so I guess that's how they got in the car. It was completely dark that night at Sea World, and who actually uses their key to get in a car these days anyway, right? So, I don't know how we would've noticed it at the time, but you can tell it now. The dealership didn't even mention it when we got the air conditioner fixed. I guess it's just that common around here...who knows? A girl at the Mary Kay meeting said, "Uh yeah, your in the city now...you can't leave anything in your car." So, I replied that I used to live in Kansas City, and even though cars get broken into there, it's nothing like it is here in Texas. Her only response was, "Well, you're not in Kansas anymore!" I just had to laugh. I guess she's right.

All that to say, I can really see how this experience has grown all of us in positive ways!

Adventures in San Antonio

This entry may not interest some of you, but we do have family that has been keeping up with the ins and outs of our personal experience here in Houston, and I thought our weekend might be of interest to them. So, here it goes...

As some of you may remember, my brother, Scott, lives in San Antonio, TX about 3 hours from us. So, my mom came down from Virginia for the weekend to celebrate Mother's Day with her 2 wonderful children! :) She arrived Friday at noon after a 2 hour delay at the Tri Cities airport due to weather conditions in Atlanta. Then, we took her swimming that afternoon so the kids could show her their new abilities. Jocelyn even put on the floaties (the kind that go on your arms) and jumped off the 2nd step into the pool by herself!!

Saturday at noon we headed to San Antonio to go to Sea World and to see my brother. The first day we went to the water park within Sea World and finished our day off at the Shamu show, "Believe." The kids loved it all. Jackson loved the wave pool. Joy loved the lazy river. Jocelyn loved the whale show. It was all they talked about all night long. Gigi got them light up swords before leaving the park, so those were a hit in the hotel room Saturday night.

We did have a bit of a setback Saturday upon returning to the car. John couldn't find his wallet. When we got to the hotel, we searched high and low for it and couldn't find it. So, he got out his computer and checked online, and someone had stolen the wallet out of the car and spent most of the money in our checking account in just a short amount of time plus some on one of our credit cards too. Needless to say, I think the email that circulates about how someone can get the code to get into your car when you lock it with your key fob must be true. We know it was locked when we left, and there was no sign of forced entry. Just a word of caution to be extra careful with what you leave in your car in parking lots at amusement parks because we know someone else that this happened to at Disney just a few weeks ago.

I asked John if he was starting to feel like Job!

Sunday, for Mother's Day, we met my brother and his wife at Sea World and spent the day with them there. We went to all of the shows, fed the dolphins, pet an alligator, saw the penguins. It was a pretty cool experience. I think Jocelyn still enjoyed Shamu the most. She knows the signal for splash and loves to do it during the show to try to get the whales to splash, and anytime they would go under the water, she would say, "Whale? Go?". She'd also say, "Yeah, Get Wet!" It was too funny! Jackson laughed histerically at the sea lion show! He thought they were pretty clever. I'd say Joy enjoyed the penguins most, and Mommy loved feeding and touching the dolphins! Daddy just enjoyed watching the kids have so much fun!

We went by Scott's office to see the trucks and everything...He has started a Two Men and a Truck franchise if you know anyone in the San Antonio area that needs to move! I was amazed at my brother's newly developed skills and talents to be able to run a business like that!

We returned to Houston at about 11pm last night...but of course...not without drama! Praise the Lord we made it "home" safely, but we had stopped for something to eat a little less than 100 miles away from Houston and the car was smoking like crazy. Are you kidding me? He called his buddy that knows a lot about cars, and he said it was the compressor. He said, to turn the air conditioner off and if the belts were still moving, we could make it the rest of the way. If the belts had stopped, they were going to break and we'd be stranded out in the middle of nowhere, TX. The belts must've been moving because we made it! The air conditioner never has worked well in that car, and the guy at the dealership told me that I needed a new compressor 2 days before we left, but I didn't have time to fix it then. I guess after all of the travel and running the air conditioner full blast in this heat just to get some air circulating in the car just did it in.

John's going to take the car in tomorrow morning to get the air fixed, and the bank is doing everything they can to get the money put back in our account. The box to mail my computer in for service finally came today after two weeks of waiting. So, maybe in a few more days things will be up and running normally again. Who even knows what normal is at this point?

All in all though, we made some great memories and had a blast while we were in the park and at the pool!

Our Little Fish

Well, yesterday was a milestone day for us! Jackson learned how to swim!!! He'd never even put his face in the water before yesterday! I suggested to him that he put on his diving mask and try looking at Mommy's toes in the water. He agreed, and thought it was pretty cool that he could see everything. So, he just kept getting more and more brave. Next thing we knew, he was putting his whole head under the water and staying down there for several seconds before coming back up. Then, we went inside for a break (even though he didn't want to) and promised them we would come back last night. We kept our promise and went back not long before dark last night. It probably only took him 20 minutes and he was asking if he could swim to me from the steps. I agreed, and off he went! He spent the rest of the time swimming parallel to the side of the pool, and he'd just come up and grab the side when he needed a breath. Today, he would swim a little ways out from the stairs turn around and swim back without any help! WOW!!! That is major progress from last summer. I'm am so excited and totally amazed! What a blessing! Joy cruises around the pool on her own too with her little inflatable ring. She's pretty independent too! Now Jocelyn, she doesn't realize that she's smaller than the other two, so she uses the same ring that Joy does. Today, she would stand on the 2nd step, count "one, two, three" and then just jump holding onto her ring with no help at all from us! Could someone please tell her she's not even 2 yet?!? I think she thinks she'll be swimming by the end of summer! Crazy! Joy's not into "going under" just yet. She tells us she's not big yet...so we'll see. Jackson is determined to teach her how! We are just hanging out the rest of the day today and getting ready for our visitors tomorrow! John still seems fine at this point! Thanks for checking up on us!

Getting Settled in Houston

We are settling into a routine here in Houston now. I'm glad to be back with the rest of the family. It was a great week in Dallas, but I was ready to come "home." John's mom left on Monday afternoon, so we've been on our own since then. John gets up every morning and goes for his treatment at 9:15. He meets with the doctor on Wednesday mornings to check on everything. Today he just said John's arm looked good. He started meeting with a physical therapist yesterday. They sent him home with different things to use everyday to make his arm stronger. He's lost 52% of the strength in it, and he can tell that radiation is starting to cause stiffness. So, we are thankful that they have started therapy to restore use and strength in his arm. He'll meet with the physical therapist every Tuesday morning at 10 am after his treatment. The treatments actually only take about 5 minutes for the radiation, so it's been even easier than he thought it would be so far. I guess that is it for now. We've just been finding creative ways to pass the time away. The weather has been crazy here, so we haven't been outside as much as we expected. But, we are finding ways to stay busy. A friend of mine is coming on Monday with her daughter that is Jackson and Joy's age, so they are really looking forward to having a familiar face come to play with them!...Then, Gigi comes for Mother's Day. So, we have more visitors planned and feel like the time here in Houston will go by faster than expected. I was even able to attend a Mary Kay meeting last night with the #4 Sales Director in our division last year! It was really great to meet her and learn from her experience! Oh...and for those of you that aren't familiar with Houston, don't drive on tollways that say "EZ Pass Only" even if there is no toll booth!!!!

1st Treatment

John had his first treatment this morning...it went great. He said he didn't even know they were doing anything...it pretty much worked like an x-ray...for now anyway. I'm in Dallas for New Director Education Week. John's mom is in Houston helping with the kids. They have a full week of the zoo, Hermann Park, the Children's Museum, walks around the lake, and swimming at the pool while Mommy's away. Mommy has a full week of intense training planned for her here. I'll post more next week to let you know how week 2 of treatment is going...unless something big and exciting happens before then!

In the News

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/30263448

For those of you that might be interested, John's Grandparents' story was featured in an article on NBC TODAY's website on Friday. If any of you happened to watch the show that morning, we'd love to know if they were a story featured on TV too. Anyway, just thought you might want to check out the link and read the story. It's getting lots of national attention this week! Amazing!

Simulation

Well, we arrived back in Houston at 4am on Thursday morning after 42 hours of driving and seeing 10 states in one week. Needless to say, we are glad to be "home." We got everyone settled and back to sleep by about 5am. John's mom came back with us so she can help John with the kids next week while I attend my new director education week in Dallas. So, I was able to go to John's appointment at 2pm with him. They've got him all marked up and ready to go for radiation. He even has 2 permanent tatoos on his arm! He will start treatment on Monday at 9:15 am and undergo 33 treatments. It will be 5 days a week, Monday through Friday, at 9:15 am each time. They gave us the schedule yesterday, and his ending date will be Monday, June 1st. So, we are just trying to find ways to pass the time away and keep the kids entertained. I've found a local Mary Kay meeting to attend and hope to be able to do that when I return from Dallas if John feels well enough to watch the kids for awhile in the evening on Tuesdays. The kids love going for walks around the lake and swimming at the pool. It's just been a little to chilly for swimming so far, but based on what I hear about Houston weather, it should heat up pretty quickly. We became members of the Children's Museum to give the kids something else to do, so I think we are headed there today to pass some of the time away. I'll post more Monday once John's experienced his first treatment. Thanks for keeping up with us!

On the road again...

As posted earlier, John's grandma passed away at 7am on Saturday morning. Then, 6 1/2 hours later, her husband, John's grandpa passed away also. The two of them had been married for 67 years, and truly could not live without each other. It's been a big loss to their family at one time, but such a sweet blessing for them. So, we decided to go ahead and go back for the memorial service. It took about 13 hours, and the kids did great. They slept the last 3 or so hours since it was bedtime by then for them. We talked to MD Anderson this morning and explained the situation, and they have rescheduled John's appointment for Thursday at 2pm. So, basically, this just set him back 3 days, but he's thankful that it happened now versus in the middle of his treatment when he might not have been able to make it back. We are headed back to Houston Wednesday after the service, and we'll get back to things on Thursday. I'll post more then.

New Car

I forgot to mention that the new car arrived at the dealership Friday afternoon...just a couple of days too late. Oh well. It probably worked out best so that we have a bigger vehicle to transport anyone that comes to visit us here in Housston. All in all, I'm happy that it's in, and we'll have that to look forward to when we get back home. So, for any of you locals, you can swing by Ramey Automotive in Richlands to check out the Vibe!

Headed to Kansas...

We just got word from John's sister that his grandmother passed away. Most likely, we will all be headed to Kansas tomorrow or Monday. John may just go by himself. We haven't really decided yet. So, obviously, we will have to reschedule his appointment for Monday. It looks like he won't start radiation until the end of next week or the first of the following week. Please continue to pray for safe travel and strength through all of this...

John's Consultation

John's consultation appointment was at 9:15 CST this morning. We dropped him off at the hospital and headed to Target to pick up a couple more things that we needed. We hadn't even finished shopping and he called us to come back and get him. I guess the number of patients that were willing to have an appointment on Good Friday must've been low. They just met with him to get his vitals and stuff before they start treatment. He has an appointment for Monday morning at 10 am when they will mark his arm for the location of the radiation. Then, he should receive his schedule at that point, and possibly start radiation on Tuesday. At least they are getting right to it as soon as we got here.

We're in Houston!

We are in Houston now! We left Virginia Wednesday after preschool and headed for Texas. I didn't realize this until Tuesday when I printed off the directions, but we went directly through Birmingham. Too bad we didn't have more time to plan and meet us with some old friends for dinner...maybe on the way home in June! We spent the night in Meridian, MS...the halfway point...after about 9 hours in the car. Then, we go up bright and early Thursday morning to drive the rest of the way. We've never been to Louisianna before, so we enjoyed seeing the marsh lands and Baton Rouge. The kids were so happy to FINALLY be in Texas, but it took us about another 2 hours to reach Houston and our final destination. So, over the course of 2 days we traveled 7 states, and the kids did really well. They were so content in the car and hardly complained at all.

We were happy to arrive at our new home. It is really nice, and they did a great job preparing things for us! The kids are so excited!...It's like a vacation to them!

Here is our new contact information:

The Yingling Family
7171 Buffalo Speedway, Unit 1015
Houston, TX 77025
713-592-0240

I went shopping for groceries and supplies last night...that was an interesting experience. Needless to say, I think I ended up at a Wal-mart in the wrong part of town, but God protected me. I've learned since then that there are closer/safer places to shop. I don't think it will take long for us to get adjusted though. I'm having issues with my Internet, so I'm going to make a separate post with an update on John.

We're Moving...for 7 Weeks

So, I'm sure some of you have been on the edge of your seats waiting to hear what the pathology reports indicated. After extensive studying of the tumor, the doctor's still have no idea what it is. It doesn't resemble anything they have ever seen before. They even had John's case reviewed at a large meeting the hospital holds with all of the top chemotherapy, radiation, pathology, and orthopedic oncology doctors to review his pathology slides and try to come to a conclusion. They decided as a team that their recommendation for John was to give him 6 weeks of high dosages of radiation...in Houston. They aren't saying his tumor is malignant, but since they can't prove that it is benign, this is the best decision as far as they are concerned. They want to prevent it from coming back, and possibly in a different place next time, especially since he's so young. So...off we go! We will leave on Wednesday because his first appointment is Friday morning at 9:15 am. This will just be a consultation, and they will set up his radiation schedule after his appointment. The kids are excited about staying in a "hotel" in "Texas." They are pretty excited that they get to go this time. We've actually just signed a lease on a furnished apartment about a mile from the hospital, and we will drive our own car down there this time. Please say a prayer that our Mary Kay car will get here in time. I talked to the company today, and they said it shipped on March 25th. It sure would be nice to have the new one with better gas mileage! We are currently looking for a housesitter/dog watcher/lawn mower to take care of a few things while we are gone. Other than that, I think we're getting things lined up and ready to go. I guess the good things about my job not having any territories is that I can work my business in Houston and attend meetings there. Jennmar has put John on the network through the Internet, so he should be able to complete a lot of his work from Houston. We are going to do our best to manage our responsibilities from there. So, now you know what the deal is with us. We'd appreciate your continued prayers! Thanks for being so faithful in sharing this journey with us!

Discharged

The hospital discharged John at about 2pm this afternoon! Praise the Lord! He was doing so well that they decided to let him go early after removing his drain and his IV this morning. The PA changed the dressing on his arm, and told him we were free to go! They might even let him do his follow up appointment closer to home. That will be a blessing too!

We are just staying at the hotel relaxing right now. We hope to go eat at the hotel restaurant tonight, get a good night of sleep, and head home tomorrow!

Mommy or Jocelyn

Well, for those of you that are getting tired of the constant updates, I don't think much will change with John's condition in the next 24 hours. He does hope to get off of the IV in the morning, and he's started taking pain pills (which seem to be working really well) rather than using the pump (which is the goal). So all is well. He's sleeping right now. I was hungry, and not interested in basketball, so I decided to go down to the cafe to eat and check email.

As I was updating the blog earlier, we had a new development, but I was not in the room to take the call. I walked back in the room, and the first thing out of John's mouth was, "It's a good thing we left a medical release form." Naturally, I panicked and asked about 5 times what happened before he would just come right out with it and tell me the story. I'll spare you the details, but Jocelyn's arm got pulled out of socket this morning. Mom had the medical release, so she took her to the pediatrician's office and then on to the hospital for x-rays. It popped back into place as they were doing the x-ray. I'm not sure who it has bothered more, Jocelyn or Mommy. I'm pretty upset and feeling very helpless from so far away. I just want to hold her. I'm sure I'm just tired and emotions are getting the best of me. Anyway, you might add Mommy and Jocelyn to your prayer list...and please pray that no one else in my family injures their right arm this week. I'm not sure how many more injured arms and medical tests we can take!

Day 1

John is doing well this morning. He is up and about. He was sitting in the chair when I arrived this morning. He'd already had breakfast and gone for a little walk. The pain is still bad, but I think he's just trying to wean himself off of the pain medicine too quickly. Afterall, this was pretty major surgery. He's happy right now watching the Jayhawks play Baylor in the Big 12 Tournament, so I slipped out for a few minutes to take care of some things and update all of you. I got our flights booked home...long story, but I left him in recovery last night to try to take care of it and the representative at Delta was a complete jerk. He wasn't helpful on finding us a flight at all, and when I asked him if the $150 change fee per ticket could be waived (b/c the tickets were already going to be an additional $500 each), he said, "Uh, I'm sorry, why would we do that?" Ahhh! I told him I'd just have to take care of it later. So, I just called a few minutes ago and got a very sweet lady who OFFERED to speak with her manager to have the fee waived. I didn't even have to ask. Not to mention, the addition price per ticket was much cheaper too. Praise the Lord! Some people...seriously. Anyway, so he should be discharged on Saturday morning, and we will leave Houston at 5:45 pm on Saturday night. We won't arrive home until 11:30 pm on Saturday night, but it was the only flight available to get out this weekend. Well, I better get in there and go check on him. Just wanted to give all of you the update today!

Recovery

John spent about 7 1/2 hours in recovery. He was probably stable after about 3 1/2 hours, but we spent the other 4 hours there waiting for a clean room to move to. He's doing well. his pain is under control now. He's looking forward to eating and watching college basketball tomorrow! We cannot use our cell phones in the room, but I'll check voicemail and text messages when I go get something to eat! We hope to go home on Sunday, but I have to work some things out with Delta!

4pm update-He's Done

The surgeon is the one that spoke to me at 4pm. He's all done. No long term damage. The artery is fine. They "peeled" the tumor off of a nerve to avoid damaging it. Two tendons are sewn together, but his mobility in his arm and hand should be fine.

They still don't know what the tumor is. Pathology will study it more and send it off if they still can't figure it out.

Thanks for all of your prayers. Sorry for short update. Having Internet issues and need to get back in case he is ready in recovery for me to visit. More tomorrow.

2pm Update

Well, first they told me he was in recovery and made me pack up all my stuff to go see him. I told the volunteer that there was no way, but she was sure she had the right person. So, they took me to recovery to the wrong person! Then, I came back to the waiting room and got an update from the nurse a few minutes later. She didn't have much to say...just that the official start time for surgery was 1:19 pm when they made the first incision and that his vital signs looked good. So now...I guess we wait until 4pm...

He's In Now

Well, they changed the surgery time on us again this morning. John got a call on his cell phone at 7am, and they asked us to check in for surgery at 9am. So, we went ahead and got up and ready and headed to surgery check-in. They told us that we would be checking in 1-2 hours before our actual surgery time. I think they took him back to pre-op at about 11:30 and we spent about an hour back there before they wheeled him in to surgery. Needless to say, I don't think there are any worries about them operating on the correct arm...they must've asked him 12 times why he was here. I was starting to get worried thinking..."for the LOVE, don't you people know why we are here!!!" Apparently it's just standard procedure these days, but I do think he got asked the routine questions a little more than normal since we had to switch surgeons. Then, we got held up b/c all of the medical consent forms had the other surgeons name on them. So...we had to wait for John to sign more paperwork. Anyway, all of the staff has been wonderful! The MRI from Monday does show that the tumor is sitting on a major artery. So, there is some concern about that. They will do everything they can to shave the tumor away from it without knicking the artery. Please pray for wisdom for Dr. Statcher as he works on that part of the surgery! Well, I'm supposed to get an update at 2pm EST, so I'll hopefully update a little more then!

Surgery Time

Since our surgery date was changed to Wednesday, we had nothing scheduled for today (Tuesday). Dave Relford, a family friend I have not seen in probably over 10 years, took care of us. He lives here in Houston and was able to show us around. He took us to Kemah Boardwalk, where we had some good seafood at an aquarium. We drove by NASA and the Johnson Space Center. We also drove around Galveston, which was hit by hurricane Ike. It was amazing to see the beaches destroyed and the buildings in rough shape. We also drove around downtown and saw the Toyota Center (where the Houston Rockets play) and Minute Maid Park (where the Houston Astros play). Thanks to Dave, we were able to get out for the day.

We did find out today when our surgery will be. We have to check in at 12:45p.m on Wednesday. The surgery will start approx. 2 hours later and will take around 4 hours, if all goes well. My guess is that it will take a little longer because they will have to work around the significant amount of muscle. They have marked my arm with a sharpie to specify which arm to operate on. I thought they were just messing with me, but many people have said the same thing. I was speaking with a guy yesterday (who was having his head operated on) while we were waiting for an MRI and he said that they wrote on his head "this side", so they would operate on the correct side of his head.

Katie will post again tomorrow evening to let everyone know how it went. I will not be able to because I will be drugged and sedated.

Surgery Date Changed!!!

Well, we woke up at 3:30 am EST and left our house at 4 am this morning to catch a 6 am flight out of Tri Cities airport. Our flight in Atlanta was delayed, so we were late getting to the appointment with the surgeon. We waited a long time and it seemed like we were really late getting in to see him, but we thought it was due to our tardiness. Then, the nurse, who remembered meeting with us back in January, dropped the bomb on us. John's surgeon was admitted to the Emergency Room last night. He'd been sick all week last week, but he really thought he'd be okay by today. Obviously he was wrong. So, his colleague has agreed to take over his surgeries for the week. Unfortunately many of them are being pushed back in order to fit all of them in. So, we met with the other surgeon this afternoon, and John will have surgery sometime late in the day on Wednesday. He is currently having another MRI done right now at the request of the new surgeon since it has been almost 2 months since the last one. We have a free day tomorrow and have talked about going to visit my brother. I hope that John will get plenty of rest tonight and tomorrow though so he will have plenty of strength for recovery after surgery. John's mom is flying to our house tomorrow morning to help take care of the kids. We've all had a touch of a stomach bug, and my mom would not be able to miss work all week this week. So, just when we thought we had a plan in place, everything changed! I'll try to post tomorrow after 5pm CST when we have an exact surgery time. The surgeon said it should take 3-4 hours for surgery. Wednesday will be another long day. We appreciate your prayers, for John's surgery, for my strength, for my mom's strength as she cares for the kids, for John's mom's safety as she travels tomorrow, and for our kids to be comforted while we are away as Jackson seems to have a pretty good understanding of what is going on right now. We'll keep you posted.

Brand New Sales Director!!!

I had to share with all of you that I'm officially a brand new Sales Director! Thank you to everyone that helped us get to this point! When I called Jackson into my office to show him the tracking sheet and that we had all 30 names that we needed, he threw up his arms in the air with his hands in little fists and said, "YES! WE DID IT!" The kids are so excited about this and have truly taken ownership in it! God really worked a lot of miracles these past two months to make all of this happen, and I'm so thankful and excited! Thanks for sharing this journey with us! As many of you know, we head back to Houston, TX on March 9th for surgery on March 10th. I'll plan to update the blog some while we are there and after we return home this time too! We'd really appreciate your continued prayers for John next week, and I am so thankful that God has provided and taken care of all of our deadlines prior to us leaving for surgery! It is such a relief to me! God is so good!

Sales Director Qualification Update

Okay, so maybe it's not "ALL" about John. I did want to give all of you an update on our progress at this point. All of our production for DIQ (Director-In-Qualification) is complete! That is the amount of products that we order from the company as a qualifying unit. In order to be completely finished, we need 9 more unit members. Please pray for us the remainder of the month that we will find 9 new consultants in the next 11 days! I appreciate everyone's help and prayers and know that God will continue to bring us through this journey!

Surgery Date

Well, the doctor was very prompt to get back with John yesterday about scheduling a surgery date. We are on the books for Tuesday, March 10th. Most likely, we will travel there the morning of Monday, March 9th and come home in the middle of the day on Thursday, March 12th. At least this trip will be much shorter...and a little more planned! I'll post more when it gets closer to time... Thanks for your prayers...we know they made a difference!

The Results Are In!!!

What a blessing! John just got the call from the Orthopaedic Oncologist at MD Anderson, and he actually said that pathology has no idea what it is...so...Praise the Lord!...it isn't sarcoma!...AND at least there is no definitive answer that it would be cancer. On the other hand, they aren't going to declare that it is not cancer. The good sign is that his chest x-ray and CT Scan came back clear, so there is no evidence that anything has spread to his organs (mainly the lungs in this case)!...another answered prayer!

So, I'm sure you are thinking...what's next? We will go back to Houston for surgery at the beginning of March. The doctor said there was no rush on it and his schedule is pretty booked for February. They will plan to take the whole tumor at that point, but will have to avoid the area around it since it is so large and in his forearm. It sounds like it will be a pretty intense surgery, but we trust that everything will come out okay. He will just plan to stay one night in the hospital, and we will be able to come home for the majority of his recovery...another blessing! It will probably be a couple of weeks before he will have use of his arm again, and at least a month before he can be back to his normal activity...which seems like a minor issue at this point!

I think they will just continue to monitor him and probably do a little more testing on the tumor to try to make sense of what is going on. I believe it is an answer to prayer...that doctors may not ever be able to explain! Thanks so much for all of your prayers and support!

Thanks so much for all of your continued prayers and support! It has been such a blessing to have such a large circle of friends that have rallied around us during this trying time!

No Chuck E. Cheese

We are home! Yeah! It was so great to see the kids! It's amazing how easy it is to jump right back into my roles at home! Jocelyn was stuck to me like glue for the first half of the day today, but once she realized Mommy wasn't going anywhere, she went off and played independently as usual.

Jackson and Joy were very disappointed last night though because we weren't able to go to Chuck E. Cheese. I think our original plan was to hopefully arrive on a weekday and take them when no one else would be there (which is what we normally do). But, needless to say, on a Saturday night, it was packed. The line was out the door to get in and we could see that it was wall-to-wall people inside. Not good. So, much to their dismay, we went and played on the playground at Chick-Fil-A and had dinner there. It wasn't the best way to start off our homecoming...disappointing them like that, but I think they are over it now.

The orders are still coming in! Thanks to all of the great referrals you have all given me! And, I know this is crazy, but I'm really, really close to finishing my Sales Director qualification, so we are thinking that I will try to finish that up this month. I didn't expect it to happen so quickly, but it really does seem like great timing. I would make almost twice as much money in monthly comission checks with just a few hours more of work each week. At this point, with added travel expenses, it really seems like God's provision for our extra needs right now. Please join us in praying for that, and know that I truly appreciate any contributions that you have made to my business! A year ago I had no idea why God was bringing all of this back into my life, but now I'm starting to see why it was a part of His plan! Okay, I plan to leave you alone with the updates for now until we get the results back from the biopsy...hopefully by Friday!

We're Done

John is finished with all of his tests! Yeah! He's done with the CT scan. He said it wasn't too bad, but needless to say, I don't think he wants to see another needle for awhile...I know I don't. We are just resting up for our big day of travel and Chuck E. Cheese tomorrow!

Biopsy's Done!

I am so thankful that the biopsy is done! John did really well! He was up and ready to go as soon as they unhooked him from everything. I think he was mostly hungry since it was 6pm and he had not eaten since midnight last night. God really protected him today and gave him a quick, safe procedure! Praise the Lord!

We hope to find out about the results by Friday of next week. The doctor here will just let us know wheter it is malignant or benign, but we don't expect to know anything next week as far as what our next plan of action will be. We have no idea when that will happen, but we are just glad to be making progress towards getting some answers.

Thanks for all of your thoughts, prayers, encouragement, and support! We can't wait to go home! He has a CT scan of his chest tomorrow at 12pm...so no more eating again tomorrow morning. After that though, we are done for now! We can just relax the rest of the day tomorrow and head home Saturday morning! Yeah!

CAR QUALIFICATION COMPLETE!!!!

Our car qualification is officially complete!!!! YEAH!!!! Thank you to everyone that helped and prayed!!! What a blessing in the midst of our trials!!!!

Prayer for the Biopsy

I realized that a lot of you know the issue with having the biopsy done locally, so I thought I should explain the significance of having the biopsy done here at MD Anderson. IF the tumor in John's arm is malignant...the type of cancer that they think that it would be is something that would spread throughout his arm if the biopsy was done in the wrong way. It can be risky to biopsy it with a needle, if done in the wrong way, because it could release the cancer cells throughout his arm...and he in turn would lose his limb.

SO...that is why we felt like he needed the best to go in there and take the sample from the tumor. They do need to do the needle biopsy (maybe because the tumor is already so big that they can't take the whole thing out at one time), but we feel certain that the staff here is experienced enough to know what they are doing. They will use an ultrasound machine to guide the needle into the tumor at the precise spot to remove exactly what they need to determine what type of tumor it is.

Please just pray that all goes well with the biopsy. Obviously, we hope and pray that the tumor is benign...but just in case, please pray that the biopsy procedure is done in the correct way so that there won't be any risk of the cells spreading throughout his arm.

Then, once we are over the hump of the biopsy, it will take ONE WEEK to get the results back. So, as much as we all want to know whether or not it is really cancer, it will be the end of next week (let's all just plan for Friday so we'll be surprised if we find out earlier) before we know anything about the results.

We appreciate your prayers tomorrow, for John's safety, and for my sanity as I wait for him to be taken to recovery. I can't thank you enough for all of the prayers. Please pray for the kids too as we are all really starting to miss each other!

Headed Home Saturday

Well, we were hoping to go home Friday, but after reading through John's paperwork, I realized that we are not allowed to travel within 24 hours of the completion of his biopsy...So that would put us at 5pm on Friday night...and needless to say...we aren't able to get a flight into our tiny airport that late in the evening.

So...we are going to stay all day Friday, go for the CT scan at 11:30 am, and at least we can leave knowing we got everything taken care of while we were here...and yesterday was the only day that did not include any type of appointment. So, all in all, I guess we can consider this a productive week/trip.

We'll leave Houston around 11am on Saturday morning and arrive in Johnson City at 4:07 pm...with plenty of time to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese when they pick us up!!! I sure am starting to miss them!...but I must say, I've slept more this week than the other 3 weeks of January combined! That has been a blessing!

I'll post again tonight when the car is officially earned!

Biopsy Scheduled

FINALLY!!! We got a call late this afternoon after sending 2 email messages and one voicemail to the scheduling department. The biopsy is scheduled for Thursday at 1:00 p.m. Tomorrow we will go for a quick 20 minute "interview" at 2:30 pm to discuss the procedure and make plans for Thursday. That is all we have on the agenda for tomorrow. Then, most of our afternoon Thursday will be consumed with the biopsy. Friday, he is scheduled to have a CT scan on his chest. We will probably see if we can move that up to an earlier day and time so we can come home on Friday morning. Otherwise, we hope he could just hold off on the CT scan at this point. We won't get the results back on the biopsy for about a week, so we will be home and back into our routine before we even know what it really going on here. We aren't quite getting answers as quickly as we had hoped, but at least we are getting somewhere. We'll let you know when we get our plane tickets booked to come home...and hopefully, we won't be back!!!

For those of you wondering about the car qualification, I got my part of the production submitted. So, at this point, I just need one new person to place an order and become "active". I have a consultant that plans to place her order tomorrow, so the car should be finished then! Thank you to everyone who helped with this on such short notice! God has been so good through all of this...providing for our every need!

More later!

First Report From Houston

I thought I better go ahead and post something for those of you that have been watching the blog faithfully for updates today. We got registered this morning and finally met with the doctor around 9:30 or so. He just confirmed what we already know...John has a large mass in his right forearm that could be malignant or benign. The only way to know is to biopsy it. After the biopsy, we'll have to wait a week for the results to see where to go from there. So, we'll continue to wait. The biopsy has not been scheduled yet. We are hoping for Wednesday or Thursday. Then, we will head home hopefully on Friday and just wait for the results. I'll post again later today to let you know what day we are going for the biopsy.

Our Plan At This Point

As most of you already know, we are headed to Houston Sunday after church. We have to be at MD Anderson at 6:30 am on Monday morning to get registered, and we'll meet with the doctor at 7:30 am. Past that, I can't tell you a thing at this point. We have no idea what they plan to do while we are there...we don't know when we are coming home...or if we will have to go back again. I know most of you are wondering, so I thought I'd let you know what little we know.

We do hope to come back on Wednesday, February 4th, but basically that is just a date for the airline to book us a return flight...yes, we are flying...not driving. Hopefully they will do the biopsy while we are there, so that we will know whether or not it is even sarcoma. Please just pray that they utilize our time in Houston to go ahead and get us some answers about what is really going on with John for sure.

As I stated in my email, you can really find out a lot about this type of cancer on MD Anderson's website at www.mdanderson.org ...if you are curious...which explains why we have to go there for the biopsy to even know what is going on with him.

We have hotel arrangments made and feel certain that we will be well taken care of while we are there. My brother moved to San Antonio a year ago and has already agreed to come visit us if/when needed. He is only about 3 hours away from where we will be staying.

So, I think I've answered most questions I've received so far. Yes, John is still going to work. He still feels completely fine and healthy. To him, today is no different than life was a week ago, and I think that is a good thing at this point. My mom gave me a magnet once, several, several years ago that really made an impact on my life...it says, "Don't destroy your now by worrying about tomorrow." This is advice we have chosen to live by right now and hope that you will do the same!

Hopefully I'll have more info to post Monday evening!

To Keep You Informed

Well, I've read plenty of other blogs...some that others created just for fun updates, and some that keep others informed about not so fun situations that occur in their lives. I just never thought I'd be the one writing them. But, here I go again...first facebook, now a blog...2 things I said I would never do. I'm really glad I joined facebook now though. It has allowed us to connect with lots of old friends that we had completely lost touch with, and now...all of those people are lifting up prayers for John! What a blessing! As for the blog, I decided that would be better than constantly emailing to 60 or so people that may not want the "play-by-play" on John's journey. So there you have it. I'll try to update daily, at least for now, and you can just check on us from here, rather than me bothering you with tons of emails. So, I guess I'm giving this blog thing a try afterall. Please keep praying!