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!