Health Update

Hi--I know it has been a little bit since I gave you an update so I will try to briefly tell you what is going on. As you know, I was diagnosed with a very rare type of cancer on August 28 of this year. This cancer, VIPoma, only strikes one in ten million people. The only chance for survival is if they can locate the tumor and remove it. If that is done successfully, I will still need to be tested every few months for the rest of my life to check and see if the tumor has come back (which it usually does). So far I have undergone every type of CT Scans, MRIs, Radiation Scans, Colonoscopy, and Endoscopy Outpatient surgeries in an effort for the doctors and surgeons to locate the exact location of the tumour. All tests confirm that the nodule they see in my stomach is a Neuroendocrine Tumour, however we do not know for sure yet if it is "The VIPoma Tumour". Now it is like a race against time for them to find where it is located. I had an Endocopy procedure performed this past Thursday at St. Joseph's Hospital in which they thought they may have found the tumour, however they were not able to remove it because it kept "rolling into the lining of my stomach". So, here we are. They would like for me to give the doctor who performed the surgery on Thursday one more shot at retrieving the tumour. If he is still unsuccessful, a Pancreatic Surgeon ( whom Keith and I are very familiar with by now) will have to perform a more extensive surgery which will include exploratory surgery and a long hospital stay. Things regarding this cancer moves rapidly because of the urgency to remove it. One day I am attending a soccer game with the kids and receive a phone call while on the field to report to one of my six physicians or to the hospital the next day or day after.

The next oupatient surgery is scheduled for the week after Thanksgiving and we are praying that the Surgeon is successful this time. If not, we will have no choice but to go to plan B. I am passed the "Why Me" phase and the bitterness and the guilt. I now realize that God has something big for me planned. I know this because He will never put more on you than you can bear. Myself, my husband, and my children are all covered under a good Christian church with an open and outstanding Leader and we are committed to give of ourselves to the church as much as we can. We also wanted our children to grow up in the church and have their own one on one relationship with the Lord. It seems that once I decided to join the church and become more active is when the pains associated with this disease started.

I will beat this Cancer. I have to. I have too many people praying for me and too much to live for. All of my children and my grandchild need me. My parents are terrified they may be losing me. Even my grandmother and extended family members call and talk to me a lot to express their concern and love for me. Being in this church has been a blessing to me and I actually wake up thankful that I am able to go to church that day and praise the Lord. I feel so at peace when I am there even through the pains which are unbearable at times. I will be a living testimony to all of those struggling through and living with Cancer. In fact, once I am better, I may start a support group for this particular cancer, VIPoma . I want to get the word out about the symptoms and signs of this disease because usually this disease is not caught until it has already spread and it is too late. Too date, I nor my doctors have been able to locate anybody who is still alive with this disease except me. Yes, I do believe I will have a story and testimony to tell !

My Four Year Old Attacked In Face By Dog

Oh my God! When I arrived in the emergency in the room where my four year old son was being treated for a vicious dog attack. The dog had bitten my son in the face and it appeared the upper lip was loosely hanging on and there was blood everywhere? You could clearly see where the dog’s fangs had bitten my son down into my son’s face right up under the nose and through both lips. I was devastated.
It all started a few hours ago. I was having a procedure done at another hospital and my parents had agreed to pick up my son after school and take him to their home until my outpatient surgery was complete. When my parents arrived at their home, they took Keith down out of the Expedition and had instructed him to go into house while they proceeded to retrieve his two younger cousins out of the SUV. By the time my parents walked into the door (within a minute after pulling into the driveway), it was too late. Keith’s 18 year old sister was screaming that Keith was bleeding. My mom rushed over to him and told my father who had just walked in the door to turn around get back into the SUV because they needed to rush him to the hospital because he had been attacked by one of their dogs. On the rush to the hospital, my mom kept applying pressure to the wounds with a cold rag. Once at the hospital my mom called me on my cell phone. Not wanting to upset me because of a rare disease/cancer I was at the hospital for, she proceeded to tell me what happened and to hurry and get to the other hospital.

My four year old son required 14 stitches to his face. I believe I cried more than he did with each needle puncture to sew up the wound. The next day his face looked even worse. The swelling had set in and he did not look anything like the handsome young man of a day before. He looked so bad that his two sisters (eight year old and ten year old) could not bear to look at him. They cried and cried. He looked like he was in soooo much pain. The swelling started to go down by day 3, but we still had to try and keep the stitches clean. The stitches were removed by his pediatrician ten days after the attack. During this time we had numerous churches and people praying for him. Today if you were to look at him, you could not tell he was attacked. He still has scars but I am praying that they will completely go away. To be honest, I believe he is healing rather quicker than anybody ever expected. As for the dog, he was taken away by animal control, tested for rabies, and put to sleep at the request of my parents. They loved that dog and it hurt everyone to see him put down, but how can trust the animal after he has shown such aggression towards a child?

He's Going to Pre-K

I finally found a preschool that I am comfortable with and my son is scheduled to start there on Monday. Please excuse me while I jump from joy!!! I love having him home with me, but we both need a break and he needs to be learning and praying and this school is a faith based school so they pray every morning and every afternoon. The classrooms are school...only ten kids per class..and it is clean and all of the staff, the directors and teacher are all intelligent and gracious. He will only be going for four hours a day, but that is good enough for now...You can learn a lot in four hours, plus he will be able to play with friends both inside and outside and work off some of his energy.

On the other hand of this,the four hours a day will give me the opportunity the keep the house clean without my four year old messing it right back up, I can go grocery shopping without having to put him in one of those dirty old car carts that all the kids love to ride in (and those carts are very hard to turn), etc. I am looking forward to Monday, I just hope my son is too. If we can get through it without kicking, screaming, begging, and saying, "I promise I'll be good...just to make me go to school." it will be awesome.

My Four Year Old

My four year old is driving me crazy. No, really, really crazy. He can be the sweetest little boy at times, but most of the time he is an over active, overly imaginative, creative, jumping, kicking, whining, crying, whining, demanding, hungry mean machine. He does things just to see how far he can push my buttons and at first I just sit there and occasionally threaten him with a time out or a spanking or a timeout in his room alone…and for a minute he may get quiet until he realizes he would rather take his chances and just scream at the top of his lungs while looking at me. That is when I have to take action.
The fact that he is home with me during the day now instead of in pre-K makes things a little worse. He needs to be in a school environment at least for half a day learning and growing with kids his own age. The problem is I have not been able to find a free pre-k program in our neighborhood in which I can pick him up and pick his sisters up on time as they both get out of school at the same time. So, I would end up paying a late fee to one of the schools which I cannot afford. So I keep looking for a pre-k or church pre-k program to place him in. I am trying but you know for yourself that you can’t just put your child anyplace. You need to check and double check the place out to make sure that your child is in a good place.
Placing Keith Jr. someplace where he will be able to grow and where he will feel comfortable is going to be a challenge. He is a spoiled momma’s boy but once he gets used to a place he thrives but he problem is it usually takes him a while before he gets to the thriving point. I could put him where he was last year up until I lost my job but I cannot afford it. However, maybe I can call and see if he could come three days a week or ½ days and see if I can get a break on the tuition if I do. Another option is to place him in the preschool where he went to for summer camp. That is an option, but my favorite option would be to just place him with our church. He knows the teachers at the church and they know him. I would feel comfortable with him there and it would help thatI I would be volunteering at the church sometimes. Problem is, the daycare/prek program at the church has not started yet. Maybe I should just ask the Pastor what is needed to get it up and running. Maybe I can help make some calls or something. Yes, I think that is an option. I will call the pastor to see if I can do anything to help open te the prek doors soon, and I can check into the summercamp he went to to see if they would take him in as a pre-k person, I could offer my services to help….or I can just keep looking around in the neighborhood. OK…I think I know where to start. I will keep you updated as to the progress.

Time at Grandma's

It is after one in the morning and I can't sleep. Insomnia has been a part of my life for almost a year now. The only thing that helps is the ocassional ambien. I have had this horrible headache across my forehead for three days now and nothing except pain medication eases some of the pain, but I do not like taking medicine so I mostly suffer through it. I have an appointment with the oncology surgeon on tuesday so we should have some more answers and a surgery date then. I am so weak all of the time now. I made hotdogs for the kids for dinner which they did not mind, but I feel a little guilty. I will really try to make that homemade spaghetti and meatballs with garlic toast for them tomorrow.

I visited with my parents today much to the delight of my little ones. They had been asking all week to go over there so I took them there with the intention of only staying about fifteen minutes, but it actually turned into almost three hours. It was a nice visit, spending time with Mom and Dad is always nice and I wish I could do it more often. The only problem is that my two year old niece bites my kids and my two year old nephew throws things at them. My mom watches them for my sisters so whenever I drop by with the kids after school they are there. The funny thing is, my kids still love to be around my niece and nephew. They talk about them all the time. I also watched my granddaughter for a few hours tonight so my son-in-law could take m daughter out to dinner for her birthday. She is getting so big and is forever cute. Happy Birthday Krystal.