I Have a Feeling

I have a feeling that my year is going to be very busy...

My brother in law, Jesse, Marianne's husband, has cancer again.

Jesse had a full 6 month petscan done the day before Thanksgiving and there was nothing.

When we had Christmas at my mom's on the 27th he brought down his snow blower and helped my brothers dig out the propane tank and driveway. The next day he told Marianne he thought he pulled a muscle in his neck.

Three days later Marianne could feel the lump. The following Sunday the lump was noticeable on his neck. Two days later on Tuesday he went back to the hospital and had another scan done and it showed the lump in his neck, one in his armpit (where he had it before) and one in his pelvic region. The doctor said they were all on the left side and indicated that this was a good thing.

Friday he went in for a biopsy and had the cancer confirmed. He went through his first round of chemo that afternoon and spent the weekend in the hospital.
He is scheduled to have his pic line put back in on Monday.

Last time he had chemo every three weeks and was able to go on with life like normal. This time they are treating it just a little bit more aggressively and he will spend 3 days in the hospital with every chemo treatment.

Tonight when you hug your family good night and say your prayers please remember to say one for my sweet sister and her little family. Pray for peace, strength and understanding. Peace because their lives have been thrown into turmoil, strength because they have 2 boys, 5 and 9, that are destructively naughty, understanding because they are questioning why right now and don't know the love of our Lord. May they learn to take peace from Him in their time of need and let Him carry them.

I will be driving back and forth quite a bit now and into the future. So my posting will be sporadic. And yes it is possible... I'm hoping to get my BlackBerry to be able to let me post but for right now it will take me to the posting page and let me write the post but then there is no publish button and the couple of times there has been a publish button it hasn't worked. I know I'm spoiled... Austin's works and mine doesn't and that is just not right.

Sleep problems....

I think my sleep problems would work themselves out if the family would just get healthy and stay healthy. So a little update:
Jesse is doing good with the chemo. He did end up shaving his head before the second round and let me tell you he is not the kind of guy that looks good bald. He does say that the lump feels smaller and that he is getting the full use of his arm back with little to no pain. Very good news. We are hopeful that his next ct scan will show that the lump is smaller or even better nonexistent.

And now some not so good news:
Austin's grandma Elaine is going back to the doctor for more test. She had a reproductive tract type cancer several years ago and she is starting to feel the same symptoms. We should know more next week.

Now for the update I have been dreading. Well I guess it can't really be an update if I am as of yet to actually write anything about it so here goes:
Friday the 13th my brother Darin was in Shenandoah and got hit with a tire iron in the face a couple of times. The details are a little sketchy still. He was drunk and doesn't remember a whole lot, as you can imagine. After a fight to even get him to go to the doctor at all he went to another doctor Monday and is now set up for reconstructive surgery on Friday. I have yet to find out he exact extent of his injuries partly because Mom doesn't want to tell me but I will be seeing photos on Saturday. From what I have gathered his jaw, nose and eyebrow are broken and something about his cheek bone. I don't even know what side. I will get clearer explanations when I can corner Mom or Cameron and they can't say they have to get off the phone and hang up on me.
Darin has changed in the last several years and has done somethings that he regrets and hasn't been an angel in the least. He has also done some really good things that seem to be overlooked by a lot of people. As he was sitting in the hospital talking to my mom he said "I'm sure I deserved this for something or another at some point in time." Darin is not my true brother but he is my brother all the same. It just gives me a chill to think that he could actually believe he deserved to be beat that way. No one ever deserves that. No matter how much of a butt head they are;) We are just so thankful he isn't hurt anymore than he is. Things could have turned out a lot differently.

Non-Hodgkins

This is a post that is very hard for me. I should have written about it already so that I could stop worrying about it but I have come to the realization that that just isn't going to happen. So here goes.
Two weeks ago my brother-in-law Jesse was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (spelling). Since then he has been back and forth to the doctors for different procedures and it has been extremely difficult for him and my sister to absorb. It really came as a shock to the whole family. Yesterday he got some really good news. It is stage one and is only in that one spot. Considering the circumstances we couldn't have asked for better news. He also went through his first round of chemo. He will have a round every 3 weeks for a total of 6 rounds.
Hopefully next August we will be celebrating his one year cancer free.