Friday June 29, 2007

Hi Friends,
Well we are in a suburb of Denver enjoying some time with my brother Mike and his family and my niece Mary Anne and her family. We will do no driving today. Joe is doing really well having done all the driving except for the first day. He looks better and is definitely stronger. We have enjoyed this break from the trip but also look forward to getting home to the rest of our family. We are about half way now. Weather in Denver is much cooler than Arizona and the drive here was spectacular with the mountains and the National forests. It was great seeing Mike and Chris' kids and the little Arends. It was also nice to visit with a small group before the big family reunion the end of July. There are 76 of us in our family now and it looks like all but 3 or 4 will make it to the weekend. What a crowd! I think there will be 5 1-year-olds, so we are still growing. Again thanks for your prayers and support. We love you guys. God Bless Take Care. Mary Anne

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Hi Friends,
Well, we are on the road home and have completed our first day on the road. I drove almost three hours and then Joe drove about 5 hours. He would never have been able to do that last week so he is definitely stronger. We stopped in Cortez tonight and went and saw Evan Almighty at the show. It was cute and funny. We will take two more days to get to Denver so we can enjoy the scenery. The drive today was beautiful and still quite warm, around 96 but it has cooled down tonight. Joe got a shot of Procrit yesterday so that should boost his Hemoglobin. Dr. Lodi thinks he should continue IPT in Chicago after about a month rest. It would only be once a week or once every two weeks. We will check into it when we get home. Since things are going in the right direction, we hate to quit but we have to talk about it. It is so good for Joe not to have to go treatment each day. Just that is a spirit lifter.
It was hard saying goodbye to our church friends in Phoenix and even harder to leave Karen after three months in her life but she will be coming in for the big family reunion in a month so that isn't so bad. That's it for now. Take care and God Bless Mary Anne

Saturday June 23, 2007

Hallelujah, Praise the Lord Dear Friends,
I can't think of enough words of praise for the joy that is in our hearts now after the news from the radiologist yesterday. The PET scan showed that the tumor that was ablated three weeks ago is gone. There are two other liver tumors, not as active as the one that was ablated. Well, the embolization seems to have knocked out the activity of one of those and the other one is only active on the outside and doesn't seem to be doing much. The lung tumors are shrinking. We couldn't have gotten better news. There are no new sites. You can't imagine how this lifted Joe's spirits. Yesterday was the first day he stayed up all day since the procedure.
We went to cell group last night to tell them the news and called as many people as we could with our cell phones only having one bar of power left. I don't think I can write as uplifted as I feel. We were waiting on Jesus and He came through. It makes all the money we spent worthwhile. We spent time with Dr. Watt yesterday who works with Dr. Lodi and she has added more supplements for Joe to take when he comes home. We meet with Dr. Lodi for the last time on Monday before we head out on Tuesday. Also, Joe's platelets which had dropped to 19,000 three days ago have come up to 50,000. His Hgb is still low a 9 but his white count is back up so his body is responding to stopping the chemo. Joe will have another PET scan in two months and we know it is possible these tumors may grow again now that he is not getting treatment but we are praying with diet and supplements and prayer that his body will work to do the rest of the work. You are all such an important part of our battle with this cancer. We can't thank you enough for storming the heavens to plead for Joe's life. God is faithful. Looking forward to being home and visiting with many of you.Take care and God Bless. Mary Anne

Wednesday June 20, 2007

Hi Friends and Family,
Well things are still tough here. Joe had the transfusion last Thursday but his counts are still not staying up even with Procrit shots twice this week. Today he told the Dr. that he was through with Chemo and we would only do things to build him up until we leave for home next Wednesday. The doctor was very understanding and has changed the schedule to accomplish this. We need prayers for two things right now. 1. that the pet scan tomorrow will be encouraging and show shrinkage of the tumors and absence of the tumor that was ablated three weeks ago. and 2. that Joe's strength and stamina will improve and he will return to his usual perky self. When Joe isn't joking around you know there is something wrong. He is trying to be hopeful but he has so little energy,even hope seems difficult at times. Just making that decision today lifted his spirit because we think now the only way to go is up.
We went to Karen's after treatment yesterday to help her put a few things up in her condo for her open house on Saturday but Joe really just guided Karen and she did all the work. All I did was dinner and say "Oh that looks great". Wasn't I a big help? Her open house is Saturday and her place looks lovely.
I am still managing to swim 3 times a week and that helps with my stress. We love your emails and calls. Father's Day we got together with Sullivan's and went to Baci's for dinner. That was about the longest Joe was up the whole weekend.
We get the results of the scan on Friday afternoon so I will post after that but remember we are two hours behind.
We are patiently waiting on Jesus and we know He is faithful. The patient part is the hard part. Thanks to all of you for being there. God bless. Mary Anne

Friday June 15th, 2007

Hi Friends,
Well good thing Joe didn't go to Dallas. He ended up in the hospital last night to get two units of blood. His Hemoglobin had dropped to 8 (normal is 13-15). They also did a cat scan to make sure he wasn't bleeding from the procedure but that was negative. I brought him home this morning and he looks much better. He took today off treatment and will rest these three days. We are almost done and it will be good to get home among family, friends and our own surroundings. Our plans are to stop in Co. to see family and then in Chesteton to see old friends and then home by Monday the 2nd if all goes well. Sometimes our plans don't make it but one day at a time. today is a good day and we love good days. Joe's liver pain is definetly going away. He doesn't need any pain meds and even his walk is better as well as his color. That's it for now friends. thanks for being there. he doesn't check his email very often, about once a week but loves hearing from you. God Bless, Mary Anne P.S. Happy Fathers Day to all it applies - he is happy to be here for this one.

June 13, 2007

Hi Friends,
Well Joe decided not to go to Dallas for the seminar. He just doesn't have any stamina and has quite a bit of pain from the procedure. He talked to the radiologist yesterday and he said his pain was expected because he really roughed him up during the procedure. He finally gave in and took a Vicodin and a Flexeril last night and slept really well. We have moved the pet scan up to the 21st and the radiologist is only in his office on Fridays so we will see him on the 22nd and then probably Dr. Lodi on the 25th. We are gong to try and see Presleys tonight if he feels up to it. Thanks for your emails and your prayers. Tough times right now but I'm not giving up on God. He is faithful and teaches us stuff in these times. Just got my chauffeur call to pick him up from treatment. Had lunch with Karen today and that is always great. Bye for now God Bless. Mary Anne

June 11,2007

Hi Friends,
Well, sorry I haven't blogged in almost a week. I talked to my family so much I thought everyone was up to date. Last week was a rough week for Joe and he still isn't up to par. He stopped the Vicodin Saturday because of the side effects of constipation(more info than you wanted maybe?). He was pretty uncomfortable all weekend but did make it to church yesterday. The Presleys came to visit yesterday afternoon and we were supposed to go to dinner but being the perceptive people they are, they could see Joe was fading and they left after about an hour. I hope to see them again while they are in the area. Our brother-in-law John Rubino is coming out for his annual physical at Mayo's this afternoon and he is going to stop by. Hope Joe will be more up for the visit by then. He did get treatment all last week but he wasn't his usual jovial self by any means. He did gain back 5 pounds so it must have been a lot of dehydration. His weight looks good now and he doesn't need to lose any more. His stamina is poor and the procedure was a lot harder than he expected. This is the toughest time we have had to go through and I hope it will resolve this week. We met with Dr. Lodi Thursday and he didn't have anything new to say except to add one more pill.
Church yesterday was very uplifting and badly needed. We are in kind of a slump right now which happens but we haven't given up by any means. Just a bump in the road. God is faithful and we know He is in this with us. That makes it all possible to keep on keeping on. God bless you all for your prayers and support. Mary Anne

June 5th, 2007 Tuesday

Well, I just dropped Joe off at treatment for the day. He had a pretty rough weekend after his ablation with fever, chills, shoulder as well as liver pain. The shoulder pain has dissipated and his temp is normal now, but the liver pain persists and is expected after the ablation. It is mostly controlled by Vicodin but he is not eating hardly anything and has dropped 10 pounds in the last week. I hope this will turn around when he feels better. Thanks for your prayers and I will update again at the end of the week with hopefully more upbeat news. God Bless Mary Anne

Ablation done

The procedure today went well. They did the ablation on the liver but didn't feel it was necessary to do anything with the lung at this time. He is currently in recovery and will go home Saturday or Sunday. More later.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Hi Friends,
Well, I didn't get home til 11:00 last night so too late to go to Starbucks to post. Everything went well yesterday. The procedure was delayed three hours because they had trouble with the patient before Joe but his procedure went smoothly and only took an hour. It was officially called an embolization, which means they put little seeds in the tumor area to cut off the blood supply to let the tumor shrink so they can zap more of it today. Today will be under general anesthesia and he will make a little incision over his liver to get at the tumor and will be guided by cat scan. He will also look at the lung tumors to see if they have progressed much since his PET scan a month ago. If Joe is tolerating the procedure OK he will maybe zap a lung tumor also. There is a fine line as far as how much they can do at once because the dead tissue has to be eliminated through the kidneys and they have to be careful not to cause kidney failure. His procedure today is at 1 P.M. and hopefully I will be able to let you know today how it is. I think today will be a longer procedure. Joe was pain free from 5:30 til 8:30 when he started to have some discomfort but they put the pain pump on and then he was in charge. The hard part was laying flat for 6 hours afterwards because of the angio procedure but he did well. Karen came up to the hospital and kept us company for awhile and that was great.
Joe forgot his cell phone yesterday but I will bring it to him today. He will be staying overnight again tonight and probably come home tomorrow. The care in the hospital is great and the nurses are very compassionate. I took a picture of Joe with his surgical cap on before he went in and told him I would post it on the blog but it is only on my little cell phone so I was just joking. I know you are all anxious to hear and also praying hard. We feel the strength of your prayers, especially yesterday when we had to wait three hours. Those of you that know Joe know that is one of the hardest things for him to do. Love to you all and God bless. Mary Anne