Back from the Beach

Shannon and Landry got back from Fort Walton Beach, FL tonight. They had a great time, considering all the craziness that was going on. Landry got to experience the beach for the first time. She loved it! She also loved the pool at the condo we stayed at because it had a waterfall. Shannon's Mom and Dad met us out there last Sunday and spent the week with us as well. I stayed until Tuesday morning and headed back early to be with my family.

Each day Landry wanted to make a sand castle and sand cakes. With the sand cakes she would make the cakes and insist that mommy find some candles (Shannon substituted sticks). Then the whole family would sing "Happy Birthday to _______" (fill in blank with Pop,Daddy, Murphy, PawPaw, etc.)

She loved playing with the big girls in the pool (some other kids that were staying at the same complex). They loved her too. She would sit there and yell "Big Jump, Big Jump" and then swing on the bar that was in the pool.

For more pictures check out our web album:

Beach Trip 2007

New blood

Since Dad's hemoglobin and overall blood count continues to drop the doctors went ahead today and transfused 2 units of blood. It went pretty smooth, with no major reaction to the new blood. We joked that if he started speaking with an accent then we would be able to narrow down who's blood that he had!

Yesterday, the doctor had a central line put in . This ought to make the every day taking of blood and eventual treatment easier than continued IV's. The Lynches and Gleasons have brought dinner the last couple of nights which was very welcome since Mom and David had been eating out every meal for a week.

My Aunt Chrys (my Dad's sister) is coming in from Phoenix tomorrow to visit. We are all looking forward to seeing her.

Some Good News !!

After several days of bad news, our family received some good news today from the Doctor. They have further narrowed in on the type of leukemia that he has and believe that he has what is called Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL).

As the doctor put it, if you have to get leukemia . . . this is the one you want. APL is a form that responds very well to treatment. APL has a complete remission (CR)* of 90% much higher than the other types of leukemia.

APL is unique among the leukemias distinguished by its sensitivity to all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), a derivative of vitamin A. Basically, the ATRA is going to make these cells that are stuck in between cancer cells and white blood cells progress. He is going to start a regiment of the ATRA today and take it over the weekend.

Depending on how that goes he will start chemotherapy on Monday or Tuesday next week. He will take chemo for a week+ and it will take another week for the full effect to take place. He will stay at least two more weeks in the hospital after that to give him time to rebuild his bone marrow (white counts), fight infections (which are likely to occur), and check progress.

The doctors spent nearly 30 minutes with the family this morning, Chrys and Shannon both conference called in since they are out of town, and he went over all the options, the plan, etc. There are going to be several rounds of this over the next 6+months and the whole process is well over 2 years (the last 1.5 years being continued maintenance regiment and mostly oral treatments).

Truly, we praise God for this diagnosis today. It gives us all great hope to know that the battle that is about to be waged inside my Dad's body will be worth it.


*The term complete remission (CR) is reserved for patients who have recovery of normal peripheral blood counts; fewer than 5 percent blast cells can be present in the bone marrow, and none can have a leukemic phenotype.

Narrowing in on a type

The doctors have ruled out chronic leukemia and are narrowing in on an acute form of leukemia. His blood counts are still unchanged, quite low. His hemoglobin is continuing to drop so we will probably be starting some blood infusions in the next week or so.

We are all doing better today (emotionally) than yesterday. The heavy burden of yesterday took its toll on our family. But it also gave us a chance to share some special time together with a very honest open view of our love. Today, we have all learned more about leukemia than we ever wanted to know.

We know this is a marathon not a sprint so we are buckling in the long haul. It probably will be at least 4-6 weeks in the hospital on this first go around.

A sad day

This morning my Dad was diagnosed with leukemia. He returned from a fishing trip last week and was complaining of a pain in his leg and had a low grade fever. He went to the Urgent Care center on Friday afternoon and blood samples taken showed extremely low white blood cell counts. He was immediately admitted to the hospital and put through several tests the latest and most definitive being a bone marrow biopsy taken on Monday morning. The hematologist shared the results of those tests this morning and confirmed that he in fact has leukemia. Several more tests will be run over the next several days to determine the particular strain and treatment procedure that will be taken.

I ask you for prayers for my family, particularly my mother, as she stands by my dad in the next several difficult months. I ask you to pray for wisdom and judgment for the doctors and nurses that are caring for him. I also ask that you pray for peace and strength for my Dad as he deals with a new and difficult journey to recovery.

Cookies

The other day, I brought home some iced sugar cookies from work. I decided I would let Landry have a "treat" after dinner and I gave her 1/2 a cookie. She immediately licked the icing off the top of the cookie and promptly told me "ooh mommy....delicious bread". I have no idea where she picked up the word delicious, but I guess I need to give her goodies more often since she is so cute when she gets them.

Car Wash

Landry and I went and got my Truck washed this weekend. Landry was amazed by the entire process and has been repeating for the two days straight . . "Daddy's truck got a bath, with green soap."

Fly Fishing at Cow Creek

Last weekend I had a chance to go on a bank boondoggle and go fly fishing at Cow Creek ranch. http://www.cowcreek-ranch.com/




It is a really fantastic place that is about an hour north of Santa Fe close to Pecos, NM. 4.5 miles of stream and 6 or 7 lakes make this a fisherman paradise. We caught a ton of fish, shot a lot of shells and drank a lot of whiskey. I would highly recommend this place for some great secluded (no cellphones, tv, etc.) scenery.

Egg in my Belly!

Landry is convinced that I have an egg growing in my belly. First she picked up her shirt and said that her belly was growing like Mommy's. Then I asked her what was growing in Mommy's belly and she calmly replied, "an egg." Almost right!

David to Chicago: Part Four The Final Chapter

Downtown Naperville is what every town in America is striving to obtain. It is honestly a totally cool downtown that is probably 6-7 city blocks filled with shops, restaurants and bars. It was buzzing with people when we arrived at about 8:30. It was almost impossible to find a parking spot, we cruised the entire parking garage and finally lucked out on the street. Bordered on one side by a 5 mile brick walking path down the Dupage River it is a just perfect.

We chose, what else?, a Chicago style pizza place called Lou Malnati's. This pizza was great. Definitely recommend the butter crust deep dish style. http://www.loumalnatis.com/ We enjoyed some Sam Adams and and the pizza then cruised around downtown for a bit.

Next day we headed back to David's place and got him unpacked, went to Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, etc to get him all hooked up. He even picked up some new furniture. We had lunch at Portillos, http://www.portillos.com/portillos/look/, a must stop while in the Midwest. Portillos makes great hot dogs. We went to the Naperville location where the line was around the block to get a dog. We opted to go inside and the service was quick and food terrific.

We picked up, Shawn and Lindsay at O'hare who were flying back from Amarillo after visiting the family. We stopped off for Italian food that night at Carrabas and it was good as usual. Only funny part was the waiter, who basically insisted that he was the best waiter we would ever have , and refused to write down our order, only to screw up Lindsay's order. To compensate of course, he stared at his book and blamed the kitchen!

Next morning we headed to Davids new church Community Christian Church (CCC), http://www.communitychristian.org/. This is a forward looking church that has several campus locations but teaches the same message at each campus. David is going to be working at the Romeoville location which was the first official satellite location. They have a very nice facility for the youth programs and then have the services in the community center there. The service was a lot of fun and everyone was very friendly and seemed excited to have David there. We had time after the service to hit the "Yellow Box" service back at the main campus back in Naperville. There we got to meet some of the staff and check out the service there for comparison.

We grabbed lunch and wrapped up back at David's apartment. It was already time to head back to Amarillo (Southwest this time!!). So onto the next adventure!