Wednesday, August 29, 2007

August 29th, 2007

Here is a picture taken last October at Apple Annie's. Josh's family and mine spent the day there picking out our pumpkins for Halloween and eating lunch at the apple orchard.

Dad got to Kansas City yesterday and Josh arranged for him to stay at Hope House. It's a place where patients and their families can stay for free! Josh was admitted to the hospital today so they could get him hydrated and start "cleaning out" his bowels. The surgery is supposed to start around 7:30 a.m (Kansas time)/ 5:30a.m. (Arizona time). Josh told me yesterday that he thinks his Dr. will come out and update Dad, Rosie, and Shell when he takes breaks during the surgery. As soon as I hear anything, I will try to get it posted as soon as I can.

Please continue to pray for Josh, but also, please pray that God will guide the Dr.'s eyes and hands! I know it's going to be hard and that they most likely won't be able to get all of the !@#% (sorry- I just don't like using the "C" word!) out of him, but I'm praying that God will help them get every little bit out that they can! Please pray for our whole family as we sit anxiously praying and waiting for good news!

For everybody that wants to send cards, the address is below in the Aug. 27th post. The person that I talked to at the hospital said we have to put a room number on there. Even though it will probably change a couple of times she said if we at least have one of the room #'s on there, they will be able to find him. Right now he's in room #5116. After the surgery he will be in an ICU room and I will post that room # as soon as I get it. I'm going to go ahead and send at least one of my cards tomorrow with this room # on it.

Thank you to the people who have left comments:
Patty (Nathan's Mom)- Thank you for talking to Josh and sharing your stories with him! He told me about you and some of the things you told him. I think it made him feel better and a little more confident in going with this type of treatment! I will be praying for your son!
Tracy (Raymond's Mom)- Thank you for your comments and that website. I haven't done a lot of research on this because the stuff that I did read-I didn't like! All I know is that my brother is going to beat the odds that they give on those sites and I don't want to hear anymore of it! I did go to the website to see your son's page and the home page. It was WONDERFUL to read all the stories of the people who have been in remission and have beat this horrible thing! I like the way everyone on there is giving everyone the details on their treatments and what worked for them, and their Dr.'s contact info. I will be praying for your son also!

I would like to ask everyone that is praying for Josh to also add Nathan and Raymond to your prayers and ask your friends and family to do the same! We can never have enough people praying! WE ARE GOING TO GET THE MIRACLE WE ARE ASKING FOR! WE HAVE TO STAY POSITIVE AND BELIEVE THAT GOD WILL ANSWER THESE PRAYERS!

I hope Josh and Rosie don't mind the pictures I'm putting up, but I wanted everybody to see who they're praying for and these pictures at least brighten up such dreary information!

August 29th, 2007


Here is another family picture! This was taken Christmas 2006!

Hopefully Josh and Rosie won't mind, but since some of you have never met my brother and his family, I would like to show you who you are praying for!

Monday, August 27, 2007

August 27th, 2007

I talked to Josh today and got some more details. He will be admitted on Wed. morning to get IV fluids and for a bowel prep. (He has to have his bowels cleaned out before the surgery.) Then they will do the surgery first thing Thursday morning. I was wrong in the last posting- the surgery will probably take about 15hrs. and it's being done by a team of surgeons. The Dr. thinks that the cancer might be on his liver now, so they will most likely have to remove parts of his liver. He's also concerned that it could be in or on his bowels, so he may have to remove parts of that or "scoop" it out of there. The Dr. won't know any of this for sure until he gets in there and can see it better. Right now he can't even tell Josh how much of the tumors he's going to be able to remove. Josh said the Dr. told him that he would remove the peritoneum lining and the tumors that were stuck to that would come with it. They will start him on IV chemo and the Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy right after the surgery. He's guessing that he will be in the hospital for 2 weeks after the surgery and then he won't be able to fly home for another week after that. Josh thinks that Dad can just bring him home in the semi, but I think that would be too hard for him to get in and out of and I think it would be an awfully bumpy ride. He just said we'd figure it out when we got closer to the time.

I called and got the address for the hospital, but they said I have to have a room number to send it to. The address is :
University of Kansas Medical Center
3901 Rainbow Blvd.
Kansas City, KS 66160
(913)588-5000
Even though his room numbers will change they said I have to have a room # to start with. On Wed. I will call again and see if the first room he's in before the surgery will work and then I will put it on the blog.

When I talked to him today he sounded good. He went to a chiropractor and sat in the hot tub at the hotel for awhile and that seemed to help the pain a little. He was able to eat a little more today, but he's still not eating or drinking enough and that's another reason they want to admit him on Wed.

Well that's all the info I have for today. When I get more I will post it!

PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR HIM, HIS DOCTORS, & OUR WHOLE FAMILY!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, August 26, 2007

August 26th, 2007

Hi everyone! My cousin Lynn gave me the idea to start a blog and that way I wouldn't have to worry about only being able to email 50 people with the hotmail limitations. If it's easier for you to get the email than it is to check out the blog email me and let me know and I will continue to email the updates to you! I have to do it anyways for some of Mom's older friends that really only know how to check their emails or have very limited access to the web, so it's not a problem! I haven't done this before so bear with me! Hopefully I have this thing figured out! Below is the email I sent out last night. I will add more every time I get more/ new information.

Thank you Lynn for the great idea!

Julie

August 25th, 2007

Hi everyone! Josh flew to Kansas City, KS on Thursday and met with the Dr. yesterday. The surgery and the start of the Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy will be Thursday, Aug. 30th. I hope I have this right, but I think Mom said they were also going to be giving him some other type of IV chemo at the same time! He was originally told the surgery would be Mon. or Tues, but I guess the Dr.'s surgery schedule was full those 2 days. Rosie and her best friend are out there with him. As far as I know they will be staying until the beginning of Sept. Dad is home today and will leave tomorrow afternoon. He has a couple of loads to drop off and his final drop is about 200 miles away from where Josh is. After that drop he's going to take some time and go be with Josh. We're not exactly sure what's going to happen after that. The Dr. wasn't able to tell him exactly when he'd be ready to come home. The only thing he did tell him was that he couldn't fly until 3 weeks after the surgery. As of right now, Mom and Dad are talking about borrowing Grandma's van and driving out there to get him. The van's back seat can fold down into a bed so they think that would be the most comfortable thing for Josh for such a long drive!

Frank and Gilma (Rosie's parents). Mom, and I are taking care of the boys. Gilma is staying at Josh's house to take care of the boys, and when Frank leaves on TDY, Mom will also be staying there! They are trying to keep things as normal as possible for them. They set up a web cam the other night so Josh and Rosie could see them. Josh has also done some very special things for the boys to help put them to bed every night! He's such an amazing daddy!

Thank you again for all your continued prayers and kind words! We all really appreciate it and we know that God is taking care of everything! Please continue to pray for Josh, our family and the Dr.'s and nurses that will be taking care of him! Pray that God will guide the Dr. and will show him everywhere the tumors are so he can get them all out! It sounds like it's going to be about a 7hr. surgery.

I will let you know as soon as I find out anything else. I'm also going to try and get an address where we can send cards. As soon as I get that I will email that in case anybody would like it.

Love,
Julie

PS. I know some of you have asked me to add people to the email list. If you do not see the addresses above, please forward it on for me. Hotmail will only let me send one email to 50 people at a time. If you're getting this email twice I'm sorry. Mom has asked me to email each email I write to her so that she doesn't have to type up one for everyone on her list. Some of you are on both of the lists!