Friday (Jan.16)

So much has happened since my last posted blog on Sunday, Jan. 4. On Monday morning, Jan. 5th, my Mom passed away. Evidently, she had been in quite some pain over the weekend but didn't tell me about it because she knew I would make her go to the hospital. She had told me several weeks ago that she was ready to go and that she did not want to go to her heart doctor or to the hospital. She said she wanted to be at home and in her bed when the time came. She got her wish. My Dad was with her and she went peacefully.

At her request 20 years ago, she had bequeathed her body to Wake Forest Medical School. She had also requested that there be no services. We held a visitation only at her church on Wednesday night. I'm really glad we did that, because I saw and heard how much my Mom was loved and will be missed by so many people.

My Dad is taking this really hard. He and Mom were very close and he is just lost. Joel and I have tried taking him out to eat and to do errands with us just to get him out of the house. He and Mom had been married 42 years. (If you're trying to figure out how they had only been married 42 years and I am 62, he is my stepfather whom I love more than any daughter could love her Dad.)

Please pray for us through this very hard time in our lives. Joel will start the next round of chemo this coming Tuesday, Jan. 20 for 3 days in a row. This drug will knock his platelet counts down and he may lose his hair again. Since he is not in as bad of shape now as he was in September when he first entered the hospital, we are hoping he will not get as low as he did then.

We hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year's. We appreciate so much all the cards, flowers and prayers sent to us. We are blessed to have such good friends and family.

Sunday (January 4)

We have finally reached a milestone in Joel's chemo. He finished up 10 weeks of arsenic chemo on Friday, Jan. 2. We are so happy to finally have this behihd him. He will now have 2 weeks off during which time he will be going to work for a few hours each day. His blood counts should continue to go up while during this 2 week period and prepare him for the next phase. On January 20th, he will return to Baptist as an outpatient for 3 consecutive days of a chemo drug that he received while he was in the hospital in September. It is one of the "bad" ones that may cause his hair to fall out or then again and will lower his blood counts again. After the 3 days of treatment, he will then have to stay home for a few weeks while his blood counts recover and he regains his strength. After 6 weeks of rest and recovery, he will again have 3 days of the same drug. This drug is make sure that all the cancer cells are killed. At the end of the 2nd 3-day treatment, he will have a bone marrow test to determine if all cells are gone. That is a really big prayer for us right now. We want so much for him to be in full remission and for our lives to get back to normal? (Is there such a thing as a normal life anymore?)

Thank you for your continued prayers and support. We will need them again especially during these next 3 months as he finishes the last part of his treatment.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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