Not Sleeping, Traveling and Gods Grace

Wednesday I was scheduled to take the 6:05 AM flight to Anaheim and spend the day at the solar show, then drive to San Diego. For some reason after my Bone biopsy on Tuesday I just couldn't sleep(I think I logged a total of 40 minutes) .
At 4 AM I quit trying to sleep and got ready and left for the airport. I got delayed at security and finally just made it to my flight. I slept nearly the whole flight but did wake to see Catalena come into view off our wing and watched the the long shadows climb the hills....Awesome. After getting my rental car I drove to the Anaheim convention center parked and slept for another hour in the car.
I met up with colleges from work and we spent the day walking the show we had a lunch meeting with the president of Applied Solar and the Sun-tech director of North American sales. (time crunch for the introduction of our new product .... he's nervous about dates)
We got invited to the Sun Tech reception at Downtown Disney so after a long day we attended that and at 9PM(DR Shi spoke and was quite grateful for the companies success). I climbed into the car to make the 90+ minute drive to San Diego. (it was a slog but made it safely with only one stop to walk a bit to wake myself. God is GOOD)
Got to the hotel and got a full 8 hours of Good sleep!
That's it!

From the doctors bulliten board

WHAT CANCER CAN'T DO

It cannot cripple love, it cannot shatter hope
It cannot corrode faith, it cannot eat away peace
It cannot destroy confidence, it cannot kill friendship
It cannot shut out the memories, it cannot silence courage
It cannot invade the soul, it cannot reduce eternal life.
It cannot quench the Spirit.

Our greatest enemy is not disease, but despair.
Fear not! Be cheerful, and know that people care.

(And as for me God is in control not CANCER)

Todays Doctors Visit October 27th

Today I went to talk to the oncologist about next steps.
the next step was a Bone marrow biopsy to determine the staging of the disease.(I had this done today) On Tuesday Nov 3rd I go in for the PET scan and will get the results from both of these tests next Thursday Nov 5th.

OK, so if you imagine behind this stuff a mass the size of a mans fist is pushing on all of these other organs. (That's part of why I hurt)

The good news is with early detection (I believe that is my case) the 5-year survival rate for those patients with a favorable prognosis was 91 to 98%

Prognosis

(good I think)

Treatment of Hodgkin's disease has been improving over the past few decades. Recent trials that have made use of new types of chemotherapy have indicated higher survival rates than have previously been seen. In one recent European trial, the 5-year survival rate for those patients with a favorable prognosis was 98%, while that for patients with worse outlooks was at least 85%.^[3]

In 1998, an international effort^[15] identified seven prognostic factors that accurately predict the success rate of conventional treatment in patients with locally extensive or advanced stage Hodgkin's lymphoma. Freedom from progression (FFP) at 5 years was directly related to the number of factors present in a patient. The 5-year FFP for patients with zero factors is 84%. Each additional factor lowers the 5-year FFP rate by 7%, such that the 5-year FFP for a patient with 5 or more factors is 42%.

The adverse prognostic factors identified in the international study are:

• Age >= 45 years
• Stage IV disease
• Hemoglobin <>
• Lymphocyte count <>
• Male
• Albumin <>
• White blood count >= 15,000/µl

Other studies have reported the following to be the most important adverse prognostic factors: mixed-cellularity or lymphocyte-depleted histologies, male sex, large number of involved nodal sites, advanced stage, age of 40 years or more, the presence of B symptoms, high erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and bulky disease (widening of the mediastinum by more than one third, or the presence of a nodal mass measuring more than 10 cm in any dimension.)

From Wikipedia.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hodgkin%27s_lymphoma

Monday.... Back to Work (Still too Blessed to be stressed)

(The Routine is the Same but I'm different)
I am experiencing what I would call a continual discomfort (at some points pain) in my left side and my back.

I called my Oncologist this morning and got this news.... (Lots of medical terminology that I heard to say Hodgkins lymphoma) A treatable cancer.

I also followed up on a PET scan scheduled for Nov 3rd

According to this article I have 5 of the 6 risk factors.

More info at National Cancer Institute

Those who Pray please continue.... I meet with him tomorrow to discuss options.

A Cheese burger in Pradise..... .So Blessed!.......

Today started off not so good, I woke to much more pain than the last few days and it was on both sides of my ribcage. Sleep was fitful from 3 am on but I did manage to get back to sleep. So it was a slow start this morning and Dave (Debs brother was very nice and waited while I finally got up to speed.) He cut down a coconut from there palm and opened it up for Deb and I to sample fresh coconut.

Then the order of the day was to view the millennium marker at the east end of the island followed by some down time on a quiet beach! It was great, the marker parking lot and road was about to be paved but they let us hang out till they were ready, then shewed us and 2 others down the road.
From there Dave took us to a place called a Cheese Burger In (an American) Paradise! ((an American) added as the song writer threatened legal action) A great beach type atmosphere and good burgers. We followed this with several hours on the beach looking at Saint Thomas and Saint John 40 miles to the north. It was a lazy day at the beach with a book, we walked down the shore and saw a sail boat washed up on shore. It's hull was holed and it had been stripped clean by scavengers, a sad end to a pretty boat.

This evening we had order out Chinese and then we sat around talking about next year boating vacations.

Sailing with Dolphins

Well Dave and Maggie went all out and set up charter on a 45 foot sailing catamaran! First of there was great wind! (12 to 22 knots) The seas where calm and the captain and crew where great! They let Dave and I help with sail handling and sailing duties, they also provided lovely snacks a great lunch and spectacular snorkeling.
Also we were sailing back after lunch and a pod of dolphins showed up and swam with us for almost a half hour!


We ended the day with pizza at the west end of the Island right on the water!

All in all this is a great vacation and we have 4 days left!

OH MAN what a difference!

This is a tale of two similar experiences that were totally different!

As you know today was my first visit with the oncologist. He is great by the way!
His comment "What the heck is going on here? how can there be anything wrong with an active healthy guy?"
"Why is the big lump testing neutral?"
So he sent me for a second Biopsy this afternoon, and is scheduling me for a PET scan.
(not just a CAT scan but a scan for PETS!) Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

So you know how sometimes you build up stuff in your mind and get all freaked out and scared and then the thing is nothing. Well last week when I went in for my first Biopsy I was freaked out scared about how it would hurt then I got it done and it was hardly any pain at all. That was the good news, the bad news was with the sample they got they couldn't diagnose what's going on.

As I said earlier, today I got a second one this afternoon, OH MAN what a difference! I mean WOW! They used a much longer, bigger around needle. We are talking about something you might see used as a tail pipe on a dune buggy..... and this guy wielded it like a samurai on speed! "OK Mr Frank there will be some pressure" OH MY GOSH! Are there only two of you pushing that thing into my back? You must be braced against the cabinets or something......

Well after the second massive lidocaine injection things got a little easier but I still thought he was using a broom handle for leverage. Needless to say they rammed that hunk of water pipe clean into the offending item. Then it was time for the snapping grabber (that I think may be used as a tree pruning device in the off season) to yank out a sample, which they did four or five times to make sure they got some. OH and the first time last week, the guy was so careful to make sure there was NO Bleeding, not so today! He wasn't done till I felt my back warming with what I imagined was a flood ( probably 2 to 5 drops)

At any rate they got some good samples (I hope cuz I don't want to do this again)

Bottom line NO NEWS YET

It is well....

It is well with my Soul!

Kathy F. put this up as a post a few days ago and I just now viewed it and I was so lifted by it I thought I'd put up as part of my Blog

Thank You All for your Cards, Calls and Prayers

I must rejoice, for today was a great day!

I had a good nights sleep and I got 4 cards in the mail, filled with Love and Prayers! Then this afternoon I had a good visit with John (although most of our time I had to spend working, he was patient with me and the phone)

So much of what I'm experiencing right now is pure Love and friendship. I can so clearly see God in all of you and in this opportunity it affords us all to trust.... totally trust in his plan.

I'm looking forward to my doctors visit tomorrow in hopes that we can put a fence around this and give it the exit papers it deserves.

Thank You all again for all your loving support.

Philippians 4: 4-7

⁴Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

"I AM Too BLESSED to be stressed!"

Yesterday was a great day! I was up early, (4:30 AM) so ended up in my home office to read some daily bread and check up on the multicolored beast (the computer). While there I was contacted via Skype Chat by Maria from Moldova (she was our 15 year old interpreter at the house we stayed at in Chisinau) she had some big news to share. She had entered an English speaking contest and has been selected as a finalist to be an exchange student. She will find out in December.

The day flowed into work and I got busy with organizing my day, but at 9am I contacted the oncologist for an appointment which is Friday at 11:15, wont know much till then. After that I met with the man who will be auctioning off the remaining assets at the Grass Valley facility of the company I work for Applied Solar.

I stopped by to see Randy at the restaurant and have some lunch, we had a chance to catch up a bit and have some "on the fly" fellowship. I mention this because sometimes when we are in a hurry we don't recognize the fellowship we have, Randy even in the midst of his busy day took the opportunity to share his strength with me. He shared that sometimes our testimony is for fellow Christians as well. In those moments that he shared his heart with me he strengthened me, he lifted me up.

Later in the day Chris E called to find out if I had any news, I shared what I knew and again in the midst of her busy day she took the time to strengthen me. Then in the evening we got a call from Debs friend Julie to let us know she is praying for us. That is what reflecting the son can do for those around you, I was blessed so much yesterday.

As I said probably no news till Friday... Deb and I leave Saturday really really early for a week with her brother in Saint Croix, so whatever is next, exams or tests, will probably be the last week of October

"I AM Too BLESSED to be stressed!" - The shortest distance between a problem and a solution is the distance between your knees and the floor. (Shared by our interpreter from Chisinau Moldova.)

And from todays daily bread:

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! —Psalm 46:10

The new bigger Boat (or escapism)

Due to my new "don't put it off" attitude, I have relented and spent the money on a new boat (new to us, it is actually 3 years old)
It is a Macgregor 26 and has standing head room which is a big deal for a trailer sailer.
Once we get it out of the driveway I'll post some pictures of our own.
In the mean time you can see the boat in action at the Macgregor web site they even have videos of the features and some sailing.
One of my hopes for this boat is that we can get more of our friends out as it is a bit larger and is set up better for entertaining.

Lots of Doctors no news

Well, since I heard the word from the GP doctor (October 1st) that something was in there, (A mass) and it looks like cancer I have had 3 appointments, a CT scan, a chest xray and seen 4 doctors but they don't know what is inside me.... (I think we've ruled out the little guy from alien)
What we do know is that there is something in there that is not part of a normal anatomy. It is about the size of your fist (8cms by 2.5cms) they think it is cancer but need a tissue evaluation.
I had a biopsy on Tuesday the 6th of October during which they weren't sure that they got enough tissue to get a diagnosis. They did not want to prolong my discomfort or to do any damage so they sent off what they got in hopes it was enough.
As of this morning, the tests were inconclusive and I have been referred to an oncologist who has not contacted me yet.