How you can help!

MD Anderson--Children's Art Program

Honestly, right now we are physically and mentally taken care of very well.

At home, we are taken care of.

In Houston, we are taken care of.

YET, as hard as it is to say, medical bills are starting to overwhelm us.  I hope I don't sound ungrateful for all the help we are already getting.

Family and family-like friends are taking care of our dogs and our house and what ever else we need on an ongoing basis.  Our Mom-like friend provides us a home away from home for every visit, every treatment, every time. Albert's medical days were donated by his generous co-workers.  Truly, we are blessed in the amount of help we have recieved from our support system.

THANK  YOU for all the ongoing support you have given us for almost two years now.

Many of you ask how you can help us...and it's really hard to say we need help paying for all this fabulous cancer care.  Albert's insurance takes care of the vast majority, but there are still charges we are resposible for, even after the co-pays and monthly payments.  Somehow it still racks up and stacks up!

How can you help?

If you would like to...

If you are able to...

If it does not create a financial hardship for your family...

...please consider throwing a few dollars toward Albert's MD Anderson account.

please send help directly to:

MD Anderson Cancer Center

PO BOX 4461

Houston, TX 77210-4461

MRN: 1046895

Thank you so much for checking in on us.

-Becca

The JULY visit...quick summary

(self pic: dressed for CT Scan on Sunday)

The July visit was supposed to be short and sweet; it turned out to be long and bitter.

Sunday: Scans and Labs...and free valet

Monday: visit oncologist

Thursday: visit radiation oncologist

______________________________

We caught the wave of CANCER in our faces on Monday morning.  Totally caught off-guard.  I don't know how though, because that is what we are doing there.  Looking for cancer.

Maybe caught off guard because we are at the check-up that looks at the chest and heart and previously radiated areas.  We even expected previously identified tumors to be growing.

But we didn't expect any NEW tumors.  (blind hope, i guess)

Yep, it's 2.9 cm, in the lung lining (pleura) on the back of his right lung.  Where he has been experiencing LOTS of shooting, intense pain. (the already poorly functioning one)

We drove home on Monday; frustrated, angry, fearful, contemplative, empty.

We had to wait until Thursday to get the second opinion from the radiation doctor.

Except that on Thursday morning, we got up LATE and had only enough time to get there in the nick of time, if there wasn't any traffic (IN HOUSTON). Late? really?  We wanted to leave at 8, after we fed the dogs and had our coffee.  We opened our eyes at 9:30!

We were one minute late...even with Bert driving!

The radiation doctor and the primary oncoclogist from Monday did a conference call to try to figure out what to tell us.

The verdict:

Yes, it's cancer, yes, we can treat it NOW.  B-U-T...

BUT, they recommend we wait.  

WAIT until September.  WAIT to see if this is the only one, or if there are more COMING.

WAIT to see if it is metastasizing, IF SO, we will see the activity by September.

WAIT to see if we can make the best treatment plan possible, with more information.

We drove home on Thursday, numb.

AND so now we WAIT... until September, mentally tallying how much time is left.  Vowing to: Make every day count.  Live every day as if it was the last. 

EXCEPT THAT he's tired.  and has no energy.  and uses all he's got just to get through each day.  and is fighting.  and is fighting hard.  and he's tired.  and has no energy.  

AND he's got me.  and his kids.  and his dogs/house/job/tumor growing inside him/death sentence to worry about.

AND YET...  every morning HE IS THANKFUL for another sunrise...because he's still winning the fight, loving, working, tired, bowling, exhausted, watching NASCAR, in pain, being loved, and LIVING!!!

-Becca 

the Madness continues

(Pic: stolen from the Internet)

Well, another MD Anderson visit has come and gone...and I haven't even caught y'all up on the previous visit.

I guess that I will do that as I talk to you about the latest.

In a nutshell, the visit was not the happy, cheery, news that we've been sharing for a while now...

It's cancer.

It's new cancer.

It was expected, but it's still cancer.  

AND is has turned our world upside down, once again.

We've been talking about wills and insurance and plans for when he's gone.

It sucks.

CANCER SUCKS!