So here's the deal:

He starts chemo next Monday. He will be hospitalized for 3 days, while they administer the drugs which takes 48 hours @ a time. This is a very hefty chemo consisting of 3 drugs. Then he gets 3 weeks off. They said right around day 17, he will loose his hair. Amy, hair shaving party? Bring it on!
THEN on December 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th, he will start his second round. He will go to the hospital for 10 hours at a time, but can sleep at home. This has only 2 drugs, but causes different side effects than the first set. Merry Christmas...
Once again, he gets 3 weeks off, then they do another PET scan. This will continue for 6 months.
He will have a catheter inserted into his chest for the duration of treatment. Because of this, he will have Home Health Care to help with the dressings and keeping it clean.

I think that's about it. He will have a gamut of scans starting Monday. The first one is to make sure his heart is healthy enough to insert the catheter. The second one is a bone scan to check on his pelvic bones. FUN!!!

This is just the beginning: Meet Dr. Collins and Kristina, her nurse.
I

We qualified for medi-cal!

Our share of cost is still pretty high, but at least we have something.
That said, i can't believe the support and love, and generosity we have been on the receiving end of. God is taking something so crappy, and turning it to his glory. I guess Randy has really touched you hearts. I googled Randy Miller/The Myriad...13 pages popped up with 10 links on each page about him and this battle. Plus on my myspace bulletin list, 8 out of the 10 listed were Randy's video that Jesse and Jeremy did. Blew me away. At the end of this, God WILL be victorious, Randy will be healed, and we will all be on our knees in awe of just what God can do. I already am.

We meet with his oncologist today. Her name is Dr. Carolyn Collins. We have the best of both worlds, an amazing local Dr. and a top notch team from Stanford that she will defer to. We have our support team in place with our family and dear friends, medical costs covered, a roof over our heads, (thanks again) and a never emptied frig. It's either piping fresh hot meals, or leftovers the next day, then more hot food... last night beef enchiladas, oh BABY!!! yummy. Yesterday was a good day. :)

We are both a little nervous to go today, because everytime we go to a Dr's office, the news gets worse. It's all a part of the journey though. He is bringing us along slowly, but i appreciate it. If we knew how scary and hard this was in the beginning, i probably would have grabbed him and ran to Mexico. Can't find him there... oh, wait, cancer is the enemy. Can't hide from that...
All right God, part our red sea, and drown our enemy!

LOVE

God's comandment that covers all else.
LOVE. Love your God, Love your neighbor.
I'M FEELING IT!!!

Harry & David, Country Organics, and Shonnie Wolcott

What a day for deliveries!
If you know Shonnie, you know what just saying her name means. A gift basket full of all the fixins for a banana split, and a cool basket, plus a scooper. All decorated with ribbons and sparkles... The kids are in heaven.
On top of that, friends are bringing us amazing meals throughout the week. I have NEVER in my LIFE opened up a box FULL of H&D stuff. Can't wait to dig into all that goodness. And it's like Christmas opening up our juicing box. Just as soon as we finish up all the fruits and veggies, another box appears on the doorstep. AMAZING!
God is not only showing us how big he is, he's making us smile through our tears, whether we want to or not. Last night I dreampt He was like a beautiful peacock, strolling through the woods, over all of the multicolored leaves and mullberries. Sounds odd, i'm sure. Maybe the fact that my front yard is COVERED with red and yellow leaves and mullberries, had something to with that, but the peacock is all Him. He's so beautiful to me.

We are coping, making it through this battle called "medi-cal". I have a feeling this is gonna kill us first. (sorry, bad joke). I can't wait to have that part over with, so he can start chemo. That probably sounds odd too. Who the heck WANTS to start chemo???

Thanks again for all of your love and prayers. We SOOOOOO feel them! We love all of you.

for those who want to read more about it:

Here's a link with a lot of info about this cancer.

http://sarcomahelp.org/Newsletters/V01N06/Mes_Chondro/mesenchymal_chondrosarcoma.htm

Good news first? Why not...

The chances of amputaion is very low. awsome.
this concludes our good news portion for the evening...

Now the crappy parts:

It is an even MORE rare type of cancer called "Mesenchymal Chondrosarcoma".
Big word. Bad prognosis.

The Dr. put it to us like this: It is going to be as hard to fight, if not harder, than lukemia. AWSOME!!!

Chemo is up first, as soon as medi-cal goes through.
Then another surgery. Then radiation. Then hopefully remission.
The research is fleeting because it is so rare. I guess only 2 cases per year, but tomorrow i will post what my sister has found on the subject. (thanks Lorra).

Also we have to look at genetic testing, since his sister has breast cancer, and he has another type of tumor on his adreanl gland, so it hints to a certain genetic abnormality, that pre-disposes them to cancer. So it will effect his other siblings and our children. AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!

medical terminolgy for dummies:

this is the raidology report ( i snuck a peek) teehee...

1.Ring shaped moderate hypermetabolism is noted in the left axilla at the site of the ill defined soft tissue mass noted on CT scan. This is the site of the chondrosarcoma.
2.Moderate-intense hypermetabolism is noted in the markedly enlarged right adrenal gland. This is stable in appearance from prior CT scan. Findings are concerning for adrenal metastasis versus adrenal adenoma.
3. Focal hypermetabolism is noted in the proximal left humerus, right iliac wing and proximal left femur. Only the right iliac wing shows subtle lytic lesions at this site on the CT scan. Findings are concerning for bony metastasis.

Real words, please?
1. There is still a ring of cancer cells around where the main tumor was in his shoulder.
2. There is a 5.2 x 3.8 cm "growth" on his right adrenal glad, that was eating a lot of the stuff they injected into him. (When it metabolises so quickly, this generally means it's malignant). However it doesn't show the same characteristics of the original tumor, therefore is possibly a whole different cancer!
3. Somewhere on his left arm, and left thigh, there are areas that mirror the same characteristics of the chondrosarcoma, and would carry the same prognosis as the original tumor.

Reading this, i feel the weight and gravity of it all and will probably sit here for a moment and pray/cry, and then go back to getting ready for this trip. PLEASE pray that this is all a mistake. I refuse to go down the bad road yet. If anything has been shown to me these last 3 weeks, is that our God is unbelievably good. He is here with us, and i have FAITH that moves mountains, because Jesus says i do. If you don't agree, take it up with Him. He's taking all my calls this weekend.

someone hit the fast forward button...

so i guess we are off to Stanford on Monday. this is Friday. wow.

thank goodness that we have so many people lined up to help with the kids, because there's a lot that has to happen to leave town so quickly. we spent a lot of hours last week planning Monday, but not the Monday that we are actually gonna have.

here's the original: take kids to school, run to work for an hour, go pick up randy and go watch Gillian get an award of excellence for school, take randy back to work, go back myself. they have minimum days all week, so we set up after school care until i get off @ 2. then we were gonna pick them up, take them to their aunts house so we can go to both of their parent teacher conferences....

change of plans: reschedule with teachers (still need to do this) pick up films from MD imaging to take to Dr. in Stanford (done), take kids to Grammy's Sunday evening so we can leave Sunday night, then she can take them to school on Monday, find someone to take Roxy, (thanks Arlene)Rebecca's going to watch Gillian receive her award, (Grammy, you are also very welcomed to go, it's @ 830am) i hope someone takes pictures, sigh... Wendy's picking kids up at school and keeping them til we get home with GOOD news?!?!? of course. it'll all work out smoothly.

more waiting

the PET scan results are back, tentatively...
but we have to wait to meet with the dr. in stanford to GET the results, but
we can't meet with the dr. in stanford until we qualify for medi-cal, and
we are having a hard time quailfing for medi-cal, but
God is bigger than all of this!!!!!!!!

our dr. did say that there are some suspicious spots around his surgical site, in his left arm, on his adreanal glad, AND in his pelvis. so we sit here and wait until the county tells us yes or no.
if we are denied, i KNOW that God will provide to the penny what we need. He is already showing us that. we have a GREAT God!

just a quickie...

i want to share with my friends from church a realization that i had on the way home tonight:

many of you came up to me and shared how much you are praying, how much you love us, and offered us help wherever needed. it is so appreciated. i told you all about the peace we have and how we just feel strong. i know that this comes from the Lord, but not only in a spiritual way, but because of all of the love and support we get from all of you. if it wasn't for the prayers, dinners, hugs, acts of kindness, financial support, and genuine love that only a family can give, i have to be honest, i'd be a freaking MESS!!! looking back over these last two weeks, the times where i start to loose it, someone just seems to show up at the right time and offer me what i REALLY needed at that moment. thank you for listening to your heart, and not letting my stubbornness get in the way of your love. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!

Family day

we decided to head up to castle lake. this is the one place you can find me... if you ....can't find...me. yeah. anyways this is my favorite place to go to get away, and we were pleasantly surprised to find snow. not that we were really prepared for snow, but it was a good cold and dry, not yucky wet snow. i have to say, this was just what the dr. ordered. it is so beautiful up there. next spring, i plan on hiking around the whole lake one afternoon. something to look forward to.

what a fun day so far...

dejavu with mandi and jenn.

red robin with shelly.

back home for wine and cookies with kathy.

now i'm off to my mom's...

we'll miss you jenn. aloha til January!

whew! i'm sleepy. night ya'll...

breath...count to 10...

yeah. practice makes perfect.
i have a great day ahead of me. all of my girlfriends are rallying around me to make sure i'm eating and busy. believe me, i am eating. EVERYONE is making sure of it... i do appriciate the love though.
so i am super excited about my day, but there are unseen forces trying to steal my joy. i'm not gonna let it happen. we are leaving the house for the whole day. no tv, video games or phones! it's time for me and the kids to get a new perspective on life, and to do that we have to leave these four walls.
randy got to go out with his guys for the last few days, so instead of staying here waiting for our mighty hunter to come home, we are getting the heck out!!!! :) hopefully the geese will already be cleaned an put into their perspective freezer bags before we return. i am very happy he was able to have his guys distract him for a few days. looking forward to the stories that follow. a conversation i always look forward to over a glass of wine.

if you're reading this, turn off the computer and follow my lead. GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!!! enjoy your weekend. monday will be here too quickly.

i guess it's time for an update

i put this off a couple of days to digest it.
looking back over my "jam packed day on tuesday" i chuckled. at 7:45, once i was already dropped off at work, and had no vehicle, my phone alarm went off telling me i had jury duty. totally forgot because of the impossible week before. i'm thinking i got my summons the day before randy's surgery, so i spaced it. i was group 6 which is usually due up first. i panicked for a moment, then called a friend who made a call and made it all better. i happened to be on standby. WHEW! didn't mean to "not report for jury duty"...

so after the day continued, i got a call from randy. poor thing had his ct scan then went down to medi-cal, for 4 hours. i am usually the one to handle anything dealing with money for home or the business so he had no idea how to answer some of, well, MOST of the questions, so he came home frustrated and with a lot of homework for me to take care of. it also looks like we won't qualify, so this is a HUGE prayer request. i hate to think of the medical costs of this whole thing, but God is bigger than the people down at the county office. lets just say that day was an emotional roller coaster for both of us.

i just had to go to my last blog to see what day this was, then i remembered the rest of the day.
randy picked me up from work, we ran a couple of errands, got his staples out, voted, picked up the kids, and got the call. the results came back. (i found out more details last night, so i will combine these last two days). they found another "non-related" tumor on his adrenal gland. no big deal, just go in and remove it. (that was the dr's response, trying to keep me calm, since he saw my reaction to the FIRST time the surgeon told me of the OTHER tumor) so no big deal, he has another surgery, and if you're counting, that would put us @ 3... plus even more scars. no biggie. it was the words "unrelated" that got me. what does this mean, ANOTHER type of cancer?!?!? maybe i need to spend more time digesting.

but tuesday ended very well. i came home from running some errands and saw that randy's friends came over that evening and hung out and blessed us in a huge way. THANK YOU GADDY'S!!!!! we have great friends. then mr. cable came over for a couple of rounds of halo 3. i watched the voting results and went to bed. good end to a rough day. i will save the election results for another day.

a jam packed day

~go to work early
~randy has a ct scan this morning at 7:30
~then medical applications later this morning
~off work @ 2, get kids off the bus and to auntie wendy's
~go to get staples out @ 3. i'm sure randy will do better at this than me
~deep breath...
~get kids, dinner, homework, laundry...
AMENDMENT: (just got a text), post office then tommy's, and hopefully the bank, somewhere in there, but before 4.
~THEN relax time. hopefully. :)
right. this should make the day go by fast.
OH WAIT! i still have to vote!!!
sheesh.

verified, but still nothing.

it IS chondrosarcoma. that we do know. but they don't know what to do with it.
it is a bone cancer, but not in the bone. they have no idea what stage, so the prognosis is up in the air. i guess chemo and radiation are in affective, so that means we get to find another way of getting rid of it. their answer is another surgery to make sure they got it all the first time. but their way of making sure of that, is to remove up to 2 inches of healthy tissue surrounding the tumor, which could mean taking off more than we want. we have decided to cross that bridge when we get there. there's plenty of decisions to make today.

first things first, he has a full body ct scan on tuesday. then they will remove the staples. and hopefully he will be more comfortable. i'm trying to find stuff that i "need" done on monday so he can rest just a little longer, but i'm afraid he will see through that. maybe some fresh air will be good for him. plus we get to make a fun trip to Stanford to meet with a specialist down there. i need to get map quest rolling so i can figure out where Stanford is. all these years, i thought it was in Connecticut... road trip anyone?