GREAT NEWS! No polyps in the colonoscopy today! The doctor assures me he took extra time and was extra thorough. He did biopsy an area that was red, but he thinks it’s just an irritated area and nothing to worry about. Hopefully he’s right.

So, we are celebrating today! I had real food for the first time since Monday. Tonight we’re going to sit back and watch the new baby chicks play! They arrived yesterday and they’re great fun so far!

Thank you so much for your prayers. Now if I can get a clean CT scan on April 6th, maybe I can avoid doctors for a couple months.

Love,

Lydeana

Dear Friends,

 I’m still rejoicing in the good news from last week! Thank you so much for your prayers and encouraging words.

Christmas is so exciting this year. I finished my shopping before the time at Duke last week, just in case. So, we were able to enjoy the snow Saturday and not stress over any need to start shopping. My strength is really good now and I was able to sleigh ride and throw snowballs with Shayley and Charlie. We also listened to Christmas music and put up the tree Saturday as the snow was coming down!

 The great thing about playing in the snow Saturday is I also felt no overwhelming urge to get pictures of us. We were able to enjoy it entirely in the moment without thoughts pressing on me about the need to capture it in case it were the last time.

 Sunday morning our pastor had emailed that we should feel free to have service at home if we were worried in the least about the safety of getting out. He also said that if anyone in the house plays the piano, to ask them to play! SO, we decided to do that. Shayley thought I was making that part up about the piano, so I had to show it to her! So, she sounded out a couple hymns for us on the piano. She also caught us up on what her Sunday School class has been studying recently. They are studying Acts and had just finished reading about Stephen (Acts 6 and 7). What incredibly rich chapters! Stephen was a person of great faith in Christ, but people spread lies about him, saying that he had cursed God and Moses. In the end, they stoned him to death, based on the lies of others. Stephen’s final words were to God on behalf of the people murdering him with words and stones, asking that He “not blame them for this sin.” What incredible faith, what amazing grace.

 We talked about how his words echoed Jesus’ words on the cross, both dying words from men probably bleeding to death. We also talked about how Stephen was a martyr that spurred the spreading of Good News. We talked about how it reminded us of Joseph and how his brothers lied about him, but he ended up rising up to help his brothers; and Joseph noted in the end that what other people intend for evil, God used for good.

 Saul of Tarsus was watching on as Stephen was murdered. Saul was the master prosecutor of Christians.  But he was struck down one day, and woke up with a different vision. Being knocked down was terrifying at first, I’m sure, but it changed his life forever as he came to know Christ himself. And he went on, now called Paul, to pen much of the New Testament.

 It was a good study for us. We seldom understand why bad things happen, but we can trust that God can use it for good.

 Yesterday I was back at Duke for the day so they could get two skin biopsies and 10 vials of blood for their research purposes for the clinical trial I just completed. Another patient and I are the last two in the study—done on 72 people at 5 cancer centers around the country. The doctor told me that they may not have final stats on the study for another year or two, but that it looks encouraging that the vaccines may delay cancer recurrences for some people. I was chatting with the phlebotomist who was drawing my blood and she mentioned that she had donated blood cells a while back for a clinical trial. She had to lay still for 4 hours as they withdraw her blood, she said. The more we talked, I began to realize that it was my clinical trial that she had donated blood for. It was a great moment, being face to face with the person who had voluntarily shed 4 hours of blood to help other people she didn’t even know.

 It reminded me of Stephen, and, moreover, Jesus.

 Christmas is so exciting.

 Thank you all for your prayers.

 Love,

Lydeana

Dear Friends,

    Today went well compared to usual.  Lydeana had a headache and the half of her body on the side of the injection hurt when she went to bed last night and when she woke up this morning.  She didn’t have a fever this time but slept half the day and woke up feeling some better.   The injection site is a much angrier red than usual because they didn’t cover it at all this time except with a bandaid.   She is still a little stiff and off balance this evening, but none the worse for wear.

    The truly odd thing is that the last couple of times we came down we would watch TV before going to bed and she ended up liking a show called Bones.   Just another graphic forensics show with typical plots and character dynamics.   The odd part is that throughout this process she hasn’t been very interested in much of a bodily graphic nature for obvious reasons. The wind took out the satellite during the climax of the show and she actually called the front desk to complain. 

    The show is interesting for me because I understand what they’re talking about in the parts relating to anatomy.  The sad part is I don’t understand what they’re talking about in scenes with character relationships.  No wonder I was scared of girls in high school.

    Since we didn’t go anywhere today we were not forced to sit in front of a flat screen with CNN as the institutional banner so I am ignorant of Tigers plight today. Thank Goodness!

 Again, thank you for your prayers.

 Love,

Charlie

Dear Friends,

 Today was a 10 hour day and was well worth it.  Everything in the CT scan was clear!  Now Lydeana is laying in bed moaning dreadfully and I’m barely holding on due to an acute case of Golden Corralitis.   Celebration over health can be devastating in the short term and not great for the big picture either.

 A little more detail about the days events were as follows:

1) Blood work was taken, a port access needle installed and Tiger wasn’t talking.

2) The oncologist was somewhat baffled about the meaning of a white circle that appeared on Lydeana’s leg and had some theories about it though it wasn’t worth the effort and time to check into.  Meanwhile Tiger’s wife was using a golf club to save him from a fire hydrant due to his rumored affair.

3) Radioactive contrast was injected and Lydeana went bravely through the scan while the tree trashed Tiger’s right front quarter panel out of jealousy from getting too close to the fire hydrant.

4) Waited several hours in hall way to speak to surgeon about results as the Florida state police investigated the situation further with the possibility of a great scandal unfolding.

5) Got to see surgeon and found out all looked good and could come back for the next scan April 6, 2010 and that Tiger would be charged with careless driving the same as you and I without legally having to give any bigger down payment with a chunk of his soul than the news dogs already took.

 The moral of the day is that you can still occasionally receive good news from hospitals and CNN.   It’s still exasperating to have to go through it over and over to get to that point.

We want to thank you all for your prayers because they mean so much to us and are the biggest reason for this outcome.

 Love, 

Charlie

Dear Friends,

 Charlie and I made it to Durham a short while ago. It is a place I do not mind so much as it is has brought me help, mostly.

 We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our families. It was so great to be able to eat and move about and be with family.

 Thursday night I had a few hours of upset tummy followed by the chills/shakes for a few hours. I would have thought it a mild bug except I had the same type episode last month. I remembered the last one was also on a Thursday and when I looked at the calendar I realized that both were exactly 16 days after fowlpox injections. I emailed the clinical trial doctor and he found it interesting and said we’d discuss it tomorrow.

 Tomorrow will be a long day, I expect. We have to get to the Duke Cancer Center at 7 a.m. for my initial lab work (they will access my port-a-cath and leave that needle in for CT injection later); around 9 a.m. I’ll see my oncologist and presumably get my last clinical trial injection; at 10 a.m. I’m scheduled for the CT scan. After that I can finally have breakfast and something to drink! Then, we will wait for my 1:30 appointment with my surgeon when we will hopefully hear results from the CT scan.

 Despite my efforts to be positive, I’m uneasy about what the results will be. I’ve been really strong the last 2 or 3 weeks, yet I occasionally have small pains or unusual sensations internally that always make me wonder. Hopefully it is just scar tissue from past surgeries. Please pray that I will have an accurate scan with no sign of cancer.

 Saturday I was able to attend the service at the high school for Mr. Keith. It is still hard for me to call him D.J. When I think of high school, it is the image of him at the chalkboard in 314 that comes first to mind. He liked the temperature cold and even then he wore short sleeves! While he taught us a lot of math, he taught us a lot more. I remember one analogy he used. I can’t remember the mathematical point, but I remember the life lesson. It was about the wedding ring and how it binds husband and wife by a symbolic never ending circle.  I remember how you don’t give up–laryngitis didn’t stop him from teaching trig. I remember how he wouldn’t stop teaching even 5 minutes before the bell, because 5 minutes times 25 kids was over 2 hours wasted. What a tremendous gift to have him as a teacher. And having Janet, too, was double the blessing. They perhaps helped mold more citizens of Floyd County personally than any other two people I know. 

 The acapella music at his service was so beautiful. The parents of a couple of singers used to play music with my dad and it transported me back to another place and time, revealing a connective knowing in my soul that needed no words. Similarly, grieving with Mr. Keith’s daughter, Jennifer, took me back nearly 30 years when we played in the softball infield together at Willis
Elementary. And Sharon Wood’s reflections on Mr. Keith were so insightful and reminiscent of him.

 Usually the closing of the casket is the hardest part of any memorial service for me. But this time, it was the rolling of the casket from the high school auditorium and out the front door; an extraordinary epoch ended when Mr. Keith exited the doors of Floyd County High School for the last time.

 With Love,

Lydeana

Dear Friends,

I’m writing to let you know that I’ve had my strongest, most “normal” week in a long, long time.  Thanks be to God!

 Back during chemo, Shayley had commented that she couldn’t remember what it was like before I had cancer. That broke my heart. But by a few more months, I could scarcely remember either. Thankfully, THIS WEEK it has been coming back to us—as I not only worked all week, but also managed to have some energy left to do a few things in the evenings—including going to my first PTA meeting in a year. (I got to see Shayley win a blue ribbon for writing. Yeah!)

 This weekend has been especially good, as I was able to go Christmas shopping for about 90 minutes by myself yesterday. I was able to walk around that entire time. Even two weeks ago I couldn’t have done half of that—I would have still needed the buggy you ride in. It is such a WONDERFUL thing to not only still be walking by the end of the day, but to be doing so in  a pretty normal gait, rather than the slumped shuffle I had so long. I’m not ready to run any marathons—and am  tired today, but it’s a more normal tired and not the complete exhaustion as before.  I think I am finally stabilized and strong enough to begin exercising again this week.

 This weekend has been reminiscent of good times in years past  in several ways. Friday night we all sat in the living room together and watched the old TV show called Benson. Then, as some of you know, Charlie used to make wonderful sourdough bread all the time. Yesterday morning he put together “starter” for the first time in years. Then, he got to go hunting yesterday afternoon and brought home a nice size buck. So this afternoon we’ve had the tenderloins and sour dough and are preparing to can and jerk the rest of the deer.

 It is not lost on me that a year ago today we were driving to Durham for my liver surgery the next day. Things looked pretty bad going into that surgery, but God has allowed me another year despite the advanced nature of the disease then. I am so grateful for that and to all of you all who have helped us in so many, many ways.

 So many times we wonder why bad things happen. Have you ever heard anyone question why good things happen?  We are such self-confident creatures that we tend to think that we deserve only what we perceive as good. We also tend to rely on our “own strength” as long as things are going well. I know that I’m guilty of that. We tend to seek guidance or help only in desperation.

 In fact, Shayley and I were playing an electronic spelling game one night this week. I had started the game and got to a certain point, then she took over and gradually advanced to a higher difficulty level. Then I took over again and was trying to get her to stop helping me. She said, “Mom, I’m the one who got you to this point, why won’t you let me help you.”

 Those words keep rattling in my head. As I’ve finally gained strength and set about to accomplish things myself, I wonder if God has whispered that in my ear?

 Our visiting pastor today was talking about this being the day we especially celebrate Jesus is King. She commented on how it is so much easier to see Jesus as Savior, and thus think of his work as largely passed, when in fact, as King and Lord, he wants to be an active part of our everyday life. I think if I did that, it would take so much pressure off and would help me celebrate Thanksgiving every day of the year.

 Wishing you all a great Thanksgiving, and please know how very thankful we are for you.

 With love,

Lydeana