Merry Christmas!!!

The Christmas season is officially upon us as prepare for the coming of the Christ child. With that in mind, we take some time to share with all of you love, joy, peace and hope for the Christmas season.

Not much is going on in the Rynders house at the moment. I go back for my 3 month out scan in the middle of December and we will have the results after Christmas. Rob is going in to get his ACL repaired on December 17th. He will have a few weeks on crutches and then about 9 months of recovery, but then should be able to play sports again that he hasn't been able to play in a while:)

Colby is keeping us busy as always. He is starting to say more words and loves to spend his days playing and playing. If you are ever online he also loves to video chat with people so let us know. We hope you all are doing well. Here are some new family pics taken by Barbie Orcutt

Good News

First things first, enjoy some moments in Colby's life. He has started to get into playdates with Michael and of course church camp:)

Colby's 1st Campfire. He wanted to get right in the burning flames.

Colby Woods signing autographs after...
a tough round of mini-golf


Not sure what to think of Michael's new ride

Eating grapes and watching cartoons:)

Still not sure what to think of MIchael's new ride:)

So, it has been a while since we have posted anything on the blog. Radiation is a little different then chemo because it happens everyday and it's the same everyday, so there was no need to update with each treatment. I have officially finished all treatment that the doctors have prescribed for me. This means that tomorrow, Thursday, I go in to get my port taken out and then I have nothing for 3 months. In 3 months I will go and get another PET scan to make sure nothing is happening in there and see both the oncologist and the radiation oncologist. Then most likely it will just be follow up visits with my oncologist periodically.

THANK YOU!!! for all of your prayers, love and support during this time. We have been so blessed to be surrounded by amazing family and friends who have helped us through everything. So THANK YOU!!!!

Now we just wait for the hair to grow back in:) Oh and don't forget I am training for the PF Chang's 1/2 Marathon and raising money for blood cancer research through Team In Training.

Radiation Begins

So, there is nothing like moving quick when you are getting cancer treatment. They don't sit around waiting for a lot of things to happen, they just do it. I went in last Thursday for the initial set up scan of where radiation will take place. Then on Tuesday I went in for the more detailed scan and Wednesday radiation treatment began. So far I think radiation is much easier. I go in for a 1 pm appointment everyday and I am done and back to work by 1:30.

The first treatment on Wednesday went so fast that I actually had time to go through the Starbucks drive thru and still be back at work by 1:30. Basically I go in, put on a gown, lie down on my back on a table. They line me up with my marks, place the machine over me, leave the room and turn the machine on. There is a bit of noise, then the machine rotates and administers radiation from the back. That's right, radiation happens from both the front and the back but it doesn't take long. I will be doing what looks like 4 weeks of this and then hopefully that will be all the treatment.

Last Friday before we left for San Diego, Colby and I went and got our hair trimmed by the fantastic Kim:) After that trim, Rob and I have both noticed how quickly my hair seems to be growing back in. Of course, it doesn't have enough to not wear scarves or hats, but it will get there eventually.

Enjoy some pictures from our trip to San Diego to visit Katie and Robbie and hang out with the Wesley kids:) Oh and we go to the first football game of the season tomorrow so pics from that will be coming as well.

Latest Update

I realized that it had been a while since we had posted anything on the website. We have both been very busy with school coming back in session, Colby starting daycare and treatment continuing on. So... here is my shot at the best update I can give.

A week ago I went in for what was the 8th round of chemo. As usual everything seemed to go really well and I felt great all week. Next Tuesday we will go to the oncologist as normal, like we were having a 9th round of chemo. They will check my blood levels, etc, but they won't start any chemo until we see the doctor. When we see the doctor we will discuss our visit to the radiation oncologist and whether we are going to finish off the treatment with more chemo or radiation.

So now to our visit with the radiation oncologist. Rob and I had some questions when we went to this consult, and we were very pleased with the oncologist we met with and his honesty about radiation and its side effects. The good news is that the side effects are very little compared to the ones experience in chemo. There won't be hair loss, etc. because it will all be localized radiation (meaning only to the big spot that was originally in the chest.) Our big concerns were around the increased rate of breast cancer in women who have radiation and the increase in heart problems down the road. The oncologist explained that the percentage of breast cancer went up drastically in any teen that had radiation when they were younger. He said once you hit the age of 30 the number drastically decreased. His belief is that it is less likely in someone whose breasts are fully mature, since I have had a baby and nursed, he thinks I fit that category. As far as heart problems, all my radiation would be above the heart so no worries there.

Rob and I left this consultation thinking that radiation is the best way to go. We will of course make the final decision next Tuesday and begin whatever the next treatment is then. We will keep you posted as to what happens next.

On another note, I am currently training for my 1/2 marathon with TNT and loving every minute of it. I am up to 3 miles each day for my workout, and enjoying getting to know people and run with a group once a week. This Saturday we go to South Mountain:) After a couple of weeks of training one of the people who works for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society and TNT asked me if I would be interested in being one of their Honored Heroes/Teammates. These are the people who are cancer survivors, speak at events and they are the ones who the teams run in honor of. I of course was honored to do this and hope that my voice will only help to raise more money for cancer research in the future. I invite you to check out my TNT website for weekly updates on the running and donate to a fantastic cause. Here are some Colby pics from summer fun in the sun:) and the TNT website. http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/pfchangs10/mrynders

Oh and the best news of all!!! Colby is binky free thanks to the Bye-Bye Binky Method:)

Final Tweets of Rob's 20's

Here is the recap of my tweets from 8/5/09 chronicling my 20's:

That's it folks! Hope it was not too annoying. If you're thinking of getting me a gift tomorrow you can do this: http://tinyurl.com/lg9g78

What to say about 29? It was a crazy busy second year of campus ministry. Loved being a dad and husband. Thx to all who made 20s great!

When I was 28 my wonderful son was born. The same son who just had a huge meltdown :)

Ages 25-27- Graduated seminary, moved to AZ, worked at Grace UMC, wrestled with the ordination process, commissioned in 2007.

Age 25- more seminary!

25th birthday- Dave a Busters with a bunch of seminary friends.

Age 24- First full year at Claremont School of Theology. Kind of a blur. Loved working at Claremont UMC though!

24th birthday- Not really sure. Would have recently returned from honeymoon, grandmother also passed away sometime close to then.

Age 23- Graduated college with Steven Spielberg http://tinyurl.com/kjzpah, started seminary, married a beautiful woman, interned at CUMC!

23rd birthday- I think some buddies took me to Chili's after my youth threw me a surprise party. Thanks again gang!

Age 22- hired as youth director at Lakewood First UMC, proposed to Melissa on Sunset Beach.

22nd birthday- on SSP staff in Point Arena, CA. Honestly can't remember what I did that day.

Age 21- moved to Long Beach to finish undergrad, lived in the dorms, on the rowing team, made some great friends. That year was a blast!

21st birthday- on SSP staff in Clearlake. Bought a beer at a gas station then we watched "Top Gun," then we were attacked by local thugs.

At age 20 I finished community college and applied to Cal State Long Beach's psych degree program. I was desperate to leave my hometown!

When I turned 20 on August 6 1999, I was a chef at the SSP Utah site. I still miss that place and people from that summer sometimes.

Tomorrow is the last day of of my 20's. I think I will tweet the most memorable moments of the last decade throughout the day :)

Join me in the fight against Cancer

So, it's official... I am going to train and run the PF Chang's 1/2 marathon on January 17, 2010. I am doing this in conjunction with Team In Training, which is an endurance training and fundraising organization through and for the Leukemia/Lymphoma society.

As I have been doing my own battle with cancer these past four months, I realize the importance of raising funds to help not only find a cure, but support those people who are going through the same things I have been through. I will be posting training updates, as well as treatment updates on the website now:)

I also wanted to let you all know that I would love your support as I work to accomplish the goal of finishing the race and fighting for a cure. If you would like to make a financial donation to my race the website is:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/pfchangs10/mrynders

I hope you all will help as I continue to Fight Like A Girl!!! and put an end to blood cancers.

All Clear!!!

Well, we are sitting through the middle of chemo treatment number seven. We just saw the doctor and he said Melissa's PET scan came back clear! There is no visible evidence of cancer in Melissa's body at the moment! Treatment, however, is not finished. We have one more scheduled chemotherapy and Melissa must also get a consult from the radiologist because she had a large mass in her chest. We will get a recommendation from him as to whether Melissa should get radiation or four additional (12 total) rounds of chemo. All of this would be to finish anything off that is still lingering. I am extremely excited to report this news and it looks like we can wrap things up in late September or October!!!!

Round 6

Before we get into chemo, just wanted to thank everyone for helping make my birthday trip to Disneyland a fun one. On the spur of the moment, Colby and I hopped a plan on the morning of my birthday, spent the day at Disneyland with grandma and grandude and then come home the next day. We had a real blast doing this:

Well this week of chemo seemed to go much like the rest of them, except the fact that we did it all without Rob. Rob is in North Carolina at a campus ministers conference so his mom graciously has come into to town to help me out with Colby and chemo. We went in like normal and sat and had drugs pumped in and then left and went home. This week they gave me an extra medicine for nausea before I left, because I had been sick the last few times. One of the drugs they gave me was supposed to make me drowsy and relaxed, unfortunately it only made me restless and I didn't sleep like I normally do after chemo. But I don't seem to be any worse for the wear.

The day after chemo Colby and I spent some time in the afternoon with my mom, she was in town for a meeting, before she headed back to palm springs. Now, we are all eagerly awaiting Rob's return. Thanks to all for the continued well wishes and support.

Facebook Connect

Some of you may have noticed the cool little "Wibiya" toolbar at the bottom of the page. This serves a few different functions. It has a Twitter feed, a Facebook Community area, a photo gallery, a post feed, a search box, and a way to translate the blog into different languages. I think the Facebook aspect is a whole lot more slicker than Google Friend Feed, so in a short while I am going to remove Google. If you want to make a comment that does not go with a specific post you can then use the Facebook Community area to do so. Otherwise you can still click on a specific post and add your comment to the end of the post. Anyhoo, if you have any questions just drop me a message. Hope this has been a helpful tool to keep you updated on family info!

Chemo Round 5

I wrote this on Tuesday July, 7 but forgot to publish it that night...

Well, Melissa has had two treatments since the last post. The after effects of todays treatment has probably been the toughest so far. Melissa had battled a little more nausea this time and basically went to bed at 4 p.m. today. I fully expect her to be up and about tomorrow morning, however. We last saw the doctor during the fourth treatment and he was pleased with Melissa's progress and the fact that she is showing no symptoms of the disease. He even noticed the lump in her neck that started this whole thing is no longer there. This is not surprising, however, because the treatment for early stage Hodgkin's is so successful. It would be extremely unusual if the treatment was not taking effect by now.

So what's next? Melissa will have a sixth treatment two weeks from today and then soon after will have a PET scan that will show how well the chemo has been working. Again, it would be extremely unusual for these scans to come back with an undesired result. If everything comes back the way the doctor hopes it does then Melissa should only need two more chemo sessions. Then we will hopefully be talking about wrapping things up with treatment. It is with cautious optimism that we hope at this point that we are entering the home stretch. We fully expect, however, that these remaining treatments will be the most difficult ones.

As always we would like to thank all those who are offering prayers, encouraging words, and meals. This has been an exhausting experience and we could not do it without our faith and an amazing support network.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Melissa spent all last week with the NSUMC youth group on the Navajo reservation repairing homes. Melissa led a team of youth in raising a ceiling for a family in need. She may not be superwoman, but I think she might be the next closest thing!

Chemo Round 3

Let me start of this post by giving a big thank you to all of you who have sent scarves, food, and much needed love and hugs our way.

I am doing really good. Had the third round of chemo yesterday and am doing good. Rested most of the day yesterday and then got in the car to head to Vegas this morning. Thankfully Rob drove the whole way, yeah I know I'm spoiled, so I got a little more rest today. But in general I am feeling great.

Of course the big news is that I have shaved my head, a big thanks to Kim for making this happen. A few weeks ago I started losing a bunch of hair, not clumps, but a lot when I would put my fingers through my hair. Rather than sit around wondering when it would come out in chunks I decided to shave it. After all, it's just hair. Since then I have been losing more and more, as you can see from the inside of my scarves and wraps. So thanks again to everyone who has beautiful and wonderful scarves my way.

Also, want to give a big shout out to all those men in my life who have moved the clippers slightly closer to their heads in solidarity. Especially to Ethan who shaved his head for me. Now where is all the girlfriend support?

Here is a picture of shaved head Melissa. Also some hair on loan from Eric Byrnes of the Diamondbacks:)

The Boy With Cancer Who Ran Away

Great blog post from Tony Jones about the boy the Hodgkin's who refused treatment for "religious reasons." I promise, Melissa nor I have any "religious reasons" for stopping her treatment :)

The original post can be found at:

http://blog.beliefnet.com/tonyjones/2009/05/breaking-news-boy-with-cancer.html

"Breaking News! Boy With Cancer Gets Chemo"

by Tony Jones

Probably the biggest religion story of the past couple weeks has been the saga of Daniel Hauser, the 13-year-old boy from northern Minnesota who is dying of Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Yes, he's dying, unless he gets chemo. With chemo, there's a 90% survival rate. Without chemo, less than 10%.

After one round of chemo this Spring, Hauser refused to go back. At some point he and his mother -- and possibly other members of his family -- "converted" to Nemenhah, an online Native American "religion" that advotes homeopathic recipes of roots and herbs to treat illness. Daniel claimed to be a Nemenhah shaman, then it turned out that Nemenhahites (?) age 13 or older are automatically shamans. The Hausers are in no sense Indian.

When Daniel refused chemo, his doctor took him to court. Daniel defended himself with a first-person statement that I'm highly doubtful that he wrote himself. When the judge ordered Daniel to resume chemo, he and his mother fled to California, seduced by a sleazy lawyer to promptly ditched them. They were then flown back by a Hollywood movie producer, and yesterday, Daniel showed up for chemo at a hospital in Minneapolis.

Lots of people have been writing about this as a freedom of religion case, and it may be.

My friend, Carla, has written about the parental privacy aspects of the situation:

Because raising children is not something we do for ourselves. We raise children to be part of the world, to be active, involved participants in the lives of other people. Daniel Hauser doesn't belong to his mother. He belongs to a family, to a community, to God.

Carla's on to something here. It seems to me that this is a case of a naive and easily manipulated mom, and a bedraggled father, who dragged their son into a hellish public nightmare because of their conspiracy-theory mistrust of Western medicine.

This is why we live in a society, surrounded by other human beings, so that when one of us loses our way, there's a whole posse of people around to ensure that we don't take others down with us. Thank GOD for a sensible physician and judge for overriding in unsensible parent.

Chemo Round 2

So yesterday was round two of chemo and while it went faster than round one, it still took forever. We got there on time and had to wait about 20 min. before we went back for chemo. We met the third nurse Russ, who was also fantastic, he hooked me through my port, took my blood and waited to make sure my counts were okay, which they were:)

Then they started me on all of my premeds. In the midst of this is was time for my scheduled appointment with the doctor, this is something you do every other treatment, just to check in. So they took me, and my IV's and Rob to a room and we waited. And waited. And waited. we waited so long my premed bag ran out, but there was still no doctor. then there was a knock at the door. It was Russ, checking on us. He took the premed bag off an said, you haven't seen the doctor yet? We said nope. unfortunately the way my meds go they couldn't give me anything else until we were back in the chemo chairs, so that put everything later.

An hour later, not in the comfy chair, we finally saw the doctor. He said I was boring because I had no symptoms. Russ even commented on the fact that I hadn't lost my hair yet. I am not believing that it won't got yet, but you never know. After that we went back to finish chemo for the day. Which means lots of sitting and waiting.

While we sat and waited I read my kindle some more. And at least 4 people asked me about it, including two nurses. Perhaps I am starting something, or as my sister said, corrupting the chemo group. Who knows.

Of course what you all want to read is how I am feeling. I am feeling great again so far. I came home an relaxed and rested yesterday and went to work like normal today. We are ever grateful this week for all who helped us out. Carrie for watching Colby, beyond the time we thought. Susan Smith and Sue Demaine for the delicious meals that helped to make chemo week easier. And for all those who have sent cards, and presents to help make this whole journey that much easier. We appreciate you all.

I will keep you posted and how I feel and what happens next. Maybe even some hair falling out:)

Melissa and Celebrities

So, it has officially been a week since my first chemo treatment and since there is nothing new to share, I am going to write about my recent findings this week of celebrities who have or had Hodgkins Lymphoma. Before I do this, just a quick update. I am doing fine, am blessed to have no side effects so far. We will see how next week goes:)

Now on to the good stuff. So I was surfing the internet yesterday and came across the following story: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20279566,00.html

If you know me well, you know that I am a huge fan of Survivor. According to this story, one of the past winners of Survivor: Africa, has been diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma as well. In reading the article I realized that he started treatment the same week as I did, so I thought it was a funny coincidence to share with y'all.

Then, last night I was at the pre-conference briefing and one of my pastor friends walked up to me and said, hey did you see that Ethan from Survivor has the same thing you do. And I was like, yeah I read that today. And then he was like, well when I first heard about your diagnosis I immediately remembered that Matthew Fox, from Party of Five and now Lost, had Hodgkins Lymphoma while he was on Party of Five and look at him now. 

This of course prompted a conversation of whether or not this pastor had decided to google celebrities with Hodgkins Lymphoma. He denies it, but I am not sure. I thought this was something fun and interesting to share with everyone. Hope you enjoy it!!!

And I promise we are working on the head wrap voting survey:)

Colby Swim

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Originally uploaded by robrynders

Colby had his first swimming experience today when his aunt Katie and Uncle Robbie took him to the pool! Melissa will post more later, but here is a cute picture for now.

1st Chemo Treatment

As many of you know from reading the blog, my first official chemo treatment was yesterday, Tuesday May 12th. We went in not really knowing what to expect, but knowing that we would be there for a while. I came armed with my blanket from the LoveKnots at Tempe 1st, my kindle that the family pitched in on for my Mother's Day present, my comfy sweats my sisters got me at Disneyland, and my mom and Rob.

When it was my turn they took me back into the area where they do all the chemo treatment and we met the nurses Jackie and Charlotte, both very nice and very reassuring that no question was a stupid question. We sat down in an open reclining chair, alongside eight other people. It took them a while to get things going since this was my first time. The first thing they did was get my port hooked up to a needle, which really is much nicer then getting pricked in the arm, let me tell you. Once that was done they could draw the necessary blood work and then hook me up to saline water before the chemo drugs.

They spent some time educating us on chemo and the particular drugs I would be taking. With the ABVD drugs there is a 99% chance of hair loss, so I am going to be running a vote for which head wraps you think I should buy. That will come later, when I can figure out how to set it up. After they gave us a bunch of information they had to make sure I wasn't allergic to the bleomycin, so I got a small trial dose of this first. Once they determined I was still breathing they got started on adminstering the various other drugs.

I finally convinced my mom and Rob to go and get lunch at this point, since I was finally hooked up, no more talking, and just sitting they decided they could dash to Applebee's an eat. I sat in my chair and read the book I had downloade, while making friends with some of the people around me.

Because it was the first chemo, they administered everything very slowly to watch my body's reaction. This made for a long first day. We showed up at 11am, and finally left at 5:00 pm. They tell me next time will only take 3 hours. I will be going back every other week on Tuesday's for 7 more times. So far I am blessed to not have too many side effects. I was a bit tired last night, but that was partially because of the long day. So far I have not felt horrible, but we will see how that goes. We promise to keep you posted.

Many of you have asked how you can help us out. North Scottsdale will be helping us with meals on Tuesday and Wednesday, on treatment weeks. If you want to help Nancy Gerberding is heading this up. Rob is working with 1st Tempe to offer meals as well. Many of you who don't cook have been asking where we like to get food To Go. We are lucky that we have almost any restaraunt around us: Applebee's, Outback, Chili's, Macayo's, etc.

Most importantly you can continue to send us your love, prayers and hugs. Without all of your support this journey woul be much more difficult Thank you.

Power Ports and Power Rangers

Today the treatment adventure more or less began. We arrived at the outpatient radiology unit at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Campus at 9 a.m. to have Melissa's port installed into her chest. We checked in and tied up a few loose ends with the very nice billing girl. Melissa and I then went back to the lab so Melissa could have some blood drawn. After that we went back to the "Holding Room" where Melissa put on a hospital gown, jumped into a bed and was hooked up to an IV. A nurse then walked us through the procedure and let us check out a sample port (pictured above). The port makes it so each time Melissa needs blood drawn or needs chemotherapy or a dye injected for a scan, they don't have stick a needle in her arm.

After the blood work came back clear the doctor met with us and then it was time for Melissa to be wheeled back, get drugged up, then have the procedure. At this point they kicked me out of the room and invited me to grab something in the cafeteria. By cafeteria I figured they meant I should run across the street to the Red Robin. I'm not one to argue with medical professionals so I complied.

The procedure only lasted about an hour and when I returned Melissa was back in the "Holding Room" eating a turkey sandwich and drinking a Diet Coke. The only difference was that now she had a piece of titanium just under the skin of the upper right hand side of her chest with a small catheter running under the skin to her jugular vain. She also has two really small but cool incisions that have been glued shut. She won't be lifting anything using her right arm for the next two weeks until the incisions are completely healed. The port, however, is ready for use and will get taken for a spin on Tuesday when she receives her first round of chemotherapy. Apparently between the painkillers and sedatives they gave Melissa before the surgery, she was supposed to fall asleep. By the end of the surgery (and a Dancing With the Stars discussion) the doctor told Melissa, "That's funny, you should have fallen asleep at some point, oh well, we're all done!"

We only had to wait in recovery for about an hour and then Melissa was discharged and was able to walk out under her own power. We were even able to stop at Target on the way home to pick up some odds and ends. Melissa was pretty tired though when we got home and she took a nap for a few hours before we ordered some pizza and watched Grey's Anatomy with some of my Wesley students.

The joke now is that Melissa is a purple Power Ranger because she has a purple power port and she's a superhero. But we already knew that :)

As always, we need to thank everyone who have offered prayers, support and get well wishes. Today we would especially like to thank Craig who watched Colby and the ladies from Tempe First UMC who made Melissa a pink "Love Knots" blanket. She will definitely be using it on Tuesday.

For more info on ports:

http://www.bardaccess.com/port-powerport.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_(medical)

MUGGA scan and chemo update

As we shared I went in for my MUGGA scan today, which is scan to make sure the heart is healthy enough to withstand the chemo. This involved me getting some blood drown, which they then mixed with an isotope of some kind. I had to wait thirty minutes while that mixed and then I went back in and they put my blood back in my arm. After that they took two pictures of my heart, about 10 min. for each one, and then I was done.

On Thursday I will return to the same place and they will do outpatient surgery to put my porto-cath in so that I can receive the chemo through that.

After the test I called the oncology place to get my chemo scheduled. I had thought that I wasn't going to get to begin chemo until at least two weeks from today because my lung scan is not scheduled until next Thursday. In talking with the scheduler she said that Dr. Hecker has given me the go ahead to begin chemo on Tuesday May 12 without the lung scan. This is great news because it means we are on the right every other week schedule and it means we get to start sooner rather than later.

I also want to take this time to thank everyone for their loving notes and well wishes. We are so lucky to have such a strong support system. If you have any questions or want to know anything just email us. I will let you know how the port install goes on Thursday.

Melissa

Important Family News

Dear Friends and Family,

In early February Melissa and I were concerned when she found a noticeable lump near the base of the bottom of her neck, just above the collarbone, on the left side. She had her doctor check it out and she told her it was probably just a swollen lymph-node from having a cold. To be on the safe side, however, Melissa was scheduled to see the doctor again in thirty days. As the next appointment grew closer, Melissa noticed the lump had actually grown bigger. When she went in her doctor immediately scheduled her for an ultrasound. When that test came back she was then scheduled for a CT scan and a biopsy. When she was called back to go over the results we were shocked to hear that she had been preliminarily diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease, a rare but very treatable form of lymphoma. Melissa was then referred to see an oncologist for further testing and a firm diagnosis.

When we saw the oncologist at the end of March and he confirmed the diagnosis and scheduled Melissa for a PET scan, which would show how much the cancer had spread. Melissa was then scheduled to see the oncologist again at the end of April to go over the results and a treatment plan.

When we returned in April we went over the scans with the doctor and saw that there were growths that had spread some in her chest area but had not spread to any organs. This officially gave her a stage II diagnosis. The encouraging part is that at this stage the cancer is very treatable with an over 80% successful treatment rate. Unfortunately treatment will include chemotherapy every two weeks beginning mid-May through August. At that point more scans will be done and if the treatment has been successful the cancer will be "finished off" with some radiation therapy. The oncologist is very confident that this will be the case.

So what's next? First, Melissa needs to undergo some routine testing to be sure her body can handle the chemotherapy. On Tuesday she sees a cardiologist to make sure she has a healthy heart. On Thursday she will have out-patient surgery to have a port installed. The following week she will see a pulmonologist to make sure her lungs are healthy. Following that test she will be scheduled for her first round of chemotherapy. Each round is expected to last 3-4 hours. The biggest side effect will be fatigue and she will very possibly lose her hair, however, it will eventually come back.

As you can guess this has been some pretty difficult news to digest, however, we have taken it in stride. We have total confidence in Melissa's doctors and know that we can lean on each other and God to see us through this. We also know that we have the amazing prayers and support of all of our family, friends, and congregations.

At this point Melissa plans to maintain her duties at church and does not plan to take a leave of absence. We are happy to receive private messages and calls from folks, however, please refrain from posting public social media (Facebook, Twitter) comments at this point.

We hope to keep the blog updated throughout this process so you can check back here from time to time. If anything, you will get to see all the latest Colby pictures :)

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Rob, Melissa, and Colby

Read more about Hodgkin's Disease here

Update

Well a lot has been going on since we actually had the time to write anything. Colby's 1st birthday has come and gone and we had a great time celebrating with family and friends. As his mom predicted, Colby was not too keen on the cake or the getting messy part. In fact I think most of the cake that ended up on him was thanks to his dad and his Auntie Katie:) 

Colby has really taken off with walking, although he still prefers to be baby taxied around by his mom or dad, what can we say, he loves us:) After his healthy 1 year check up we began giving Colby whole milk, and he LOVES it. It sucks it down like there is no tomorrow, this leaves lots more fun for diaper changing!!!

We have also started getting Colby onto only solid foods and no more baby food. We have discovered that he loves his carbs and he has refused to eat anything but a whole wheat bagel for breakfast the past few days. We are still enjoying every minute with him and can't believe how much cuter he gets each day. Enjoy some of the pictures:)

Colby 11 Months

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Originally uploaded by robrynders

Here is a picture to hold you over until we can get a detailed update posted. Enjoy!

Steps!

Colby took his first steps today!  We hope to get some video of him we he tries to take some more.  Stay tuned!

Colby Doggie Door

That's right, Colby has figured out how to use the doggie door!

Colby's First Race

So Colby, Katie and I ran in the SkirtChaser 5K on Valentine's Day and we had a lot of fun. This was Colby's first official race. Katie and I have been training with Colby in the mornings, we push the stroller and he enjoys the wind in his air. All had a great time and the weather was wonderful, Colby even flirted a bit with the women. And of course, after the race, Colby needed to rehydrate. Enjoy some of the pictures.

Another Tooth!

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Originally uploaded by robrynders

Tooth number two has arrived!

Colby Want a Cracker?

This one is pretty self explanatory.

Is This Sanitary?

Colby has a new habit. He will only eat when he puts his foot up on his high chair tray. It's pretty hilarious. The voice you hear is Katherine Tang's. She watches Colby a couple days a week.

Super Bowl

So Colby experienced his first Super Bowl and boy was it a good one. He was all dressed and ready to go for the wonderful day and really had a good time, until he fell asleep at the end and missed all the good plays. I still say Colby is a good luck charm because this was his first Super Bowl AND the Carindals made it all the way!!!! It's amazing. 

I have included a picture of Colby in his Cardinal's gear. Enjoy!

Getting Bigger

So Colby is finally growing out of his 6-9 month clothes, which meant it was time to pull out the tubs of 9-12 month clothes. To my surprise, and let me tell you it was a big surprise with all the clothes he was given, that he had maybe 3 or 4 outfits in the next size. So lucky mom and dad, we have been able to buy Colby clothes, clothes and more clothes. This also means that I get to pack up the smaller clothes and put them in storage for another day. 

The other joy of my week was that I got to find him a Cardinals outfit for the Super Bowl on Sunday. It should be super exciting to watch the Cardinals and the Steelers play on Sunday. Go Cardinals!!! I hope you enjoy the videos, Colby is just getting more and more grown up everyday and before we know it he will be walking all on his own.

Colby Walker

He's getting close! (the voices in the background are from the TV)

Rob's Web Adventures January 19-24

Well, life has been pretty busy lately. I have been working to try and grow our 11:30 a.m. Sunday morning service, The Journey, by stepping out of the 9:30 so I could put in more time and resources. It's been good so far, but preparing and preaching two sermons a week is exhausting. Luckily I will only be preaching on Wednesday nights for the next two weeks. Don't get me wrong though, I really like to preach at The Journey and its qucikly turing into one of my favorite worship services ever.

Wesley is very busy these days as we continue to grow steadily, develop leadership, and are in the midst of a logo/website/promotional materials overhaul. I am really excited about it though and I hope things will be in place by the end of next month, at least with the logo and the website.

Strangest conversation of the week was with the Wesley student leadership council. Apparently college students want to be contacted through Facebook, except when they want to be contacted through e-mail when something is important. Interesting thing happening here. Is Facebook reaching its peak? Or do college students just want to use it as a networking tool and not necessarily as a primary means of contact? It used to be no one ever checked regular e-mail, I had to contact through Facebook or Myspace messaging. Anyway, all further "important" messages to college students shall be sent through standard e-mail. What are your thoughts?

The upcoming week brings hopefully settling in to the routine of the semester and of course lots of anticipation for the Super Bowl. Let's go Cardinals!!!

Don't forget, if you want full access to family pictures and videos to create flickr and youtube accounts and connect with user name "robrynders" or robrynders (at) gmail.com

Places I went to around the web this week...

Speak Out Against Massive Budget Cuts to Education In AZ
http://www.speakupnowaz.org/action/index.php
With a new administration in the state and a huge budget deficit, Republicans have proposed massive education cuts to make up most of the budget shortfall. This will have a huge impact on everything from kindergarten to our public universities. Go to this now and contact our legislators. I wrote the following letter:

Dear Arizona Legislator,

I am the United Methodist Campus Minister at Arizona State University. I work with dozens of ASU students, all who are excellent students who have bright futures, not just in the United Methodist Church, but in their communities and in the great state of Arizona. Many of these students, who are Arizona residents, are only able to attend ASU because it is affordable. Many of them are already living on the financial edge and the proposed budget cuts to the education system would force them to drop out of school or borrow large amounts of student loan money.

Accessible and affordable education is one of the things that make this a great state to live in. By accepting these proposed tax cuts we will send a message, not only to our own residents, but to the entire world that Arizona devalues education. We will also effectively put our state into an economic tailspin as our workforce becomes less and less educated forcing companies to look elsewhere for quality employees.

This is also a moral issue. Affordable access to higher education provides students with a good moral grounding, provides opportunities for some students to break the cycle of poverty in their families, and shapes leaders for the future of our state and our nation.

These budget cuts will provide a crushing blow to an untold number of Arizona college students and I implore you to work with each other and the citizens of Arizona to find another way.

I will be meeting with many of the other religious leaders at ASU next week to discuss how we can be part of the movement to keep these cuts from happening. Unfortunately, we will also have to discuss how we are going to provide spiritual support to many of our students who will have to withdraw from school if these cuts occur. My hope and my prayer is that our latter discussion will never leave the planning stages.

Please do your part to make sure these unconscionable and immoral budget cuts do not occur. I hope to continue to tell others that Arizona is place where all of it's residents can get a quality and affordable eduction.

Sincerely,
Rev. Robert G. Rynders
United Methodist Campus Minister
Arizona State University

Slacker Radio
http://www.slacker.com
My favorite Internet radio site. I also have the iPhone app. Put in the name of an artist or band and Slacker will create a custom radio station for you. It's like Pandora and its free too!

AZGreenday
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/azgreenday/
This environmental blog is managed by a member at First Tempe UMC who is a reporter for the East Valley Tribune .

Virtual Box
http://www.virtualbox.org
A great virtualization program that will allow you to run Windows in OS X. The best part is that it is free!

This is a pretty funny video of Colby when he was figuring out how to crawl.  We were hoping to get some good crawling action but then Belle came into the picture...

Rob's Web Adventures January 11-17

I really don't have much time to blog in length about much and I will have a new blog dealing with religious/theological issues on the new www.valleywesley.com. What I thought I could do though was blog about some of the more interesting sites on the web I have been each week. I have interest in religion, politics, electronics, and sports. Nice mix eh? Well, here is the first batch, so check out the sites for yourselves and comment below!

Inaugural Events Schedule
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/16/inauguration.schedule/index.html
A good resource to keep track of the events surrounding the inauguration of the 44th President. Jan 20 will be one of the most historic days of our lives. It's really cool that it is happening after MLK day. Who would have thought that the work he did would eventually lead to an African American president 40 some years later.

My senior year of High School I was able to go on a class trip to DC to see Clinton's second Inauguration. I don't remember much from the actual ceremony other than freezing on the Capital Mall. Perhaps one day I will make it back to witness another one!

Get Afghanistan Right
http://getafghanistanright.com/
A movement of bloggers committed to pushing the discussion on Afghanistan beyond military/violent solutions.

"How to Be a Disciple"
http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=336
Great article by Dallas Willard, of which I quoted from, in my sermon today.

Phoenix Light Rail
http://www.raillife.com/blog/
We have taken a ride on the Light Rail a couple of times now to downtown Phoenix. It's not the quickest form of transportation but it beats parking downtown and I think will open downtown to so many more people. Should be interesting to see how life develops along the route in the next few years.

Consumer Electronics Show
http://www.engadget.com/category/ces/
http://www.macrumors.com
Each year the tech community gathers at CES in Las Vegas to show off all the cool new gear. Nothing too exciting for me this year. No major TIVO announcement, but Sling is almost ready to release an iPhone client, LED TV's are almost here and home media serves are getting cooler and more affordable. Oh yeah, will Windows 7 eventually make everyone forget about Vista?

Macworld was also occuring at the same time, however, nothing too exciting from there either. I am interested in the new photo tagging options in iPhoto, reverse "Rockband" in Garageband, and the web based features for iWork. Still waiting on something cool to happen with Apple TV, Blu-Ray drives, and larger SSD drives before I upgrade again.

9 Months

So are little Colby is getting bigger and bigger. We went to his 9 month check up on Monday and he weighs 18 lbs. 1.5 oz. He was 26 in. long and has a big head:0 That means his brain must be big. He wants to walk more than anything, but he can't figure out how to balance all on his own. Someday it will all come together.

We are getting our second tooth, which means mom and dad get sleep every now and then. Colby has also entered the stranger danger mode, which means that he can have trouble sleeping if he has been around too many strangers during the day. We are just figuring out what to do day by day.

On a fun note, Colby had a play date yesterday with his friend Jacob who is just a few days older than him. It was lots of fun, and hopefully we will get pictures from their time at the park together soon. That's it for now.

How to Access Pictures and Video

On the previous version of the site most were able to access pictures and video straight from the site.  This, however, caused two issues.  First, those with slower connections had a heck of a time loading all those photos and most were unable to watch the videos.  Second, it probably is not a good idea to have uncontrolled access to hundreds of the family photos on the internet.

So here is how it works on the new site for pictures:

1.  Go to www.flickr.com and create a free account then search for member "robrynders" and add me as a friend or family member.

2.  If you are lucky and I approve you then you can see the family photo albums.

For video:

1.  Repeat above process, but do so at www.youtube.com

2.  I will again grant you access, however, no videos have been uploaded yet, but hopefully soon. 

If you have any issues just call or e-mail me!

New Website

I am also excited about the new website because it means you will get updates from me as well, and sometimes I am better at this than Rob is. Like letting you all know that Colby now has his first tooth and is working on more. That, and Colby is a little cruiser now. He can't walk by himself but he sure likes to hold on to everything he can and make his way around a room. Perhaps some video will come sometime soon. Enjoy a preview of Christmas pictures to come.

Menu Please

What should I order?