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.