Archive for June, 2009
6/22 Update
We got home safely last night from Destin. The weather was awesome, hot but no rain. We went through 6 or 7 bottles of sunscreen not wanting anyone to get burned, especially Ryan’s bald head! 
It was awesome to just sit on the beach and relax. We are thankful for the time away as a family.
Not much else to share at the moment. Ryan is doing well. He has some more scans in two weeks to determine if his intestines were adversely affected by the tumors or the chemo, so please pray about that. We will post more later.
For now, enjoy a few of the pictures. We haven’t even downloaded all of them from our camera yet.
God Bless!
6/15 update
I believe most have heard this, but I will post it here. REMISSION! That’s right, REMISSION! The doctor confirmed it today! We still have a long road ahead of us though – scans and tests to make sure the cancer hasn’t come back and to see what damage, if any, to the organs was done by the chemo. All of this is routine, and it will be that way for the next year. Every month Ryan will have to go in and get his chem-port accessed. But he is in REMISSION!!!
My mother has asked me to extend her thanks to everyone during this time. She really appreciates everyone’s help and prayers – she knows that God heard every one of them.
6/14 Update
We are less than 24 hours away from learning about the results from Ryan’s tests. We are prayerfully optimistic about the consultation tomorrow. Ryan has been doing great. His stamina is not back yet and it takes him longer to recover from activity than it used to, but he is really doing awesome. We are thankful for the progress thus far. Bryce and Deanna are doing great as well. They have loved having Ryan home. Deanna is so excited about Kindergarten that she asks almost daily when she gets to go.
I haven’t been sleeping well since this adventure began, so I’m going to take a nap. God Bless and stay tuned for a report tomorrow.
Pictures of Ryan at Camp Rainbow
Here are some of the pics that are up (so far) of Ryan at Camp Rainbow. He had a great time, but did get exhausted and homesick. Guess it will take a while to get his stamina back up. We are thankful that the nurses and staff encouraged him to stay beyond the second day.
Hope you all enjoy!
Thanks Camp Rainbow!
6/4 update
We have had a very exciting week here at the house. Ryan, on Monday, got to complaining about stomach pains. He was hurting so much that he wanted me to call the doctor. Okay, that is scary considering he doesn’t like going to the doctor or the hospital. I did, and they wanted us to come in. His WBC was up (Friday – 3000; Monday – 17000), so they admitted him to the hospital. They didn’t find anything after some CT scans and such, so he got to come home on Tuesday. I’m thankful that they are being so cautious with him.
Wednesday was a big day for Ryan. It was the start of Camp Rainbow, and he was so excited. Troy took him and helped him get settled. Ryan told Troy bye and he was gone. We are both nervous about this as this is the first time he has been to a camp and stayed without either of us. The camp does have a site to where we can see pictures (if they have time to upload them – they have around 100 kids this year), and you can see them at the Camp Rainbow picture site.
UPDATE: Ryan at camp
June 15th is a very important date around here. All of Ryan’s tests and scans are complete, and that is the day we will meet with the doctor to discuss Ryan’s case. We are praying that we hear the word “REMISSION”, and that would be the best birthday/Father’s Day gift ever!
6/1 Update
We have had an awesome couple of weeks. As a family, we’ve been able to worship together, go swimming, have cookouts, birthday parties, 4-wheeler rides, thrown baseballs in the back yard, been to the movies, and many other activities. That said, we’re at the hospital tonight. Ryan started having abdomen pain around 2:00 this afternoon followed by a lot of nausea and vomiting. Victoria took him to the cancer clinic to get checked out. Thanks to our dear friends for keeping Bryce and Deanna on short notice while we went! He had some gaseous buildup in his stomach and an elevated white blood count (remember when we were talking about it being too low?!?) that might be signaling an infection. They don’t think there is anything major at this point. We just got back from an abdomen X-Ray and CT Scan. They are looking into the symptoms just to be sure and have him on IV antibiotics. He is feeling much better right now and may get to go home tomorrow after his MRI, EKG, and ECG. That would be GREAT as he is excited about Camp Rainbow coming up this Wednesday.
We did get a bit of good news today. The doctors will not give us a definitive result until all the tests are done, but the PET scan (one that specifically shows tumors) appears to be clean! AMEN and AMEN! We still are awaiting the consultation on the 15th, but that was an awesome thing to hear and definitely an answer to many prayers.
Off to bed for now. Good night and God Bless!