PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here I sit in the resource room at the hospital, just got word from todays' test. We were supposed to call back tomorrow, Friday, but I couldn't wait. Another lesson learned about it's not what you know, it's who you know (and how nice you are, too).


Official wording from the MIBG Scan today that was done at 10:00 am, dictated and reported by the best doctor:


The previously seen activity in the epigastric region in the abdomen as to the areas of abnormal paraaortic at the T1 level ARE NO LONGER PRESENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The left paratracheal left subclavicular activity again seen no change compared to 11/06/07 study.


The left small tumor hasn't decreased but we'll take that over it growing any day.


Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and support.

Hug someone you love today. And give them a big squeeze bear hug, not a weak, wimpy hug!

Big Day

Someone donated a bunch of home made caps for the kids at the hospital some time ago and when Jovee visited the hospital today for preparations for tomorrow's scan, they had saved one specifically for her. Jovee and another girl are known at the hospital as the princesses because they both always come dressed all dolled up. Jovee's pretty well known and I must say a favorite patient of the nurses. A little bit of favoritism but that's all right...

So today is the big scan. It's this morning at 10 am. I'm going to bring the video camera to record the scan. They're pretty relaxed so recording the MiBG is OK. Hoping for the best, hoping for just bowel or just lymph nodes...please, please, please be just that.

Old age body

So it only took 2 hours to find out that I strained and most likely tore some of my intercostal muscles, the muscles that are found in between my ribs. Man, they hurt! Just some pain medicine and time to make the pain eventually go away. Our hot water heater is going out, has been working on and off so got to get that repaired. Had to put new tires on the Jeannine's van because they weren't working very well in the snow. There's always stuff going on, no rest for the wicked. Just a part of life. Man, how boring life would be if we didn't have opposition. I mean, how boring if I just got everything I wanted.

Bennet asked Brooke, "Brooke, am I your friend?" With all innocence and seriousness Brooke replied, "Who's I?".

Jovee hasn't been eating very much at all the past week, particularly the past couple of days. Good thing we got the G-Tube. I wish she would eat though. She's still maintaining her weight so that's good. If, when, it goes well with her scan we're going to ask to have the Hickman line be removed. That would be a big step towards the hope of recovery, not having the tubes hang out of her chest. She's so used to it. The Hickman line has just been a part of her. Whenever we flush her line, daily, she's learned to push the syringe and flush each line out. She likes doing that.

To Good Health

Man, I need to take care of my body a lot better. I have to get my chest checked out because last Wednesday night I started getting really sharp pains, seemed like somebody kicked me in the ribs and no body kicked me or even touched me. It's been hurting bad since last Wednesday night. Man, I'm going to be 33 in a week and feel like my body is falling apart. Good health should motivate me just to be in good health but taking care of my family and being around to take care of them should be a huge motivating factor.

Happy December

Wow, it's December 1st. How time just goes by...It's 18 degrees this morning right now in Deer Park. Tyson and Bennet have their last basketball game this morning. They should be going to the exhibition game at the high school because their team, the Bears, are undefeated. They choose the 2 best teams to play at halftime at the high school boys varsity basketball game. They've had lots of fun. Tyson, Bennet, Mikal, Tyrel, and Samuel Palmer are all on the same team...quite the rowdy crowd. Hope they all grow up together and help each other out in life.

Jeannine, Brooke, and Jovee are going to the Disney on Ice Princess Wishes today. Girls afternoon out on the town. Should be fun for them.

Yesterday morning I decided to go in work a little bit later than usual. I've been working a lot this week, coming home late. We try to eat dinner together because it's good family time but work's been busy. So I took Tyson, Brooke, and Bennet to Rosauers before I dropped them off at school. We all got donuts, sausage links, and bacon and sat at the cafe inside of Rosauer's (a grocery store) and had a good little bonding moment. They all enjoyed it and so did I. If I'm not too packed for work I'd like to make it a "donuts with Dad" Friday. They all smiled big when I asked if they'd like to make that a tradition.

Wednesday evening I saw an old man on a bicycle get hit by a car. He was not hurt but his bicycle was thrashed and all of his belongings were all on top of him in the middle of the lane where he got hit. Four other people, including the man that hit him, and I got out to help him up. He was a transient, didn't have a particular place to go. We all asked if he needed to call anyone or if we could get him to where he was going but he had no where to go. It was a sad moment because he didn't have anywhere he could go to or anyone that he knew of that could come get him...he just mentioned since his bike is thrashed that he'd have to stay at a hotel. After the firefighters came and checked him out and all was well with him physically, I got in my van and drove away. I started immediately to cry...I don't know why...but I cried a lot. I think it was just thankful for having very good friends and family and having people that I could go to at any time to help me. I was thankful to be alive. When you get into a potential life ending situation or see a potential life ending situation it definitely makes you stop and count your many blessings.

Now that it is closer I'm starting to get nervous and anxious again for the results of Jovee's MIBG scan. The actual scan is on the 6th, with preparations on the 5th. So we'll hopefully have results on Friday the 7th. The waiting period....There is really no cure for neuroblastoma. If there was, she'd be cured after a year now. I have absolutely no control of the cancer, no control to spread it, no control to make it disappear. The doctors, medicine, and science have no control. So who's in control? I'm again begging, petitioning with fervent prayer that God, who is in control, grants the desires of my heart to make the cancer go away RIGHT NOW, to make the 2 bright spots that showed up last time be nothing and that the other little tumor continues to shrink. That's what I want and the only thing I want as an early Christmas present. Speaking of presents....today is a gift, that's why it is called the present. I liked that quote.

Happy December 1st!