Upcoming Doctor Appointments

Pet- Cat- scan scheduled June 6 715a. You know me, this is painful! So early! Next appointment with Thoracic Surgeon is Friday June 15. To go over scans, and talk about the surgery. I don't know how soon they'll schedule this, guess it depends on when everyone is available. Could be any time after that apointment. Will keep you posted.

I really want to go to the Modesto Home School Convention 27-28July. Please pray I will be healed enough and in driving condition by that time.

Until next time.........

News Flash

To verify this tumor did not originate elsewhere, I will have a pet cat-scan. This is cool. It checks for any cells that are eating sugars quickly, fast metabolic growth. Before surgery I will also need a pulmonary function workup. After consulting a Thoracic surgeon, and looking over my films, the recommendation is now to have the tumor removed ASAP to avoid future problems from a larger tumor. So, ASAP is soon, but not light speed. Lawrence has 2 weeks vacation, so guess this will be like having a baby:-o As for the 2nd biopsy, they will do what is called a frozen biopsy, during the first part of surgery. One stop shopping, 1X being knocked out. I’m thrilled to not have this done as a separate event!

Next I will need to see the Thoracic Surgeon for consultation, find out the how of removal. Both Docs are at the UCSF Cancer Center. Per the pulmanologist, surgery will be done from the back. This thoracic surgeon has been written up in the SF Chronicle for small incisions, least invasive surgery. Hope this works well for my recovery. Lawrence was up and running pretty quickly after his appendectomy.

What will I need? Bring a meal to my family while I’m gone, come visit me in the hospital, and PRAY.

God has blessed me so much through this experience. I can feel the power of the prayers of His people. I know from the past the power of prayer focused on me. I’m a little bummed thinking about when life is back to health and regular living and I won’t have the extra prayers of so many people. Not so bummed as to not want to be living in that space again!! God gives us times in our lives to put life into perspective. This life is but a fleeting moment in time. We are as grass in a meadow here today, gone tomorrow. So many blessings. Such a good and generous God. I’ve been reading the Old Testiment from Joshua to 2Kings and have a real sense of how blessed I am that Christ came to be the fulfillment of the law. I could never live up to what was expected of the Old Testament folks! Praise God for salvation, without my perfection. Christ is Lord and He is Risen!

Lookin' Good

We were so excited, we were 30 minutes early for the 12n doc appt. (for other people that's on time:o) They put us in a room right away. Cool, good thing we were early we said. at 1:15p the doc came in appologizing. She didn't know were where there! She was told she'd seen everyone and was done.

Bottom line, she saw my blood work, the images, the mass is more on the spine, not her expertise, however she see's lung cancer all day long, and is familiar with cancer. Doesn't look like the tumor is compressing anything in a restrictive way. 2 choices. Follow it to see if it grows or changes, or biopsy it and see if it is benign as it appears. There are a couple of rare things it could be, but they are rare. I have none of the symptoms of these rare cancers, so, not likely.

She also said she didn't hear a wheeze, like I hear. So it must be upper airway noise. Will do pulmonary testing/workup to see what is going on there. Dr. Leard also said the tumor is not puting much pressure on lung, definitely not enough for a wheeze whether I have one or not.

Doc will check with some surgeons to see if anything further needs doing, perhaps seeing a neurosurgeon, since it is in nerve area. If surgery would be needed, which doesn't seem to be the case, it would be done by a neurosurgeon. Doc called back yesterday already, but I wasn't home to take her call. So I'll call her back on Tuesday to see what she discovered from looking at the images again and speaking with sergeon/s.

All in all, I feel very happy, peaceful with this visit. Please pray about wisdom of 2nd biopsy. Lawrence would like to see this diagnosed, not wonder what if, and I don't want to experience any more biopsies. This one would be done at the UCSF Cancer Center with the Radiologist present so hopefully they would get a better sample than last time. The BIG bummer is that I would get no sedation drugs like last time, just some lidocane. From a side effect standpoint, that's great, from a nervous, pain standpoint, I don't want to experience this.

Even in just writing this out, it does seem prudent to do the 2nd biopsy, so we'll see what the doc says Monday. She is very knowlegable and attentive, which gives me a sence of being taken care of. Really needed that! She's taking care of my case even though it really doesn't fall into her 'juristiction'. She did say it was refreshing to see something so benign looking. This tumor is unlikely to be any more ominous than a huge information packet giving me opportunity to grow and change. Yay Charicter, Go book of James chapter 1!!!

SF Bay Don Edwards fieldtrip

Tomorrow is the Dr appt. Please pray for Gods favor to be on me. Wisdom for the Doc and myself and peace in our home and on all of us as we take the next step towards health and healing, one way or another.

tracks in the mud. Who was here?

The kids experience how malard ducks take flight. Some of these ducks would take longer than others to take off!

What's the difference between a pelican bone and a deer bone. Why?

kids were broken into smaller classes.
Barn owl wing.

Caleb and Malachi in front right of picture, burnt orange sweatshirt.




A couple Thursdays ago we went to Don Edwards on a field trip. Caleb and Malachi got to disect owl pellets, see different wings, feet, beeks, taste pickel weed, learn about the habitats and how different animals live in thier habitats.

Mothers Day and my birthday

For mothers day I asked for the family to spend time gardening together. Lawrence and the boys bought all the supplies while I took a nap in the car with Silas. If you know me, this is uncharicteristic, usually, I can't sleep anywhere no matter how tired I am. I was recovering from a cold.

Once home, time to garden, I left to pick up my mom, car trouble. When I came home all the plants and orange TREE were planted! What a great gift. They planted beans, tomato's, watermelon, corn, and several types of squash. BBQ vegetables from the garden, yummmmmm.

In the front yard we are making a butterfly/ hummingbird garden. Our yard has come a long way baby. We've been in our house 10 years. We moved in, May 1997 and we were the weedy lawn neighbors for a long time. So nice to have a usable, and beautiful yard!

co-pays & deductables

Just received a call from Lawrences dentist advising he needs a bridge and our portion of the charge is 1500. Got a bill from my biopsy, my portion 2000. We're hitting our yearly maximums. Our new insurance year just started May 1st of course. Arg!

God is a gracious provider, and what this means is lots of provision. I have been complaining about the worsening costs of medical insurances, higher co-pays, deductables where there were none.... I know some of you are nodding vigerously, you've been noticing it too. Well, after reading over the benefits for this year, I was struck with the fact that we still get so much, and having Lawrence quit his job and work from home would be so expensive, it appears to be cost prohibative.

Even with the deductables and co-pays, we are getting much more than we will ever put into 'our share'. With the scans, cat, MRI, pet, the specialists, we'd be sunk. All in perspective.

Lawrence had his first Chiropractic appointment last Saturday, for $10. Finally, a small co-pay!

Back in the saddle again

I now have an actual real appointment with a pulmanologist. I was called finally by UCSF chest department with the phone number to where she thought was a better fit. Department of Thorasic Oncology. (Thorasic=chest area).

12n, 25 May is my appointment, fit in as an overbooking. This doc is located in the Cancer center at UCSF Mt Zion. So ominous sounding, but that's where I want to be,with people who know which end is up, familiar with masses of all types. Please continue to pray for God to grant me favor in the doc and staff to go the extra mile. To see me as a human, a woman, mother, wife.....

Please pray for this mass to schrivel like a raisin with every breath of air I take. Life will be removed from this 'information packet' and transfered to me and my new life in Christ.

Looking back at one of Gods provisions

I recently had occasion to remember how we were given our home. While we wait for God's provision, I thank God for how he has provided for our family in the past.

Before we got our house, we were living in San Leandro, cockroaches, helicopter flying over sometimes…. We couldn’t possibly afford a home, and yet, God had a home for us. My sister-in-law was shopping, and came across a lender, long and short of it, she wasn’t interested, said call my brother. The guy called us, a lender who helped the original owner get loan, so no real estate agent involved. The home was almost in foreclosure, foreclosure was pushed back several times and pushed back again, just because he had prospective buyers in escrow, a fast escrow opened the day he got our names. He asked us if we were interested. We were interested, sight unseen, but was he really interested in us, we had debt, very little income, and challenged credit. After 3 undeniable miracles, we were living in our new home only 15 days later. Let me tell you, I was making 6.65/hr 20 hrs a week and Lawrence had 2 part time jobs at 10/hr and 15/hr or so. We had a car with a loan balance on it that was stolen and totaled, squeaking us in for the credit ratio(All things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to his purposes). This house was originally ‘low-income’ housing with the city of Hayward holding a 2nd. A 2nd where you don't pay until you sell or choose to pay, with profit-sharing at pay-off. They offered to give us a 2nd as they had for the original owners. This was 20K and not nearly enough to get us qualified for the loan, so they upped it to an unprecedented 52K!! Our debt ratio was still too high, and I got my 1st annual stock statement from the company I was working for, key word annual, within the week we were doing all the paperwork. That put us just barely in range for the loan on the house, we closed. We borrowed the 5K we needed for a down-payment from Lawrence’s sister. We got it back in 5k credit for repairs that the house needed, to pay her back, and the rest is history. I peeked in the windows before closing escrow; Lawrence never even saw the inside of the house before we had the keys! This is truly an awesome powerful rich generous God we serve. The impossible made possible through him, for his glory. Every good thing comes from him alone.

In our humanity, we would have never been able to afford to buy a home, even through today in the Bay Area. This home never went on the market. We had roommates for the first 5 years just to afford the mortgage. And now, I have a home with a yard, albeit small, for my boys to play in.

Brotherly Love

Caleb and Malachi have been fighting a lot. They have an incredible time together, playing, being goofy, having fun, and fighting, and not just with light sabers :-o Many of you have been praying with me for harmony, and to that end, when they fight, they must 'work it out' taylor sitting accross from eachother, knee to knee, hands on the others knee. As soon as they can high 5 or hug, and be ok with eachother they are allowed to be done, having worked it out. This is a new strategy, it does work with much help getting them set up, sometimes we are a triad, with me mediating. Please pray for love, patience, kindness, peace, forgiving spirits, trust. For willing attitutes, and consistancy on my and Lawrence's part. Also for Lawrence and I to be disciplining, and seen by the boys as a team. And consistancy, consistancy, oh and please pray for consistancy!

New information coming soon`

Long time since there has been any news. I have been turned over to the chest department, Hahaha, at UCSF. They have all types on this team, Radiologits, Surgeons, etc... I'm waiting for a call from them now to have a meeting to discuss next step. Sounds like they'll push another biopsy. I want to get as much info as possible, and if the eventual outcome of this mass is to be removed, then, why put me under for a biopsy, let's just get it out. Unless they give me extremely compelling reasons otherwise, my desire is to have a pet-scan, then remove this thing. The petscan can see cancer, so that sounds good to me. Again, I'll listen to hear if there are compelling reasons otherwise. Please pray for discernment and wisdom as I hear the foreign language of Dr's, and that they would see me as a human and God would grant me favor in their eyes, to spend the time to be sure I understand, not rush...

So, until next time..........That's all folks.