June 1, 2008

Hey Everyone,

The radiologist was able to treat 3 of the brain tumors with Gamma Knife. Joe is having a lot of pain right now and is back on pain medicine for a while. The next couple of weeks should show how well the Gamma Knife and radiation went. It will take that long for the swelling to go down in Joe's face (if the radiation worked). He cannot open his mouth very wide making if difficult to eat and he says everything taste like cardboard.

I will keep you updated...

God Bless,
Crystal

May 27, 2008

Hey Everyone,

Joe is having Gamma Knife again in the morning. The nurse said today that he is scheduled to have it done on 2 or 3 of the tumors depending on position.

The radiation on his face tumor is almost done. If he can have his last treatment done tomorrow after the Gamma Knife then he will not have to get radiation on Friday morning. They have him scheduled on June 9th for a body MRI. It will show how fast the other tumors are growing in his body. They will also do another brain scan in one month to see how the brain tumors have responded.

I will place another update after Gamma is done tomorrow.

Love,
Crystal

Hey Everyone,

Joe had his one month follow-up with the neurologist today and also the first of 10 radiation treatments he will receive for the tumor in his face.

More disappointing news came our way today when the neurologist told us that Joe now has 3 additional brain tumors. WOW! So now he has a total of 4 active tumors in his brain, 1 in his face, multiple in his lungs and liver. They are going to take his case before the tumor board in the morning and then let us know what action they want to take. The doctor was leaning toward whole brain radiation since there are so many tumors.

Joe of course had to make a joke about the news today. As we went to the front desk to check out I began to cry. Joe pushed my hair back and said, "It's okay we only have to pay $35 dollars". The lady behind the desk began to laugh thinking I was upset about the bill. He is so crazy.

I am asking God to help us to accept the painful things in our life and concentrate on His loving and healing presence.

God Bless,
Crystal

May 11, 2008

Hey Everyone,

Happy Mother Day! I had a great day with my family. We went to church, lunch and dinner. Joe was very tired tonight and went to bed early. He has been taking a couple of naps a day which is increasing the number of hours he sleeps each day.

They doctors visit on Thursday told us that the tumor in his head is a little bigger than a golf ball. It is pressing on his jaw muscles and nerves in his face. It is inoperable and they hope to shrink it with radiation but they said several times that this procedure in no way will prolong his life only try to reduce some on his pain and discomfort. They made his mask and began the planning of his treatments during that visit. His first radiation treatment will be on Thursday May 15th and the final one will be May 28th. They will not do a scan after the 10 treatments??they will only see if his symptoms are better. (headache, sore jaw, numbness on right ride, etc).

Joe will see the neurologist on Thursday May 15th to do a follow-up MRI on his brain to see what the status is on the brain tumor they just performed Gamma Knife on April 15th.

I have to say after leaving the doctors office on Thursday afternoon it seemed like the devil tried to pull the life from us. It was very depressing and we were in the dumps but you know we are only human. We know it is how you react when you are down like that (blessing or curse) that is important. We came home and discussed what had happened and went to the Lord. In a couple of hours we were revived spiritually because we chose blessing. We refuse to let the devil take hold of us in any way. It is a hard battle to fight but we are standing our ground the best we can. Please continue to pray for strength. We will continue to wear our Jesus Glasses and be in the world not of the world!

Love to all and God Bless,
Crystal

Hey Everyone,

Happy Mothers Day to all the mom's this weekend. I wanted to give an update to you for the upcoming events with Joe. Spirits are high and God is GOOD.

Joe went to the doctor (Radiologist) today. She had spoke to Joe's Neurologist about his constant headache. He now has numbness in the side of his face, arm, hand, pains in his chest and some swelling in his ankles. The doctor said the tumor in Joe's face (if you put your finger between your eye and ear that is where it is) is getting larger causing him several problems and his liver function is low causing other problems, etc.

Right now the are going to do 10 radiation treatments between now and the end of the month. It will take about a week to set everything up and he will have a special CT scan this Thursday to create a mask for radiation. The process takes about 4 to 5 hours because of the scans and molding the mask after the scans are read. Then they re-scan him for the measurements. The mask will be like the last one he had that will fasten him to the bed during the radiation.

They say the radiation will damage his upper right salivary gland, cause bone pain in his mouth, mouth tissue soreness so he probably will not feel like eating much, fatigue, headache, and general pain. I don't know how much this will shrink the tumor but we are going to give it a shot. After 10 treatments they will assess it.

I will keep you posted on his progress.

God Bless,
Crystal

April 24, 2008

Wow, It has been a month since I have updated everyone. It only seems like a week. Joe had his birthday yesterday and even though we had to visit the attorney's office and the doctors office it was a great day. Peggy and Stephanie from church made cakes and served cake & ice cream at our house after church was over. I don't know exactly how many people came over but it must have been at least 50. It just filled our hearts to see all our bothers and sisters at our house in fellowship with each other.

On April 1st the doctors found another brain tumor on the left/bottom side of Joe's brain stem. They did Gamma Knife radiation on April 15th to radiate the tumor. We will not know the result of that until May 15th. At the doctors office yesterday the only did a x-ray so we were not sure why they did that because they cannot read anything off of it.

He is still in good spirits and says, "If I was any better, I'd be twins!"

Love & God Bless,
Crystal

March 23, 2008

Happy Easter Everyone,

We got back from our trip to Hawaii last night. Thanks to everyone who "anonymously" put this trip together. We had so much fun which was greatly needed and appreciated by all of us. It was nice to escape reality for 9 days and just enjoy each other and have fun. We stayed on Molokai but went to Maui for one day. Molokai is very laid back and no one gets in a hurry. We stayed in the only Hotel on the island which only had 10 guest + us. The island only had 1 taxi and the taxi driver gave us a tour of the small town. There was no shopping, no attractions, only swimming, snorkeling, shell searching, strolling on foot, sunbathing, and things along that line. We met a nice family of 4 there and their kids we the same age as ours. We spent a day with them - they picked us up and we had lunch at their house then went boogie boarding, snorkeling, shell searching and learned about the island. We attended a Luau and it was awesome! Lots of fun.

We are back home now and that means back to reality. Joe has made the decision not to have the additional chemo treatments that I told you about on March 10th. Joe said having the chemo this time just did not feel right and he wants to have a good quality of life for whatever time is left. Only God knows when Joe's time will end and I wish it was never, but I also understand that it is in God's time - not ours. We are not giving up because we still have hope but it does hurt. Please keep our family in your prayers.

God Bless,
Crystal