Hello everyone! We hope that you had a great holiday with friends and family. The CBS Channel 42 News aired a great story about Joe and the wonderful support group that we have from our Mountain Top family, friends and community. We are very thankful for all the support everyone has shown to us during all of this and cannot thank you enough. There are some thing going on that I wanted to let everyone know about:

At the Memphis Marathon this weekend December 2nd "TEAM JOE" led by Geoff Gottlieb will take place. "Team Joe" was created by Geoff and Skip and was also featured in the CBS 42 news piece to get the word out to pray. THANKS GEOFF!! I have a copy of the News piece if anyone knows how to add it to this BLOG let me know. I could only find how to add pictures.

"Team Joe" will be running in the Mercedes Half/Whole Marathon in February if anyone is interested let me know.

There will be a surprise for Joe this Sunday Dec. 3rd at 1:30. Cara Hunter (Cara.Hunter@UNIFORM.ARAMARK.com) has put the word out about a fun run/walk/jog at the nature trail that is next to our house. There is some parking here at the Nature trail or along the road, or also across the street next to the ball fields on HWY 31. Hope to see you here!

Joe has been feeling a whole lot better and is getting around more. He is able to do things for about and hour before having to rest and that is a big improvement from just two weeks ago when climbing the stairs was a big task. I hope to know more information about the surgery scheduled for Tuesday December 5th in the next couple of days and will let you know.

God Bless,
Crystal

The appointment with the surgeon was today and surgery is scheduled for December 5th. They have Joe on call if there is a cancellation to move him up but I will let you know if that happens. He said the same things today that the Radiation doctor said last Thursday.

Best case is that they go in and there is nothing on his tonsil area and the biopsy that they do while they are in there come back clean then they will remove the tumor that is growing on the neck and any other lymph nodes that are abnormal in that area. They are also going to test a node on the left side that is enlarged to see if there are any cancer cells that will need to be removed at the same time.

If there is anything around the tonsil or tongue area they are going to stop and reschedule Joe for a Radical dissection of the neck which will be a 5 hour surgery. They will remove anything that has cancer cells and then will have to rebuild the neck wall with skin from another place on his body. Pray this is not the case and that someone will cancel so Joe will get in sooner before anything grows anywhere else. The doctor said that there is a good possibility that the tumor that is growing in his neck may not be cancer. Only the Lord knows what is in there right now and we can all pray that when the surgery comes that there is nothing for them to find.

They are going to remove Joes port during the surgery because it is bothering him now that he has lost so much weight. The nurse that gave him fluids the other day did a number on him. He said that it really hurt. He has been feeling a whole lot better these last 5 or 6 days. He is starting to have more energy and talking more. We still have not figured out the key to sleeping. I have no idea why it has been so hard trying to figure this out but it is the million dollar question. Even 2 Ambiens did not make him sleep more than 3 hours! I am really looking forward to the 4 day weekend to get some rest.

God Bless,
Crystal

Bad news today. They have moved Joes appointment with the surgeon from 11-27 to 11-20. He has to go to the doctor next Monday the 20th and we find out the exact day that the surgery will be. The tumor has begun to grow again in his neck and it is about 2cmx2cm already. They are not sure about the one on his tonsil yet. He is still dehydrated and they changed his sleeping medicine to Ambien. All the phloem building up in his mouth is due to dehydration and they gave him 1 more bag of fluids today. More to come.....

Love,
Crystal

We just got home about an hour ago and this past weekend was very difficult. Joe could not hold down much food or water. He was blacking out more and was not able to sleep. I wanted him to go to the Emergency room but he did not want to go until we spoke to the Doctor. I called the Doctor first thing on Monday morning and he told me bring him into the Emergency room right away. After we arrived there they hooked Joe up to a IV and started pumping fluids into him and did x-rays and bloodwork. They said his Magnesium levels were low and injected that into his fluid bag. They said that the x-rays were fine and that there was no blockage that they could see. Finally they were able to determine that not only was Joe dehydrated because of vomiting but that his blood pressure was extremely low. We have to note any changes in laying down, sitting up and standing. He has a CT scan on Thursday and then sees his Radiology Doctor, but I don't know what kind of information she will be able to give about how much cancer is left. Trisha is going check with the doctor to see if they can set up some days each week to give Joe fluids so this does not happen again. They check his levels before giving the fluids which I think should be done regularly. What if we just waited instead of going to the Emergency room? They just don't tell you everything and what you do find out is only by asking questions because the do not offer any information. Hopefully you ask all the right ones to get enough information to get through each situation without it turning fatal. It is no fun being on pins and needles all the time not knowing what is going to happen today, tomorrow, or next week.

Anyway, Joe feels a whole lot better now!!! He is talking more and moving around more. He is no longer taking pain medicine or any nausea medicine and is doing fine.

Love,
Crystal

Joe has been doing better the last few days. He tried to eat something by mouth tonight but vomited so that did not work. He also has not taken any pain medicine or nausea medicine today (He's hard headed). Last night about 2am he got out of bed and fell by the dresser. He hit his head and back on the dresser. I got him off the floor and back in bed and asked him why he got up and he said to make a candy bar? I think the fall woke him up real fast because he hit really hard. He seemed ok when I left for work this morning and the kids were here all day with him because school was out. He is down to 155lbs now and hopefully will start gaining weight soon. I took some pictures of him last Monday and will try to have them developed this weekend to show ya'll how skinny he is now. I will have to find a before picture to put beside it. He is still eating by feeding tube but he really wants to eat by mouth and it is not possible yet.

Till Tomorrow,
Crystal

Hello Everyone. He looks like he feels a little better today. He still has the ringing in his ears and it magnifies high pitch sounds. He vomited a while ago when he put robitussin in his tube and there was a pocket of air in there also and he pushed it into his stomach. He could feel the air bubble in his stomach but could not burp to get is out and then vomited. He did not do any food by mouth today but hopes to start sometime this week. He slept quite a bit today which could have been due to all the rain we were getting. I like to sleep when it rains because it is calming and peaceful to me. Well time for bed, I will blog again tomorrow night.

God Bless,
Crystal

Today has been a good day for Joe. He had some energy and said that he is going to try eating a little bit of soup and drinking some by mouth this week. He will be ok if he can control the pain because even drinking water burns. I was sick myself this week and had to go to the doctors for a shot and Matt seems to have a cold now. We are trying to keep it all away from Joe so he won't get sick. Joe still has not gained any weight and is down to 157lbs. His color has improved and the good hours are becoming more frequent in the day. He has not vomited at all today compared to about 2 or more times a day in the previous weeks. Thank you very much for continuing to check this blog to see how Joe is doing.

Love,
Crystal

Not a good day today. Joe vomited twice today one time while I was talking to him on the phone. Just from talking he felt very nauseous and vomited. He has been trying to walk around more out in the yard to get some fresh air. His face seems to have more color in it today. He just ate through the tube and now he is sleeping. Sweet dreams honey.

Love,
Crystal

We still have not heard back from the Doctors office about joy's blood work and I have called twice. He has lost hearing but they have not told us how much. He was not able to eat much through his tube yesterday because he just did not feel well. I got him up this morning to take medicine and eat, but he did not sleep well last night and did not really want to get up this morning. He still has not started to improve and the doctor said that it will be another couple of weeks before we see any improvement. Wow! Joe and I were taking last night about how long it has been already. In 2 more weeks it will have been 4 months since Joe returned from Colorado not feeling like himself. Time flies except when your in bed staring at the ceiling because you can't sleep :(

Crystal

We still have not heard back from the Doctors office about joy's blood work and I have called twice. He has lost hearing but they have not told us how much. He was not able to eat much through his tube yesterday because he just did not feel well. I got him up this morning to take medicine and eat, but he did not sleep well last night and did not really want to get up this morning. He still has not started to improve and the doctor said that it will be another couple of weeks before we see any improvement. Wow! Joe and I were taking last night about how long it has been already. In 2 more weeks it will have been 4 months since Joe returned from Colorado not feeling like himself. Time flies except when your in bed staring at the ceiling because you can't sleep :(

Crystal