Picnic!

Sharon brought Dad home for the day on Friday. We decided to have a picnic for dinner so we could all be together for a while before they had to head back to Hope Lodge. Dad is doing pretty well. He is gaining weight again, so that is a good thing. He ate everything on his plate for dinner last night. They have made some friends at the lodge. These are people that are going through almost the same thing if not the same thing. That has helped both of them. At least they have people to talk to. Dad will be going into the hospital on Tuesday and we aren't sure when he will get out. He has to stay in for up to 3 weeks and then stay around the area for two weeks after that. We will be going out to see him on the weekends unless Sharon needs us during the week. We are all going to try to work our normal hours. They are going to need us more when he gets home. He will be taken care of very well by the great nurses at Roswell.

Home For A Day!

Since Dad doesn't have to stay in the hospital this trip to Buffalo, they decided to drive home yesterday after he got his shot. One of the highlights of Dad and Sharon's summer is to watch Kim and his friends play softball on Sunday afternoons.

Kim and his team had three games Sunday. Chris and I decided to go and watch a couple of the games since Dad and Sharon were home. We haven't watched Kim play ball for a very long time. It was fun to watch. Except when fly balls came at us.

I thought this picture of Kim heading to right field was neat.

Here he is at bat.

Jerzie and her mommy came to the second game. Papa had fun playing with her. She is eating gogurt (yogurt) in this picture.

She is playing catch with her mommy in this picture.

Here she noticed that Uncle Chris had the camera out.

Dad is doing well with the shots again this round. He is losing way too much weight though. Sharon told us yesterday that he has lost 14 pounds since May 1st. He can't afford to lose any more. He needs to put some on not take it off. Sharon is going to talk to his Dr. about this when she sees her on Tuesday. It was good for him to come home even if it was only for a few hours.

Back to Roswell!

Dad went back to Roswell on Friday. Chris went down to Dad and Sharon's to load the car for them Friday morning. They had to be at Roswell by 11:00 for Dads appointments. Dad had to have a line put in, so he couldn't eat or drink after midnight the day before. They didn't put his line in until 1:00. By then he was starving. They started his Stem Cell growth shots again. He will have 5 of those and then they will start his collection on Tuesday and maybe Wednesday. Then he should be done with that phase. He has to have his line flushed every day, so they will just stay out that way. His admission date is June 3rd tentatively. This is when he will be in the hospital for up to 3 weeks. He has to stay in the area for 2 weeks after to make sure his blood counts stay OK and to make sure he doesn't get an infection. We will keep you updated as much as we can.

We found a website that explains the procedures he will be going through. Click HERE if you want to find out more about it.

Family Photo!

We sold benefit tickets for Dad to help pay for medical expenses. Today was the drawing, so we all got together for lunch and to draw the winners. You can probably tell by the picture that we made Lymphoma shirts for all of us to wear. They say "I Wear Lime Green for" "my dad", "my husband", "my father in law" and Jerzies says "for my papa". We probably shouldn't tell you what we put on Dads shirt. The cash prizes totaled $850.00. We haven't added up all of the money yet, but we think Dad will end up with about $4000.00 to help with expenses.

Family Meeting!

On Wednesday evening we got a phone call from Sharon. Dr. Smiley wanted to have a family meeting on Friday to discuss what was coming up next for dad. Dad was in Buffalo for a week having his Stem Cells collected and all of the pre-treatment testing done. All of the testing came back fine, but they weren't able to collect enough Stem Cells yet. He has to go back on the 23rd to start getting daily shots so they can finish the collection on the 27th and 28th. After that he will be admitted into the hospital for 3 weeks to start his treatment. He will have 16 rounds of Chemotherapy, then they will start transplanting his own Stem Cells back into his blood stream.

After the meeting dad got released for a week, so we all headed home.

Trouble!

At 7:30 am on Thursday my cell phone rang while I was at work. I thought it was weird. No one calls me at work. When I looked at the screen it said "Mom". I thought she was calling to let me know she had time to give me a haircut. I just let my voice mail pick up the call. When I listened to the message she said you need to see the paper today. There is something in it that will make you smile. So on my first break I bought a paper and went to the section that Mom told me to go to.

Every day in the paper they have a section called "In Years Past". It is things that have happened in our little town years ago. They do 100 years ago, 50 years ago and 10 years ago.

I think we know the person from the 50 years ago story. If it wasn't for Uncle John calling mom, we might not have seen it. (thanks Uncle!)

That's my father. (the 9 year old)

We all got a good laugh out of this. Neither Mom or Sharon had ever heard this story before. I wonder what other stories Dad hasn't told anyone about.