Sobering News

Summer is about half way through & we are trying to enjoy these days before the crazy schedules start again. Tom has been working many hours & my work days seem to fly by.

There have been 3 grievance letters to our insurance company to get Tom back into the test mode. We are back to waiting for the approval. Prayer warriors, this would be my top request at this point in time. Tom continues to have breathing issues & noticed more swelling in his face. This brought about the decision to call his primary doctor. On Friday he went over many things with his doctor. First of all I again have to say how impressed I am with Tom's doc. Tom said he felt a little lost without his Secretary with him to give that last oncologist visits, and such & that was the good news of the day. Doc gave Tom his perspective of Tom's disease:

He first said that every time he sees Tom he believes it is a miracle. He said that after seeing the scans he would not have thought Tom would be in his office today. The swelling that Tom has been having is because he does not have the lymph nodes to reduce the fluids that build up in Tom's face and neck. It pools up while he is laying down & takes most of the day for the swelling to reside. This has been causing his breathing problems, headaches, & lack of sleep which has lead to exhaustion, anxiety & depression. The doctor is going to send Tom to a specialist on August 14 to see if there is anything they can do to reduce his swelling. The doctor is also putting Tom on new/more medication to see if it will help with this. The doctor has ordered an overnight study to see if Tom's oxygen levels are dropping significantly at night. The doctor has also put in a request with the insurance company to see if Tom would qualify for a hospital bed at home. Tom will follow up with the doctor on September 5.

Tom talked about his day to day struggles. Tom was reminded that he doing incredibly well after such a major surgery. They discussed the fact that the cancer is still active and he is by no means cured. Tom needs to focus on what is important right now. The surgery bought him 5 years & if they can stay on top of the cancer he will continue to look at life 5 years at a time.

I told Tom that none of this is shocking to me. I stopped reading all the website information a year ago because it all confirmed this. It has been in the back of my mind for that past 2 years. I try very hard not to take a day for granted (though at times I have greatly failed). So hearing this was once again very sobering and I again thought about how fragile life is. Then verses come to mind. I will share this one:

Psalms 44:5
O God - my God! O my soul, why be so gloomy and discouraged? Trust in God! I shall again praise him for his wondrous help; he will make me smile again, for his is my God!

Grievance Letters

What happened to summer? We saw a glimpse of it....I have a slight tan as proof! This week Katie is in the midst of Mega Sports Bible camp and she picked golfing as her sport. It's like Vacation Bible school but with a sports theme. We had 120 kids the first day at the Wayland City Park, how awesome! The boys are just relaxing these days. I do have to say it was very strange to come home one day last week to see Kyle & his cousin come from golf together & his cousin was driving! I know he is a good driver, but am I ready for this?

We are still getting paperwork together for Tom's Grievance. Tom's primary sent his paperwork to our home so that we can fax our grievance with it. The next step is to talk with the Oncologist & see where their office is at in this process. Hopefully all our efforts will pay off & the PET scan will be approved. We also got the results for Tom's blood draw. The new number is 399, up 4 counts since the end of May. I am so glad that his primary doctor is very active in Tom's care. I can't say enough how impressed I am not only with Tom's primary doctor, but with the whole office staff.

On Sunday our Pastor was talking about life & how difficult it can be. It was compared to a Chess match. I agreed when he said that some days we get up and don't feel like we are on the winning side or that we are prepared for the battle. I also like how God is 15 moves ahead of us. The great thing is that we know who the winner is!

Poked

I hope everyone had a nice 4th. We spent the weekend with friends & family. The weather was not the best, however we had a great time regardless. The kids liked playing in the two different lakes and said that neither lakes were "to cold" to swim in. Tom and I enjoyed watching them from shore on Friday, but when Saturday came around Tom had to get up on ski's. He was very sore by Sunday afternoon!

Tom's oncologist called with an order for Tom to get his blood drawn for the latest report being sent to the insurance company. We have no other information so I would dare say the report still needs to be sent from the doctor's offices. We once again are in the waiting pattern. I hope that the 3rd time is the charm! It has been interesting to hear other people's experiences and perception about the health care system. The sad part is that the consensus is that these approval processes will get worse before the system gets better.

Not too much else to report at this time. We just keep plugging away at the house projects. I keep picking out the stuff and Tom's honey do list just keeps growing longer! Pretty soon all our walls will have color, goodbye primer white!

As we wait I reflect on King Solomon's words, the words of a wise man:
"We can make our plans, but the final outcome is in God's hands. We can always "prove" that we are right, but is the Lord convinced?" Proverbs 16:1-2