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KNtoran's Blog - Page 7

I figured I would end with 3500 posts for the day. I am going to go see the movie the mummy return of the dragon lord tonight after work. I like the late night movies. Plus I have tomorrow off. I will probably see the dark knight tomorrow just so I can say I have seen all the batman movies just like I have seen all the spiderman movies too. I know my wife loves to go see monies and I like to indulge this little habit of hers. I guess she could have a worse habit.

Today was the last day of the hot air balloons. They are having fireworks tonight at the balloon field but I will not be able to get out and see them. My wife and kids will though. I did get some more pictures of the hot air balloons. I will have to post them on my flickr account when I get to it this weekend. I like to keep my flickr account up to date as I know my family that is scattered about the country can look on it. I hope that my friends here like seeing the pictures I take too. I believe I am getting to be a better picture taker as I continue to take pictures. I want to make a file for all the kids on my flickr account to. SO look for that to come up in the next few weeks. This way I can have each child in their own group.

The more and more I think about it the more I can not believe that the 7th of august will mark six months here. I hope you all have not gotten tired of hearing from me yet.

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Well it is that time of year again. Tomorrow is the start of the Iowa state fair. It has been listed as the second thing to do in the summer by USA newspaper the last couple years. It is a 11 day event that goes from the 7th through the 17th this year. I try to get up to it once a year. I find it interesting to watch some of the things people do and say while at the fair. Plus I like to see what the latest food on the stick is. There is now 33 different type of foods you can get and eat that are on a stick. I guess it all started with the corndog or even the footlong corndog. I know I like the pork chop on a stick.

This is something you each should try to get to sometime in your lifetime. I am sure you will enjoy it.

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Well after a nice week of being off the internet and off work I am back. I really did not do a whole lot while I was off. I did tear apart the bathroom and we are in the process of getting it repainted. I did take the family to a baseball game along with my eldest sons girl friend. We had a very enjoyable time. I know for this year being wet and then hot then back to wet again I have not gotten any of my outside work done. I am hoping that this fall I can maybe get some of it done. I have the feeling that it may be postponed till next spring as the lack of money is once again playing a big role in what I am able to do. With school starting up I have to make sure the kids are clothed before I spend a lot of money on a project.

With my wife wanting me to build her a deck outside I have looked at it and designed a deck. The wood is going to be a major expense so I figure I will start with some of the lower cost items first. Getting them and placing them in storage till next spring will be the way to go for me. I am sure that it will be a very busy spring for me if the weather is nicer than it was this year. So now I have a deck, a outside patio and the widening of my driveway to do for the next year. Somewhere in all of that I want to get a flag pole set up. Getting all of this done in one year or even one spring may be interesting. I know I am ready to give it a whirl.

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It has been a exciting week for me and my family. I know it has been a bit since I last posted in here and here the reason why.

leiomyosarcoma cancer (LMS) is what my wife has. It was first diagnosed back in 2006. Since then we have fought it and thought we had won. Well it had other plans. It has come back and now we are looking at chemotherapy. We have to go the Iowa City because they have a nice cancer research center there and the University of Iowa hospitals. It is also the only other place besides Des Moines that has a doctor who knows anything about this cancer. Even the Mayo clinic in Rochester Minn. does not have a doctor that is knowledgeable about this cancer. Fun fun. Anyway we will be headed for Iowa city tomorrow the 27th to get the second opinion to see if the other doctor agrees with our doctor on the treatment plan.

We have also gave a copy of all of our records to the UNiversity of Iowa cancer research center to assist them in better understanding this form of cancer. The reason for this is LMS is a chemotherapy and radiation resistant cancer. Surgical or ablative methods are the treatments of choice. Therefore be very thoughtful if offered chemotherapy or radiation for treatment. So this also does not make our choices very productive. The fact that it is a resistant cancer the usual treatment is to cut it out. Hopefully we can get ahead of it somehow.

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Well yesterday was a waste of time in my opinion. We traveled over two hours to see a doctor to get the second opinion. We get there with time to spare and wait almost a hour. Once we get in to see the doctor we are told that they do not have all our records. Our doctor's office in Des Moines did not send any of the Biopsies, slide photos or film of the MRIs or CT scans over there. Thus the doctor could not give us his full opinion. We will now have to wait till the rest of the information makes it over there so we can hear what he thinks.

He did tell us to not to worry about the cancer right now. Our biggest worry is the mass has blocked the tube leading from the left kidney to the bladder. We need to get that tube un blocked or attach another tube to the kidney to allow it to drain. If we can not do that soon and the kidney dies then almost all of our options are closed to us. SO the next couple months we are going to get the kidney up and running like it is supposed to. This way we can deal with the cancer afterwards.

We have through the rest of the year it sounds like to get things in order.

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Well the school year has started and so far it is a good one. With all my kids in high school or beyond I am finding that the year is a lot less stressful. I do not understand why the middle school years are so stressful but it seemed to be that way. I guess the kids hitting puberty and the changes that their bodies go through sends them into some hormone raging fits that causes them to act out both at home and in school. I am glad they did not act too far out. I Know some kids have.

The fact that it is football season makes it a little hectic for us. We have football practice every night and games that are on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. They play 9 games per season. The first two are behind us now, only seven to go. After football my eldest son is the girls basketball manager. This is something he does every year. It is also show choir time. ALl three of my sons made it in. Two are at the varsity level and one, the youngest, is at the JV level. That is a few extra dollars to spend.

All this adds up to a busy school year from now till the March but it is something that we enjoy a lot.

KNtoran's Blog - Page 7

Well yesterday went real well. We got the tube out of her back so now my wife is resting well at home. She has her next appointment on Friday. I believe that is where we will get her Chemotherapy schedule. They are talking a minium of six months with a treatment once every three to four weeks. We know it is a new drug they are going to try since other drugs have not preformed well on her type of cancer. We are hoping that this will take care of it but I am not keeping my hopes too high. With this cancer being very resistant to radiation and Chemotherapy it is a toss up. All the experts on this type of cancer recommend surgery to cut it out. I guess we will have to wait and see.

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Well Friday we went and saw her doctor. We are going to start on Chemotherapy on the 22nd of September. As this is a special day in my eyes I am hoping that makes it better for my wife. I am looking forward to seeing her get better and to fight this thing. I still have reserves about using chemotherapy on a chemo resistant cancer. We will see.

Her doctor wants to get started on Chemo so that after three months she can be rescanned. At that time if there is no change in the tumor or the tumor has grown she can get into a program with a experimental drug. This experimental drug is one that has shown some promise with LMS. Hopefully we can get this kicked again.

It is times like this that I really do not the internet as Sandie has spent many nights searching and reading about everything. This has caused her to be more worried than I believe she needs to be. Once we get the chemo started we will better know where we are going in all of this.