Thursday, October 8, 2009

China Day

Today, we got together with the Thomas's and the Lee's and did our study on China!

It was great fun! The children did reports.........I'll try to remember what everyone talked about.

John talked about Pandas and two other topics......The Great Wall of China....

Caleb talked about government

Naomi talked about Hudson Taylor, the first missionary to China

Darci taught origami

Isaac talked about Pandas as well. He wrote the cutest story/production

Cotter talked about silk and brought a jacket and hat from China

Linda told about her missionary friends who were working in China

Noah told about sports in China - did you know that Ping Pong started in England?

I read from the book, Jesus Freaks, about the persecution of Christians in China and a story of two young girls who were martyred.

We prayed for the Chinese people and for the Christians in the country.

Then we cooked an American/Chinese dinner! Egg rolls, fried wontons, fried rice, stirfried vegs, shrimp, chicken, green beans, wonton soup. We had chop sticks. We had fortune cookies. I forgot to serve the cream puffs.

By the time the dishes were all done, the adults were ready to retire to the yard to sit under the trees and rest. I suppose we should have taken a walk, but the lawn chairs were calling.

THEN, Linda taught Vickie and Darcie to knit!

What a wonderful way to spend a day.

We are all looking forward to our next homeschool day!

Will we study Africa and eat Ethiopian? Will we study Spain or Mexico and have tacos and burritos?

HMMMMMMMMMM!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

treatment update 10-07-09

Saw Dr. Joel today. He is sooooooooo good to me! He sat down with me and went over every word of my test results that I was unsure or apprehensive about! HE explained it all.

As I've said before, we really didn't see anything new. The things that were mentioned in the reports were all things that had shown up before except for the spot on the colon - which very well may be nothing at all.

His advice was to DO THE SURGERY! HE said that it is needed and that it is important to do it now while we have this window of opportunity. We spoke of some of the advances they are making and the new machine that they are getting in his office for treating other cancers.

The difference between him and some of my other doctors is that he doesn't think of me as dying.

I am NOT dying! I am much more well now than I was this time last year and I feel good these days.

I love you all!!!!

Sleep well! Peace I give to you!

Monday, October 5, 2009

surgery?

Saw the surgeon today for all my test results.

The bone scan didn't show anything new. The spot on the rib is better than before and the shoulder is about the same.

The CTscan and PET scan showed the cancer in my spine. It was there before, but didn't show up on the last two bone scans. May just be that the PET scan is more sensitive.

The spot on the thyroid is still showing, but it isn't growing or shrinking, so its probably nothing

There is a suspicious spot in my colon as well.

Surgeon said that he would do the surgery. He thinks that the cancer has regressed enough for it to heal properly. It is scheduled for Oct. 21.

I will see the radiologist on Wed and the oncologist sometime before surgery. I'm not sure that we will do it at this time. We may decide to do another round of chemo to shrink it further before we do surgery. If we change our minds about the surgery, I'll let you know. Right now, count on it being on Oct. 21.