Days 14-17

Hi Everyone,

Yeah...tomorrow is Friday and day 18! Randy is doing very well. He has the occasional headache, but they have increased his radiation dosage so that is to be expected. He is also still tired, but we are more than willing to work with that.

Randy will finish out his last week of Physical Therapy next week (Tuesay, Thursday and Friday). We can't wait! His neck has gained a great amount of range of motion since his days in the hospital and he is looking forward to getting all back in the near future. He is also starting to get the itch to start driving and I am getting the itch to give up the keys. :-) It will all come about in due time.

Again, we continue to be overwhelmed at the love and support we have received through this process. You have each blessed us in a very deep and personal way. Thank you.

Have a great weekend. We will be getting our house back into some type of order after a brief stint with some updating (thanks mom and dad for letting us hang out at your house these past couple of days). We may also be able to spend some time hanging out with some of our friends and giving Joshua some time to play with other kids. :-)

Until we chat again...love,
Randy and Rachel

Days 9-13

Hello Everyone,

I apologize that I haven't written since last week. We've been rather busy recently with juggling treatment appointments and having contractors in and out of the house (we are getting some minor updating done in 2 of our bedrooms - Randy can't do much these days so we are blessed to have a great contractor helping us out). Anyway, things are going very well for Randy. We are plugging along through radiation treatments and looking forward to the last 2 weeks of Physical Therapy (only 6 more visits to go).

Randy has his MRI scheduled for May 20th and a follow up appointment with his neurosurgeon scheduled for May 27th. We are continuing to pray that the results of radiation treatment show ZERO remnants of a tumor and that Randy gets a 100% clean bill of health from the doctor on the 27th!!!

As we prepare to celebrate this Good Friday and the Resurrection of our Lord on Easter Sunday we are humbled now more than ever at the sacrifice Christ gave to us on the cross. He gave up His life for Randy and I (and for you) so that when we made the decision to live for Him we could rest assured that we could live for eternity with Him! When I think about this sacrifice and think about the fact that Randy is still with me, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. I still have my husband, Joshua still has his daddy and we know that God has us cradled gently in His hands and for that we say ... THANK YOU JESUS! How incredible to know that such a sacrifice was made for us and even more incredible to know that through His death we have life and that indeed Christ is risen -is alive and working in our lives today - and that He loves us with a love that is the purest and most meaningful love of all.

Enjoy your weekend everyone, celebrate the goodness of God and give your family a huge hug and kiss and let them know that you love them! We love you too!

Love,
Randy and Rachel

Days 7 and 8

Hi Everyone,

Ahhh...a nice weekend break from radiation. Weekends are the best! We started things off last night with a lovely Italian dinner with Randy's parents at Papa Vino's....yum! Today, we plan on taking photo's of stuff we want to sell on Craigslist and figure out if we should have our bedroom and spare room painted and carpeted...maybe that should be our next poll :-)

Anyway, Randy is doing well. He has had a couple of more headaches, but we are happy to say that Tylenol is a wonderful product that has taken those headaches away. A couple of people have asked about the dizzy spells. For the most part they are gone. He will occasionally experience a "falling" sensation when he closes his eyes, but it isn't anything severe. Randy has also had 2 days of outpatient physical therapy. His neck is quite sore and tight and he wonders if it will ever loosen up again (it will). He is being very good about doing his exercises at home as well!!!

We took Joshua with us to our Friday radiation appointment. God was so good. They were ready for Randy right when we walked in the door and 15 minutes later we were out of there! Of course, everyone loved Joshua. He was such a good boy...I was so concerned about taking him because I knew that the majority of patients there were older and very sick and probably not to into dealing with a toddler running around. The 15 minute visit was perfect and I think it lightened the mood at least for a moment. Yeah God!

I will be sure to post more next week...until then...thanks for reading and thanks for praying!

Love,
Randy, Rachel and Joshua

Days 5 and 6

Greetings,


Well, Randy just finished up his 6th radiation treatment today along with a consultation at the physical therapy center. Things are moving right along. We met with his radiation oncologist today and she is pleased that things are going well. All of us are praying that he continues to respond well to his treatments. We are monitoring his headaches and "balance" issues. He's only had 2 headaches at this point and occasional dizzy spells or off balanced episodes (typically when he closes his eyes). The doctor told us that the dizziness could increase as we progress through radiation due to the location of the treatment...cerebellum/brain stem...the equilibrium portion of the brain. As far as headaches...just praying that they don't increase or become uncontrollable with Tylenol. If they do increase it would indicate brain swelling and Randy would have to go back on steroids...not what we want.

His physical therapy will start up again either tomorrow or Friday at 3x/week for 4 weeks. We are pros at handling waiting rooms these days :-)

Anyway, all is good. God has blessed us beyond measure and we continue to Praise Him. We are spending quite a bit of time writing out questions for our appointment in May with Randy's neurosurgeon to go over more of what the future will/should/could hold. Our prayers continue to focus on complete healing and restoration without any recurrence.

Thank you again for everything. Every kind word, prayer, meal, gas card, note, email, household and childcare help has made this whole process much easier to walk through.

Love,
Randy, Rachel and Joshua

Day 4

Hi Everyone,

Randy is doing really well with his radiation treatments. I've noticed certain areas in which his hair is starting to thin. They told us that he would lose portions of his hair so we've been anticipating it.
He also finished up his last day of in home physical therapy today with Sam. We will start up out patient therapy on Wednesday. Our hope is to have therapy 3x/week before radiation then leave from there straight to the cancer radiation center for those treatments. That will be our life for the next 4 weeks or so. Then just plain old radiation until through the first week of May, another MRI, and follow up with his neurosurgeon.
Also, we would like to thank everyone that has so graciously provided us with a meal and meals to freeze. I can't tell you how much that helps me out. I now have the meals planned out on my calendar and I literally don't have to think. It is a tremendous blessing. Everyday I look at the clock and wonder where the day went. The meals allow me to take just a minute to breathe as I wrap up the day....thank you!
Anyway, I probably won't post again until next week...have a great weekend!
Love,
Rachel

Day 3

All is well today! Radiation went smoothly. Just the normal tiredness....we can handle that. Rachel has a bit of a headache and tiredness...mostly weather related we think.

Thanks for praying!
Randy and Rachel

Radiation Day 2

Hi Everyone,

Well, things went much better today (so far). Randy was actually in a very giggly mood during lunch today. He is napping now, but hasn't complained of a headache. We are just praying that he continues to have a nice afternoon and evening. We also set up his outpatient Physical Therapy today. It's about 1 1/2 miles from our house so that is good. He will have therapy on M, W, and F at about 9:30. From there we will leave for radiation. This will allow him to have the strength for therapy and the afternoon to sleep if he needs to.

Thank you for continuing to pray....
Love,
Randy and Rachel

Randy's Head

Hi again,

Just asking folks to say a little or a big prayer for Randy. Today was his first radiaion treatment (see the post under this one) and he is really struggling with a rough headache and extreme exhaustion. He slept the entire afternoon and early evening. He is really hoping that the next six weeks don't look like today (me too). I told him that we can pray through anything and that all of you will help us with that. Thanks so much!

Love,
Rachel

Radiation - Day 1-MIRACLE 13

Hi Everyone,

Randy had his first radiation treatment today. All in all things went very well. His actual radiation time is about 20-25 minutes (not including wait time etc).. We also met with the nurse, physicians assistant, and doctor which took up more time (that will be typical on Mondays - and Wednesday next week).

For the most part Randy is feeling pretty good. He is rather tired (he's been sleeping for the better part of the afternoon) and has a headache. It is hard to tell at this point if these things are symptomatic of radiation or if it is just a coincidence. He did have to wake up early this morning because he had physical therapy at 8:30 a.m. - plus we did have a little scheduling glitch with the radiation center today....read on.

When Randy finished up treatment today we were told that they would not be able to give us the appt. time we had requested b/c they did not treat patients during that time frame unless it was for a new appt. Well, I informed them that I was not happy because I was told originally that my request should not be a problem. Let's just say that by the time I started to explain my frustrations to the nurse I was in tears. I think the very thought of having to pack Joshua up everyday at his nap time just about did me in along with the frustrations of having gone through the trouble of setting this up in advance so we wouldn't have this problem....it all just overwhelmed me. Let's just say, we were a bit stressed out, but God is so much bigger than scheduling conflicts - and He cares so much about us that He just worked it all out. The nurse and doctor talked things over with me and they were able to give us an 11:00 am standing appointment...PRAISE GOD...we are naming this one...MIRACLE NUMBER 13...He cares about the small stuff that seems so big to us!!!!!

So, things are moving along. It will be a long 6 weeks (although my goal is to have my thank you cards done by next week), but we are certain that God will continue to hold our hand through the big and the little things that come up. We continue to learn that leaning on Him is the only way to stay sane amongst the trials of life :-)

Have an incredible day.....
Much Love,
Randy and Rachel

The Staples Are Out!

Hi Everyone,

Randy is SO HAPPY today!!!! We went to Dr. Chan's (radiation oncologist) office on Friday morning to have the remaining 15-16 staples removed from the back of Randy's neck. We were worried that they may be painful to remove due to the fact that they had been in for 3 weeks. You would think that by now we would lay our worries aside and be still and know that God is so much bigger than staples, but we are human. Anyway, Randy was relieved that there was no pain involved in the removal process. Just a bit of tenderness afterward, but nothing painful.

When we got home I shaved his head for him to prepare for his first radiation treatment on Monday. He was full of smiles to say the least :-) He was also able to turn his neck from side to side a bit more than normal in Physical Therapy. Goodbye Staples....Hello more neck movement! His neck still has a long way to go in the recovery process, but for just over 3 weeks post-op, he is doing great!

Anyway, say a prayer for us as we look forward to next week. It will be busy and exhausting for both of us, but we are so thankful that there is medicine available to fix these pesky problems. We are also thankful that our God is plenty big enough to give us the strength to continue moving forward in this journey. Life is certainly good!

Have an awesome weekend. I will try to post again on Monday after his first treatment.

Love,
Randy, Rachel, Joshua and Mocha