MARCH 30

Gary had an MRI of his head today to determine if the tumor is gone. He spent one and a half hours inside the machine. We don't see the doctor until Wednesday, so it will be hard to wait until then to hear the results. If the tumor is gone, Gary will start the process for the bone marrow/stem cell transplant. This will be the last treatment, but will be the hardest to go through and for the next several months, he will be very ill. We appreciate every one's prayers and ask you to pray especially on Wednesday that the news will be good news and if not, God will give us the grace to accept it.

MARCH 26

We are back in Rochester after a long 11 hour drive yesterday. Gary had more cards in the mail waiting for him. Even though we got in late, he opened them and had a good laugh before bed. Gary is doing okay. Nothing out of the ordinary at least. He is still very tired and weak and has the usual pain in his left hand, which is bearable for him. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Oklahoma seeing family and friends. Now, we will wait until the 30th for the MRI to see if the tumor is gone. Thank you for your prayers!

MARCH 20

Gary has not felt well today. He has slept alot and this afternoon, we had to cancel our plans with the grandkids. I went and brought them back to the house because Gary still wanted to be around them ... just did not have the strength to get out. Tonight, he has had pain in his head and seems to be running a low grade fever. Just pray for him, that he will be able to enjoy his time here in Oklahoma and be able to make the memories with his grandkids that he desires to.

MARCH 19

We have been in Oklahoma for two days now and have thoroughly enjoyed our time with family. Gary is feeling okay, just the usual tiredness. He took our grandchildren to Bass Pro yesterday to outfit them with everything they would need for fishing this summer. Each received a tackle box filled with hooks, weights and bobbins. Gary then bought Brianna a fishing pole since the boys already had one. Her pole was nicer than what they have, so Gary told her that when the boys go fishing without her, she should let them borrow her pole. You should have seen the look on her face! First of all ... she couldn't imagine there would EVER be a time that the boys went fishing WITHOUT her, and if it did ever happened ... she was NOT going to give her pole! *big smile* They all had a great time. Tomorrow, it will be Pizza Palace with arcade games! Gary will need several weeks to rest after all of this, but he is enjoying it so much.

MARCH 15

Gary was dismissed today. All is good in his life right now. *smile* He commented that if he never had to go back into a hospital again, that would be alright with him.

He will have two weeks now to rest and enjoy his time away. Starting March 30, we will be going every day for two weeks just for all the preparation for the stem cell transplant. Then he will be in hospital for 5 days receiving the chemo. After they replace his stem cells, he will be able to stay out of the hospital as long as he does not get sick. We will just have to go each day for them to check him and do lab work. By the time this is over .... we will really be tired of the hospital! *smile*

Tomorrow we plan to travel to Oklahoma. It is an 11 hour drive, but we will stop in Kansas City, MO for the night with my sister. Appreciate your prayers for us as we travel.

MARCH 14

Gary's MTX levels today were .12! So close! Later in the day, Gary asked a doctor if he could be dismissed. He said he would order another blood draw and if Gary's MTX level was below .1, he would let him leave, even if late in the evening. They took the blood draw at 7pm, but failed to put priority on it, so we had to wait until midnight to hear the results. Gary would still not be able to leave. His level was .11, so he will be given two more doses of Loucovorin and for sure be able to leave tomorrow. Gary was disappointed. He is just so tired of the hospital and it gets harder and harder for him to stay in. We are praying that this will be the last time he will need to have the Methotrexate treatment. Gary will have two weeks off, then if the MRI on the 30th shows the tumor is gone, he will start preparation for the stem cell transplant on April 1st.

MARCH 13

Gary has done well today. He has not been nauseous this time around and that has helped. The first reading for the MTX was .57. That gives us a good indication of how much longer he will be in the hospital. He is hoping tomorrow it will be below .1, but it will probably be Sunday.

Tonight, our nurse overheard me telling someone that I have brought over 10 cards a day up to the hospital for Gary. She remarked, "I don't even have 10 friends," and was very impressed with the amount of cards Gary has received. I thought to myself ... (Wow! We are so blessed!) Thank you for your prayers! Each day, it gets easier and easier to believe we are on the last stretch of this journey.

MARCH 12

Gary is doing very well. The doctor came in today and said, "You're a pro at this.... I'm just wasting your time!" Tomorrow will be the first reading of the MTX levels. As before ... if the first reading is low, then we know he will be out in a few days.

I want to thank you all once again for the birthday greetings for Gary. It really helped to keep his spirits up this week ... laughing over the crazy cards. I have about ten more cards to take up to him tomorrow!

I appreciate all the little notes of encouragement! Even though it looks like we might be seeing the "light at the end of the tunnel", Gary will still have a rough road ahead going through the stem cell transplant. We do not take for granted the many, that are praying for us daily. We feel so blessed! Thank you!

MARCH 11

Gary received his high dose of Methotrexate today. He is doing well. In fact, the doctors said his kidneys were doing better than the day he was admitted. Tomorrow morning, they will administer the rescue drug and then we start the count down to when he will be able to leave the hospital. At times, it is worse for him when he is feeling good ... to have to be in the hospital ... so pray for him to be patient. *smile*

I wanted to share something our 7 yr. old granddaughter said to Gary yesterday. Gary was talking with each of the kids and when it was Brianna's turn, he asked her "How's life?" She said, "Good. VERY good." Gary asked "What makes it so good?" Brianna replied, "I'm not dying!" Gary and I laughed so hard!

Becky asked Brianna what Papaw had asked, for her to say what she said. Becky exclaimed "ANNA!" Brianna said, "WHAT? I made him laugh." Gary has laughed about it since. We are really looking forward to spending time with them next week.

Thank you for your prayers and again for all the Birthday greetings. Gary has really enjoyed showing off the cards to the doctors and nurses.

MARCH 10

WOW! Where do I start?! Today has been a day full of laughter and it is all because of wonderful friends and family. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart! Gary received so many cards, phone calls, Facebook comments and even comments here on the this blog. It really helped him keep his mind off the fact that he was coming into the hospital for yet another treatment.... and on his birthday at that. When I came home tonight, there were over a dozen more cards! I am sure it will that way all week and I will have so much fun going up to the hospital each day with more and more cards. We saw Gary's doctor today. Although, there is no way of being 100% sure, he was very optimistic that the gamma knife procedure will take care of the tumor. He said he had another patient with neurolymphomatosis, who also developed a tumor in his brain and received the same treatment. He has been cancer free for 3 yrs. now. That was encouraging for Gary and I.

The doctor has set up for Gary to have an MRI on March 30 and then to proceed to the stem cell transplant starting April 1st. Let's hope it will not be an April Fools joke. *smile*. Depending on when Gary is able to leave the hospital, this will give us two weeks before starting transplant. The doctor gave his OK for us to travel to Oklahoma to see family, most importantly our daughter and grand kids, who will be out of school next week. Gary really wants to do this before starting the transplant, as he knows once he starts, he will be pretty sick for a long time.

Again I want to thank all of you for giving us a day of laughs. Our hearts are overwhelmed with how much God has blessed us with so many friends and a wonderful family.

MARCH 7

Gary is doing as well as could be expected after the day he had yesterday. He is not in any extra pain, just a little sore where the screws were placed on his head. He is very sleepy, so has spent most of the day in bed. We appreciate your prayers!

MARCH 6

Thank you for your prayers. Gary came out of the gamma-knife procedure just fine. Our day started with a 5:30 admission to the hospital. The nurses took his vitals and then by 6:30, they were taking him to be fitted with the metal halo and given an MRI. Since, they had no idea what order Gary would be starting the "surgery", and there were 5 patients getting the gamma done today, they suggested I go home and call back around 10am ... which I did ... and he still had not been taken in by that time.

Gary was brought back to his room shortly after 1:30pm. They had him go last since he was a more serious case. Then, instead of the procedure lasting 15 min. as the doctors first thought it would, they had to work on him 1 1/2 hours.

Gary said the worst part was getting the injections and them putting the screws in. After they put the metal halo on, they said "SMILE!" and snapped a Polaroid of him. Gary told them I would be thrilled to get a picture and he was right! We will not know right away if this destroyed the tumor. It will be very hard to wait ... not knowing. Gary asked if the tumor was big and the doctors said they don't judge it by being big or small, but by volume. They said his was about 8ml. It was an irregular, oblong shape and because it was so near the optic nerve, they had to spend extra time working around it.

He is home resting tonight and looks a little like Frankenstein. Looks like he is trying to grow some horns to me. *smile* He will be sore for a few days but all in all, doing well. Thank you for remembering him today in your prayers. It helps to calm my spirit knowing so many are praying alongside me. Now, we just need to pray that the tumor was destroyed and he will be ready to proceed to the stem cell transplant.

MARCH 5

Tomorrow at 5:30am, Gary will check into the hospital to undergo gamma-knife radiosurgery. This will be an outpatient procedure. The doctors will be targeting the area around the 5th cranial/trigeminal nerve. As you can see on the diagram below, it is in the middle of his brain, near the optic nerves. We are confident with the doctors doing the procedure and hopeful this will destroy the tumor in his head. Appreciate you remembering him in prayer as he undergoes this procedure, as well as the doctors involved.

GARY'S BIRTHDAY

Next Tuesday, March 10, Gary will celebrate his 50th birthday. If things go according to the schedule, he will be checking into the hospital on that day. If you have the chance to send a card, I know it would really encourage him. The funnier, the better.... after all, they say laughter is the best medicine. Our address in located on the right sidebar. Thanks!

MARCH 4

We are encouraged today after speaking with the neurosurgeon. Although, Gary's type of tumor is rare and they have only used the gamma knife procedure on 7 other Lymphoma cases, they say that generally Lymphoma responds very well to radiation and they were optimistic that it would destroy the tumor. This is the best course of action for Gary. The risk of damaging the nerve that is affected is very low and the chance of Gary getting the feeling back on that side of his face is maybe 30%. They will know soon after if the tumor is destroyed, but the nerves take longer to heal. Since this is the last of the cancer, if this procedure works, Gary will be able to proceed to the stem cell transplant.

If you are interested further in this procedure, you can go to http://www.gammaknife.org/ and on the left hand column, there is a video to watch.

The worst part is putting in a Novocaine type of shot into the head, which they say is pretty painful. This is to allow them to screw a helmet device to his head. Doctor today joked that "it is put on so tight, we could hang you from the deck, but we won't be doing that." I won't repeat the words he used on how much the shots will hurt. *smile*

Gary is very claustrophobic and has to be heavily sedated for any MRI's etc. He was very apprehensive about this procedure, but the doctors assured him they would be giving some good stuff through the IV. Gary feels so much better today than he did a few days ago. Very optimistic that he will be able to beat this. Thank you so much for your prayers!

MARCH 3

Today we saw the doctor to discuss the results of the MRI and PET scan. He walked into the room and said, "You just want to give me trouble." He along with a score of doctors had poured over the scans and spent the morning discussing what they need to do.

The good news is that the Lymphoma in Gary's body from the neck down is gone. The bad news, the spot in his brain has grown. This time, it showed up on the PET scan as well. It is on the 5th cranial nerve right smack in the middle of his brain. This is what is causing the pain, and paralysis along the right side of Gary's face. Even causing him to notice problems hearing in his right ear.

Because of where it is located and being on a nerve, there is no way they will be able to do a biopsy to determine if it is Lymphoma. It is possible that it could be a schwannoma (see http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/336141-overview ) but the doctor acted like that was not as likely. After much dialogue between our doctor and neurosurgeons, they are going to treat it as Lymphoma and plan to do gamma-knife radiosurgery on Friday. You can read about this procedure at http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/gamma-knife-radiosurgery/MY00206.

We will see the neurosurgeon tomorrow to discuss this further. Next week, Gary will go ahead with another Methotrexate treatment. The doctor will continue doing this until Gary goes to transplant so as to make sure the Lymphoma does not return. We covet your prayers for us as we process this new setback.

MARCH 2

Today, Gary spent most of the day in the hospital getting a blood test, MRI and PET scan done. We will be seeing his doctor in the morning to know the results. Gary is feeling as well as could be expected. He is handling the pain well, but has a rather large sore in his mouth which makes talking and eating difficult. The sores are a symptom of the Methotrexate. We have been surprised that he has not had these before, considering he has always been prone to them.

I appreciate the comments on this blog and facebook, and many emails we have received this week. God has been so good to us, to send so many people to encourage and lift us up in prayer. We appreciate you taking the time to write. Pray with us that we will receive encouraging words tomorrow from the doctor. At this point, we have learned not to get our hopes up and just wait for the news.