- Your Hubby

We are home from Houston.  The news was not great.  The “new” area was a tumor, mostly anyway.  Loretta will be starting on a new infusion chemo, Avastin.  She will do a 90 minute infusion every 3 weeks, and follow up with MRI’s in Houston every 6 weeks.  Avastin works by attacking the blood vessels feeding tumor, and if it works, they say it works “astoundingly well”.  There is a 50/50 chance on it working on a given individual.  The drug has been used to fight other types of cancers, but has just been approved by the FDA for brain tumors in the last 2 months.  That will help with getting it cleared on insurance, at least.  The good thing about it, there are no significant side effects.  The Temodar that she was taking really knocked her down for the 5 days out of every month she was on it. Poor baby could hardly get out of bed. :(  Since it works on blood vessels, there are issues with clotting and bleeding, but Loretta is a good candidate since she has never had issues with clotting / not clotting.

We are praying for a wonderful outcome, and that she responds very well to this new treatment.  The strange thing is, the other tumor site is still completely clean, while the new one started.

Most of our trips to Houston have been “non-eventful” as far as the travel is concerned, but this trip, we were not so lucky.   45 min from out Hotel off of South 610, the car in front of us hit something hard and white in the road…best guess is it was a PVC “L” joint that had fallen off of a work truck, about a foot long, elbow-style.  When it came out from under the car in front of us, it was jumping around like a jumping bean.  I tried to avoid it, but we were doing about 70, it hit our right front tire which threw it up under the undercarriage, BAM.  Huge impact.

I watched in the rearview mirror to see if the next car was going to hit it, and about 10 seconds later, it comes tumbling out of the sky.  I think it got about 50-60 ft of air!  Well, I had a bad feeling after that impact, and sure enough, about 5 min later, our AC went completely hot.  We were heading into 4:45PM rush hour traffic, temperature was in the high 90’s.  Not good.  Loretta was peaked when we got to the Hotel, but we did manage to get the Van fixed and AC restored (I won’t mention the price tag; I’m trying to forget…).  The trip back was, thankfully, much easier and less eventful.

Thank you for all the prayers and support.  God is about our only comfort.

They do have a special MR that can tell with 70-80% accuracy if this is necrosis or tumor.  If it’s necrosis, there are very good treatments that can probably help her regain her speech and limb movement.  If it’s tumor, they are going to try another chemo that attacks the blood vessels feeding the thing.  The original tumor they were treating with Temodar is completley gone…as a matter of fact, in the same scan that showed the new “area of interest” (don’t you love how they put things?) the original tumor they were fighting was completley gone, which is one of the points that support the new area not being tumor.  Other things were, it’s appearance, location, and that the new growth doesn’t seem to be what’s causing her to loose speech and movement directly.  These facilities were lost either substantially or in small increments as a direct result of seizures she had.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and prayers.  It means so much to our family.  From the bottom of our hearts, thank you all for being there.  We appreciate every bit of everything everyone has done for us.  We are truley blessed.

- Kent

Daddy was a preacher
She was his wife
Just tryin to make the world a little better
You know, shine a light
People started talking
Trying to hear their own voice
Those people tried to accuse my father
Said he made the wrong choice
Though it might be painful
You know that time will always tell
Those people have long since gone
My father never failed

Even if the Earth crumbles under my feet
Even if the ones I love turn around and crucify me
I won’t never ever let you down
I won’t fall
I won’t fall
I won’t fall as long as you’re around me

There is hope when my faith runs out
Cause I’m in better hands now

It’s like the sun is shining when the rain is pouring down
It’s like my soul is flying though my feet are on the ground
So take this heart of mine there’s no doubt
I’m in better hands now

I am strong all because of you
I stand in awe of every mountain that you move
Oh I am changed, yesterday is gone
I am safe from this moment on
[Better Hands Now lyrics on http://www.metrolyrics.com]

There’s no fear when the night comes ’round
I’m in better hands now

It’s like the sun is shining when the rain is pouring down
It’s like my soul is flying though my feet are on the ground
So take this heart of mine there’s no doubt
I’m in better hands now

It’s like the sun is shining when the rain is pouring down
It’s like my soul is flying though my feet are on the ground
Its like the world is silent though I know it isnt true
Its like the breath of jesus is right here in this room

So take this heart of mine there’s no doubt
I’m in better hands now
I’m in better hands now

I can say it was the best thing that ever happened to me, he was the first and only doctor that did an MRI after 4 CT scans and nothing showed up but the fluid. He asked if I had ever had an MRI and I said no and he ordered one. Now days I’m getting to be a pro at Mri’s, I’m claustrophobic so I’ve gotten use to having them. I’ll never forget when the nurse called and asked if I could come in right away, and then my husband called and said he was called to come with me: something in me knew it was not good news.

Well, I was right: it turned out to be a primary malignant brain tumor and I needed surgery. So, my neurologist sent me to the best place possible MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. I had my surgery and radiation to kill the cells: and have been cancer free for a year and a half now. I still go back every 4 months for another MRI, at first it was every two months and then every 3 months and so on.

My faith in God is what keeps me going, he has been so good to me and my family. You know Bro. Russ asked me one day while I was going through the treatments, what is the hardest part? Well, knowing how much I missed my kids when I had to be away from them and my husband. I told him my hair, that losing it was the hardest part. It seems vain, but I am really not a vain person, it wasn’t about the looks it was about the emotion, God had given me this beautiful long hair and now the cancer had taken it from me. I tried to keep it long as long as I could, but too much started falling out and I finally had to cut it, it is slowly growing back but not in the place I had the surgery.  I am now on my way to recovering,  I am so Grateful for the time God has given me to talk with people and share my story and listen to stories about people with cancer. God Bless everyone!