Beginning the Move


We started packing up Plastag today. We are moving it out so that Angie and her family can move in with Mom. Brian and I will then move in to Angie and Steve's house. That will get us closer to town so that we are accessible as needed (and closer to work!) Mom is tired, but seems to be doing well. She keeps telling me that she feels fine. Tomorrow we will move all the boxes and furniture out with the help of Tom and his two boys (Mom's neighbors), Brians best friend and I think some friends of Steves. Hopefully that won't take too long so that Angie and Steve can get moved in quickly. Jana is flying back in on Tuesday so she can be here for the surgery. We really appreciate all the support and help from so many people! Thank you! ~Anna~

On the Schedule

Today we visited with Dr. Yasargil. He is a very accomplished physcian at UAMS. He has been termed the "Father of Modern Day Neurosurgery" by some of the physcians we have spoken with. He has instruments named after him and everything. He was highly recommended by our neurosurgeon from Baptist. I asked him if he could choose anyone to operate on him who would it be. He stated Dr. Yasargil. I said, "even over the big named hospitals". He said "yes". So then I asked him in the world. He then said there was a guy in Australia that would be comparable. So I feel we have a great doctor, even if he is 81!!!!

Dr. Yasargil said the tumor was operable and that we needed to get it out. He said they will look at the whole tumor and do another path report on the entire tumor. Sometimes this will change the staging of the tumor, but sometime not and the the tumor would come back. We will follow up with chemo and radiation regardless of which route we take. He was very confidant he could remove the tumor without much damage to mom. This is our main concern. Of course it is a risk.

We scheduled the surgery for Wednesday, Nov. 1st early in the morning. We will pray about it this weekend and cancel if we feel we should, but it is easier to cancel than to schedule! He will be traveling to China the following week. Please pray with us so that we will have peace and a clear decision. So much is at stake.

Doctor visits

We realize we have not updated everyone in a while and we know you are all wondering what is going on. We are so sorry to leave you all in the dark for so long between postings here. Your support is vital to us and we appreciate all that you have done for us! The cards, phone calls, gifts, and the food have been so kind. We appreciate your prayers and encouragement everyday.

Yesterday, we took Mom to her first appointment at CARTI, which is the radiation therapy clinic. The doctor was very nice and encouraged us to try every avenue to extract the tumor before we begin radiation and chemo.

The only doctor in Little Rock that will consider operating on Mom has been on vacation until today. So, today we visited the doctor that performed the biopsy on Mom. He referred us to this specialist at UAMS who will look at Mom's MRI films tomorrow at 10 a.m. and consider surgery as an option. Mom's tumor is located in a place that alters her personality, intellect, vision, speech, inhabitions, and other important parts. We are anxious to meet with this doctor tomorrow. He is known as the one of the best doctors in neurology in the world. We will let you all know what Mom decides to do after we meet with him.

Please take care of yourselves and your loved ones today, for we have never been promised tomorrow. Jana

We're Home

We saw the oncologist on Thursday night. He told us that there is a new national protocol for mom's type of tumor, which is a glioblastoma. The new protocol includes a newly approved chemo drug. This drug has been more effective than what they previously used. They use radiation in conjunction with the chemo. She will take radiation 5 days a week for around 6 weeks. We have appointments with her doctors this week.

At this time Steve and I are planning on moving in with mom to help take care of her during her treatment. We are all in for some big adjustments, but I do believe she is worth every bit of it.
Thank you for all the calls, notes, and espcially prayers.

New Address

Well, we have moved out of the ICU this afternoon. Mom is having the best day she has had in several days. We are on the 5th floor and she is able to come down to the waiting room and visit. We had a lot of family and friends here when she made the move. We put mom in a wheel chair and brought her to the waiting room. She has been up for about 3 hours now. We even had to get her tray and bring her food to her. She has been laughing and talking to everyone. I thought the activity would be too much, but sitting her looking at her hold her grandchildren and laugh I think it is good. She really wants to go home but we have not even talked with the oncologist yet. He said he would be here this evening. We are anxious to meet him, kind of like a first date?! We have had really good recommendations for him.

Mom already has an appointment at CARTI this Wednesday. Apparently there is a national protocol that we will be following. We have been told that a chemo and radiation combo will most likely be used. The chemo will be oral (we think-this is info gleaned from several sources) and hopefully will not make her very sick. I have been told that CARTI has all the latest cancer equipment since this is a high cancer region. (Isn't that comforting for us local yocals!)

We will try to update tonight after we talk with the oncologist, but we are all very tired at this point and I have horse tongue snacks to make for "H" snack day tomorrow. A very special little 5 year old girl is counting on them!:-) Funny side bar: Steve told her that Mr. Danny said we could have the tongue of her favorite horse "Jeep". He said we can just come over and remove it for the snacks! (gross I know but he's a dad) She thought about this awhile and asked a few questions. Several days later she looked at me and said "I don't think I really want to take horse tongue for snack day. Can we take something else?" very seriously. We laughed and told her it was a trick she would be playing on her friends and that it was really made out of ham! Now, she is excited!

Thank you for all your prayers and phone calls. God is putting us in a position that only He can rescue us from. We will continue to petition Him for a miracle for a very special child of His.

The Diagnosis

Jana -- October 18, 2006 -- Today we learned from doctors that Mom's tumor is cancerous. They do not believe it will be operable. We will know more tomorrow, but it looks like she has stage 3 or stage 4 cancer. (Stage 4 is the worst stage.) We will keep you posted as we get more information. We appreciate all the support everyone is showing us. Your prayers are appreciated most of all.

The Beginning

Today was the beginning of a new journey for our family. Mom complained of a headache last night (Monday). She told me she had had a dull headache for about 2-3 weeks. We talked about taking sinus medicine and ibuprofen. I checked on her after work and she said she was up to keeping Sarah and Hogan while Steve and I went to church. (She wanted to get the kids to bed early.) We got home around 9 pm. We found Hogan running around and mom and Sarah on the couch. Mom looked like she felt bad and stated she had vomitted several times. I questioned her about being nauseated and she said she really wasn't nauseated. I told her I thought she should go to the ER and she said no and just went home. I called her within the hour. She had gone to sleep and had difficulty orienting. I again tried to get her to let me take her to the ER. She said no. I told her to call the triage and do whatever they told her to do. Well , she was to go if she contiuned to throw up or if the headache got worse. I did not hear from her all night and went to check on her as soon as the kids went to school. She was significantly worse, bad headache, vomiting, and now definite confusion. We went to the ER and they did a CAT scan. The doctor was back within minutes with bad news. She said there was a tumor, she would transfer her to Baptist ICU and we would probably be looking at surgery in the morning. The tumor was bleeding and therefore they sent her by ambulance. They did an MRI shortly after getting settled. The tumor was fairly large 1.5 inches by 1 inch on the top. They are not sure whether it is in just the right half of the brain or in both. On the MRI it looks as if it could just be swelling and bruising on the left. The neurosurgeon came in and said he wanted to do a biopsy tomorrow morning before a big surgery. We are anxiously awaiting.

She is resting fairly comfortably if she does not move around much and is very alert. She knows everyone and is keeping up with the status of things. She is tired but in good spirits.