The kids were so concerned about what I would do with all of my free time now that they're in school. Ike said it was the first time in 15 years I would be alone. When they went to school in Brasil, I had school too or tutoring, so never really had good old fashioned free days with no cares in the world. (ok, that was supposed to be a little sarcastic--- like that's how a mom's day is when her kids are in school. lol)
Well, so far, they've been in school 3 weeks and I have only had one day home alone!!!
And that day was GONE fast! Sam cam home asking what I did and if I was lonely. I just looked at him and laughed. I cleaned the house for 3-1/2 hours, then ironed clothes for 1-1/2 hours, then took a shower and drove to the bus stop. Yep, it was a pretty "lonely", sad, boring first day alone. haha I told John that these school days go way too fast! ha
I'm trying to work on projects around here and finishing unpacking since we never did that after we moved in and found out John needed surgery. I may even paint the rooms eventually! For now, it seems there are too many little fires to put out and no time to get started on anything. lol
It's definitely been interesting with kids home sick.
I got a new sewing machine, so I hope to get a little sewing done, too.
And lets not even talk about the years of scrapbooking I need to catch up on. I've decided to just go back and put them in regular albums and scrapbook from the present on--- if I ever get time. : )
Of course, there's the book I still want to write and the Bible studies I'd like to catch up on and ......... I think I could fill my days for a long time!
I've really thought a lot about going back to nursing school. I told Mom that I don't have time to go back to become a nurse because I'm too busy taking care of sick people between John's surgeries and her and the kids and ....... lol
I'm really not complaining though--- this post was all in fun. As moms, we're busy no matter where we work-- in the home or outside.... Whether we home school or if the kids go to school..... It's still just as hard to get to the grocery store and get our errands done and home cleaned sometimes!!!
I'm so glad to be getting everything back into a routine though. And zone cleaning again. Yes!! Look out FlyLady, here I come........... I'm ready to update my control journal with all of our new info-- phone numbers, emergency info, etc.
Friday, October 16, 2009
John's 2nd surgery-- Oct. 27th
John's 2nd surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, October 27th. It's a short procedure and he will only be in the hospital for a few days this time. But the recovery time will be a little rough as his body gets used to the new system. A few months down the road though, this will be a memory. (that's what they tell us, so we hold on to that .....)
The doctor will take out his temporary ileostomy and close up the site. He will also reconnect his small intestine to function normally. We'll see how it goes. We're praying that it will be withought complication and that he can heal and be back to normal in a few months.
I miss "my man". (In Brasil, you say "my woman" for wife so I like to call him "my man".)
He is doing great, but I do miss "the old John". I can't wait to have him back.
We are officially off of Prednisone too! woohoo!!! He's been off for about a month. That was a long 14 months on a high dosage of Prednisone!!! We don't ever want to do that again. It just makes you feel terrible and he NEVER slept the whole time. 2 hours of broken sleep a night was a great night! Wow!
So, keep praying.........one surgery to go and then it's just healing for good! woohoo!!!
The doctor will take out his temporary ileostomy and close up the site. He will also reconnect his small intestine to function normally. We'll see how it goes. We're praying that it will be withought complication and that he can heal and be back to normal in a few months.
I miss "my man". (In Brasil, you say "my woman" for wife so I like to call him "my man".)
He is doing great, but I do miss "the old John". I can't wait to have him back.
We are officially off of Prednisone too! woohoo!!! He's been off for about a month. That was a long 14 months on a high dosage of Prednisone!!! We don't ever want to do that again. It just makes you feel terrible and he NEVER slept the whole time. 2 hours of broken sleep a night was a great night! Wow!
So, keep praying.........one surgery to go and then it's just healing for good! woohoo!!!
Piggy Flu
Levi had a confirmed case of "Piggy Flu" (H1N1) as we so lovinly call it. lol
Poor boy--- he went to his first week of public school ever and came home with H1N1 on that Friday!!! Almost his whole class and teacher were out the next week sick. I'm not sure if they were confirmed cases or not, but his definitely was.
Meg got sick too, but they immediately put her on the meds and she was fine. She only had one day of fever and bounced right back.
Now Faith has a very swollen lymph node and they're watching it and giving her antibiotics for it. It's probably just an infection since we've had so much sinus junk around here. I have a sinus infection now too. Yuck. I'll be glad when this all passes. But......I'll take a sinus infection any day. It could definitely be something much worse!!!
The fever tends to come and then leave and then come back worse. Several people around here have said the same thing about their flu symptoms. It takes a while to get over it too. It's definitly a strong illness.
Poor boy--- he went to his first week of public school ever and came home with H1N1 on that Friday!!! Almost his whole class and teacher were out the next week sick. I'm not sure if they were confirmed cases or not, but his definitely was.
Meg got sick too, but they immediately put her on the meds and she was fine. She only had one day of fever and bounced right back.
Now Faith has a very swollen lymph node and they're watching it and giving her antibiotics for it. It's probably just an infection since we've had so much sinus junk around here. I have a sinus infection now too. Yuck. I'll be glad when this all passes. But......I'll take a sinus infection any day. It could definitely be something much worse!!!
The fever tends to come and then leave and then come back worse. Several people around here have said the same thing about their flu symptoms. It takes a while to get over it too. It's definitly a strong illness.
Mom has inflammatory breast cancer
What a shock it was to learn that Mom has cancer a few weeks ago. She had absolutely ZERO symptoms until August. She discoverd a lump and it got huge really quickly. In only about 5 weeks, it went from nothing to about 5-inches that you can see from the outside!!! She has been going through a lot of exams and the doctors will be starting treatment in about a week and a half-- which seems like a lifetime to us now that we're waiting. : )
She has inflammatory breast cancer. It's a rare type--only about 1% - 3% of breast cancers. It is also very aggressive and "starts" at stage 3 at least and often stage 4. That's becasue it doesn't really show up usually until it's already big and has spread to other places. (This, of course, if my paraphrase version-- plesase read professional medical information about it if you need more info on IBC.)
The plan is for her to do 6 months of chemo, then a mastectomy, then radiation for about 6 weeks. It will be about a year of treatment by the time you wait a month before and after surgery, etc. It's also the tentative plan. When they get some more tests back this week and know more about if it has spread anywhere else, then they may be changing the plan.
She is very pleased with the doctors she has and feels confortable with them. But of course, she is really dreading this and is still quite shocked that she even has cancer! We are all very surprised. We just had her birthday party at our new house in August and had no idea.
I have to call my own breast surgeon this week and get another appointment scheduled for a follow-up/check-up. In 2007, I had a golf-ball sized lump removed right before we left the States to go back to the mission field after our "furlough". It was benign, fortunately, but I have to be followed yearly. I've been waiting until we were settled to go back, so now it's time.
The bad thing about inflammatory is that it doesn't always show up on mammograms. I know I'm at high risk now and even her oncologist yesterday told her to tell her daughter to go get checked and stay on top of it. I will definitely do that!
I am so glad we're back in the States and able to be here for her. Dad has Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. He's doing great now, but while we were in Brasil as missionaries, he almost died several times. I was not allowed to come back to visit or help. What a blessing it is to be here for the family now!!!
You know, it's interesting......... when John got sick and we realized we would have to come back we had a lot of talks about this. We both felt that there was a reason for his illness, yet didn't really feel that it was "for us". We both felt we were going through this for another reason and that we were going back to the States for someone else. We thought it might be Dad. It turns out that my brother needed us here this summer, but now Mom and Dad really do as they face her cancer. You just never know how God will use difficulties in your life. Even though they may be horrible and terribly difficult, they are always part of a bigger picture. We can thank God for allowing us to come back for John's illness because it allowed us to be here when our family will truly need us the most. Isn't God good????
It just amazes us the way He orchestrated it all. John has a wonderful job that he loves and we could not have asked for a better church to serve at. It's right by our family and that is an added bonus now that they are going to need help and support. Wow! Amazing!!!
Mom would appreciate prayer for her as she is facing treatment over the next year. It's going to be a rough road, but we'll get through it together.
She has inflammatory breast cancer. It's a rare type--only about 1% - 3% of breast cancers. It is also very aggressive and "starts" at stage 3 at least and often stage 4. That's becasue it doesn't really show up usually until it's already big and has spread to other places. (This, of course, if my paraphrase version-- plesase read professional medical information about it if you need more info on IBC.)
The plan is for her to do 6 months of chemo, then a mastectomy, then radiation for about 6 weeks. It will be about a year of treatment by the time you wait a month before and after surgery, etc. It's also the tentative plan. When they get some more tests back this week and know more about if it has spread anywhere else, then they may be changing the plan.
She is very pleased with the doctors she has and feels confortable with them. But of course, she is really dreading this and is still quite shocked that she even has cancer! We are all very surprised. We just had her birthday party at our new house in August and had no idea.
I have to call my own breast surgeon this week and get another appointment scheduled for a follow-up/check-up. In 2007, I had a golf-ball sized lump removed right before we left the States to go back to the mission field after our "furlough". It was benign, fortunately, but I have to be followed yearly. I've been waiting until we were settled to go back, so now it's time.
The bad thing about inflammatory is that it doesn't always show up on mammograms. I know I'm at high risk now and even her oncologist yesterday told her to tell her daughter to go get checked and stay on top of it. I will definitely do that!
I am so glad we're back in the States and able to be here for her. Dad has Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. He's doing great now, but while we were in Brasil as missionaries, he almost died several times. I was not allowed to come back to visit or help. What a blessing it is to be here for the family now!!!
You know, it's interesting......... when John got sick and we realized we would have to come back we had a lot of talks about this. We both felt that there was a reason for his illness, yet didn't really feel that it was "for us". We both felt we were going through this for another reason and that we were going back to the States for someone else. We thought it might be Dad. It turns out that my brother needed us here this summer, but now Mom and Dad really do as they face her cancer. You just never know how God will use difficulties in your life. Even though they may be horrible and terribly difficult, they are always part of a bigger picture. We can thank God for allowing us to come back for John's illness because it allowed us to be here when our family will truly need us the most. Isn't God good????
It just amazes us the way He orchestrated it all. John has a wonderful job that he loves and we could not have asked for a better church to serve at. It's right by our family and that is an added bonus now that they are going to need help and support. Wow! Amazing!!!
Mom would appreciate prayer for her as she is facing treatment over the next year. It's going to be a rough road, but we'll get through it together.
Major changes in our family
I've sat down to write this post about 100 times, but kept waiting until I had more details. I'll go ahead and write what I know for now and can fill in more as the days go by.
First of all, we put the kids in public school a few weeks ago. I'm sure that's probably a major shock to many and may seem kind of sudden. It's really not. We talked about this a lot over the past year when John was sick and we travelled back and forth so much for his medical treatment in the city. (We were living 5 hours away from a city in the middle of the mountains in Mexico.) When we came back to the States, we discussed it, yet love home schooling, so started that again this year.
John ended up finding out on August 28th that he would be having surgery to remove his entire colon 4 days later, Sept. 1st! So much for starting school that week as we had planned. Then he came home and it was chaos--- dr. appointments, visiting nurses, caring for him, etc. -- all while trying to get our school work done. It finally settled and we did get going, but trust me, it was so "weird" feeling. We just couldn't get a good routine down and all sorts of things. I knew John would be going back for another surgery around the first of November and it would be crazy again. There were many other factors that played into this and I won't go into them all right now, but the chaos was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back. : )
I told John that I really felt that we needed to put them in school right now. Because of the travel last year and our move mid-year, and the inconsistency that resulted (we had an amazing start and then it just got so messed up by transition), I saw some things I really wanted to hit hard this year but knew it was going to be impossible since it looked like we were having a repeat of last year. I knew the kids needed more discipline in their work and deadlines and more writing assignments and ..... you get the idea. It's hard to explain, but I just knew that would not happen here until at least 2nd semester. And by then it would be 1-1/2 school years of transition and would be hard to get going again. I was being pulled in several directions and it wasn't really fair to them or to me.
And then there was just "something" that made me feel that we needed to put them in now. I couldn't pinpoint it, but just felt like the timing was now. Well, we took the kids out to the school and got them enrolled and started and then 2 days later found out that my mom has a really aggressive form of breast cancer. (I'll post on that after this post.) I am so thankful that we did put the kids in school. I am freed up a bit (haha--- more on that later, too!) and can help her without feeling guilty for all of the things hanging over my head that I know I need to do but am not doing any of them well. (I'm sure you've been there before!)
So, I really feel good about having them in school right now. I know we were supposed to for this season in life. Now, that's not to say that it doesn't make me a little sad and that I feel that they will get the "best" education there. But, for now, I think they are supposed to be there. Meg is a little bored because she is way ahead of the game in 1st grade, but overall she likes it. The others love going. I have already seen the discipline coming back into their studies and really feel that they needed this as much as I did right now.
We love home schooling and have fabulous material. As a matter of fact, they ask to do some of it at home still. But transition can take its toll and sometimes we just have to look at the season of life we're in and make radical adjustments accordingly. We've always taken it one year at a time and tried to follow God's leading. I don't feel guilty at all and it actually feels like a burden has been lifted. Not that "school" was a burden, but we moved in, had surgery, tried to start school.......all of this in just a month's time--on top of the crazy last year of non-stop transition. It was getting crazy and I knew it would be that way until at least the end of the year. Now when they come home at night, I can focus on them and do homework with them (yes, kind of feels like we're still home schooling with the amount of homework--lol) but I don't feel bad about them not getting the attention or lessons that they need.
On top of that, we were given fabulous teachers!!! Several of them are christians and they have been so wonderful to us. That really helped ease my mind a lot.
The high school gave Ike credit for everything and even put him in honors classes. None of our kids had to be tested--- they looked at their work and trusted us on their levels and put them where we said they were. The kids are doing well at grade level, so it's good. ( I will admit though--- I had the most stressful weekend of my LIFE when I was pulling together records and transcripts and samples of work. I don't want to relive that one!!! )
First of all, we put the kids in public school a few weeks ago. I'm sure that's probably a major shock to many and may seem kind of sudden. It's really not. We talked about this a lot over the past year when John was sick and we travelled back and forth so much for his medical treatment in the city. (We were living 5 hours away from a city in the middle of the mountains in Mexico.) When we came back to the States, we discussed it, yet love home schooling, so started that again this year.
John ended up finding out on August 28th that he would be having surgery to remove his entire colon 4 days later, Sept. 1st! So much for starting school that week as we had planned. Then he came home and it was chaos--- dr. appointments, visiting nurses, caring for him, etc. -- all while trying to get our school work done. It finally settled and we did get going, but trust me, it was so "weird" feeling. We just couldn't get a good routine down and all sorts of things. I knew John would be going back for another surgery around the first of November and it would be crazy again. There were many other factors that played into this and I won't go into them all right now, but the chaos was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back. : )
I told John that I really felt that we needed to put them in school right now. Because of the travel last year and our move mid-year, and the inconsistency that resulted (we had an amazing start and then it just got so messed up by transition), I saw some things I really wanted to hit hard this year but knew it was going to be impossible since it looked like we were having a repeat of last year. I knew the kids needed more discipline in their work and deadlines and more writing assignments and ..... you get the idea. It's hard to explain, but I just knew that would not happen here until at least 2nd semester. And by then it would be 1-1/2 school years of transition and would be hard to get going again. I was being pulled in several directions and it wasn't really fair to them or to me.
And then there was just "something" that made me feel that we needed to put them in now. I couldn't pinpoint it, but just felt like the timing was now. Well, we took the kids out to the school and got them enrolled and started and then 2 days later found out that my mom has a really aggressive form of breast cancer. (I'll post on that after this post.) I am so thankful that we did put the kids in school. I am freed up a bit (haha--- more on that later, too!) and can help her without feeling guilty for all of the things hanging over my head that I know I need to do but am not doing any of them well. (I'm sure you've been there before!)
So, I really feel good about having them in school right now. I know we were supposed to for this season in life. Now, that's not to say that it doesn't make me a little sad and that I feel that they will get the "best" education there. But, for now, I think they are supposed to be there. Meg is a little bored because she is way ahead of the game in 1st grade, but overall she likes it. The others love going. I have already seen the discipline coming back into their studies and really feel that they needed this as much as I did right now.
We love home schooling and have fabulous material. As a matter of fact, they ask to do some of it at home still. But transition can take its toll and sometimes we just have to look at the season of life we're in and make radical adjustments accordingly. We've always taken it one year at a time and tried to follow God's leading. I don't feel guilty at all and it actually feels like a burden has been lifted. Not that "school" was a burden, but we moved in, had surgery, tried to start school.......all of this in just a month's time--on top of the crazy last year of non-stop transition. It was getting crazy and I knew it would be that way until at least the end of the year. Now when they come home at night, I can focus on them and do homework with them (yes, kind of feels like we're still home schooling with the amount of homework--lol) but I don't feel bad about them not getting the attention or lessons that they need.
On top of that, we were given fabulous teachers!!! Several of them are christians and they have been so wonderful to us. That really helped ease my mind a lot.
The high school gave Ike credit for everything and even put him in honors classes. None of our kids had to be tested--- they looked at their work and trusted us on their levels and put them where we said they were. The kids are doing well at grade level, so it's good. ( I will admit though--- I had the most stressful weekend of my LIFE when I was pulling together records and transcripts and samples of work. I don't want to relive that one!!! )
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