Home and doing well

Thanks everyone...I am home now and feeling pretty good, just a little sore. The sedation worked well. The only trouble they had was accessing my vein for the IV...It was very cold out early this morning and I could not drink anything, so I think that was why. I got a bit queasy from all the pokes and blood etc...But it passed as soon as they wheeled me down the corridor and I cooled off. Oh and then I had the worst back spasms as soon as I got into the OR...Its been awhile since I had back pain that bad...I was glad the sedation worked as it helped with that too!
Well, its been a long day...I have a couple more stops to make on the web and then a nice nap awaiting me.
Thanks for your prayers, my friends...Love you all~Lisa

It's Almost Over!

It's been quite the year!
Well, I had my last Herceptin infusion today and in the morning (Tuesday) I will be getting my port removed! 
I am both excited and a bit nervous about this...When I got the port placed I had a rough time of it because I was totally conscious and aware of everything happening because the medicine that makes you sort of loopy did not work on me because I had a problem with the IV...So I am nervous about that now.
  I tried to post today while I was at the doctor getting the infusion, but the ladies in there were very friendly and chatty today so I did not get any further than to start up my laptop...Poor Jeff, he just stuck his nose in a magazine and tuned us all out!  
I gave and received a lot of hugs there today...I gave them a card and told them how much I will miss them...but I will NOT miss getting that infusion!   I would sure welcome your prayers for tomorrow, my dear friends...Let's hope I am in la-la-land and won't remember anything that they do to me this time!   ~God bless drugs ~ (when they work properly)  
Love you all~ God bless~ And if I don't get the chance to tell you.... 
 ~HAPPY NEW YEAR!~  

Merry Christmas!

~BLESSINGS & LOVE~

and remember, we are...

~NEVER FORSAKEN~

A little girl needs prayer

*Update*

The mass is not malignant...Jeff had that part wrong, but nonetheless it is very dangerous.

The good news is that the radiation has worked and the mass stopped growing. (The fear was it getting up to her brain stem).

The bad news is that the mass and the radiation and surgeries caused her to develop three kinds of scoliosis, all of which has reconfigured her spine so badly that she will be wheelchair bound; and there's nothing they can do.

My prayer for her now is that the Lord will help her to develop a strong faith and character to overcome this and live her life fully in-spite of the challenges she may face growing up with this. 

Jeff just called from work to tell me about a co-worker's daughter.
her name is Samantha and she has been dealing with a malignant tumor in her spine for a while now. She was doing okay, but now they are having some serious issues with the tumor causing severe scoliosis and she will end up in a wheelchair. If the surgeons remove the tumor she will be paralyzed.
Sam is only 14, and her parents had hoped that they could continue to treat with radiation to give her more time before the tumor interfered with her mobility...at least until she finished high school.
Jeff and I are asking you to join us in praying for a miracle for this young girl...God can do what the doctors can't...He can take the tumor away without causing any paralysis.
This family really needs a Christmas miracle this year!

~Dear Heavenly Father, We lift Sam up to you right now...We ask for you to touch her body and heal her as only you can do. We ask that you would perform this miracle and it would become a testimony of your love and healing power for Sam and her family.
In Jesus we ask. ~Amen~

Good news!

My MRI report shows stability. I asked my oncologist if it really was a stroke that caused the lesion and he said "NO"...the lesion is a normal part of aging and no further scans are needed...Whew!

I have only one more Herceptin infusion and then my port removal surgery...Dr. H got everything scheduled so that it will all be done by the end of this month...He also said that since I had the good kind of cancer, (There's a good cancer?Well, I supposed compared to other less good kinds ...I was fortunate to have the kind that I had) he did not need to see me again for six months then he hugged me and said Merry Christmas!

What a great way to wrap up this year of grace...As of January 2015...I will no longer be in cancer treatment! The Lord kept his promise to carry me through it with extra grace for one year.
....(my year of grace).

More good news today is that I had finally heard an update on my friend (and many of yours as well) Denise Oldham. Denise suffered a heart attack last month and the last thing I heard was that she was in the hospital and not staying awake after surgery...I now understand that she is recovering.
Praise the Lord for answering our prayers and for bringing Denise through her own tough battle. though it is not over yet...so we need to continue to lift her and her husband Eddie up in prayer.

Well, it is getting late and its been a long day so I'll wrap this up for now.

~BLESSINGS & LOVE~
and remember, we are...

~NEVER FORSAKEN~

Black Friday...

Today I am having a follow up brain MRI, just to make sure the lesion has not changed...Hopefully it is gone altogether (God can do it)!...And as much as I dislike having to lay in that MRI scanner for so long...I would rather be there than fighting through the crowds in the stores this morning!
Here's a good summary of how I feel about Black Friday:

My response to all of this....

NO THANK YOU.

But if you are one of those brave souls who are venturing out there looking for a great bargain today...Please stay safe, and watch out for someone who may need your help today.

~Blessings & Love~

and remember, we are...

~NEVER FORSAKEN~

Tomorrow's dinner...

This is what tomorrow's dinner looks like today here in Michigan...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

And finally, this one really touched my heart...I am so thankful for a safe and comfortable place to sleep, and that is only possible because of people like these who have given up theirs.

Even my dogs are very fortunate to sleep every night at the foot of my bed.

~BLESSINGS & LOVE~
and remember, we are...
~NEVER FORSAKEN~ 

Scars

I believe this applies to those scars that are hidden inside us too.

 And we must never forget the scars that the Savior carries for us...

 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. 

John 20:27

~Blessings & Love~

and remember, we are...

~NEVER FORSAKEN~

Catching up

Now that summer has officially come to an end up here in the northern woods, I am once again turning my attention back to this blog.
We have had our share of weird weather here in Northern Michigan, but over all it was a pretty decent summer.
I am really not a fan of summer myself, but we had a pretty busy and fun time visiting with friends and family and going to some of our favorite places, as well as finding a couple new ones along the way!
It’s funny how many times either Jeff or I would snap a picture and say: “Hey, that would be nice for a blog post.”
So, here are a few snapshots from the past couple of months or so…


This baby gosling struggled to follow its family at the hotel where we stayed for Sam’s bridal shower last June.


Three things that a person with vertigo should never do:


1. Walk in the sand  along the edge of a wave while trying not to fall over onto the people sunbathing on the windy shoreline of Lake Michigan! (*note…I was tempting fate by wearing a wig that day!)


2. Walking out on a long pier to stand at the edge of a lighthouse, while looking up into the sky to get a close-up of a seagull that stayed suspended in midair just over my head….
while speedboats sail surprisingly close by…


3. walking along a very precarious looking swinging bridge in a little park we found!

Some new friends I met…



This little guy stopped what he was doing to pose for me.



I asked this lady if I could take her picture…She was concerned about the  can of soda ruining the shot because it was not befitting the period. We chatted for a bit, and I almost got talked into volunteering for the next festival.


Here are a few more characters in period costumes. The stew that the woman was cooking smelled wonderful!

I spent a lot of time rubbing the noses and shooing flies from these guys…They actually seemed like they hated to see me leave. I did chat with one of the ladies who works for their owner before getting permission to get closer to the horses. Isn’t that carriage lovely?

Here’s a few more carriages.


Imagine my surprise when I knelt down to get a better shot of this young wolf….

When she jumped up and ran straight for me…I never did get that close-up, as it was kinda hard to do with a wolf licking my face and wanting a belly rub! I chatted with her owner and learned the wolf’s name is Gala-la-ni` and she is a 9 month old mixed timber wolf and Alaskan grey wolf.


And I will wrap this part of my post  up with our little hike through Hartwick Pines National forest last Saturday…

where we paid a visit to our favorite little chapel in the pines.

There’s more to share with you, things that I did not get a picture of, but are worth writing about here.

 There was the day my friend Ellen stopped by and we went for a walk together around the neighborhood. I think I settled her concern for my health on that walk, as I insisted that we go for a much longer walk than what she is normally used to, and she was surprised to find that she needed to pick up her pace a little to keep up, and by the time we got back to my house…I was not the least bit winded! I had to apologize to her for the extended distance and increased pace…but since I got most of my strength back after so long without it…Well, it’s pretty wonderful to be able to feel that freedom again!

And I recently had the sweetest surprise lunch date with my friend Deb…She called me with a plan to grab lunch and head to the lake together…Unfortunately, a severe storm started up just as we were leaving, and we had to turn around and eat our lunch here…but it turned out to be a blessed time of fellowship with a friend whom I adore, but because of her own health problems recently, we had not seen one another since before I was diagnosed. Before she left, I hugged her and thanked her for taking me out into a dangerous storm…LOL!

My best friend Brenda whom I have mentioned on here a time or two also came up from Ohio with her three teen-aged daughters…We had a wonderful visit, and I learned that her oldest girl, 17 years old was running in two cancer races in my honor …I am very honored indeed!

Also, our neighbor who lives in Arizona but owns the little cabin next door is here for a visit.  She was surprised to learn that I had been through cancer surgery and treatment. I explained how sorry I was that I did not call her to let her know, but at the time it was very difficult to break the news to people. She understood, and then surprised me with another big hug…She said she was even more happy to see me now, I replied that I was happy to still be here to see her too!
I also want to share with you another huge blessing…
As you may or may not know, I have played The Sims PC game for a number of years…Last year around this time I prayed whether or not the Lord wanted me to continue spending time playing that game. I was lead to Google the words Christian Simmers and immediately I found a site that looked like it had been designed especially for me…I could not believe that it had existed for such a long time and I had never known about it until then!
Since then I have forged some very close friendships especially with a small group of other Christian women, and I have been creating sim houses and stories etc..on the site. These ladies, like all of you have walked right along beside me through this whole cancer journey, and have held me in their prayers along with you. I am continually surprised at the way the Lord brings us all together.
I even met one of my favorite game modders (someone who writes code for creating special affects in a game) She is a fellow Michigander…A very sweet and generous Christian lady of whom I have admired her work for many years now. And she is now a good friend of mine as well.
Each of the administrators of that site have wonderful testimonies of how God is using them to minister to others through a computer game…Without them, there is a whole group of people who may never hear the Word of God…people from all over the world who play this popular game. I have seen them in action…It is a good ministry that I am honored to be associated with. And while I am very cautious about who or what I get involved with online…I feel very safe there as the administrators do not tolerate anything that is less than God honoring on the site…In fact, I was amazed at just how quickly they were able to isolate a problem poster and shut them down from posting further.  Our youngest member is only 12 years old from Romania, and we all watch out for her like a bunch of over protective mothers and grandmothers…her mother is a single mom who works a lot, and the girl spends most of her time online on our site where she knows she is loved and adored!

Well, that is about all for today…I hope to be doing more updates now that everything is slowing down around here…I will be back with another update after I see my oncologist this Friday.

~BLESSINGS & LOVE~
and remember, we are…
~NEVER FORSAKEN~

UPDATE!

There was something abnormal in my brain, but they are not too concerned about it...It does not appear to be cancer related. Doctor will discuss it with me in detail on my next appointment with him in three weeks.

He is not worried, and so we are not worried either. Hopefully this will answer why my balance is off.

Thank you for your continued prayers...I have been calmer than I thought I would be these last couple days...Now I am just curious about what is going on inside my brain...Maybe my brother was right, and I was dropped off by aliens as a baby...He said they would return for me again some day?

 

Thank you all for your encouragement...and above all else...Thank the Lord for carrying me through yet another new door...the door that led into the MRI scan.

~BLESSINGS & LOVE~

and remember, we are...

~NEVER FORSAKEN~

Still Waiting…

I’m still waiting for the results from the brain MRI I had last week.
It wasn’t exactly the greatest experience…getting the scan.
There was a series of blunders throughout. (I won’t get into the details on here)…Let’s just say I’m glad it’s all over. I have my regular appointment on Friday for the Herceptin infusion, and the doctor will likely go over the scan with me.

I got a CD with the images on it to keep…I looked at it, and I probably shouldn’t have because of course I thought I saw something strange on it!

Lord, help me not to have such an imagination…but that is how the Lord made me, I guess…So in order not to drive myself (and everybody around me) crazy, I will just leave it up to God and the experts in the field of reading MRI’s.

We had a fun week with Sarah and Josh and their two dogs staying with us while they got an electrical problem worked out at their house…They returned to their own home late last night and I miss them already!

The last time I went to the oncologist I met and was able to counsel a woman who was there for her first chemo…She and her husband were very scared, but I am happy to report that she is doing well, and I was blessed to have been able to offer her some comfort during that most difficult time. I will likely see her again on Friday.
It was also a sad day that day as I  met another woman who was there with her 21 year old daughter. Her daughter told me that her mother had been in remission from breast cancer for thirteen years, and  now it had returned and was in her spine. She is still a young woman, and I can only imagine what she must be going through. Her daughter seemed very loving and supportive…Her Mother’s name is Rosemary…My prayers go out to her.
I’ve been taking so many pictures, and am having a hard time deciding which ones to share with you all…We’ve been keeping busy throughout the summer, and having lots of fun. Even though the picture I am sharing with you today is not one of my best…I like it because I just got done watching a bunch of TV shows about sharks for ‘Shark Week’…

Da…dum…


…Dadum…Dadum * (theme music from ‘Jaws’)*
 

Do you see the shark in the sky? (I sure hope you do, otherwise I might be going crazy!)
I took this picture on our way home from Indiana last month…while we were watching some pretty scary looking wall clouds forming overhead!

And here are a couple of my favorites from our trip back to the city park and zoo in Lafayette:

1.   But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.  Isaiah 40:31  -

~BLESSINGS & LOVE~
and remember, we are…
~NEVER FORSAKEN~