Monday, January 25, 2010

Meet Sandie...


I know so many of our friends have been praying for us and for our beautiful daughter-in-law, Sandie. We thank you and ask that you please continue those prayers.

It seemed life was going along pretty good, but on Friday night, one phone call shattered our lives.
Let me back up a little bit. As most of you know, Sandie was diagnosed with melanoma a couple of years ago. Last year she had to have surgery in which they removed 51 lymph nodes from her neck area. She had over 200 stitches in her head and neck and never once complained about anything she had to go through. After her surgery she started radiation treatments where she had to wear a mask that fit snug to her head and had to be bolted to the table so she couldn't move. She did all of her radiation treatments, again with no complaints. She was so strong, I didn't know how she did it...she amazed us all.
After radiation, she started on chemo treatments. Unfortunately her chemo made her very sick and with the approval of her doctor, she stopped after a couple of weeks.
She seemed like she was doing very well and seemed healthy. That is until this past week.
This past Thursday, Sandie had an excrutiating headache and was seeing flashing lights and had loss of vision. On Friday she was taken to the emergency room at Vanderbilt Hospital. They did a CAT scan and an MRI of her brain and within the next two hours we were given the terrible news that her cancer had spread to the brain. Like I said, one phone call, and our lives were shattered.
Sandie came home from the hospital on Saturday afternoon with medication for her headache and steroids to shrink the swelling. They have told us she has three lesions on her brain and she will start a new round of radiation treatments this week to shrink the tumors. After that she will be put in the hospital in an induced coma to begin chemo treatments for an entire week. After that week, she will go home for three weeks and then start the entire process over again. It is going to be a long, hard road for Sandie, Greg and Drew, and we are asking for prayer for all three of them as they begin this journey.
David and I know that God is the Great Physician and he CAN heal her. Please pray with us as we pray for Sandie to be healed of this terrible disease. Thank you also for your love and prayers over the past months as we have gone through all of this with her.


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Sunday, January 10, 2010

Click to play this Smilebox scrapbook: Snow Much Fun
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What a fun time we had sliding down the "hill" at our house. It was wicked cold outside but we only played for about an hour before heading in to sit by the fireplace.

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Friday, January 8, 2010

I don't know why or how, but when I added the "Sassy Blinkie" I lost my signature. I have worked all afternoon to get it back and have had an awful time. Now it is finally there but has a box around it which I guess will have to stay. My brain is too tired to do anything else.
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I have worked really hard today trying to get this "blinkie" made for Sassy Scrapper and changing "my signature" so it wasn't so over powering. Wow...I think I did it. If you want the "Sassy Blinkie", you should be able to grab it and post it to your blog. If you have any trouble, just leave a comment and let me know. Man, my brain is exhausted!!!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

I pray this will be a safe and wonderful year for all of us. When I reflect back on 2009, I can think of so many challenges our family has faced, but we have come through them all as stronger people.
The most difficult time during the year was when we found out one of our daughter-in-laws had melanoma and she underwent radiation and chemo treatments. Sandie is a very strong girl, but the chemo was just too much for her and she ended up not completing the treatment. At this point we can only pray she received enough of the chemo to kill the cancer in her body. Please continue to pray for her throughout this new year.
Our other daughter-in-law, Melodie, also had surgery this past year to remove her thyroid. She is doing great now. My sister also had surgery...knee replacement, and is still having to go through therapy and perhaps another surgery.
We have been blessed in so many ways throughout the year. God is good and has never let us down. We truly have to live each day to the fullest and treat others as we want to be treated. Kind words and a smile can reach others like nothing else can.
Happy New Year.....