Glamour what?

Mom enjoyed her birthday celebration and I, in attempting to give her a memorial day, actually broke one of my major rules "Thou shalt not look foolish in public." Yes, we spent THREE hours in Glamour Shots up at the mall... and... we had a blast! After several wardrobe changes and a layer of makeup so thick that it took a pressure washer to get it off, we were left with several great pictures. After doing some research to make sure that it doesn't compromise any of their copyright laws, I may post them on here...

We then went to listen to mom's favorite singer, Roseann, at a local establishment called Harborside. The people there have really adopted mom and had cards and a beautiful bouquet of flowers for her. She truly had a ball!

Again, thank you to all of you that sent her a note - she mentioned that she received more cards this year than ever!

Happy Birthday, Weeze!

Well, today is mom's 65th birthday! She is now officially able to get all of those nifty Senior discounts! Woohoo!

The best gift for mom's birthday was a trip to the radiologist's office this morning... The CT scan results showed NO OTHER TUMORS in mom's body! PRAISE THE LORD! They did find some scar tissue in her right lung, which they presume is from the radiation from last go-round. We are still waiting for the results from the PET scan, but the Dr. was VERY encouraged by the CT results!

Thanks to all of you that sent notes and messages to her for this special day - you are a blessing!

Here's a pic of her on her newfound love, motorized store carts...

PETs, CAT's and Posts, oh my!

ok - we have lived through the day from HADES!

Poor mom had to begin fasting last night at 10pm. Keep in mind that she is an insulin dependent diabetic... I picked her up this morning at 6:45 (!!!!!) to go have a PET scan and CT scan done of her entire body. They started the scan at almost 8:00 (scheduled for 7:15) and it is a 2 hour test. About an hour & a half into it the power went out. Apparently 100,000+ people were without power. This delayed things considerably, but I have to admit that the folks at Radiology Regional were awesome. At least at THAT office...

We then were supposed to go around the corner and have her CT scan done (in the same complex). Apparently, when the power went out, it severely damaged the CT machine and all tests were canceled for the day. So they sent us to another office, about 10 miles away & said that they were waiting for us... Of course, upon our arrival, they looked at us like we had 3 heads. Each.

The tech was a snippy ex-New Yorker (I refuse to go into a rampage about that!!) who neglected to check with the hospital (even though she told mom that she did) regarding mom's creatnine levels. Apparently th dyes that they inject for the CT scan is hard enough on the kidneys but especially hard when combined with metformin, which is a diabetes med that mom is taking. LOOOONG story short (I know, you're saying "it's too late for that") we got the levels from her doctor and the tests were able to be completed. (PRAISE THE LORD!)

Now we will wait for the test results. I hate waiting...

World Showcase Lagoon...

One of my most favorite parts about a trip to Disney is, by far, the fireworks at Epcot. If you have never seen them - I PROMISE it is worth the price of admission.

Every time that I have seen the show, I have to fight back tears. It is a beautiful display of fireworks and digitally mastered programming which includes a GIANT globe that spins and floats about the lagoon displaying images of people from all over the world. For me, it's not the spectacularness (is that a word?) of it as much as it is about the people. I know that if Pastor Betzer were to see this, we would HAVE to incorporate it into next years missions convention! (can you imagine!?!)

This time I have decided to let the tears flow if they come. Heck, i'm here alone - no one else needs to concern themself if I have a spiritual moment in this often unholy place...

I have a great seat, my Bratwurst (with saurkraut, of course) from Germany in one hand, a water from Dasani in the other and the show is about to start... I cannot wait!

(By the way, mom's sister, Janette took her to radiation today & mom said it went great! Keep on praying, Weeze's Warriors!)

LIVE from the Magic Kingdom!

I am currently at one of my absolute favorite places: Disney World!

I am once again reminded that our God is one of variety & diversity. How He must take such pride in His handiwork (even when we misbehave).

He obviously thrives on diversity... That is noticeable with EVERY person that walks by me. No two look alike (well, with the exceptional twin set) - very few sound alike - but most of all, it is incredible to think that ALL of us are created in His image. From your blonde haired, blue eyed All American folks, to the Muslim covered from head to toe... Amazing, huh?

ZAP!

Well, mom had her first radiation appointment yesterday - she calls it "getting ZAPPED." The best part is she doesn't feel anything... isn't technology amazing? I mean, you would expect it to burn or something - but she feels nothing! (Thank you, Lord!) They have made a mask for her that looks a lot like this:

Mom lays down and then they put the mask over her and bolt it to the table! (insert Frankenstein jokes here) She said it made her a *little* claustrophobic when they fitted her with it - it was warm and then they mold the facial features to her face.

I really appreciate all of the e-mails of encouragement and prayers you all have sent - I sat reading some of them to mom last night. She was deeply moved...

Well, treatment #2 is right around the corner. They expect her to have 20-25 treatments in all (daily, but only on weekdays). They said she might lose her hair... I think mom is convinced that she will, but maybe just so she won't be disappointed if it does happen...

thanks so much for being a part of "Team Berkley!" (Some of you may not know that Berkley is my mom's last name... just figured I'd put an end your sleepless nights)

Of whirlwinds and doctor's offices...

So... last Sunday mom calls me and says "I think this headache behind my left eye is getting worse."

It started between Christmas and New years and she had been "treating" it with aspirin and ibuprofen. I, as I sometimes stubbornly do, put my foot down. I called our friend Loetta, who works for mom's ophthalmologis... uh... opticia... eye doctor. She convinced me to call him, even though it was Sunday, so he would squeeze mom in the next day. (Thank you, Loetta!)

Monday - Long story short - we saw Dr. Gorovoy - he found nothing.

I had planned ahead and scheduled an appt later in the afternoon with mom's regular doctor. She scheduled a CT scan and bloodwork for the next day.

Tuesday - CT Scan and bloodwork

Wednesday - I received a call from mom's Dr. at about 9:00am - I knew that if they already had the results, it probably wasn't good news... She was obviously upset - and informed me they had found a mass about 1 inch in diameter in the periatal area of her brain. She said she just couldn't bring herself to call mom, so I told her I would go over and tell mom face to face (thought it was better that way, anyway)

Thursday - we met with mom's radiologist (Dr. Mantz) and his Nurse Practitioner (Beth Patrizzi) These folks were with us for all of mom's lung cancer treatments and were absolutely amazing! They were VERY positive and explained the treatments that mom will be receiving over the next 4-5 weeks (on a daily basis). They took measurements to fit her in a mask type thing that will get bolted to the table so she will be perfectly still while receiving the radiation. They will be treating her whole brain because they said that often if cancer has metastasized (a fancy word for SPREAD) at all, there were probably more spots on her brain that we could not see yet... better to be safe than sorry... They stated that about 6 months to a year down the road, we may see some effects from the radiation in regards to mom's memory, etc. PRAY THIS DOESN'T HAPPEN!

Friday - we went to see mom's oncologist (Dr. Teufel) and his Nurse Practitioner (Elizabeth Keifer). These folks have become like family and are genuinely concerned about mom. Dr. Teufel affectionately calls us "Team Berkley" when we come in... however, this time, he was not in a chatty mood. He told me several times how very sorry he was... He had hoped we would have more time between cancer treatments. (it is common for lung cancer to metastasize.) He has set us up for mom to have a full body PET scan and CT scan on Thursday of next week. His concern is that it may have spread to other parts of her body as well - but we are praying against that in Jesus' name!!!

Saturday - Mom finally got to rest! She has been worn out this entire week - but, praise the Lord, the steroids the doc's have put her on have helped her headache tremendously (the pain was caused by swelling around the tumor was pressing against her skull.) The down side is she now can't play professional baseball...

Sunday - mom came to church this morning and my dear friend Jeanie Turner prayed over her at the altar. We are praying for a complete healing so GOD gets ALL of the glory, Amen?

Wow - that gives you a "brief" rundown of our week... Mom starts radiation treatments tomorrow afternoon, so please set your alarm on your Casio digital watch & pray for her about 3:50.

Until next time....

Welcome to my world...

I have decided that blogging isn't just a fad that will soon evaporate - so I will make use of it to keep friends and loved ones updated on the "Transpirations" of our lives this year. I promise to do my best not to be droll or monotonous. I will use spell check. And will occasionally add pictures of Hadi, my faithful pup, in order to increase the "Awwww" factor.

Despite severe medical diagnoses, feasts or famine... I will report that the JOY of the Lord is my strength... Thanks for joining me on this journey. I promise I'll do all I can to make it worth the price of admission...

Just a small PSA - the easiest way to check for updates is to use Mozilla Firefox as your web browser (instead of Internet Explorer) You can download it for free at: <http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ - I have to say, I am a HUGE fan!), it is the easiest way to check this blog for updates. You can set it to display an RSS feed at the top of your browser, simply click that button & look for new entries at the top of the column. Sounds more difficult than it really is - let me know if you need any assistance!