RIP Joe

I wanted to start my blog today in hopes that you all will lift my Dad's good friend Joe Leister and his family up in your prayers. Joe passed away this Sunday after a hard fight with brain cancer. Dad loved and respected him as both a friend and a pilot and I know will miss him very much. A few months after Dad was diagnosed, Joe called Dad and said "OJ, I think you gave me cancer!" They flew together right before Dad was diagnosed and not long before Joe was. It will always be one of my favorite stories because its rare to find two men who can truly find the humor in cancer. RIP Joe.

Dad has definitely kept busy the last few weeks. Here is what you missed:

Uncle John came into town again... a few days filled with food, golf, and naps!

Little did you know...we are actually aliens.

Dad went to the Eric Clapton concert last week

They had great seats and a great time!

He got to play golf with some of our neighbors growing up, I can't even imagine the trouble they got in to!

Mr. Bill and Dad

Mr. Scott, Mr. Bill, and Dad

On Saturday Dad went to a spring training game with Cunningham and his family. We were excited because I was going too with some friends so we were going to meet up for a little bit. Welllll after 45 minutes of trying to find each other, we realized we were at two different spring training games! It was definitely a "blonde" moment for us but one that keeps us laughing.

The sweetest.

Aside from all of the fun, Dad has really felt like crap the last three weeks, and honestly this whole chemo round. Dad is still holding his own though even with the lack of energy, nausea, back pain, and hard time sleeping. 

Well yesterday was already days 4 chemo cycle, but the day did not go smoothly to say the least. We waited over an hour for blood work, which is fine we are flexible and know they are busy. From blood work we always go up to meet with Dr. K. Yesterday, instead of meeting with Dr. K, we met with a Nurse Practitioner...wait what?? There is nothing against NP's, heck I am studying to be one, but yesterday was a huge appointment one in which we were to discuss major points in Dad's treatment and health. Here are the main points from the meeting:

1. The Nurse Practitioner was so incredibly condescending and acted as if we were an inconvenience to her
2. Dad's stomach issues are not getting better and he is on 3-4 medications to fix it. I asked if we could do a scan or test and was ignored and Dad was told to just take his meds.
3. Dad had to do a urinalysis after the last chemo so when we told her no one ever calls us and we never got the results she said "yes they do call you" as if we were lying so Dad rightfully snapped back and told her she was wrong. Her only response was "then thats what these appointments are for". Can I just tell you that our last appointment he wanted Dad to see a counselor, we didn't hear anything for 3 weeks and the appointment is not until next week. 4 weeks. It takes 4 weeks to get an appointment for something that is supposed to help him? Awesome.
4. She couldn't refill Dad's Atavan because it wasn't refillable for another 3 weeks. Well if she would have listened that Dad was taking 2 .5mg pills in order to sleep should would have had the same light bulb I did...why not prescribe him the 1mg dose so he can sleep and not have to worry about running out? Ding dong.
5. We are due back April 9th to meet with Dr. K to discuss the results from the urinalysis and to schedule the scan. Ummm no, why are we going to waste our time to wait 3 weeks to be told we need to scan and then another 2 to get the results and another 1-2 to schedule the chemo. These people are out of their mind. We are calling next week to set up the scan (both chest and abdomen) ourselves.

By the time we got up to Christine for chemo, we were all red in the face. She was appalled at what happened and told us not only what we should do but also looked at all of his meds and explained their symptoms and why he is feeling the way he is feeling. FINALLY. Christine is such a beautiful example of the kind of service that a nurse or doctor should be giving. She takes the time to really look at the issues at hand and figure out what needs to be done to fix them. She is one of our many angels and we are so blessed she is helping to take care of Dad.

After a very frustrating day I am pretty sure I can speak for all of us when I say we were feeling a little down in the dumps. Days like that really make you question if you are at a hospital that is truly watching out for your best intentions and planning your best chance for survival. Any time I am feeling frustrated I remind myself of Angela Faddis, a woman in our community who died of colon cancer 6 months ago. I have been following their family's blog for quite sometime and their faith is nothing short of inspirational and always reminds me that my hope truly lies with God and what is or isn't going on with the hospital. We continue to pray daily for God's healing and are grateful to those of you who continue to pray with us. Will keep you updated, have a great week!

"In all of this, we know that our true hope lies in God. It is easy to find hope in a certain treatment, or surgery or Cancer Center. It is easy to place our hope in a clinical trial or some other means, but in the end our hope is in Christ. Our faith urges us to seek healing and to never stop hoping." -Chris Faddis