Fourth of July weekend

Just wanted to take a few minutes and remind everyone its the Fourth of July. Hug a soldier, thank them for the sacrifices they make, retired, currently serving, and support those who may want to make a career out of the armed forces in the future. It is a hard life they choose, but it protects our freedoms. Thanks to my brothers who did and are serving in the Navy. And to my in-laws who served in the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force. Thanks to you all, we love you and are thankful for your service. Merry Christmas and Have a lovley day.
Love Andy, Peggy, and Family

Beautiful morning

I was awoken this morning by the strangest sound. The alarm clock was beeping at 5:00am. I have not gotten up this early for at least a month. I had a hard time going back to sleep, so I laid there thinking. This is a beautiful morning. I feel as though with the last two days, we as a family, have recieved a blessing of peace. Andy has been lighthearted, joking, and more his real self. This alone has given all of us a boost of happiness. We are riding this wave and enjoying the ride. So, if we seem a bit dreamy, we are. We will be busy this weekend, just like the rest of you, so have a great 4th and be safe. We love you all.

A difinitive answer at last!

I got some answers this evening. We are not going to have any more IL2. WOO HOO. While some of you may find this a little unnerving, let me explain a little.(Peggy already addressed this in the previous post.) I have reached the point where the balance has tipped from the treatment being beneficial to being detrimental to my health. The kidney doctor is not sure how well my kidneys will bounce back from another dose of IL2, and upon a preliminary look, doesn't see an adverse side effect to my kidneys from the ipilimumab (new drug). So in effect we will not have anymore IL2 because we want to keep my kidneys functioning. The next step is to have a CT Scan done on what would have been our regular schedule, which puts that at the end of July. So the last week of July I will have a scan and see how the tumors are. With any luck and a lot of blessings, they will have kept "stable" or will have shrunk. We are praying for shrinking, but stabilizing will be ok too. If they are stable or have shrunk, we will proceed to a maintenance schedule where I have a scan every 3 to 6 months to monitor existing tumors and check for new ones. If new ones show up or the existing ones start to grow, I will go on the new drug. I am really excited so I may be forgetting stuff here, but right now, I don't really care. If you have questions feel free to post a comment and I will respond to it. Some things I don't know but would be more than happy to find out. Once again, Thank you for the prayers and thoughts, our hearts and prayers go out to you. Merry Christmas and Have a lovely day.
Love Andy.

We are sorry that we have not posted a new blog sooner, however, we just didn't know what to write. Monday we met with Dr. Mcgreggor (kidney doctor). Andy had more blood tests done and then we were told to wait. So, we did. We learned what we already knew. Andy's kidney's have been through major trauma with the Il2 and the other meds that are needed to keep him alive when at Huntsman. This is old news. We also learned that with continued treatments it will progressively get worse for the kidneys and failure is plausible. Also old news. The new news is that Dr. Grossman (oncologist) is leaning toward going to plan B and not finishing out the Il2. We will have the decision made by Thursday at the latest on what we are doing. I know that many of you are feeling alarmed about this information. Let me put it to you this way. We are at the first of probably many crossroads of decisions about Andy's treatments. The question is, "what is worse, the treatment or the disease." I know that the disease would be the first and loudest you all would say, but let me remind you of the very real fact that Andy has stage 4 melanoma. This is a cancer that is in the top 5 most aggressive and non-treatable cancers our society is facing. It is not a matter of if it takes Andy's life, but when. We want as a family to have as much time together on this earth. We also want it to be possible for Andy to be able to function during that time. Right now we face a real possibility that continuing with Il2 will take away a quality of life that we have right now. I don't want to alarm any of you. We pray for and believe that miracles can and do happen, and have seen them frequently happen over the last six months. And that Andy may have that chance to out live most Doctors theories. That is why we look at every possibility and options. For Andy, he is positive and upbeat about the direction the doctors are going. Andy and I personally feel that Dr. Grossman, Dr. Mcgreggor, and all the staff at Huntsman are truly being inspired in Andy's treatments. I hope that all of you that read this do not think I am being depressed or negative. I just what you to know what is going on with treatments and how Andy is progressing. I am comforted by the doctors and their real concern of Andy and his overall well being. To prove my point. If Andy does not go into Huntsman this weekend for treatments. The doctors have said they will wait until we come back from our trip to Florida to continue. They want us as a family to go on this trip and they know that Andy will not be able to go it if there is not enough recovery time between the treatment and the trip. We all feel the Lord's hand in this trial. We feel there is much to learn and we will be given the time to learn it. No one knows their time line in this life. But we all know it will end someday. And we have decided to live and enjoy what beautiful things the Lord has provide us. We have wonderful neighbors that are willing to sacrifice time and energy to help us with things that were at one time very simple for us to accomplish. Cutting, baling, and water the field was the simplest of tasks for Andy, until now. And we are blessed with Bruce Zundel and family, Jay Capner and family, and Rob and Danny, who are our heroes for their help, just to name a few. We love you and appreciate all you do. Thanks to all of you and your prayers. We will see miracles upon miracles as we all progress through this. I feel that the Lord has many things for Andy and I to do still, and cancer will not impede us. So with this very long posting, we want to remind you to wear your sunscreen and stop to smell the flowers. We love you!!Keep up the prayers.

More labs.....

This pretty much sums how I have felt today. I called the lab a couple of hours after I had my blood drawn, and they told my my creatnine levels were almost 1.7. This is bad. They were 1.5 last week when they said no treatment, they are supposed to be below 1.2. I called Dr. Grossman's office and talked to Karen (the nurse). I told her the numbers for the Creatnine, and then she went and checked the fax machine, and talked with Dr. Grossman, she called me back and said I needed to meet with Dr. Mcgregor, the nephrologist (kidney doctor) and informed me that I would be taken off of the list for coming in this weekend. This is really frustrating, because there is nothing I can do to fix it. It is totally out of my control. Which is a recurring pattern with this cancer stuff. Maybe there is a lesson here that God would like me to learn? I'll work on trying to figure that out later. But in the meantime I got a message at 5:30 on my home phone, how they got that number I will never know, that I need to get with Dr. Mcgregor, while my cel phone, which is practically attached to my hip, and its the only number I gave them to call me at, never rang. So I breath, and just keep breathing, hoping for more patience and less reminding that I am not in control. On a good note, it looks like I will be able to attend a day at the Andrew Family reunion, and then spend the 4th of July in the hospital (maybe), if my kidneys cooperate. I will keep on praying for patience to deal with this, keep smiling and trying to keep a positive outlook. I just looked at the clock and it's later than I would like to admit, but I have been too upset to write until now. Thanks for the prayers and thoughts in my behalf, if it wasn't for all of you and my family, I would have been overwhelmed long ago. My heart felt appreciation is not truly conveyable, but I truly love you all and am honored to make it to your personal communion with God. Merry Christmas and have a lovely day.
Love Andy.
PS. I am very aware that Peggy is a lot better writer than I am. She is a lot better at most things. I am truly lucky to have such a wonderful supportive Wife.

labs, labs, labs...

Andy was not feeling well yesterday, he had problems with his balance. He stayed home from work to try to rest and drink lots of water to help flush his body and try to get his kidneys working better. Today he was able to get up and get ready for work with little trouble. He is also going to the hospital to have his labs work done. This will then be sent to Dr. Grossman at Hunstman to deciede if Andy's kidney function is good enough to start IL2 on Sunday. Tomorrow we will have a conference call with the Docs to find out what they want to do. We are hoping that Andy will go on Sunday because otherwise this runs into our Florida trip. We want Andy to have every chance at beating this cancer, we also want to be able to go on this family vacation that so many have put time and effort into. If we have to postpone the trip the kids will understand. They are very good at not holding grudges about things don't go their way with postponed trips. Our kids are very patient. Yes, even Caity. They are learning how to look at a more eternal perspective of this life than just the here and now. I am proud of our kids. It is not easy trying to grow up with a parent that has to battle cancer. Andy does not have the energy or strength that he once did. And we were forced to give up some very important things, like horses. We sold two of them weeks after the diagnosis. We knew that things would be too difficult with them. We have kept our sweet Sue. She is an Arabian/appy cross. Some very wonderful nieghbors/friends have taken her up on their ranch for us until we can take her back. Last week, Andy took the girls up to their (Roche's) ranch to see her again. It has made us miss her more. Andy loves riding and working with horses, but the docs have advised that he does not ride or work them, not because of infections or anything like that. His balance is not its best and would cause an accident if he tried to ride. We are all hoping that next year will bring better days with our Suzy. Thankyou again to the Roche family for taking such great care of our horse. Thank you for all of your prayers and love.

Fathers day weekend

The kids went to Lava Hot Springs for the Verhaal annual outing. They had a blast, they went up Thursday and we went up Saturday to get them. It was really nice to see everyone. Fathers Day was kinda rough for me but we made it through and still had some times that were enjoyable. We went to my parents for dinner/supper, the last meal of the day (the clarification is for my Dad.) Tanya and Jonah came over and it was fun to see them. He is growing so much. Tanya is my little brother David's wife, Jonah is their son. ok, enough genealogy. It has been frustrating feeling sick still, but now we know why and it makes it more bearable and have a plan for getting over it. Water, water and a little more water, with some Gatorade, and cranberry juice. A little walking and lots of bathroom time. If all works well I should be back in shape for treatments by Thursday. If not, I will be making an appointment to go and see the kidney doctor. So lets hope and pray that all will be well by Thursday, that's when I have to do more labs. While putting treatment off for a week may seem like a setback, it just shows how much Dr. Grossman and the team care about my well being and success over cancer. They want me to get as many doses as I can and we all agree that under current circumstances I probably would have only got 1 maybe 2 doses before my body said no more. We take everything day by day and enjoy the little successes during each day that we have and endure the bad times. Thanks again for all the thoughts and prayers. Merry Christmas, and have a lovely day.
Love Andy.