In sickness & in health - in dark clouds and sunshine

Again, it's been a long time since there has been a post here and it seems it must be time to give an update to anyone who's still paying attention. I know that we've promised to try to be better about posting, but for many reasons, we just don't do it.

Our last post was on June 16th -- Taryn's 21st birthday. A fairly huge milestone in the life of a family. Since that time we've also "celebrated" our 24th wedding anniversary. Another pretty major milestone. I quoted celebrated because in reality, we celebrated that day by going to the chemo department of the hospital and getting John's chemo treatment that celebrated his halfway point in the whole thing. Yet another milestone.

There have been ups & downs. That much is probably obvious. This chemo thing is like a dark cloud that hangs over us all the time, with a few rays of sunshine that occasionally break thru. We are happy for those rays, no doubt. I bask in them when they shine because so much of the time the dark cloud feels so oppressive. John feels like shit much of the time, I get reclusive and a little morose and nobody feels like any fun to be around at all. Taryn & Elliot are constant rays of sunshine so I am always looking for ways to hang out with them and enjoy their youthful optimism and joyful personalities.

Before I forget (which I've done for far too long), I would like to send a very special thanks to the Hahn Family and the IOIGT (Inlaw Outlaw Invitational Golf Tournament). My Dad's wife, my "mother", comes out of the Hahn family. They are a huge and fabulous family and when my Dad married Kathy, we became a part of this ginormous family. The last time we all got together in Colorado, there were more than 100 of us. During their golf tournament/family reunion this summer, they did their usual fundraising by auctioning off items that they had made during the year. This year, they kindly made us the recipient of their fundraising and their help was tremendously appreciated. John and I thank all of you that used your great talents to make the beautiful items you always make and we thank you also for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers all these long months. This blog post is dedicated to each of you. We love you and appreciate all you've given us. Dorothy & Keith, Mary, Helen & Larry, Norma & Ken, Doris & Mike, Joe & Shirley, Bill & Mary, Mike & Midge, Dan & Judy and Debbie & Mark and all of their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren......Thank you so much.

Now....John starts the last half of his chemo treatments on Tuesday. 3 more months, 9 more treatments, and who knows HOW many more needle pokes. This last (third) month of treatment, John didn't wind up in the hospital. That was a beautiful thing and we hope we can keep that going for the next 3 months. They've started giving him weekly injections of something called Procrit, which helps build up his blood cells and actually DOES make him feel better. We hope this treatment and it's improvement continues.

During the second month of chemo, John came down with pancreatitis again. He ended up in the hospital for about 5 days being starved again, much like what happened before the whipple surgery. He lost an awful lot of ground in his weight gain and he is catching back up again very, very slowly. During that stay, he recieved a cat scan and we were extremely happy and relieved to know that at this time, there is still nothing remarkable on his scans!!!! I fretted an awful lot that they weren't doing any scans to make sure that he was still cancer free. John thinks I'm silly for that, but that's who I am, what can I say.

Still....being able to say that John is CANCER FREE is one of those rays of sunshine in our lives.

Before this post gets too long, I will leave you all with a request.

Please go see the movie SiCKO. Michael Moore does a fabulous job of questioning our health care system in the United States. Whatever you think of Michael Moore, this movie and its topic is a great equalizer. Each of us, no matter what side of the political spectrum we reside on, needs health care and more and more Americans are fed up with a system that seems to only benefit the already ultra rich insurance companies and their CEO's at the expense of the health of patients. Every single industrialized nation on this planet, other than the US, has national health care. In France, England, Costra Rica and even in Cuba, you can go to the Doctor without worrying that the next time you turn around you could go bankrupt or lose your house or be unable to buy the drugs or get the treatment that can keep you alive. There are no issues with pre existing conditions. There is no denials of care. There is only CARE. Why can't we have this in America? What do you think?

Peace, love, gratitude and above all, health......
Vicki