Sick and Tired

The title should sum up our last week and a half, but I'll elaborate.

Dan and I are both sick. Nick was sick when we got to Santa Rosa. By the time we left SR, Dan was sick. By the time Christmas in Lodi was finished, I was sick. Fabulous.

Generally, I don't get too bent out of shape being sick. It's winter--everyone is sick! But this season, a little more is riding on our health. You see, Dan cannot have surgery if he is sick. Sick with a cold, sick with bronchitis, sick with whatever...sick means no surgery. Thus, we are mildly scrambling to get Dan better by next week. Luckily, the surgeon has prescribed heavy duty antibiotics for him and says that he should be able to still have the surgery done on the 8th. We were told to check in with the surgeon on Monday to let him know how Dan's feeling. The main problem lingering is a pesky cough. As far as problematic pre-surgery symptoms are concerned, coughs are the worst.

Accordingly, a prayer request (an urgent one) is that Dan would get over this cold/infection/virus quickly and that the surgeon would feel confident in doing Dan's surgery on schedule. So, as much as I am not looking forward to the surgery, please pray that Dan can safely have his surgery on January 8th.

Okay, so aside from sick, we are also tired. It's nice having our families close enough to see both for Christmas, but it's pretty hectic to go back and forth. After living in our little apartment in La Mirada just the two of us, being around so many people all the time can be exhausting. Dan is "peopled-out" for the moment and hiding upstairs playing Madden.
Alas, we have another few weeks before we can even THINK about going home to 14509 Rosecrans Apt A.

I suppose this isn't a very helpful blog as far as updates go, but please pray for us. We're tired. And sick. Bummer.

Surgery

So, about 2 weeks ago, Dan's oncologist called and said that she presented his case to the Stanford Tumor Board (surgeons, radiologists, oncologists, etc). Rather than wanting to do Cyberknife, the Board felt that now is a "window of opportunity" to remove all of the cancer.
That is good news in that there is a possibility of a cure! However, "removing" means surgery.

Dan and I just met with the surgical oncologist and the plans have been made for Dan to have a Whipple procedure on January 8th. Basically, that involves removing the head of the pancreas, the gallbladder, some of the stomach and some of the intestine then reattaching passageways for enzymes, bile and food. Along with the Whipple, the surgeon also wants to resect the cancer on his liver. Some of the tumors will be removed in this surgery and the rest will be removed 6 weeks later in a separate surgery.

This surgery carries with it many risks and is accompanied by complications in 50% of patients. Fortunately, Dan is young, healthy and resilient--a combination that usually makes recovery a bit easier. Dan will be in the hospital for around 10 days and then will need to lay low for a while.

At this point, we are trying to enjoy our time with family and friends. It's a blessing to be able to spend the holidays with everyone.

Please be in prayer that this surgery is the right thing to do and that it will be successful.
There are several scenarios in which the surgery would be cancelled: tumors "hiding" from the CT scans, more severe disease in the liver, etc. Pray against these complications.
Pray that the recovery period is free of complications and fairly quick.
Pray that Dan would be able to finish his teaching credential by next year and that I would be able to graduate on time.
Finally, pray that God brings us peace in this situation.
Pray for wisdom as we decide when to return to Southern California.

I will be updating this blog often during and after the surgery.
Stay tuned.

Christmas Morning #1

Dan and I celebrated Christmas morning this morning, as we won't be home until (probably) after the New Year. Though he had to drag me out of bed, it was lovely to sit by the "fire" (heater) and open presents together. I got scrubs as a reminder that I will be a nurse soon! I love how well we know each other and that our gifts reflect that knowledge.
Now, we're packing for a trip with an unknown length and praying that God brings us back home safely and healthily together. Our poor Christmas tree has to be de-decorated and taken out, as it would be a fire hazard alone in the apartment. :(
The car will be full of presents and laundry and such, ready for the long drive north. Before we get there, we have to pick his sister up at the airport and go to a memorial service for his grandma. Then, we're off! Rolling into Santa Rosa around 2 or 3am.
We will be posting quite a bit in the near future, so stay tuned.

Merry (Howen)Christmas-morning!

Christmastime is Here

As of today, Dan and I are both on Christmas break! Finals and papers are finished, and Christmas shopping has begun. As of now I am waiting for Dan to get home from shopping with Arismendi, so we can go to the nursing Christmas party. It will be the first time all of us nursing students can sit around and relax. Ahhh.

The next few days will be filled with trying to be thrifty while picking out good gifts. It's the thought that counts, right? Having such interesting and creative in-laws makes it very difficult to think of ANYTHING to get them. We'll see what we find...
For one of our presents to each other, Dan and I are going on a celebratory date to Chili's (upscale, I know) and watching It's a Wonderful Life for the first time of the season. Yay! It will be so lovely to sit and enjoy each other without thinking about homework.

We'll technically be going home on Saturday, though we won't arrive in Rosa until the wee hours of the morning. Dan's grandma's memorial service is in Pasadena...then, off we go!

Of note, Monday will be a Stanford day--one for which we would love prayer. We're meeting with a couple doctors to figure out what lays ahead as far as treatment goes. We'll give more information when we have it. Dan isn't fond of hypothesizing, so I won't do any here either :)

I love this time of year, but trust me when I say this is going to be a very crazy next few weeks.

Hoodlums

Well, over a month has passed since our last post and what a month it has been. Let's see if I can catch you up a bit.
In early November, we took a trip to Stanford for Dan to have his first CT scan in over four months. I had been rather nervous, but Dan was fairly confident since his last few scans had shown the exact same thing: no growth. Unfortunately, the scan showed some growth in the pancreatic tumor. Since the liver tumors had not changed at all, the doctor was confident that something could be done besides chemo and scheduled a PET scan to measure the metabolism activity of the growing tumor. We were obviously disappointed to hear the news, but tried to keep trucking along until we knew more. So, we went back to La Mirada to wait for a few weeks and get some homework done.
Thanks to some family friends (the Elliots), Dan and I went to Disneyland to enjoy some much needed magical fun. To the chagrin of many of our friends, we also did homework there!

Anyway, the next couple of weeks flew by with days filled with papers and tests and student teaching and precepting at the hospital and working. We just kept looking towards Thanksgiving break--a time for family and football and rest. But also time for the PET scan.
Finally, Thanksgiving break arrived and we drove up to Santa Rosa, grabbed dinner, went to sleep and then awoke dreadfully early to drive to Stanford again. The PET scan went uneventfully and back we went to Rose town to celebrate with family and friends. We had been told earlier that we wouldn't hear any results until the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.


We met up with my godson Callaghan and his mom and dad as they moved into a brilliant and huge new house. Speaking of huge, Cal is over 2 and a half feet tall now and 30 pounds...at only 17 months! I find myself so sad that I have to reintroduce myself to Cal every time we meet due to the distance between our homes. Hopefully, soon, the Faircloths and the Howens will live in closer proximity.
We spent Thanksgiving Day with my folks, enjoying time with both sets of grandparents and several aunts and uncles. The turkey was amazing, as was the Christmas music that followed Santa coming down 34th Street in the Thanksgiving Day Parade (which was so frequently interrupted by Dan's desire to watch the football games).

After a bit of shopping with Gram and Mom on Black Friday, we drove to Lodi for a genuine German dinner made by Bob and Jamie's German exhange student, Stefi. An interesting evening followed filled with examining Paco the skeleton and watching The Proposal as a family (mildly awkward? yes). Come Saturday morning, we left again for La Mirada, sad to leave our families and a place where leaves actually turn colors.

Fast forward to yesterday. I had to work and Dan had school all day, so we planned that Dan would just call whenever the doctor called. Everytime my phone rang, I jumped to hear what had happened. Instead, I had to fend off others looking for information that I had not yet received. Work kept me busy and distracted, and the day came and went without any phone call from the doctor. Dan emailed her asking for the results, and she gave none, instead asking for the best number to reach us.

Translation: Bad news.

Dr. Cho called this morning to inform us that the PET scan had revealed a great deal of activity in the pancreatic tumor. Fortunately, that tumor was the ONLY one that lit up. The liver tumors still look "treated" from the SIRspheres from a year and half ago. In other words, the liver tumors are inactive and quite possibly, dead.
Now, being completely honest, we received both good and bad news today. We must act on both: remember the good news and praise the Lord AND be anxious enough to take action on the cancer in Dan's pancreas.

At this point, Dr. Cho has contacted the Radiation Oncologist (RO) to get the "go-ahead" for a treatment called Cyberknife. It is a form of highly focused radiation that can treat tumors that are surgically unresectable. The radiation acts like a knife of sorts to "blast" the cancer cells without harming other tissues like skin or healthy pancreas. There are nearly no side effects from this out-patient procedure, which consists of a planning session and 3 to 5 one-hour sessions of the radiation. In research studies, doctors have seen excellent results with some patients having complete eradication of their tumors.

Dan and I are very hopeful that the other oncologist will begin the process for Cyberknife, which would most likely occur in late December or early January. Dan sees this as perhaps God's way of getting rid of the "hoodlums" forever (Dan's earliest term for the invaders living in his liver and pancreas). I certainly hope he is right.

For right now, Dan and I are okay. We were expecting this as a result and are anxious to get rid of the tumor that has been an unwelcome part of our family for over two years. We are enjoying a day of Christmas decorating and grocery shopping. Homework is getting done and movies are being watched. God has blessed with each other and has been faithful to protect Dan thus far. I can only pray that the biggest blessings and miracles are to come.

We appreciate your prayers and support. I promise to be better at updating everyone, especially with medical details. Now, onto to buy a Christmas tree!