Wednesday, July 20, 2011

a good long day or a long good day

Today we traveled to Baltimore.  Now you must know Gene fairly well to understand as funny this comment.....Change is very very bad.  He really likes things to pretty much stay the same from day to day and being home is best.  I have managed to uproot him every once in a while for an adventure but an adventure into .....cities........[chiver].... are very very very bad.  And he is not joking.  His anxiety rises as the cars increase and the people move about and the buildings close you in...he really was made to be a horse rancher!

So two times in 6 days of being transported to Baltimore to a hospital setting where you are the center of attention you NEVER desired is tough on him!  Not particularly easy for me, but as he says, "you ask questions soooo well, honey.  You can figure out what to ask and you just keep asking until we get where we are supposed to be."  Let's see, those questions are this type.  Where is L-2?  Is that the same as LL-2?  Is there a bathroom in this building?  Where is it.....quickly now!  Where are we supposed to be next?  Will you help me, please?  But they are incapacitating to him. [Really he CAN do it but REALLY REALLY he hates too!]

Today's thankfuls......[we called it the PollyAnna glad game coming home in the car!--really it is the same as the thankfuls for today.]

#1 We got there and back safely without any major traffic jams.  [There were people praying about that.]

#2 We found each place we needed to find including those bathrooms and the cafeteria at the right times.

#3 We met the radiation oncologist and the neurosurgeon [this one only in the two minutes he was in the department before he was called back to the OR]...so had the timing been any different, we would have missed him completely.

#4 Each person listened to both of us!!!!!!!! and offered us extra time to ask any more questions

#5 They were able to fit us onto today's schedule for 3 critical tests thereby making it so we did not have to return to Baltimore day after tomorrow!

#6 The nurse who guided us through much of the day acted as though she was there exclusively for the Adkins family. [We know that isn't true, but that is how we felt and it makes a really BIG difference]

#7 Gene was offered a new medicine to make the tests less of an anxiety, he accepted it and it really worked!

This will all result in the treatment from the radiation side being done August 1-5 for about 1 hour a day.  It is a specialty radiation treatment that has a fancy name but it works to target the specific tumor with a gattling gun effect!  We will stay in Baltimore at a health hostel across the street.  We have to pay of course but at $60 a night is is less than other hotels and it has a kitchenette so we can bring at least some of our own food.

Here is tonight's two fold prayer need :

If the MRI has changed between the one done on the 5th of July and the one done today we will have to consider changes in treatment and that is difficult to face.

We are hopeful that chemo can be started soon rather than later as the emotional toil of knowing since June 27th that metastases are growing in your body and as of July 20th prayer is the only weapon being applied  [please do not get me wrong...we know the power of prayer] and still know that nothing medically will BE done for another two weeks is TAXING emotionally.  So if it can be done we would like to see it begun sooner rather than later just because "that's the way we usually do it"  Wisdom for the medical community --same prayer as from the beginning!

I am thankful.....every ....day and really really really glad to be capable of ministering to my sweetheart.

5 comments:

Jean said...

Thank you Joanie...

Kristine Meier-Skiff said...

I have to say that you are an inspiration to me in the way you are handling this. I know only a small portion of the emotional price tag that this ordeal carries having gone through it with Nina and several friends. Please know that you, Gene and the rest of your family are in my prayers daily.-Kristine

Billy and Sharon said...

Joanie you are sure a good Helpmate..what a blessin you are able to drive for Gene in the traffic,,,I know exactly how he feels, I get the same Jitters in that stuff...i woud get run over..i would love to come see ya,ll but i,m afraid of heights the older i get so no airplanes for me and i sure could,nt drive and handle the traffic..ugh..but we are praying for ya,ll..that ole Gene is kinda special to me, but he ain,t much of a rummy player..lol..take good care of him..bye..billy

Pat said...

I read all of your sweet and candid posts. You and Gene and your entire family are in our prayers. Thank you for sharing with us the trials and special moments that you are experiencing at this time. With love in Yeshua,

Pat McAllister

P.S. You've inspired me to start my own blog site.

Istillbelieve said...

Why is it when you hear something awful like cancer, pretty soon you hear it alot? Just today Jamie was working for this wonderful man of God Eric Silver whom we met about 4 years ago, and since we have meet him we have noticed that:
A. He has dealt with cancer the entire time we've known him
B. His walk with God seems surer and more firm than ever.

I sometimes think about those who have anguish and then see through the anguish to something really beautiful. I know only God who can take the ugly and make it transformative.
Like you and Gene, Joanie transforming this blog of such sadness into something more beautful.
We are out here in cyber space not close by but breathing the same prayers and believing in the same goodness.
love is surrounding you. It is so good to watch.