well, let's see....what has happened

In the last week since I've blogged.........my sister-n-law Gayla Patrick had a birthday! We love her - hope her day was special. I'm sure my brother did something special (or he better had!!! LOL)

Carla has been home a week trying to adjust to being at my house and taking all the medications. It's a transition for both of us - I'm use to being on my own schedule - doing my own thing - working, etc.......it's been a little hard getting use to having someone in my house all the time that I am responsible for.....I've had to go in my room several times and pray over myself (not for any reason except that I'm selfish and I was trying to get angry). I'm a very transparent person - I say what I think - what I feel - what I don't like.........and I'm here to report that I haven't done any of the above with Carla......LOL. It's not that I don't do the caretaker part well - I've taken care of many - Paulette - my other sister went through breast cancer last year - I was with her the majority of the time through most of her chemo and her surgeries and was her driver most times - my mother-in-law just went through breast cancer as well and my father-in law just had a bout with double pneumonia and I am their driver as well - the difference is - having someone in your house all the time. Get me? I'm not in anyway complaining because I know that I'm going through this test for a reason - maybe to instill some kindness in me?? ROFL!!!!!

Carla has been taking a LOT of steroids - she has swollen up unbelievable............she has been miserable.....she had a doctor's appointment on Monday - so her friend, Pastor Brenda took her to Ben Taub at 12:00 Noon. At 3:00 - they sent her home telling her they couldn't see her........she was VERY upset!!! It's very tiring for her to get up, take a shower and get dressed. Between showering and dressing - she has to lay down for about 1 hour because her anemia is so bad - she has no energy. When she came home - she was visibly upset. Well, as you can imagine - I don't do sympathy well.....nor tears - they make me nervous! So, I called my sister's Paulette and Deniese and told them to please call her on her phone (as she was in her room with the door shut) and talk to her........lol - I need prayer - I know!!! LOL

Let me give you a brief background on why I'm like this - - I walked through my little boy being 3 months premature - born with neuroblastoma cancer - I know what it's like to be in the pit of the valley - however, I know what it's like to come out victorious and what you have to do to get there. You have to pray the word over yourself - his word doesn't return void. You have to be positive in your thinking and pull yourself up out of the gutter. If you allow your thoughts to take over - the enemy will use whatever he can to destroy you. When people would ask me how Jake was doing - even if he was losing weight (from 1 pound to a mere 10 ounces) I would always respond - he is great - God is healing him. It wasn't always easy and my flesh always wanted to take over - but I knew that God was testing me - he was seeing if I trusted him. My personality is that whatever is handed you - you handle it - you deal with it - you walk through it - you don't feel sorry for yourself. It's just the way I am and it's hard for me not to understand why other's aren't like me....see - now you know why I need prayer!!! LOL

Ok - back to Carla - so, she recovered from that disappointment and went back to the doctor with my father (thank you Dad for being able to help with the appointments - it's hard when I have to get Jake from school) on Wednesday and was able to see the doctor. Good news is that they took her off of 2 of her steroids - which is helping her tremendously - bad news is that she has some foreign protein in her blood and they need to do a cat scan/bone scan and potentially a bone marrow test to determine if Lymphoma is in her body...........now, this is a big scare for Carla who is a baby and will tell you that herself!!! The C word has hit our family from our Mother, who passed away in 83 to my step sister's father in '82 (I think that was the year) - and my sister last year - so we are not strangers to this.......however, when you are hit with it yourself - I can only imagine....she came home very discouraged. I was at church - and I thought - ok this is it!!!! I'm done with this. I came home and told her the pity party was over - I was tired of tip toeing around her and I was about to lay down the law. As of that day - she was not to complain about her medication - she was to thank god everytime she took it that it was helping her to recover. I told her that all the stuff she preached to me about walking in faith and praying the word over myself and Jake when he was diagnosed with Cancer needed to come out of her mouth - that she needed to practice what she preached. I didn't want to hear any more complaining - I wanted to hear positive things. I told her when people call her - she needs to tell them she is good - that she is waiting on her healing...(I should preach or something!!!! LOL). Anyway - she went went to bed that night and when she woke up - she was like a total different person!!!!!!! I think she realized that she was allowing her self to slowly sink into this big hole of self pity and why me.....I mean - why not her? Jesus didn't say there wouldn't be suffering on this earth - look what he suffered! But, he did tell us that he would be with us during our trials and that he is still a healer!!! I know that God is in control of this situation and this is Carla's trial to walk and she will come through this victorious!!!!!

She has two appointments next week - her cat scan and her bone scan....that is Wednesday the 9th. The next Monday and Wednesday she has two more appointments and they should have the results of the scan by then and will determine if the actual bone marrow extraction needs to be done. Please keep praying that she will continue to be uplifted in her moods and her mind will not wonder in the pit.....I know it's hard - but I just keeping making jokes and keeping the mood light and when I see her slipping - I'll say something funny or remind her of the alternative and that always makes her smile.

I will keep you guys posted on her and let you know each step.......she is able to eat a regular diet - she doesn't eat much because her liver and spleen are very swollen and her stomach is kind of hidden in between - which is uncomfortable - but she is making progress.

My husband is a trooper - he is helping when I can't be here and taking care of Jake at night for me as much as Jake will allow (LOL) - Jake is a mommies baby!!!

Jake is doing well in school - he loves his teacher. Right now - until we have our follow up ARD in two weeks - he is doing 1 3o minute session of occupational therapy on Monday's - two sessions of speech on Tuesday and Thursday and everyday - he gets pulled out for 30 minutes for one on one work (Karen B - I'm working on classroom inclusion!). We hope in our meeting - we will get a few more services as the Neuropsychologist (spelling is probably not right!) recommended a more intense speech and OT schedule....so we will see. If not - we'll have to look at private to balance it out.

I hope that everyone has a blessed Labor Day. I always have good intentions of updating daily - but I'm doing good to do weekly with my household the way it is - but all is good!!!

Love to all
Karen