Post Thanksgiving 2011 plans

Well, the holiday is ending. Trey and family head back to Belgium Monday (tomorrow). Tuesday Deb resumes her chemo. We head back to Arkansas on the week of Dec 13th.

Thanksgiving and beyond!

Thanksgiving with Vern's parents and Deb's Mom

Deb savors her meal

Deb helps in the kitchen

Deb's mom Doris helps in the kitchen

Eliana's meal

Katka and Evelyn

Vern's parents

Joyce Darley and two great grand daughters

Brothers Trey and Stephen 

Weds before Thanksgiving

Yesterday, Trey, Katka, Evelyn, Deb, and Vern took a short flight in Gracie. Weds morning, Vern picked up Doris, Deb's mom in Warner Robins. With the whole family together, we grilled steaks. It's so rare and so good to be around the same table once more.

Thanksgiving means Family Time for the Blessed

Deb is continuing to improve but still needs lots of nap time and low levels of activities. She has perked up a bit since Saturday when Trey, Katka, and Evelyn arrived from Belgium and Stephen, Amanda, Jon, Eliana, Deb, and Vern were all together in one place! What a blessing!

Trey's family is spending ten days in the US and we are getting to know little Evelyn. She and Eliana got to play together for several hours and plan on having Turkey together this Thursday at our Thanksgiving dinner.

Here are some shots. Expect many more as this is some of the best medicine Deb has had! Grandparents...you understand!

Nov update

Deb's quality of life is so much better after getting off the heavy painkillers she had been on. Deb began twice weekly physical therapy several weeks ago and that has been a blessing. She still does not have the energy levels and endurance to go out much. Saturday morning we had planned to go out for breakfast but she did not feel good enough. So, she spends most of her time in the sunroom with dogs Oscar and Annie. Hundreds of iPad solitaire games!

Weekly chemo continues. Most weeks friends take her.

Eliana and father Jon visit the zebra that Jon was using in a film he is shooting. Not everyday you get to do that!

Trey, Katka, and Evelyn are scheduled to fly in from Belgium on the 19th of December. We hope to have a true family Thanksgiving.

We head back to Little Rock on Dec 19th or thereabouts.

Blessings all!

Finally : a feel-good day!

Feel-good days have been scarce lately! Yesterday was beautiful and Deb felt great!

An evening out

Deb hasn't had many evenings out in several years. She invited Vern out Saturday evening to celebrate his 29th birthday...again. Supper was at Mary Mac's restaurant, then watching Celtic Thunder at the Fox theater.

What we didn't know was that first cousins Silva and Daria and husbands had the exact same idea and sense of timing! They all had a family encounter in the lobby of Mary Macs!

Must be genetic!

Granddaughters

Evelyn plays with 'Garfield' the Belgium cat.

  Eliana models her new tutu for you-you

Normal Life Returning

Each week Deb seems to return more and more like she was before the cancer. Fatigue is ever present and Deb is still only good for one event per day with lots of rest in between. Her sense of humor is sharper than ever and her wit keeps us both laughing.

Treatment-wise, Deb had enough break in her chemo to finally get to go to the dentist and get a filling. No more tooth pain! In a few weeks she begins a new and different chemo.

Trey, Katka, and Evelyn will be visiting from Europe in Nov. We can't wait to see them!

Next trip to Arkansas is in mid-Dec.

Home!

Little Rock was solid fog thick enough to walk on this morning! Fortunately, it improved and we were able to depart IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) and fly in weather most of the way back to Peachtree City. Over Mississippi we had a clear spell, then back into the clouds.

Here are a few pix of my passenger and several barges on the big river!

After we got home, Deb wanted a bowl of chili and a grilled cheeses sandwich from her favorite little food shop.

Friday morning-still in Arkansas

Our 2 pm Thursday appointment was planned so that we could be loaded and off to Georgia by 4 pm. What's that about plans of mice and men?

We had a good visit with classmates Pat and Patty. 

We stayed at the doctor's until after 6 pm. Bottom line: we got a good report! PTL! So, back in another 3 months.

Dr Nair changed some of the chemo to improve Deb's daily life. Of course, new meds come with their own issues.

So, we are waiting here for the fog to lift before starting home in Gracie. As usual, you can follow our flight home at www.flightaware.com   , enter N353RV

Adventures of the Day

Last night I treated Deb to a good supper at her favorite Brazilian restaurant. While we were dining, a couple was walking down the sidewalk. They stopped just outside our table and were checking out the restaurant. I gave them a big thumbs up and they laughed and came in. They were seated next to us and thanked us for our recommendation. We chatted and found out that Bev and Larry owned an insurance agency in St. Louis. They come to Little Rock each year for an insurance gathering. Deb shared that she wanted to do breakfast at a certain restaurant across town that was noted for healthy food. Then we said our good byes.

Fast forward to this morning. We used Mr Google to locate the restaurant and drove the rental car over there. When we walked in, there was Bev and Larry seated there. We joined them and shared  our lives with one another. Turns out they are believers and Bev is involved in a ministry to provide dresses to Central American girls. Apparently the sex trade seeks out poorly dressed young girls and forces them into the sex trades. Better dressed girls are not bothered because it appears that 'someone cares for them' and there might be consequences if they were bothered.
see    http://dressagirlaroundtheworld.com/    

The unsolved issue for their national group is getting the dresses from the volunteer sewing ladies around the USA to the missionaries who oversee the distribution in the countries. When Bev talked about this issue, I immediately thought of my airline pilot friends who frequent those countries and I put Bev in touch with one who might could take an extra  suitcase on each trip down there.

Then we talked about clothing for infants. The restaurant was very close to a clothe and sewing shop. We had met the owner of the store because she is a volunteer at the bone marrow clinic and has helped Deb many times when we have been here. The store owner has a ministry of making beautiful smocked gowns for infants stillborn or who die at the hospital. She has a group of ladies who help make the gowns.

So, we had Bev and Larry follow us to the store where the owner was introduced. She was eager to get involved in the project to clothe the Central American girls. She donated a dress on the spot. Afterwards, we exchanged contact info with Larry and Bev and said our good byes.

I talked to Larry and Bev about how God weaves a believer's life into a tapestry. He sees the finished side: we see the backside here on earth. Someday we will see what he sees!

Back before we left the restaurant, we met Nancy the owner. She is a recovered drug addict from Chicago. She hires and trains workers who are not employable otherwise. Her recipes and ingredients are very healthy and our cancer clinic has started referring patients to the restaurant. She gave us several samples  of her cooking. Very different and good! We hope to go back tonight for supper.

She actually owns two side-by-side restaurants. Tonight is Lilly's.
Their website is:  www.lillysdimsum.com
Nancy Agreed to make the Dress the Girls ministry the benefactor for her monthly fund raiser. Wow!

Needless to say, we had a God-ordained day! WOW!

Tuesday Tests!

Started at 5:30 am and ended about 5 pm. Long day! We bumped into a number of classmates all day long. There were delays in some of the labs. The bone marrow folks were short two complete crews due to training, vacations, etc. That meant that the same number of procedures had to happen. So, instead of one procedure every :45 mins, each team had to perform two procedures.

Our classmate Israel was here with his daughter Leah. He was glad to see us.

The nurse who drew Deb's labs every day last year while we were here saw us in the hospital hallway and we had a reunion.

After  the long hard day, Deb was comforted by a nice meal at her favorite Brazilian restaurant.

Debate ongoing

The moving of multiple myeloma from 'incurable' to 'curable' is our prayer! UAMS is taking the leadership in making this move. Deb is part of the group whose long-term survival can provide the data to make the move.

Dr. Barlogie from UAMS is debating the data with an MD from the Mayo clinic. Unfortunately we will not be here for the event.

That's why we are doing what we are doing: intense and prolonged treatment. Who else have you heard of who is in remission and taking three more years of weekly chemo? That's what it will take to defeat this killer cancer.

Back in Little Rock for Checkup

Deb and I left Ptc in Gracie about noon Monday. Our delay was caused by a weather system blocking our path. We timed our flight to have a narrow path available between the large storms. We had a great flight even  tho we flew in moderate to heavy rain at times. Gracie arrived clean! Free plane wash!

After stopping at the fuel pit to refuel Gracie, the line boy saw us and came over to help. He said the limo driver Calvin who had helped us so much last year had been at the airport yesterday and they had talked about how good Deb is doing.

We picked up our rental car and headed to the Markham House where we were warmly greeted by the staff. Then we went to chow down. Deb's first appointment is at 6 am Tuesday. We leave the Markham House at 05:30am. The owner is driving us to the hospital. Great service, huh?

Being back here is a bittersweet experience. We have some horrible memories from last year being offset by the miracles we experienced. Miracles win!

The last few weeks...

. . . . have been pretty much the same day after day. Deb has continued to suffer withdrawal symptoms from her ending her strong pain killers. She worked so hard to accomplish this. Her Dr's and nurses are surprised that she was able to do it so soon. However, she's basically spent the last month housebound with a few short trips out in the community.

Monday we head out for Little Rock. We don't expect any surprises but will certainly be glad when we get our report actually saying that!

Weekly chemo in our local hospital continue for another 2.5 years.

So, follow us on www.flightaware.com N353RV

Vern

Grand daughters at the Beach(s)-Florida and France

 Eliana near Tampa, Florida with Amanda

 Picking Berries in the Czech Republic where Evelyn's other grandmother lives

 Calais, France