holiday was great...

we are now back in harrisburg...tim, meg and i all are working on friday so our nice little christmas break is about to end. friday afternoon tim is taking ashley and kelsey to an indoor soccer tournament in east petersburg (which i guess is close to lancaster). i will catch up with them later on in the day.

tim has his MRI scheduled for saturday morning. i think his tumor has shrunk some more but it is still there...it was giving him a little grief this morning. we will be glad when we finally figure out what we are dealing with in that arm...we see the surgeon on thursday (the 3rd) and then off to the oncologist on the 7th. we hate the waiting...

i have to work on friday, saturday, sunday and tuesday so we really don't have any major new years eve plans yet. the kids are going to an all-nighter at the church...i am way too old for those events anymore. chances are that i will be in bed by 11pm that night. tim may have to watch that ball drop on his own that night...we will have to wait and see.

christmas in berwick was very nice...lots of family and lots of food. very relaxing.

gotta get going...the washer is calling me.

thanks for checking in...

tim and tammy

christmas blog...

this will be my last blog entry before christmas. tim and i both work on monday and we are heading to berwick on tuesday for a couple of days. we "almost" have our shopping done...i figure it wouldn't be fun if we didn't have to go out in the last final moments to shop.

this was a year that we had to cut back on the amount of gift giving a bit and the kids have seemed fine with that concept. (very fine infact...they are growing up so fast) tim is still pouting because i refused to spend the money or the time on the usual 180-200 christmas cards we used to send out...but i just didn't have to "umph" to do it this year. (he may never grow up)

as usual we find ourselves looking back at the past and examining the present and find that we are STILL SO BLESSED>>> everytime we step around a corner there seems to be someone there just waiting to bless our family...kinda bizarre. the other day a "secret santa" blessed our family while we were out and my father-in-law was with us...it brought tears to his eyes!!! while holding back his tears he told us that he hopes that someday he would be able to bless someone else the way he was blessed that day. then tim called me a couple of days later to tell me that someone else had blessed our family and he couldn't wait to get home to tell me...he had to call me right away...GOD IS GOOD!!

we are surrounded by such LOVE and SUPPORT and FRIENDSHIP...thank you.

tim is getting through this holiday season feeling pretty decent...the steroids have started to show a slight improvement in his swallowing and he has been able to cut back a bit on his pain meds. he is struggling a bit with the side effects of the steroids but i guess to get one thing fixed you often have to mess with something else. the tumor in his arm has shrunk a bit and is causing him no pain right now...so we enter into this holiday week doing "OK".

he has an MRI scheduled for this saturday, dec 29th and that is to check on the arm tumor. we then have a follow up with the surgeon on jan 3rd and back to oncologist on jan 7th. keep praying that the arm tumor is not malignant. the fact that it is shrinking is making everyone think that it is the lymphoma but until they know for sure we can still pray for a miracle that it be gone!!!

well it is 4am and i am just roaming around the house...looking forward to going to church in a few hours...meg is singing in the morning service...we are so proud of her and all that she is. with all her school work and her job and her 5 or 6 clubs she is in...she still takes the time to help out in a sunday school class and take nursery duty and sing solo's in church...she is a good kid.

well...i wanted to dress this blog up a bit and add a tree or a wreath but i don't think i can...the kids (my computer support) are all asleep and i probably shouldn't wake them for that.

hope you all have a blessed holiday season. remember the reason for the season and don't sweat the small stuff!!!

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

we still wait...

this time we are waiting for an MRI to be scheduled.

we saw the surgeon on tuesday and he looked at tims arm and saw the mass and ordered an X-ray and then looked at tims arm and saw the mass and ordered an MRI.

we are now waiting to be scheduled for an MRI and then we will go back to the surgeon so he can look at tims arm some more. can you sense my frustration!?!?!?

tim is still on the high dose steroids and "thinks" he may be seeing some improvement in his throat/esophagus but he still needs the morphine to be able to eat. i told him that he is acting like a woman going though "the change". he is HOT and cold and has mood swings and is hungry all the time...welcome to our world!!!

we don't see the oncologist again until jan 7th so hopefully all this arm "stuff" will be able to be taken care of by then. since he has been on the steroids the tumor has shrunk...this may be good but probably is bad...we were not aware until recently but i guess it is VERY COMMON for lymphoma tumors to shrink when hit with high dose steroids....but we will have to wait and see.

as always when we hear anything we will pass the info along...gotta go start my christmas shopping.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

what an ice storm...

well...we survived the weekend and all the ice and all the freezing rain and so far...our power is still on and our trees are still standing. (not everyone was so lucky).

tim is feeling the effects of the high dose steroids but so far he hasn't hurt anyone...we go to see the orthopedic (?) surgeon on tuesday morning to see if they can remove the tumor in his arm or just biopsy it.

fred is still down with us...and doing well. the guys watched a lot of high school football this weekend and even got to see the dolphins win today.

we will update as we hear anything.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

better than we expected...

...we think!!

so far the esophagus brushing showed no malignancy. (we were not expecting them to be positive but it was nice to hear that they were negative). we don't think the regular biopsies are back yet.

we are "finally" aggressively treating the esophagus pain with morphine and anti-viral and anti-fungal and heavy duty steroids...yes, tim is going back on the dreaded prednisone. 100mg a day.

the nodes that were found under his arm last week (i am not sure that i had mentioned that) have shrunk...so the doctor thought they may have just been an inflammation and not a node ?

the lump on his arm is still an issue...we decided to biopsy BEFORE we jump into the chemo...we are going to consult an orthopedic surgeon (do you believe that tim doesn't have one of those yet) and see if he can either totally REMOVE the tumor or at least biopsy the tumor and see if it is the lymphoma.

we have no idea yet when we will be able to get the arm looked at...but if all stays as planned we do not see the oncologist again until after the new year...THAT IS WHAT WE WERE HOPING FOR...a chemo-free holiday!!!

thanks for all your thoughts and prayers...especially this last week or so. we still have a rocky road ahead but tim felt a little better coming out of the doctors office tonight. he said he got his two wishes...no cancer of the esophagus and no chemo before christmas. (some wish for their two front teeth...he just wants to keep his hair).

tims dad is coming down to spend a few days in this crazy house...this should be an experience. he is used to having a bathroom all to himself and now he will have to share one with tim and 4 women!!! wish him luck.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

we don't know much...

...but i guess you are all waiting to hear "something" so i will tell you what we do know.

the endoscopy went off without a hitch...unfortunately they were unable to stretch the esophagus because it was such a "blistery mess" in there and they were afraid that it would rupture. they did not find any obvious tumors on the ultrasound but they did take multiple biopsies.

the doctor that did the endoscopy is the department head and has been doing this for 25 years...he told us that his "best guess" is that tim has something called "pemphigus". in his 25 years of doing scopes he has only seen it 4-5 times. (does that really surprise anyone??)

what is pemphigus?? it is an autoimmune issue that is occasionally found in some cancer patients. we will not be certain that this is what we are dealing with until the biopsies come back (probably on friday) but if it is they will most likely treat with steroids...tims favorite.

in addition to the esophagus being all messed up tim is dealing with another problem...the tumor on his left arm has decided to pay him a visit again. when he had the relapse a few months back he was growing tumors in his chest and on his arm...the chemo shrunk them and they went away but it looks like we are going to have to address this one more time. we see the oncologist on wednesday late afternoon and we are going to hash all this mess out...but for tonight...we make christmas cookies!!!!! tim is a cookie making machine tonight.

i wish there was some good news to tell...it might not be all bad...we will just have to wait and see what the boss says tomorrow.

we will be in touch...good or bad.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

big week ahead...

nothing to eat or drink after midnight tonight so they can do an endoscopy with ultrasound in the morning. we have to be there at 8am for a 9am procedure. hopefully they will be able to stretch the esophagus and give tim some relief when he eats. they are to take deeper biopsies and check for masses with the ultrasound.

this is going to be a HUGE week for us...within the last few days tim has developed some new symptoms that are swaying the doctors towards thinking possible RELAPSE...we are hoping and praying that all the tests this week turn up nothing cancerous. please take a moment and pray that we don't have to spend this christmas season back in the hospital. we are not expecting to know anything until wednesday late afternoon (at the earliest) and we will let everyone know when we know. until then please keep the whole family in your prayers. this roller coaster is getting harder and harder to ride and we need your prayers. it could be something easy to fix...lets all hope for that to be true.

kelsey made us put up our tree tonight...it was actually good for us i guess. we are not feeling very festive but she kept insisting that we needed to put up the tree. trying to keep things as normal as possible...that is our motto.

thanks for checking in...

tim and tammy

2 hour delays...

why don't work places have a two hour delay??? well...i know why MY workplace doesn't have a delay..."excuse me sir...you will have to wait and come back later with that chest pain we are on a delay this morning..." but other places could have a delay and then the roads wouldn't be so crappy in the morning.

well...one oncology appointment down and one endoscopy to go. i must admit this wasn't one of our better oncology appointments. i guess that our lives will be filled with wonder over every little ache and pain and every little bump and bruise. i will update more on our appointment a bit later...but we are still on schedule for the scope/ultrasound/biopsies on monday.

the grown-ups in this house have to get ready for work. have a great day and drive safe.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

here we go...

the winds are whipping and the temperatures are dropping and tim is talking about florida each and everyday...i am not sure if he just wants to go down to get warm or what but it is everyday. i think one day he may just get in the car and keep driving south!!!

nothing new to report...throat and esophagus are still very sore and our appts are still oncology this week and scope next week. we will update when we know anything.

thanks for checking in.

stay warm.

tim and tammy