An Update

Wow, hard to believe it's been over a year since I've posted. 

We did go to Hawaii in November of 2011 and had an amazing, restful time. Bobby looked really good and seemed very strong. He had gained weight and had been working out to regain muscle. We so enjoyed our time at the beach house with friends Michael and Elizabeth. It was as beautiful as always and we had several fun adventures.  Bobby and I tried stand up paddle surfing (SUPing).  SUP'ing has its origin in the Hawaiian Islands. It's become very popular in recent years and is a lot easier to learn than surfing.We both did well....no falling off the board...course we were in very calm water. Bobby did give it a try in the ocean and ended up with a wild ride onto the beach.....laughing the whole way in.

He did mention some pain in his right hip but felt that it was probably due to an old injury. 

In an effort to get caught up I'm fast forwarding to August 2012. 

Because of continued pain in a couple areas Bobby had an MRI. The results were again not what we wanted. He has several tumors. His medical team has basically told him that the first time around they gave him all they could to try to cure him but sadly that didn't happen. The plan now is really palliative care. He has started chemotherapy and will have more radiation. But rather than a focus on a cure, their focus will be more on making him comfortable . Palliative care is more about quality of life and providing comfort to people with serious, chronic, and life-threatening illnesses. While they are busy doing that, we will continue to pray for healing. And Bobby will continue to do all he can to keep his body as healthy as possible. 

We had planned a family backpacking trip to Grand Canyon in October. His doctors agreed that he should go ahead with the trip. They started him on pain patches and that along with other meds and a wildly crazy love for hiking in Grand Canyon and the joy of sharing that love with family and friends, he did well. It was an amazing trip. There were eight of us. Johanna (Bobby's fiance'), her parents, Tom & Dorthea, Johanna's sister, Katerina, his good friend Brad (aka Superman) and us. While David and I were excited to be coming out of the canyon on day 8, Bobby was sad. He knew what lay ahead and that it would be some time before he would be physically able to go again.

Chemo began on Monday, October 22nd. The miserable side affects began on Tuesday, October 23rd. Probably really began on Monday. He had decided that David and I didn't need to go to be with him at this time. He said he didn't want to disrupt our schedules. He had kind of a rough week after that first dose of chemo but was set to have another on Monday, October 29th. He had his lab work done on Sunday (has to be done before every dose of chemo) and he always gets a copy after his chemo. He said for some reason he felt it necessary to look at results before having chemo. He had met with his oncologist before he went into the chemo room and there was no concern about him having chemo that day. The lab work is done to make sure his red blood count, white blood count and especially his platelets are at an acceptable level. If the platelets are too low, excessive bleeding can occur. So when he got a look at his platelet level and saw that his had dropped 90 points in one week, he was very upset. The normal range is 150 - 400. His was at 70. Which meant he shouldn't be having a full dose of chemo. The oncology nurse had the bag in hand ready to get started. There are two levels of security in making sure this kind of thing doesn't happen. First the oncologist reads the lab work and second the oncology nurse checks it. Both of those measures had failed and it was the patient, Bobby, that checked it. We are thankful and he is thankful that he was prompted to get those lab results before starting chemo. His doctor and the nurse were horrified that they had not done their job and offered many apologies. He had half a dose and would have a two week break. Shortly after this Bobby called and asked if we could come and stay for awhile. Plans were quickly made, our church family and friends covered us in prayer and we came.

We have been in a hotel in San Rafael but will move into a tiny little cottage that Bobby found listed on Craig's list on Monday, November 26th. The cottage is spotless (can't say that about the hotel). It is one room with a really cute kitchen (and use of the Vitamix for morning smoothies). It has a large bathroom compared to the rest of the house and an outdoor shower :) We brought our chocolate lab with us. The hotel allows us to have him (the hotel isn't very picky about who can stay here) but he can't be at the cottage so he'll be staying with Bobby and Johanna and their labradoodle Scout. They live in a pretty tiny cottage as well so it's gonna get crowded.