Hey, Everyone! :) Shay here, since my sweet Momma is busy as a bee taking care of everyone! (Also, she kinda sucks at updating this. ;) Jk Momma! I love you!) She is a neat lady! Not only was I blessed with a flippin amazing Grandma, but a Mom as well! Grandpa, too. MY FAMILY IS GREAT! Anyway, because Grandma is so stinking great, she is H. O. M. E. from the hospital. Basically, she's the strongest person ever. She was out just short of 3 weeks! She is so happy to be home! We're all happy as well, there is really no place like home! Her eating habits have been the most worrisome throughout her chemotherapy. It's been a tough road for Grandma, her appetite is to a minimum and all of the medication has her tummy in knots always. It's hard for her to keep food down and everything she does eat is small and very soft on her tummy. Luckily, we've found some decent things that she's been able to eat pretty swell. Thank you, Top Ramen! :) The poor lady had a check-up today, they had to take blood out of her, (probably enough to feed a vampire.) She laughed, you should laugh, you're welcome. :) Everything went well, besides her being light-headed, but she was rewarded with a Coke. Was she able to drink it all? No, but every day we see a little more progress and are just looking forward to the day, when it's basically back to her old self. Dark chocolate eating self! A few more days of 24 hour care and T.L.C, Grandma will be able to be out and about in 2 or 3 months. She looks so beautiful and we love having her home. She's just as positive as ever and is ready to be up and better already. :) We are so grateful for her and her healing process, that the Lord has blessed us with. (Doctor's too! They have been great.) We just can't wait for everything to fall in to place and get her 110%! We just want to take a minute, to thank all of you for the support our entire family has received, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. The blessings that we've been blessed with have been phenomenal and we're so grateful for the ward, the friends, and those who have supported us through this trial. We thank our Father in Heaven every day for you and everything that you have helped us with. Heavenly Father really speaks to us through each other. We thank you so very much and we love you. BTW Angie World: Her other favorite granddaughter, Nikki, says hello. We'll keep you posted more often! Thanks for checking up on Grandma. Your warm thoughts, prayers, and comments are always and very much appreciated. (I love Grandma most. :) ) Love, Shaylyn and the Fam. :)

Hi Everyone, Mom was admitted on Tuesday & had her high dose of chemo Tuesday & Wednesday. So far she's only been a little nauseous. She finally had her stem cells replaced today after having it delayed because her kidneys were struggling with all that was being done. Thank you so much for all your prayers, service, care and concern for my mom. We are so grateful! Love, Cresta

Hi Everyone, So Mom was scheduled to be admitted for her stem cell transplant today. Unfortunately she received a phone call yesterday. They had found something concerning on her lung xray. So instead of being admitted to BMT center she spent the morning at the hospital getting a CT scan of her lungs and additional bloodwork. The good news is the test results came and it was only a cracked rib. She now has been rescheduled to be admitted to the BMT on Tues (next week). They promised her this was the last delay! It has been very difficult for mom to try and psych herself up for this difficult process and then have it put off again & again. However through all of this she's has continued to be sweet, positive and more concerned about others than herself! I love you Mom! Love, Cresta

Hi Everyone, Well it's been a long time posting. I feel bad for that, but it's been quite a good time for mom. She was able to complete the first phase of her cancer fight, the initial chemo treatments and got her count down to 1.2! She then received a much needed break from chemotherapy as they got her geared up and ready for her second phase. This last week and a half she has now been working on her second phase. First, she received a series of shots to help her body shed stem cells into her bloodstream. Then she had her port removed and had a central line installed (this is where they will retrieve cells from and transplant them back in after the chemo treatments). She had her first stem cell retrieval yesterday morning. It was a huge success, they were able to obtain half of the required 10 million stem cells. However, it also took a huge toll on her body and yesterday afternoon she became very disoriented and confused and lethargic. We had to rush her back to the hospital where they filled her with fluids and potassium and magnesium and finally she got to go home about 11pm last night. She then had to be right back at the hospital bright and early this morning for another retrieval session. This time they decided to not push her body as hard and took about 1/3 the amount yesterday. Unfortunately, we got a call back and they weren't able to retrieve as many stem cells as they had hoped, so she needs to make another trip back up to the hospital to receive another shot. Poor mom! She is such a trooper through all of this. She has kept her sense of humor and is so pleasant and sweet with us and the doctors and nurses. I am continually amazed at what a wonderful woman she is and her example to me. I love you, Mom! Love, Cresta

Hi Everyone, Mom's finished her second round of chemo treatment this week early this morning and so far, she has been feeling pretty good. They've started giving her some anti-nausea meds right into her port before the chemo, so we are all hoping that this works well for her. Mom is such a trooper! Through all of this her attitude and sweet, upbeat personality has continually amazed me and I am SO proud of her. Her doctors are now looking to prepare her for her second phase of the myeloma treatment which will include a higher dose of chemo and then a bone marrow transplant. Please keep her in your prayers! Mom and all of our family SO appreciate all of you who continually pray for her, help her, encourage her and everything else you have done for her and our family. We are so grateful to be surrounded by such amazing people! Thank you!! Love, Cresta

Hi Everyone, I am SO sorry for not updating this blog. Between helping with Mom & Bud, my own family needs and my work piling on enough projects for 5 people, I've been a bit swamped, but that's NO excuse for leaving you all in the dark! I will try to at least update this weekly for those that want to know how mom is doing. So, a couple of weeks ago, I took her in for chemo, but her tests came back with poor liver function (this was the second time her liver function had gone down). So they made her skip a week of chemo. This actually worked out great for mom because she felt the best she's felt since June! Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and last week her liver was improving so they gave her chemo on Monday. She was SO nervous about it and was pleasantly surprised when she actually felt quite good all week. She had a second dose of chemo on Friday which was much harder on her. She was feeling pretty sick Saturday and Sunday. I have some good news to report, though. She has said that she's feeling much better today. :) I am SO happy to hear that. Love you! Cresta

Hi Everyone, Mom's a real trooper. She is on a difficult regime of chemo, day 1, day 4, day 8, day 12 and then a 10 day break and then it starts all over again. She has to keep that up for the next six months. Unfortunately the chemo makes her very sick for about 2 days and then she feels pretty good and can keep a little food down for a couple of days before the chemo starts again. The good news is that her kidneys continue to get better and she is in a lot less pain now. She is SO appreciative of all the love and support she is being shown. Thank you for all your love you are showing her! :) Love, Cresta

Well the Kyphoplasty procedure was not the complete success we had hoped for, although the pain has been reduced, it is still substantial and makes it difficult for Angie to move around. Another reason for the persistence of the pain is Angie has correctly diagnosed much of her nausea has been from the pain medication that has been prescribed for her. She stopped taking anything for pain Friday evening and has had the nausea virtually go away, in fact, she has been able to eat fairly normal meals Friday night, all day Saturday and today (and even a few snacks in between) and held them all down successfully!


A wonderful, longtime friend and neighbor, who is a physical therapist by profession, came to the house today and hooked Angie up to a machine that is made to help relieve pain caused by compression fractures using electrical impulses sent into her back. She has found this to be effective for her and my friend was kind enough to leave it for her to use for awhile. We are hoping she can get some lasting relief for her back from this  device.
My sweet, very active and vivacious wife is finding if difficult to adjust to the fact that right now an hour's worth of even simple activity requires 2 to 3 hours of recovery time before she can do more. Last night, having seen enough of her bedroom walls for a while, wanted to go somewhere so we traveled to a furniture store where I pushed her in a wheel chair and we picked out a dresser for our bedroom. We returned home and she immediately fell asleep and to a two and half hour nap. It is frustrating for her to still have the same desires to do things and not have her body up to the task. 
We both feel greatly blessed to have her feeling better. We know for her to gain more energy and strength back she needs to be able to eat and retain more substantial meals and so far this week end has been a victory for her in this regard.
We again express are love and appreciation for all of your help and concern and especially for your prayers. The blessings from these prayers have benefited us both and offer us comfort and strength beyond our own.

I have been leaving the blog updates to my beautiful and very capable daughter, but I actually didn't mean to go this long without letting you know how things are going from my perspective. Angie has been so happy to be home and her countenance has already brightened this house substantially. This makes me realize what an empty place our abode becomes without her presence.

She continues to struggle with two main obstacles to beginning  to feel better. One is she still is very nauseous and finds it difficult to keep down what she eats which also complicates her receiving proper doses of medications that could help reduce her nausea. The second is the extreme pain she is in. This originates mainly from the compression fracture in her T8 vertebra which we have known about since her CT scans she had a couple of weeks ago. She should be receiving treatment today that will reduce this pain substantially and we are both very excited to have this done. The procedure is call kyphoplasty which is truly a modern miracle. They use two needles that from their appearance closely resemble the one used to obtain a bone marrow biopsy on her back on the 29th of June. These needles are inserted in both sides of the vertebra and a balloon is inflated to lift the compressed vertebra back into proper position and height.The a cavity is created where the balloon was and this cavity is then filled with a cement which cures before they let you off the table and dries harder than natural bone. They tell us the relief from pain is immediate and she should need almost zero recovery time. The vascular surgeon told us that if her pain is not substantially reduced their might be other vertebrae involved which would require another MRI to reveal, and additional Kyphoplaties to complete the repair. We will let you know the results and how Angie's back is healing as this process unfolds.

From a self serving point of view there is another reason it has been good to have Angie home. This has allowed me to provide care for her and the home she loves and it has been very therapeutic for me. It is difficult to see the love of your life suffer and not be able to do anything. It has been wonderful for me to be involved personally in her recovery process. With the severe back pain she has been suffering from it is very difficult for her to get out of bed without the assistance of someone to ease her into first a sitting position, and  then help her down to the floor. We have found, if she puts her arms around the persons neck and he supports her back with his hands, the job can be accomplished without much pain to her. I love doing this particular task for her because she always rewards me with a warm hug and a tender kiss, two of the real motivating factors for me in our almost 42 years of marriage ;)

Well they just took her in to radiology for the Kyphoplasty proceedure, I'll let you all know how it goes,


....more to come

Hi Everyone, It's been a busy few days since I last posted. Mom has been home, unfortunately not resting very comfortably. She has been in quite a bit of pain since she came home. She can't understand why she's in more pain now than when she was in the hospital. Dad took mom to see a pain specialist yesterday, who prescribed her some different medication and so she seemed to get some relief last night. This morning mom is going to have a procedure done where they inject cement into her spine where the vertebrae is broken. This should heal her spine and help with the pain in her back. I will keep you updated on how the procedure goes. Thank you for all your love and support. Mom loves hearing from everyone! Love, Cresta

Hi Everyone, Well thank you for all your prayers. Today IS the day! Mom is finally going to be released. She is so excited she can hardly contain herself. Her port install went very well, so she's officially joined the 'Iron Man' club ;). She also got some nifty accessories to go along with her membership, including a matching bracelet, id card and a keychain! Who knew? ;) Mom is resting comfortably for a couple of hours while they watch her vital signs, but should be 'over the wall' and back at home soon. I'll keep you updated on her progress. Thank you for all your love and support. Mom has really enjoyed reading all of your comments. She is so grateful for all of you. And we are too! Love, Cresta

Hi Everyone, Mom's made some good improvements the last 2 days. She's been having a bit of nausea, but has been gaining strength and isn't nearly as tired as she has been. She's been a bit discouraged that her doctors keep telling her day after day that maybe she can be released 'tomorrow' but as she says 'tomorrow never comes'. However, we REALLY think tomorrow is the day! They have removed her dialysis catheter and she is scheduled to have her picc line removed and a port put in first thing tomorrow morning. Her doctor doing the port told her she could 'go over the wall' within an hour after the procedure, implying that she'll finally be breaking out of prison tomorrow! ;) The port is needed because mom has very tiny veins and they keep collapsing :/ so this will allow her to receive her chemo and have blood drawn without being poked a million times trying to find a vein. So let's all pray that tomorrow REALLY is the day that she gets to finally come home. And a big THANKS to Yvette & Marty for coming up for the weekend and spelling Candice and I for the last 2 nights. We love you!!

Hi Everyone, Mom's had a difficult few days, although dialysis is really starting to help her. She seems more awake and alert than she has in the last few days. Mom has been complaining of heartburn for awhile and they've been giving her medication for it, but it hasn't seemed to help. Earlier this morning, she had an endoscopy and they were able to determine that she has a badly ulcerated esophagus. Poor Mom! At least we know what is causing her so much pain when she tries to eat or drink anything. Her doctor said that it is most likely the cause of her throwing up as well. They are going to give her some medication to help numb her esophagus and make it a little more comfortable to eat and drink. She has talked a lot today about when she gets to go home. She says she's tired of the hospital and is ready. Her doctors are optimistic that it will be soon, although she will have to be eating and drinking regularly and fight off a mild fever that she's experiencing today, before they let her go. I told her that was her job this weekend, to work on resting and eating and drinking so that maybe she can go home on Monday. Thank you all for all your wonderful comments and showing your love to my mom. She appreciates all the support she is receiving (when she's awake, we read to her from the comments section of the blog). Love you! Cresta

Today ended as an answer to my prayer of yesterday, It was definitely a better day for Angie. She is still very fatigued and she again has slept much of the day, but she has been much less nauseated. The kidney specialist said her kidney function was continuing to improve although she is only functioning at 9% and he thought if she was at 15 percent or above she would probably pull out of the renal failure on her own. Due to her low function, he did schedule her for the first of three dialysis treatments, which she started receiving at 6:00pm tonight and it will last for two hours. Tomorrow's treatment will be 2.5 hours and if needed Friday's will be 3 hours. 


My sweet wife was scheduled to have a catheter installed in a vein in her neck used for attaching the dialysis machine, first thing this morning. In light of this, they had her not eat or drink anything until this procedure was completed. At 4:30pm after voicing my displeasure for her having to wait all day, they took her down for the procedure, and she was finally able to eat and drink something. Turns out the order for the catheter was entered in the computer system, but since the radiology department personnel are on call instead of on site due to the holiday, they didn't see the order. Seems like a hospital doesn't run as smoothly as it could on holidays. 
The good news in all of this is Angie is receiving dialysis now and the magic of that machine should be helping her to feel much better in the next couple of days.

She will be watched over by my beautiful and capable daughter Candice tonight, while I go home and spend some time with my son.

I hope you all had a wonderful celebration of our country's birth, have a good night, and I will update you again tomorrow.

I have to apologize to everyone, I didn't enter a post last night. I meant to after I got home, but I did laundry until about 12:30 this morning and went to bed not realizing I hadn't made an entry here. I promise I will try to be better.

It has been a rough day for my beautiful bride. She has been plagued with extreme fatigue, nausea, and incessant hiccups, all symptoms we have learned, of increased renal failure. To complicate matters she is having difficulty swallowing and has been put on a very restrictive diet of soft foods (cottage cheese, pudding) and only water to drink to help prevent food or beverages from entering her lungs. Her renal specialist said they will probably schedule her for dialysis tomorrow to help give her kidneys some needed rest and support and told us he is still positive on her progress.  I'm in favor of her having a dialysis treatment as I think she will feel much better and it will take  a load off her body and give it opportunity to heal.

She just finished a little cottage cheese and has immediately fallen back to sleep. Just being by her side she continues to do what she has always done, giving me such comfort and strength when I should be providing this for her. She is an amazing women!

We both are so touched by the outpouring of love, support, and kindness we continue to receive. Things impossible to repay, but never forgotten. I will sign off tonight, praying for a better day tomorrow for Angie and wishing you all a happy 4th of July

more to come.......

Mom's Flowers

Angie had a relatively good day today with some additional indication that her kidneys are trying to ramp back up. They are worried about her breathing and her risk of pneumonia setting in so they are encouraging her to try to walk when she has the strength and energy to do so. She is extremely tired and has needed to sleep much of the day, but I think this is good for her and gives her opportunity to recover. 

She is on medication that is compromising her immune system substantially so they have recommended to not have any children visit her at this time and also adults with illness that may be spread to her during the visit. I know the no-children restriction will break her heart as anyone that knows her, knows her absolute joy and delight when she is surrounded by the "little ones". In light of this, I would like to suggest any of the children in Angie's life that would like to get in touch with her to use this blog and I promise to read every one to her each day. 

Angie was very touched by the card she received from the sisters of the Ward and expresses her deep love and appreciation for your kindness and words of support. 

Tomorrow she receives her second Chemo treatment, I'm hoping she tolerates it as well as she did the first one.

Stay tuned, more to follow......

I saw a wonderful spark of my mom's fun personality this morning! Her kidney doctor recommended she try to get up & walk around. So as we were walking around the oncology ward she challenged him to a race! I love you, Mom!

Angie had a fairly good day today. She has been encouraged by doctors, family, and friends to take her prescribed pain medication and today has followed that counsel and she has been relatively speaking, with less pain. She has been able to sleep much of the day which she desperately needed and was able to eat a little, but not as much as she did yesterday. I think she probably would have eaten more if she wasn't sleeping like she did today. The doctors said though her kidney function has not improved, it has not gotten worse either and are still optimistic about her kidney function resuming.


 I left her in the kind and loving care of my sweet daughter Cresta and I have come home to spend some time with my dear son whom I think is sorely missing his mother.
  

Mom is finally sleeping after a long hard night! She had a nice shower and alil breakfast some good drugs and is resting! Im so glad.

Loving Family and Friends

Angie and I would like to express our eternal gratitude to our wonderful family and friends,  for your many heart felt expressions of love, concern and support. Difficult challenges we are faced with become bearable when you're surrounded by those who you love and cherish. We both feel so very blessed to have all of you in our lives and consider the relationships we have with you one of our greatest treasures.
I must apologize for not being forthcoming with more information sooner, but we wanted to accurately understand what we are dealing with before we let you know what was going on. I think we do know now and we have a plan in place which is comforting in itself and I'm grateful to be able to proceed with the process to get my sweetheart better.

I thought a little background might provide some perspective to those of you I have not yet had the opportunity to discuss many details with. I see now, looking back, some changes Angie was experiencing at least 18 months ago. You all know the energy level Angie possesses that has been a source of admiration and amazement to me for the entire 45 years I have known her, but over the last year or so she has commented on her lack of energy and how easily she tired. This lack of energy seemed to worsen substantially late this spring and was complicated by extreme back pain. Angie scheduled an appointment with our primary care physician for an unrelated problem, she was bothered by allergies affecting her eyes and was seeking treatment for this from our doctor.

At the appointment she mentioned her back pain, and that she had been suffering from almost constant nausea, the doctor also noticed she was due for a complete workup so ordered some blood drawn and scheduled various lab tests on the samples. As the tests came in, they showed all major organs healthy and functioning in normal ranges with the exception of her kidneys. More tests were ordered, including a CT scan of her lower back. The additional tests showed her kidney functions had actually worsened during the week of waiting for the results of the tests and our doctor referred Angie to a kidney specialist to whom he had forwarded the CT scan images to.

During the consult with the kidney specialist we were told Angie's was only getting 20% function from her kidneys and the specialist ordered a renal biopsy. We were also told, by the kidney specialist, her suspicion the kidney malfunctions were secondary to an underlying primary cause. She told us the results of the biopsy would take about a week and scheduled a second appointment with us on the following Thursday.

Angie's back pain and nausea continued to worsen and yet she went on Trek with me as we waited for the results of her kidney biopsy. She absolutely loves being with the youth in our ward and we had the pleasure of having 4 of our grandchildren participate in the Trek. I had made arrangements for us to pull one of the Port-a-potty trailers so Angie did not have to walk the Trek but she still worked hard cleaning bathrooms at each stop we made so that everyone on Trek had nice facilities to use.

 Thursday after Trek was our second appointment with the kidney specialist, it was at this appointment we learned her kidney function had continued to deteriorate but there were other complications as well. The CT scan had shown lesions in her spine and pelvic bones and the doctor suspected cancer. It was recommend that we return to our primary care physician so he could refer us to an oncologist. The appointment was scheduled for Wednesday the 27th of June and we had an visit set with our primary care doctor on Monday the 25th. On Sunday the 24th, (my sweetheart's birthday) her overall condition worsened and she started vomiting, this continued through the night so the doctor at Monday's visit prescribed a different anti nausea pill  that seemed to help with the first dose. Tuesday however, she continued to become more ill, and I suggested I take her to the hospital but Angie wanted to wait until the appointment we had with the oncologist on Wednesday. The next day found Angie even more ill and it was very difficult for her to make the trip to the oncologist's office. At the visit with the oncologist, we learned she agreed with the suspicion of cancer and told us she thought it was a type called multiple myeloma, a form of cancer that starts in the plasma cells in the marrow of the bone. She explained the reasons for Angie's acute nausea were two fold, one being the cancerous plasma cells were creating large amounts of protein and the second cause was calcium was leaching into the blood from the lesions in her bones. Both of these were overloading her kidneys and the cause of her nausea. The high levels of the protein and calcium had put Angie into critical renal failure and the doctor strongly suggested we take her to the hospital immediately. The oncologist made the call to St. Marks, and Angie was admitted Wednesday night.

After many tests including an MRI and a bone marrow biopsy, the multiple myeloma has been confirmed. This form of cancer is very treatable, and the doctors are confident they can reduce the cancer cells in the blood to force the disease into remission. The main concern right now is getting her kidneys back on line and functioning properly. This entails bringing down the levels of calcium and protein in her blood. As of the end of Friday the 29th, her calcium was within a point of normalcy and Angie received her first chemo dose Friday afternoon which should start reducing the protein levels as well. She will be in the hospital a few more days, untill kidney function returns (the kidney specialist is confident they can reverse the damage) and the rest of her chemotherapy can be administered orally with just office visits.

We ask for your continued prayers on her behalf, Angie and I love all of you and I can not adequately express how much you mean to the both of us.

I just received a text from Candice saying she had a pretty bad night. She is in a lot of pain and did not sleep much at all. She has indications though that her kidneys are starting back up so that is a good sign!

I'm signing off for now, but please check back there will be daily updates.

All of my love,
.....paka dave

We want you to remember to write Mom a message if she's asleep or out for testing. :)

Mom had her first round of chemo just a few minutes ago. She is now sleeping peacefully! :) Speaking of sleeping, her anti-nausea meds make her SO sleepy. She doesn't like this at all, but she WAS able to eat a nice big breakfast this morning so I think this is a happy tradeoff! :)

Hi to everyone who LOVES Angie!

We're starting this blog to keep everyone updated on my mom's health. A couple of months ago mom went in for a check up. Test revealed she was having problems with her kidneys. Around this time she started experiencing pain in her back. We all thought it was caused by her working so hard at Su Casa or maybe because of her kidneys. Last Thursday (June 21st), we got quite a shock when we found out that the doctors suspected her kidney problems were being caused by some form of bone cancer. They found lesions on her back during a ct scan.  She was so cute when she said 'See, everyone kept brushing off the fact that I said my back was hurting and now we know why my back was hurting!'. Well, Mom started having trouble with nausea this past weekend. It started getting worse and the last few days she has not been able to keep any food down. On Wednesday (July 27th) she was been hospitalized at St. Marks so they could give her intravenous meds to get her feeling better. Today a biopsy confirmed that she has a type of blood cancer.