Read Ken's "Can't catch a break" first.

If you haven't read Ken's blog that follows this, you should read it first. Then read my comments and the facts....

Here are the facts. Ken will be in UCH for a few more days. We will know tomorrow how they are treating his pnemonia. Probably with home IV drugs that I will give him. His blood clots are floating in his lungs and are not suppose to be life threatening. But I'll have to give him shots for a few months, maybe twice a day and 3 times the strength as before. His cat scan showed abnormal lymph nodes. We won't know for sure until maybe Monday, but the doc thinks Ken will need a bone marrow transplant. All the nurses are talking to him about it, so it looks kind of inevitable. But we are confident that he will come thru it just fine. It is just 3 more weeks of being sick. We will know for sure next Monday after the Pet scan. At that time, we will blog about what he is actually going to be doing. It will be educational in the least. Ken is taking it very well. At least he won't have that time bomb in him. This will fix it. He needs a break and we think this will be a big one.
Thanks for praying for us. It was a very scary day. Ken is so amazing. Thanks to our son Jeff for being here with us. It meant alot to us to have his support. Thanks to our friends that are doing the paper route for us, Nick, Bob and Sabrina. Thanks to my aunt Leah and uncle Stan for taking the route stuff to Fort Collins so I didn't have to drive home tonight. That helped me so much. Thanks to our daughter Stephanie for helping me out today and for taking care of our dogs. And thanks to Aunt Lavon for taking Ken's mom to the doctor for me tomorrow. I just couldn't do this without family and friends to help and Ken needs me. Your help allows me to be here with him. God Bless You.

You can't seem to catch a break?

Today at two different times from two different people from across the country I heard the same statement; you can't seem to catch a break. That has stuck with me all day and made me start thinking about all of the breaks I have had and just how many breaks do you get in a lifetime anyway? My brother-in-law had recently told me about some breaks he had in his life. The breaks I am talking about are the ones that are life changers, or possible enders. There are the good breaks like getting married to Bev, the birth of my children, etc. But the breaks I am talking about are those that awaken you to reality, like:

I was 4 or 5 years old. My mom had taken us out to the Pancake House, one of our favorite little places to eat. We were there for dinner. We finished and as we walked into the parking lot, at night, I decided to make a run for the car. Across the lot. A car was traveling through the lot, blew the horn, skidded the tires. I can still see those headlights close to me, hear the horn and then the screams. That was 49 years ago. I caught a break.

I was almost 6 years old and swimming with a friend at his parents club pool. The lifeguard was hosing down one area that we were going through. Being little, and the lifeguard not acting properly, he sprayed our legs with the hose, I started running, slipped and fell, busted my head open, and lost consciousness. I still remember that and have the scar where no hair has ever grown. I caught a break.

I was 15 and living on my own with a federal narcotics officer and his family. My family had retired and moved to Colorado. I was still enrolled in St. Mark's, a private boys school so I lived in the narcs garage apartment. In Texas you could own and drive a motorcycle at 15, so that was my transportation. Two weeks after I got the bike, I was driving to school. A bright fall morning, the sun in the sky behind me, wearing a off white coat on a gold bike. Luckily with a helmet on. I can still see the car turn left across my path. I honked my horn, hit my head with the helmet on, then hit my head again but this time no helmet was there. When I woke up, it was like everything was perfectly still. I stood up, realized I had flown over the car, and was laying in the middle of Hillcrest Ave., a busy thoroughfare in North Dallas. Then I saw the traffic light change two blocks away and three lanes full of cars were traveling toward me. I walked over to the curb and sat down. All very surreal. I wound up with a broken arm, water on the knee, and a helmet that had a hole in it where you could push your hand through. I caught a break.

I was dating Bev but living in Salt Lake City. It was Thanksgiving eve. I drove all night to be in Denver for Thanksgiving. I had heard it was supposed to snow, so I had even purchased chains. Sure enough, as I got closer to Denver, the snow got heavier and the roads were slick with black ice. I was almost home, at Floyd Hill on I-70. I hadn't stopped to put the chains on. It was 4:30 in the morning. I remember seeing the trailer of the 18 wheeler getting closer. I pumped the brakes, turned the wheel left then right to try to ditch the car. As the bumper of the trailer came across the hood of my car, I stiffened my arms for impact. There were no airbags 25 years ago. I remember waking up, hearing someone saying something to me, seeing my own blood and passing out again. I remember waking up again when a car hit the back of my car. The last thing I remember is watching the fireman slipping and falling all around me. The next thing I remember was in the hospital. It took two tow trucks to remove my car, one to lift the trailer up and one to yank my car out from under it. The bumper had gone through the windshield and stopped half way across where I had been sitting. Any farther and the cop said I could have been decapitated. The car that slid into me? The cops car. No ticket, too icy. My crooked nose, even after surgery, is a reminder of the break I caught that day.

I have non-Hodgkin's enlarged B Cell lymphoma cancer. I have had a thoracic duct ligation. I could barely speak. I contracted the H1N1 flu. Now I have pneumonia and two floating blood clots in my lungs. I have caught a break. I am still alive! I have not fallen out of my bed as another guy did in a room across the floor. I have not had to go to the ICU like the guy in the next room last night with his wife screaming and crying in the hall for help. I have wonderful caring family and friends who have given me amazing support. Now I am told more likely than not that I will have to undergo a bone marrow transplant. The good thing is that they can use my own stem cells which will cut down on donor problems. It could take up to three weeks in the hospital. With no immune system, in a special hospital area designed just for this. The chemo will be 10 times harder than anything I have had, and so will the side effects. Three weeks, out of a lifetime. I have caught a break. I am alive!

How about you? How many breaks have you had to celebrate? God bless each and every one of you, and thank you for your support!

Update, not much change.

Monday, Ken is still in the hospital. Better, but waiting on tests. May get out on Tues, but not sure yet. He had a rough time on Sunday. Hiccups lasted till about 5:00, which made him sick. That made him weaker because he couldn't keep any food down. Not a pretty day. Let's hope today is better. I'll keep you posted.

Frequent Peeing, a good thing.

No real news yet. Ken is better. His blood pressure is still a little low, but he is at least feeling better. They gave him 7 bags of fluid by midnight last night. He is now hydrated and doesn't have a fever. But they still think he has some kind of infection. We haven't seen the doctors yet. They are being very slow to visit us. I need to leave to get the medicine for my leg, but I don't want to miss the doctor. So what to do... I think I will give them another 30 min. Ken ate breakfast and is sleeping peacefully now, so I guess all is good. No wait, now he is up peeing. It hits him fast. I should have know yesterday that something was wrong when he wasn't peeing every hour. My sad attempt at humor. I guess it is just too much information. When I know more, I will write more. Till then, enjoy your Sunday.

"No, I don't want to go to the hospital"

Ken and I are completely surprised that we are back in the Univ of Colo hospital. I brought him in about 6:30 tonight. He has had a tough few days. He didn't work at all this week. Just couldn't get up the energy. I have been watching him get worse and worse. We thought it was just the normal hiccups and nausea that follows. And I thought he was depressed from being so sick and worried about his pet scan next Thurs. But this morning his fever was 99.9 and at 3:30 it was 102.9. We called the hospital to see if he could take tylenol and they said to come in. We were just going to give him tylenol and see what happens. I am so thankful they wanted us to bring him in. When we got here, his temp was down, but his blood pressure was 56/44. They immediately got him started on fluids and it came up to 66/50. Then they told us they would watch it for 30 min and call his oncologist. If it didn't come up more, they were putting him in intensive care. But it came up to 92/66. So they aren't moving him to ICU. They are watching him here. He has had his 3rd bag of fluid and 2 different antiboitics in 2 hours. They have 2 more bags of fluid ready to go. He must have been pretty dehydrated. He was trying to drink, but couldn't with all the hiccups. Guess what, they have stopped. Once we got on the road to Denver, they stopped. Guess they were just trying to tell us to get help. They just came and took a chest xray. They said his lungs didn't sound very clear. That is scary. They said it sounded like he wasn't getting them fully expanded, but his oxygen level was great at 95%. So not sure. Glad the xray results don't take long. We should know something soon on that. The blood cultures will take about 24 hours to give us results. So we may not know until tomorrow night what is causing this. They think it is an infection that he caught here last week.
And I have a huge infection on my leg. I noticed it Thurs night. I thought it was just a rash, but I showed it to Ken's doctor tonight, just cause he wanted to know what all we had done this week and what was different. I didn't think much about it, but it does look worse. He said it looks like cellulitis. Which could have been caused by a staff infection or a bug bite. I hope I can get a hold of my regular doctor tomorrow. The doc here wants me on antibiotics by tomorrow.
So now he sleeps. Ken is sleeping well, so I am going to try to lay down and get some sleep as well. After I ask the doc about his xrays. At least the doc has plopped himself outside Ken's room and said he would be working from that desk all night. Scares me, because it means Ken is in serious trouble. But makes me happy that they are watching him so close. I'll keep you posted. God Bless You. Bev

Home again

Finally home! Bev was correct below, by the time we got home and ate, I was already worn out and went to sleep. It's funny how when you put regular clothes on compared to hospital garb and you are in your own house instead of a hospital room, you think you should automatically feel normal. But your body can certainly change your mind about that rather quickly. It's good to be home. Thank you for all of your prayers and support that have gotten me this far. We commented while we ate how fast the past two weeks have gone. Two weeks ago was the holiday weekend and Tessa and I went to the CSU/CU Rocky Mountain Showdown. I felt fine. Amazing all that has happened since. Such a roller coaster of emotional and physical well being. I am now a statistic. Better yet, I am still a survivor!
Over five weeks ago, I thought I would be done with chemo. No more low weeks of white blood counts, no more nausea, just a body in remission of cancer growing stronger. Cancer has a way of playing by it's own rules. Just when we start to figure out what those rules are they change again. Our plan was by mid September to have a big remission party BBQ at our house for all of our friends, supporters and family. We even booked a remission party in my favorite place in the whole world Disney World in Florida with family for October. All of that now has been cancelled. I'm thankful just to be alive! Now we wait. The only thing planned now is the scan coming up the first of October, to see if the final two rounds of chemo did their trick and killed the last remaining tumor. Of course, my hospital stay did not go completely without incident. I have a new blood clot in my upper left arm and have to go back for a blood draw and another ultrasound Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. I got thrush on my tongue, a baby disease and my tongue hurts a little. And of course I still have a cough, the last remnant of the swine flu. But I'm alive! I will have to do a little work from home for a few more days before I heading back to work. I don't want to be the cause of someone else getting this flu. But I'm alive! I'm a survivor! Thank God for that!

Ken's Home

Ken was released from the hospital today. He talked all the way home about blogging tonight. But by the time we got home and had dinner. He immediately crashed on the couch. Katy is still with us and Stephanie is here talking to her. And Ken is sleeping thru all of it. The trip home and watching the Bronco game, wore him out. I will have him blog for you tomorrow. Yeah....

Souviner for Ken

Ken is doing great. We had a fantastic day, all considered. Ken feels so much better. Katy from Chicago and Tessa from Steamboat spent much of the day with him. This is a picture of me with the girls. Lovely. This is what Ken got to look at all day. Aren't we gorgeous?
So medically speaking, Ken is ready to go home. We think he will get to go home on Sunday. He hasn't had a fever since Thurs or Friday. He isn't nauseous anymore. His counts were up for the second day today. He is still tired and is still coughing, but all in all he feels so much better. He is so lucky to have come thru this relatively easy. He has been very thankful all day.
However, he does get to go home with a souvenir. He now has a new blood clot thanks to an IV poke. Can you believe it? It was either from an IV they left in to long, or from one of the unsuccessful pokes they did yesterday when they were trying to find a vein. The poor guy can't win. So far, the ultra-sound shows it in a small vein just above his elbow. It really hurts, so he has not been able to move it much. And you can't touch it. Since it isn't in a large vein yet, they are hoping it goes away on it's own. We have to come back for another ultra-sound later in the week. They will decide then if he has to go on fragman shots again. That will not be fun. Giving him shots was a pain in his belly plus it cost us $10 a day. So we hope it goes away. But it is acting just like the last one did, so we are bummed. We had to insist that they do an ultra-sound. They didn't think it could be a clot so they originally said they didn't need to do an ultra-sound. We explained his history for about the 4th time before the doc finally agreed to do the test. Good thing I'm an advocate for Ken. He still needs me. :)
So we will be home hopefully tomorrow. Katy will come with us. She can take care of Ken so hopefully I can get the house cleaned and the laundry done. I am so far behind. The place is a mess. But I don't really care. I needed to be here. I hope to be back to work on Monday. I have been having them take my temp every day and so far, I haven't had any symptoms of this flu. So I better get back to work. Ken can't come back till his cough is gone. He is still contagious as long as he is coughing. So I imagine he will feel like working from home about mid-week. Not sure when he will be back.
That's our good, but not perfect news. All-in-all, it was a great day. Mainly just because Katy and Tessa are here. Ken has been sleeping a lot, but he is thrilled to see them. God Bless all of you. I'll let you know when we are home for sure. Bev

garden hose

I have to share a story that just happened to me now around 10 pm. On Monday night when we checked in our nurse was Jan. I recognized her from my stay back in April and May. In reality, I recognize a lot of people still here. Have you ever had a friend or acquaintance that you like but for one reason or another they are just enough different from you like they are beating to their own drum? I know I am that person to some of my friends. They know what they are doing but don't always instill the greatest of confidence. Jan is just such a person to me, knowledgeable, likable, friendly and kind. But also hurried, probably because of the job. So at the end of Tuesday morning, Jan says she probably won't see me again because she doesn't come back till Friday. Who knew I would indeed still be here.
Moving to today, Friday, it is time to change my IV ports. They have to be changed every three days. I could really tell because the one closest to my left elbow was actually starting to hurt. Since I had two, the nurse went ahead and pulled it out. As I still have an active IV, she had to make a new one before she can remove the last one. This nurse is young, mid twenties. After all this is a teaching hospital. So she brings the stuff in, and is ready to try. But she can't find a vein. In either arm. So we try the hot towel technique to see if any pop out. Still she is not having much luck. She has the rope on my arm squeezing life out of it and finally says I'll try this one. An IV site isn't the same as just a poke from a sharp needle to draw blood. It has to fit into the vein a ways then tape down to attach all the stuff to it. I could barely stand it as she tried to make it work. Tough skin she said. I looked at my hands and they have become all old and wrinkly. Tough skin? My mom has skin that looks like mine. She's 83. The nurse finally stops torturing me and decides to look for a different spot. On goes gauze and tape. She trys again in a different spot, different arm. More pain, more tough skin. Same result. More gauze and tape. She says she just noticed another nurse who is a pro at starts had come in so she would send her in to do it. In about five minutes a younger nurse, didn't look 25, came in and said she would give it a try. I figured you're the professional so lets do it. We started all over again, the hot towel, the rope, picking a spot. Bingo! Spelled P-A-I-N! I thought she was digging for China. You can guess what she said. Yep, tough skin. More gauze and tape. She tried again, not to be outdone by some old bald guy. OUCH! More gauze and tape. She got a call and had to go to another room to insert someone's IV. I figured it's halftime, she said she would be back. All this had started with me sitting upright on the couch and them next to me. Now she wanted me flat on my back in bed. Super nice with a big smile, she returns. I asked her if she was successful on the other patient. She was. I said now that you are primed let's make it two in a row. We start from the beginning. Strike five. More gauze and tape. She has that worried look that I might win and ruin her record. She says one more try. One more gauze and tape. Total time start to finish, 2.5 hours.
Getting back now to my night nurse Jan. Jan looks to be my age. She comes in tonight to start the evening and notices I have the old IV and six gauze and tape spots. I am concerned because I don't want to get another blood clot. She says she'll try or wait till tomorrow. I know she gets kind of hurried so I thought okay tomorrow will be another day. 9 pm med time comes around and Jan is just about to leave when Bev wakes up from a deep slumber and asks again about the IV. Jan says just a minute and leaves. I looked at Bev. Should Jan journey were all others have failed? Too late, she's back. (This is Bev inserting in the story here. Ken didn't just look at me. He was mad at me that I had opened my mouth in concern of his IV. He didn't have confidence in Jan and didn't want her to poke his arm. But she is back...) She starts to evaluate options. Amazingly she pushes the two wristbands I wear, my red one and a yellow one, as well as the two name tags they gave me away from my wrist. I said I can take off the bands and she said I didn't even need one of the ID tags anymore. Then she said garden hose. WHAT? 2.5 hours of poking and this took less than 2 minutes. Now I started to worry. I like Jan. But does she know what she's doing? She gets her stuff. As she says again, "I have a garden hose in my backyard that's not as big as this vein" she pokes, inserts, tapes, labels and finishes faster than any rodeo calf roping. Total time start to finish, less than 4 minutes.
I kept congratulating her and she actually said it was good practice for her since she doesn't get to do to many anymore, and that mine was one of the easiest she had ever done. I love Jan!
Only one problem. She had to remove the old IV now, and you know what that meant, one more gauze and tape.
I am feeling better because I'm laughing. Make someone you know laugh today. Thank you for your prayers.

Better Today

Ken seems to be better today. Just regular stuff going on. He isn't nauseous which helps a ton. His hiccups have stopped. He is starting to eat again. We are trying to order his dinner now. He actually is interested. That's a good sign.

The docs haven't said what his blood counts were today, so we don't know yet. They are still saying he will be here for 3-5 days. He is coughing alot and they gave him an inhaler. But so far, his oxygen level is staying up. He looks so much better today. The nurse that gave him the inhaler treatment, the puffer, the MDI treatment, was very informative. She told us about the patients in ICU on the ventilator. At least he isn't doing that. She said she thought he looked good.

He was surprised this morning by our daughter, Katy, in Chicago. She called to say she is coming to Denver on Sat to spend a few days with him. That perked him up. Our daughter in Steamboat, Tessa, is picking her up at the airport, so we will see her too. Then our son, Jeff, came to see him today for a really nice visit. We originally didn't want the kids to come and see us. We didn't want them to be exposed. But reality is, they are being exposed everywhere and Ken needs to see them. So I'm glad they are visiting.

Steph, helped us a bunch today. She brought Ken's mom home from the rehab centre today and helped her settle in. She did a great job and it helped me so much. I don't think I should be around Ken's mom for a few more days. Just till I know for sure if I have caught the flu. So far, so good, no symptoms.

Ken also got a visit this morning from Dr. Weyant, his lung doctor. Ken was so surprised and pleased when he stopped in to see him. He even remembered my son. Dr. Weyant met Jeff for a few minutes after Ken's surgery to fix his leak. Amazing that he remembered Jeff. He thought Ken was doing great also. So, even though we were so scared yesterday. Today, we are hopeful again. One thing about Ken. You can't keep him down for long. He is determined to keep his oxygen levels up and to beat this thing. Just another hurdle. Another scare. Another issue. We can handle it.

Ken was just saying that he wants to thank everyone for their prayers. He has been praying for all of you too. And for himself. He was so sick when he came in here. And they are saying that he is doing so well because we came in early. He was contagious for up to 48 hours before we came in. So I was around him, but luckily, we just stayed home all weekend. Your prayers are working. Ken feels the support. He prayed hard yesterday when he was so sick and scared. Then today, he is better. It works. Thanks for helping.

Tough Time - Ken writes

When I have written in the past I always tried to relate to something that has occurred in my life in the past. I feel I need to write but this time I don't know where I am going. I'm 52, I'm neutrapenic, and now I have swine flu. Now I think I made a mistake by making fun of it, laughing at a picture of a farm with a pig and cow looking through a fence at each other, the cow says swine flu and the pig says mad cow. It was funny at the time. I am depressed so if you don't care for negativity please don't read on. My daughter Tessa always tells me to tell the cancer,"Bring it on Bitch." But right now I can't say that anymore. I am tired, depressed, wondering if I will die. Yes die. Bev left early this morning to get back to Ft. Collins, after she left I couldn't get back to sleep. I actually feel a little better today than yesterday. Yesterday, I had the hiccups bad and was throwing up every three or four hours. I thought I was dying. They finally got it fixed by the evening. I started crying this morning. I had seen several news reports about H1N1. They say a cough is the bad thing and now they think it might be lasting longer than originally thought. Then today I saw on the noon news CSU is reporting 60 new confirmed cases of h1n1 for a total now of 400 cases. I wonder if I am one of them. I feel so alone here when Bev is not here. Everyone has to wear a mask, wash their hands if they touch anything in my room. I couldn't sleep Monday night and went for a walk around the hall. I didn't make it too far at 3:30 am before a nurse came and said no walking without a mask. I have not felt like going out of the room again. I don't want to give this to anyone. I am so worried about Bev who stays in my room all the time with a mask on. Surreal. So this morning I finally got the courage to ask the nurse, Kelly, a serious question. I am realistic enough to hear the reports and conversations from my doctors about h1n1 and that while most people can push through it like a normal flu, others die. My neutrapenic week has just begun today. Because of the holiday last week and a scheduling problem Tuesday I couldn't get chemo until Wednesday. Because of that I would normally start rebounding by today, but instead am just going down. The doctor had said as soon as we see your counts go up, you can probably go home. But each day since he has come in saying they are still going down, and extending my length of stay expectancy. So I ask her what do you look for in a patient that has no level of immunity and has h1n1, what is the important sign of people who die. She said oxygen. The level has to be 90 or above. Problem. The other night mine was at 87 and they gave me oxygen overnight. At the time I didn't know why. Scared me now that she explained. I have been lucky since then that I have remained around 92-93. Your mind can play tricks on you when you're in the hospital. I don't want to die. I love news. Yet every broadcast talks about h1n1. And I figured earlier it wasn't that big a deal. Realistically it's not to most people. But now it is for me. Payback is hell. I am going through fever cycles, I cough occasionally, they just took another xray of my chest, blood tests everyday. Now they say I might be dehydrated. It never ends. I saw Patrick Swaze died of cancer, and Mary of Peter, Paul and Mary died of leukemia. I was so happy to be in Chicago and see the wonderful things that TNT does for people with leukemia and lymphoma. And the support they keep giving. But my friends here at work and my neighbors have been the most awesome experience. I feel closer to them now then ever before. And Bev. What can you say about her. We are closer now then ever before. I love her so much, as all the rest of you. Sorry for the rambling. Thanks for your support. It means more than you can ever know.

Ken is still in the hospital

Ken is still at U of C, but I think he is better. His fever is at least coming down to 100 with tylenol. It goes back up, but at least it is better. He had a positive flu test today for flu A. That is supposed to be a possible pre H1N1 test, so they are waiting for the results from that test. May take 48 hours. Doc said today it is probably swine flu, since that is the A strain that is going around. So they are treating him as such. They are testing his white blood counts and will send him home when they are going back up again. May be tomorrow, but should be at least by Thursday. At least they are keeping him here thru his lowest blood count day. They haven't mentioned giving him blood transfusions again. So hope he is past that.
They moved him to room 1111. Still in the oncology floor, but not in the Bone marrow transplant side. It is a little quieter here and the view is great. Small things, but helpful.
Thanks for the well wishes. Ken loves reading them. Hug someone special soon.
Love ya, Bev

Ken is in the hospital

We are in the Univ of Colorado Hospital tonight. Ken had a fever of 102.4 when I got home from work, so they asked us to come in. They are concerned about an infection that he won't be able to fight without help. So he will probably be here for a few days. We will see. We will know more tomorrow after the tests come back. He has a vicious cough and a sore throat. They will be running tests and taking blood and x-rays all night. So he probably won't get much sleep. Good thing he slept all day.

Thanks for thinking about us. We appreciate it. I'll keep you posted.

Ken is sick today!

So close. This is day 6 of his last 21 days of chemo. And he has for the first time, gotten a cold. Dang it. His throat hurts this morning, so I am hoping he stays home to rest. His immune system is the weakest from day 7 - 14, so let's hope it doesn't get any worse than it is. He has been fighting a cold and popping vitamin C for about 10 days. He was pretty miserable yesterday. So.... call all your friends. We need some healing prayers going on. He is afraid I'll take him to the hospital. (Like I am the mean one that always took him there.)

Hope he can kick this without it getting worse. We are so close to being finished with the darn chemo. We didn't need this. Thanks for praying for us. God Bless You. Bev

Ken's Progress

It is Wed, and we are in Denver at the Univ of Colorado Cancer Center. This is my third post today, so be sure to scroll down to the previous posts to see the pictures and videos I added. Ken is getting his 8th and last RCHOP chemo. He is almost done. They say each time he gets chemo, it compounds on top of the previous time. His reactions vary because of that. He was not looking forward to today and was sick to his stomach before he even got to the infusion center. Poor guy, he hates this. But luckily, he took his nausea medicine and they gave him the pre-drugs. He has been asleep thru all of the drip so far. He is so used to them poking him, he hardly wakes up for it. Kinda like the dogs at home walking on him while he sleeps on the couch. He doesn't seem to notice that either.

This is the last round. We are praying that it takes care of the last of the lymphoma. It needs to kill the last of the bad cells. Let's hope and pray.

We came to Denver last Friday to see an ear, nose and throat specialist. She did a scope to look at his vocal cords and tell us that they are starting to move. His left vocal cord was paralyzed before and we were waiting to see if it fixed itself or if he had to have surgery. The doc said it looks like God and Mother Nature are fixing it. She said to give it another 2 or 3 months. If it isn't fixed to our satisfaction by then, we can come back. But we were happy to know that she thinks it will fix itself.

Ken must have known I was talking about him, because now he is awake. He is asking for nausea medicine and his bucket. He has been able to eat most of the day. Hasn't lost it yet. But he looks a little pale. I know he can't wait to get out of here. One of the medicines that Ken gets is pushed thru his IV by the nurse. It takes about 20 minutes for her to push it slowly thru. It is very dark red like black cherry kool-aid. I think Ken hates that med the worst. It always makes him pee red for a day. Makes him sick to think about it. I'm probably making you sick too, so I'll stop.

Hope you are all having a great Wednesday. Bless you all, Bev

Grandpa and Norah

So the trip to Chicago wasn't all sweet for our Granddaughter, Norah Grace. She wasn't very happy to see her grandparents. It took a few days for her to warm up to us. This first video shows her reactions to Grandpa. She pretty much cried every time he looked at her Friday night. This is Saturday morning. Katy tried to let Grandpa feed her. It didn't work as you can see. (Sorry about the curlers shot Katy, but you are always beautiful, even in curlers.)


This is my favorite clip. Norah was fine on Saturday after she had a full tummy and as long as she was in Mommy's lap. Silly Grandpa. Ken's laugh is great in this.


Let me know if you have any trouble with these videos. This is the first time I have tried to download video. It says they should work, I hope you can see them.

Love ya and love that little Norah! Bev alias Grandma

Pictures from Chicago Triathelon

These are pictures of Mark's Triathelon race in Chicago. First pics at the banquet the night before.






Ken was honored in the rotation of pictures that flashed all evening.








Race day was cool, in the 60's. This is the group shot of just some of the Chicago TNT. Mark is in the red jacket, awaiting his turn to jump in the water.




This is Mark's group in the water. Mark is in the back kind of by himself. Mark commented that last year, some swimmers were swimming over him. He is starting out at least by himself.





Ken and Mark right after his race. Mark's race time was 2 hours and 56 minutes. He shaved a whole 19 minutes off last years time. Good job Mark. We are proud of you.






This is Mark and Norah after the race. She does love her papa.










These show the shirts Katy had printed for her and Norah. Norah's shirt has the Team in Training Logo on the front.





Norah didn't let Ken and I hold her much over the weekend, so Ken's smile is genuine. He is thrilled to be holding our sweet baby girl.

Third Week... Good Week???

So this is Ken's third week of his 7th round of chemo. This is supposed to be his easy week, the time when Ken is most healthy. So what is up with yesterday? He had the stupid hiccups all day. And just like in his first week, they were worse during the evening. They came so quick last night he was loosing his ability to breathe in between and he finally got violently sick. I hate that. He hates that. Vomiting is just an ugly side effect of this whole thing. We spent some time talking about the emotional side of things. We are both so tired of this. We just want it to be cured so we can get on with things. We decided that he has probably been overdoing it with work being so crazy and our trip last weekend. We decided he will call in to work tomorrow and stay home and get some rest. If he wakes up with the hiccups, he is staying home. We'll see if that happens. He needs the rest. But he hates to miss work.
We did have a great weekend. Emotional, but great. We left Friday for Chicago. Ken's daughter Katy and our granddaughter, Nora, picked us up at the airport. Right away, Nora, didn't like us. She actually let me hold her for a few minutes, but poor Ken, she cried every time he looked at her. Things slowly improved and she warmed up to us over the weekend. By Sunday, race time, she would let us hold her and walk with her for a while. But she is a real Mommy and Daddy's girl. Wish they lived closer so we could see them more often. This stupid cancer has kept us from visiting them this year. Can't wait till Ken is better.
The Race... It was fantastic. I'll have Ken add all the stats, but Mark did a great job. His goal after last years time of 3 hours and 15 minutes was to come in under 3 hours. He finished at 2 hours and 56 min, 19 minutes faster than last year. He did great. We were very proud of him. The banquet and the race were very emotional for Ken and me. We heard lots of stories from other racers and their families. We were very glad that we could be there and be a part of it.
Thank you to all the Chicago Team in Training for supporting Ken and sharing your weekend with us. We loved it.
I am worried about Ken. I hope he can get back to feeling well after his rest today. He is so sick of being sick. He is loosing faith, so lift him up in your prayers and send him strength.
Coming up, we have a big weekend planned in between a hopefully restful weekend. Today, Sept. 3rd. is our daughter Stephanie's 30th birthday. No, it's the first anniversary of her 29th birthday. At least that's what she says. Happy Birthday Steshi. We Love You. We are celebrating at a dinner for her and her friends on Friday night. Our other kids, Jeff, Sara and Tessa are all joining us. It will be fun to see them.
Sept. 14th is Tessa's birthday. She asked for her dad to take her to the Rocky Mountain Showdown to celebrate her birthday, so they will be doing that on Sunday. Ken's girls all went to CU and since Ken and I work at CSU, it is always a friendly family competition. I'm sure they will have fun. This year it is at CU in Folsom Field, so Tessa will enjoy being back on campus. Happy Birthday Tessa. We love you too.
Thanks to all of you that are still reading our blog. Ken is overwhelmed at the moment. And so am I. We are so thankful that you are still keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. We hope you are all in good health and that you can take a moment this weekend to be thankful it. Hug someone close to you. We love you all. Bev and Ken