Brain tumor changes our lives

I am writing this to let you know what is going on in our lives.as many of you know barbara(ladybug) and I moved back to the family farm in Altamont,Kansas July of 2010.
We planted many trees on our five acres. Ok so we planted 150 trees and shrubs. Well that kept us busy along with remodeling the house. Ladybug said the house looked like a rental house. Well we did rent it for thirty years. The first floor is remodeled. We painted every wall,we laid tile throughout and replaced the (popcorn) ceiling. Whew then I took time to build a shed. What gentleman farmer doesn't have a shed for his (boy) toys. Some place to put my mower (ok so barbara like to use the mower. It is quite a site to watch her as it gets dark and she turns on the lights and mows and you can watch the deer come up to the yard and watch her). Also put my new chainsaw that barbara bought me for my birthday.

We renamed the house the "bugalow". We enjoyed our trips to England where they don't use a address but instead use house names.

We started working with the Awana youth at church. Some of those boys remind me of me when I was 10. Barbara also began working with the girls. We had a good year.

2011 began and we continued working in the church. Barbara began teaching Sunday school. She enjoys that class. We then planted 300 more trees and shrubs. Yep that would mean that we have a total of 450 trees and shrubs. My neighbor says that I have a stick farm. Maybe. What a year to plant all those trees. It was very dry and very hot. I would spend 4 hours every three days watering the trees and plants. If they live we will someday have fruit trees producing fruit and nut trees producing nuts.

At thanksgiving we were having the (them) vacation in Branson. That would be thompson,hays,Evon,and martin (them) on Tuesday barbara had a headache. Spent the day in bed. Then on Friday after Thanksgiving we were at silver dollar city and that evening she began to walk favoring her left side. We thought it was just evening ,rolling hills, and she was hungry.

The next week back in Kansas we started the process to have caterac surgery on her right eye.
On dec 6 we had caterac surgery. When we went in the next day for a follow up she was having trouble using her left leg. The doctor thought it could be the anesthesia used during surgery. When it didn't get better I called for an appointment with dr Parikh. She is in Oklahoma city. We had not changed our primary care doctor because we trust her so much. We got an appointment for dec 9. The minute we walked in dr Parikh met us in the waiting room. She thought barbara had broken a bone. After x-rays showed no broken bones, the doctor looked at barbara and thought she had a stroke. She quickly called the emergency rom and gave me orders to not stop for lunch but get to the hospital immediately.

Upon arrival at deaconess hospital the doctor in charge said it looked like barbara had a stroke. They took her for a cat scan (not a dog scan). When he came back he told us she had a mass in her brain. Barbara felt like someone kicked her in the stomach. They then checked us into the hospital and assigned a neuro surgeon to us. He and his pa were very good. We were in ICU and met some of the best rn's in the world. The surgeon notified us that in fact barbara hd two brain tumors. He told us that the prognosis was 11 weeks but if we had surgery 22 weeks. One tumor was on top of her head and was probably causing the left leg problems. The other tumor was deep in her brain by her optic nerve center. He said he would schedule her for surgery on Monday dec 12. He would just take the small tumor out because he felt that large tumor created too much of a chance to do more harm than good. They scheduled barbara for another MRI to map her head so they would do the surgery correctly. Back in the room sarah asked about cutting Barbara's hair. The Rn got hair clippers and took barbara for a hair cut shower and bed change before the MRI.

They allowed me to stay in her ICU room at night. We did a lot of praying and we felt that God would provide a miracle. We just didn't know what the miracle was. We prayed for total healing but know that God is in control. The first miracle was that we had great nurses and doctors. Then during the surgery on dec 12 we had prayer partners all over the world praying for us. Thanks to them the surgery went well. Barbara began to heal and three days later she was released from the hospital. She was a surprise to the nurses with her ability to walk. Yep walking 2 to 5 miles a day helped her to be strong and recover quickly. That and God.

Then we went to Kansas to recover. Then david sarah and melissa did lots of research and found that there was a trial that was having success at baylor medical center in Dallas . We all drove to Dallas to meet with doctor fink and her staff. Another miracle was that our family was together making these decisions. While at baylor we talked to another neurosurgeon. He specializes in brain surgery and deep tissue. This was another miracle. So now we decided that we needed another surgery. We scheduled the surgery jan 4 in Dallas. So we went to Dallas and had surgery at baylor medical center. Again we were blessed by many prayer partners and good doctors. Again barbara did very well and was released 3 days later. So we went back to Kansas to heal. David and sarah have rearranged their house to allow barbara and I to have our own room in their house. We decided that we would do chemo and radiation in Oklahoma city.
Chemo is 42 straight days of taking a pill and then the radiation is 6 weeks 5 days a week. At the same time it is supposed to make barbara very tired At this time we are living with david and sarah and waiting for jan 30. That is the planned day to start the chemo.

Please keep praying that all will go well and that God will be honored in all that barbara and I do.

You can also read about this on Facebook. Barbara tries to post regularly . Also leanna martin has posted our status along with sarah thompson. I hope that I have not bored you too much but needed to get this information out to all of you.

I will try to post on a regular basis. I will try to keep it shorter next time.

Thanks to all our friends and prayer warriors.

Barbara went to church and told them that God was her rock but I was her pebble. Then she asked those in church to be her pebbles and continue to pray for her. So if you see on her Facebook about pebbles then you will know what she is talking about.

We have signed up for the relay for life in parsons,Kansas on June 15. We are team unobug. That is a combination of mike Evon who has had testicular cancer and ladybug who has brain cancer. Will let you know more about this later.