BigFred

Hello Family and Saints of God! We are full of Praise today! We thank God that he allowed us to find favor in order to get Frederick’s SSI approved on the first try! Everyone was telling us how people are never approved the first time but Hallelujah, God moved and we were approved. The downside to this is that it only represents 1/3 of what Frederick had been making. So we are faced with some major decisions about what to do. Please pray with us concerning the sale of our home and moving into something smaller and cheaper and/or me doing some part time work. Our desire is to be in the will of the Lord and if we had our way, we would love to keep our home, however, if God has other plans for us, we will be obedient. We want clear direction from God. It’s amazing how the Lord has already continued to bless us and help us to find favor in so many situations. We stand in awe as to what God will do next.

In addition, Frederick saw the oncologist yesterday. We laughed and joked about medicine and christmas (the doctor is Jewish) and other stuff. We were all three in rare form, especially since our 2:30pm appointment finally happened around 4pm. Someone looking in might not have even realized we were at a doctor’s appointment. It was a good appointment and Frederick was very up beat and laughed a lot. Basically, the tumor continues to shrink. As we expected Frederick will do another 5 days of the chemo pill temodar with a doctor’s follow-up in 30 days. In the mean time, we will work on helping Frederick’s body to adjust or “compensate” for what the tumor has done to affect his sight and equlibrium among other things. In short, the doctor says the body will naturally begin to adjust or compensate with his eyes for example and physical therapy will help in the areas that don’t naturally adjust. This means will get serious about lovingly “pushing” Frederick to do things like walking more, exercising more, playing his guitar, whatever it takes to help him to become more self sufficient and get back to normal so that “when he is completely healed”, he can be good as new or better!

We are also getting ready to celebrate Ericka’s 13th birday on December 18th. One week before Christmas. If you get a chance, it would be great for her to be surprised by people recognizing her birthday. She has been a wonderful help to us and she hasn’t let the situation get to her. She had a 4.0 gpa this quarter at school. Praise God!

We continually thank God for you all and your prayers and visits and expressions of love to our family. This Christmas season, remember to follow the star of Jesus. His light is shining ever brightly for us to see and to follow. Have you seen the star? Did you come to worship Him?

Follow the star!!!
Diana & Frederick

Happy Thanksgiving to You! It’s been a quiet week and that’s a good thing! Frederick’s INR was at a good level on Tuesday so it seems to be more stable. If it continues to do so, we’ll be able to wait 2 weeks betweens check in’s.

We had a quiet day today, but Frederick did eat some dressing, mac and cheese and lamb. He kept it all down too! We had turkey, lamb, dressing, mac & cheese, greens, sweet potatoes, and cheesecake and sweet potatoe pie! Yum!

Next week we go back to the oncologist for a 30 day check up since his last chemo. We expect that they will give him another 5 days of chemo because, as we keep seeing on the MRI’s the tumor is shrinking (ever so slowly), but it is is shrinking. Our prayers now are that Frederick will get his strength up and become more mobile. I know that getting out of the housej will help his morale and his physical condition.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support in so many ways! We are not alone!

Love you all,
Diana & Frederick

Good day to you! Frederick was released to come home yesterday after so many test including an EKG, CT, Ultrasound, Blood Test, radiation stress test, I probably forgot something…anyway, they ruled out the idea that his chest pains were heart related. They now think maybe it’s his esophagus or acid reflux from vomiting so much! Hope that wasn’t too graphic for ya! So he will go back on protonix which he was taking when he was on the dexadron (for swelling). I’m happy to know that it’s not his heart, but I’m not happy that they can’t say what it is. As I write this I am remembering that doctors after all are just “practicing” medicine so they have to experiment as it were and hope that eventually they do the right thing. Thank God we know the ultimate physician, the ultimate healer, the one who knows us inside and out including the number of hairs on our heads, assuming you’ve still got yours!

We continue to covet your prayers for wisdom and knowledge for the doctors.

Hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving. We’ve got a lot to praise God for!

Diana & Frederick

It was a dark and stormy night…oh wait, that’s the wrong story! It was a long and rainy day! That’s the story I want to tell today…

So we get to our 9 am appointment at Seattle Radiology and it’s a long wait for them to get Frederick in. We had a 10:30 appointment with the surgeon Dr. Raisis. We got there at 11:45. He saw Frederick at noon. The good news is that the tumor is shrinking. Still very slowly. So right now there are basically 3 things the doctor sees us doing. We can do nothing except to keep doing the chemo and wait for it to shrink more, we can have the doctor go in and do surgery on the right side to “pick” at the tumor as the doctor said it, or we can try the gamma knife, not cyber, but gamma knife. Gamma is another type of radiation. Again, due to where the tumor is on the brain stem, there is not much we can do about Frederick’s mobility. We’re used to chemo and waiting so that’s not a change. Another surgery would be very hard on Frederick, and the gamma knife would be the last radiation that could be done. We go back to the chemo doctor next week. We would ask that you would please concentrate your prayers on clarity for us and the doctors as to the right continued treatment for Frederick.

So, after we saw the surgeon, we went home, but Frederick had been having some slight chest pains for a few days so we called the oncologist. He said to go to emergency so we did. They did lots of test, found most of the test to show nothing unusual, but the kept him overnight to do a few more test on his heart. Of course, byt the time the decision was made to keep Frederick, the swedish hospital on Broadway as full…can you believe that…at least in telemetry where they wanted to send Frederick, so he we transported to the Cherry Hill campus. He was finally settled into his room at 10 pm last night. As you guessed, I am tired on top of tired, but…it is well with my soul! It is well with our souls!

Oh yeah, Dr. Raisis gave me permission to “strongly encourage” Frederick to play his guitar, go to church, do some more walking and generally just cheer up! So that’s what we’re gonna do!

Love ya
Diana & Frederick

Hope you are enjoying your Veteran’s Day holiday.  We have a lot to be appreciative for as we are protected by the military of the US government. 

My day started out with a long unnecessary trip downtown to Seattle Radiologist for a 9 am appointment that isn’t scheduled until Wednesday.  We had this appointment scheduled for 11/12 for almost two months.  However, I had a note on my original appointment sheet that said call to confirm.  I didn’t and so I didn’t know that the appointment was Wednesday not today.  So we had a dry run with using the new wheel chair that we have.  Didn’t I mention that.  Yes the physical therapist was adament about us getting a wheelchair so we have it now.  It’s suppose to make it easier for Frederick to get around in the house, but it really doesn’t.  Even with all the hallways clear, he needs help getting to and from the wheelchair and to and from the bathroom.  But the physical therapist is happy.  Next time she comes I will be sure and have her help him so she can see how convenient it is.    At least now we can take Frederick out to the mall or something so he doesn’t feel so house bound. 

Basically, there have been no changes to his mobility.  His eating is improving but still not back to normal.  In addition, every smell good or bad affects his stomach.  We do still use soap however! 

Frederick has promised that this week we will go downstairs and he will show me how to run the music equipment.  Please pray that we don’t hurt each other in the process.

So the week looks like this: 

Tuesday - Swedish Social Workers meet with us at the house @ 12
INR checked at 2:30
Wednesday - 9am MRI
10:30 Surgeon follow-up (Dr. Raisis)
Thursday - Freddy Sitter comes while I go to a meeting at work
Thursday or Friday - INR check time TBD

Please pray that I will get some rest and keep my sanity. I know that appointment was originally for 11/12, but they changed it on me…

To God Be The Glory, Great Things He Has Done!
Diana & Frederick

The fifth day of chemo was Monday 11/5.  So far it has not been too hard on Frederick.  He still has had a few vomiting episodes, but not all day long and not every day. 

His INR was checked today and it’s still low at 1.5, which means his blood is still too thick.  They are upping his coumadin dose again to try to fix this situation.  

The physical therapist is ordering a wheelchair so that the chances of Frederick falling are lessoned at the house.  Frederick also mentioned that we could take him to the mall with a wheel chair.  If you know Frederick, you know he loves to shop!  They talked about a light weight wheelchair that folds easier, but it would be harder for him to maneuver at home, so it will probably be a regular size with the larger wheels, making it harder to get into the car.  Oh well, I guess we just can’t have everything now can we. 

On Monday, we go for the two month check up with the surgeon, after another MRI. 

Please pray that the doctors can get Frederick’s INR back to where it needs to be because the risk of blood clots is greater when the blood is thicker.  Also pray that we will get some kind of good news on Monday. 

We were saddened to hear that the gentleman who was getting radiation at the same time as Frederick was, died on Monday.  The cancer had taken over his body.  Please pray for his wife Jeanne and the family.  The memorial is on Monday the 12th.  They were a very nice couple and we were praying for his healing.

For His Glory!

Diana & Frederick

The week ended kinda slow.  Frederick got up Thursday morning very unstable and not able to get around on his own.  I didn’t want to leave him alone in the house, but I knew the physical therapist was coming so I left before she arrived.  After she saw Frederick, she called me right away and said he should not be alone in the house.  He almost fell down twice while she was there.  She said she made him promise that if he wanted to go somewhere he will crawl on his hands and knees.  Not fun!  I will be trying to do all my work from home.  Praise God for a job and bosses who are understanding and willing to allow me to do my work from home.  I have already had an offer to give me a break on Wednesday.  If anyone else has some time during the day and would like to Frederick-sit, please let me know.  I won’t run away or anything.  I’ll probably just go in to my office, get work to bring home, maybe stop at the 2nd hand store and poke around for a second or grocery shop.  I don’t need to do anything too serious just not feel house bound like I know Frederick is feeling.  

This next round of chemo started hard with vomiting the first day, but yesterday and today were relatively quiet and Frederick did eat and keep some food on his stomach.  He even ate some apple pie.  Thank you Cindy Reed!  By the way, we don’t need anything else sweet for a long while.  Today I bought a lemon cake at our craft bazaar and then someone gave Ericka a cake.  We’ll try not to overdose on sugar, but it’s gonna be hard.

Thank you so much for your prayers and calls.  It seems like this has been going on for a long time (and it has), but we covet your continued prayers and calls!

For His Glory!

Diana & Frederick