BigFred

Hello,

Just checking in. Frederick has been doing well. The doctors say he was having an adrenal crisis. When the steroids were stopped, Frederick’s adrenal glands went in to overdrive. So he is now on a 28 week step down of the steroids. This will give his glands a chance to slowly start reproducing on their own. So far he’s been doing okay. We’ll start the step down next week. It’s not complicated, but we’re gonna have to make an excel chart to help us keep on track.

We had a great Thanksgiving with just the family including Jerrold and Jalen and we actually all sat at the table and ate together like a family. We haven’t done that in a while. It was nice. The food was good, even if I do say so myself.

We’ll looking forward to Christmas, even though Ericka may be traveling to Baltimore for part of the Christmas vacation. She’s been trying to get herself back there since she went to Pennsylvania last summer. She’s been practicing talking like her Eastcoast cousins. It’s funny to hear her try to create an east coast accent.

Thank you for your prayers, and encouragement. We’re yet believing for total healing because we know God is able.

Love ya
Diana & Frederick

I’m Back! From another short hospital stay. I’m still having trouble with adjusting to gettng off one of my old medications. I’ll do a much slower tapper coming off the med. The med is a steriod called dexamethasone that has proven to cause problems in rats and small children. So it’s one of the harder ones to deal with. I’ll be glad when I can be done with it. It can cuase problems with later motor skills as well as cognitive prolems. They found this mostly in studies children.

I feel real goood now and finally got some sleep last night. I felt better after eating some breakfast too. I hope to get to some music today at least playing a little guitar. I need to spend more tme in the word too. I’m still doing devotion in Proverbs. So I’ll take some time later today to listen to the Lord through His word.

Ericka and I spent a lot of time talking about world history last night. She let me know that history is her favorite subject in school. She’s learning a lot about US wars the civil wars and the British wars. She gets so excited when discussing what she’s learned. The stradegy that the Generals used and the way the soldiers fought to overcome the greatest odds really gets her going. These lead into talks about socialogy and the norms of different cultures. It was wonderful to be sitting there with my little girl discussing heavy subjects like that.

So my weekend started out on a high note, and I’m looking forward to it getting better.

Blessings to all,

Frederick

Frederick was admitted into the hospital yesterday. Earlier this week he was having excruciating stomach pains and nausea. He went to the doctor’s yesterday and they admitted him because his blood pressure was extremely low and he was continuing to have the stomach pains and nausea. As of last night it was all they could do to get blood samples and get an iv going in his arm, his veins were so flat, but he was comfortable after they got him a “big boy bed”. He was in the pediatrics ward cause that’s the only space they could find for him and he was in a childrens bed! Ouch!

This morning he told me he didn’t sleep at all and he had chest pains so they gave him something for the chest pains. They moved him into ICU Room 811D (d=door) just a little bit ago. EKG shows nothing unusual. They took more blood for testing as well.
If you’d like to call him the number is 206.386.6942, I think he’d like the interruption in the monotony of lying in the hospital.

Please pray specifically that the doctors will figure out “What’s really going on!” and that they can get Big Fred feeling better so he can go home. We don’t want to spend Thanksgiving at Swedish. I can’t remember if we did last year or not!

Thank you as always for your prayers, love and kindness.
Diana

It’s been an up and down week. I really didn’t do much different than my normal week. Sometime I feel like I don’t get enough sleep, so I’m sluggish. I feel like I could sleep all day. But all in all, my spirit’s are good.

This weekend seems to have flown by. I got a little rest and had a good time of reflection. I need to step up my physical therapy excerises at home. Being in better shape will help my recovery a lot. The walking I’ve been doing through the week has helped but I need some cardio too.

I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner. Not sure what we’ll have this year, but I know it’ll be good. This is the time of the year up until New Years that a person could gain a lot of weight wirh all the cooking that goes on. I don’t need to get any fatter so I’ll have to watch how much I eat. It’ll be hard

The praise team has started to work on Christmas music now. I don’t know if I’ll have enough energy to play guitar with them. I’ll play it by ear. The singers sound like they’re jelling real nice, so the program should be great.

I’m looking forward to being in church tomorrow it starts the week right when there’s a good service to lead off the week. This ought to be a blessed holiday season with so much to thank God for and Christmas to celebrate. I don’t remember much of last year’s holiday. That’s understandable though. So this year should be special. I need to go gift shopping before I run out time.

Well, enojoy the Lord those of you that attend church. I’m praying for those that don’t

God bless,

Frederick

Well I’m struggling today. Didn’t feel very good this morning so I stayed home from church. I feel a little better now. I felt tired and had chest pains. The chest pains just may have been gas. I hope so. Other than that I feel pretty good. Everything else is going well.

Diana stayed home with me and Ericka went to church. It’s a blessing that she doesn’t want to miss the word. She has good relationships at church.

I woke up this morning biting my tongue. I’ve got a big burise on the tip of my tongue, hurts like crazy. What a way to wake up. Stange Sunday.

I’ve got a pretty easy week ahead of me. Hope to get some recording done. I’ve got to get busy. Some of my musician friends from LoDebar are talking about getting together to play some music. That’ll be fun. I still don’t have a singing voice. Hope it comes back soon.

Everyone have a blessed week.

In Christ,

Frederick

Another great day in the making. Just getting back from my walk of the mall. I walked it double the length I usually do, and I still feel energized. I sit during part of my time at the mall and people watch. Folks are interesting. People of all ages. At 11 am it’s not to crowded. There are other folks there just for the walk too I’m sure.

I feel like I got some good sleep last night. Went to bed just afer 10 and read the newspaper about our new president. It’s still sinking in, what a historic time it is. My little girl Ericka was really excited about the election. The day of the race she took time to explain to me what they discussed about the eletion at school. So as the news services covered the race she paid close attention. When Obama was annnounced as the winner she jumped up in excitment to watch it on the TV in the living room. Diana didn’t want to follow it, too much emotion. She just wanted to know when it was over. So her and Ericka were up celebrating in thier own way the election of Obama.

The music for Christmas has been chosen at my church and I plan to play guitar with the praise team. That ought to be fun. I just got the CD with all the songs so I’ve got to get busy learning the tunes. Rehearsals start soon so we can be ready for the program which I think is Dec 21st service. It’s usually a high time with all the different music styles. There’s something for everyone.

Enjoy your evening, God bless,

Frederick

Obama is the president! Do you believe it? I never thought this day would come, but look at us now. My family around the country was on the phone as history was being made. It was so exciting as everything unfolded. Obama’s speach was pretty good too.

As I walked the mall this morning I was trying to see how the public was responding. Things didn’t really seem different on the surface. I guess I would have had to get into some conversations with people to get an idea of how it’s affected them. The transition from Bush to Obama will be interesting.

My energy is up and down today. Todays walk took a little out of me because I hadn’t walked in a few days. So I have to try and do at least five days a week. I do my streching excerises first thing in the morning and then walk. It’s a pretty good plan.

I hope to get to some guitar practice sometime today. Maybe Diana and I can work on the song I recorded yesterday we need to get a practice schedule for each other so we can get back on track with our music. I’m feeling inspired right now and feel like this a good time to get something done musically.

I hope that everyone is doing well, thnaks so much for all your prayers.

Frederick

What a great day I’m having today. This morning I attended Woman at the Well. They are a women’s bible study group that meets every Tues, and once a month Esatside Academy, the school I used to work at meets with them for a pot luck and games. So it was EA’s time to meet and some of the ladies invited me out. I had a little bit to eat and a couple of cups of coffee. It was so up lifting to see so many people who you know are praying for you. What was special too is that I got to see students that were in EA while I worked there. Toni, the current Executive Director and her staff at EA have really made the school quite the place for at risk kids to make a change. Christ is the difference.

I then came home and did my excerises. Felt good too. I need to keep it up daily so I can continue to get stronger. I’ve got a month off of going into physical therapy so I need to stay on top of doing the excerise daily. My weight has been pretty steady at 270 lbs or so. I could stand to loose about twenty pounds. I’m not eating like crazy, I think I just need a steady workout plan.

Well I finally recorded some mussic. I took a song I wrote years ago, God is Good to Me, and recorded a basic guitar track. Didn’t take long and was fun playing. Now I’ll add some other tracks, bass and lead guitar and then Diana and Ericka can record some vocals.

I’m watching the election on TV, it’s electric.

Be blessed,

Frederick

Hello everyone. Hope you had a good weekend. I’ve been resting a lot this past day or so taking it easy.

I’m past 6 months without chemo now, and the doctors are just waiting to see how the tumor will do the next three months. They are adjusting my meds again slowly taking me off the steroids. We’ll go real slow this time. I’m taking at least eight meds now a couple for my blood. Like my pressure. I’ll be glad when I get off even more meds. In time.

I plan on recording some guitar tracks the next couple of days. The music is getting closer to coming out. Yip pee!!!

We’ll have a new president tomorrow. It’ll seem like forever for the final count. Exciting isn’t it?

Lets keep one another in prayer.

Frederick

Just geting in form a 70th birhtady party of a close freind. It was a lot of fun, they suprised her pretty good. The food was good and there was live music, by a lot of musicians I’ve played with down through the years.

Listening to live music by some good players is inspirational, made me want to come home and practice. I’m hoping that tonight will be the little push I need to get the Lord’s tunes out of me. Once I can get some of the songs out in the open, I can then introduce the music to other musicians so we can work the parts out. I’ve got all the gear to record but I need to workout the formula and story boards for each song. It’s an exhusting fun process to work through. There is a real presence that God is about to do something big with the next booK(s) of songs. Perhaps as the Lord reveals more about my cancer journey, He’ll put melody to it. Can’t wait.

Love in Christ Jesus

Frederick