Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! Our kids went to 3 different places to go trick or treating. After a week of doctor appointments and tests, I was too tired to walk around so Collin and I went to dinner. Collin did walk with Jackson a little around my sister's neighborhood.

Jackson was a slushy, Caden was a game show contestant, and Grace was Hermione. Collin and I had plans to dress up as the Greatest Showman couple that we considered doing for the marriage retreat dress up night or Hippies, which we ended up doing at the marriage retreat. However, this year my energy level was zero so no dressing up but I wanted to share our fun costumes that we didn't wear anyway. My sister and her husband dressed as Bob Ross and a painting. It was a fun night of the kids running around with friends and family.

Blood Work

There is no doubt there is a higher power watching over us, our Heavenly Father. My friend took me to get my blood work done this morning. Collin is trying to let others help us so he can go to my doctor's visits with me. Grace went with us as she's just one of the most caring and compassionate kids I know. I get there and check in on my phone. As I walked in I realized I forgot my paperwork. Randall also had an appointment and I was hoping we could switch. Literally within minutes of realizing I forgot my paperwork, we ran into a friend from church, Karen Owens! I had already called Collin to see if he could bring the paper work but he was stuck in meetings and I would need to wait. Please pray for him, Collin does the work for four people and now has added on my mess. Karen is such a sweet woman and I asked her if she would mind taking Grace to my house to get my paperwork and bring it back. Y'all, she was so helpful and did it. Grace was able to tell her how to get to my house and bring it back to me. Karen is one of the kindest people. Thank you for helping me today! And thank you Grace for also being there! And thank you Randall for taking me.

Secondly, Quest is in desperate need of a better system. There were so many elderly people having trouble logging into their system. Since 2020, they got rid of having someone at the front desk to help customers. Customer service is zero and many of these people would benefit from help. Randall and I helped several people navigate signing in and getting on the waitlist. The room was packed and it's highly recommended to have an appointment but so many of these people don't know how to do that online. I know we're in the middle of elections but let's look around our community and see how we can make real changes now.

And it's fun to celebrate when someone who has been waiting for over an hour gets called back to get their blood drawn. The joy in these people's faces when they hear their name called was kind of like cheering when your favorite football team scores a touchdown. People are waiting months to get into see a doctor to have these tests done. Then stressed and confused with all the extra questions.

And no, they didn't let me switch appointments with my friend. They called me back and told me they couldn't do anything without my orders so they bumped me down on the list. It wasn't terrible. I had to fast and have hypoglycemia when I don't eat or drink which is why I usually don't go alone and am not supposed to drive right now. But I had a protein smoothie ready to drink afterwards and am doing just fine.

 

Marisa has a Brain Tumor

Chapter 1

Hello friends, it's been a while. I think the last post I made was when Collin was diagnosed with colon cancer. I want to document my health journey so my kids can easily find it as they grow older. I appreciate my husband and all the friends and family who have been so supportive of us since finding out I had a brain tumor. From helping with kids, rides, meals, covered my classes, etc., I appreciate each and everyone of you and the prayers as we are navigating the news we received on October 18th, when I went to the ER. It is evident that God is actively working in my life and I need to give Him the glory! I'll give a shrot version first and more details for those who care to read this chapter of my life, which is really an amazing God story. Also read about the salt and plants at the end. 

I have a brain tumor in the pituitary gland. Last week they thought I also might have an aneurysm. We have been covered with prayers. I found out Friday, it’s a large vein that can give the appearance of an aneurysm. That was such an answer to prayer that we only have a tumor to deal with. I saw the surgeon today. Things are moving quickly. I have to get bloodwork and if my prolactin levels are high, there’s medicine that can help, if they are level, then I’ll have surgery. I have strong reservations about taking anything for life. The surgery, honestly, doesn’t seem as bad, it would be done by two surgeons, the brain surgeon, Dr. Lee, whom I saw today, and an ear, throat, and nose doctor. Nevertheless, let’s continue to pray for whatever is best. It also does not look like its cancerous. I also lost my voice last weekend, but was brought soups and prayers.

Onto the novel. Some of you have heard some or all of my story. I have been having constant headaches for weeks. I tried drinking more water thinking that was part of the cause, I blamed the all season weather we have in Texas because that can cause them. Nevertheless, headaches are nothing new, I’ve dealt with them most of my life. In middle school and high school I would often visit Mrs. Pippin to get some headache medicine. If you went to SCS back in the day, she was a dream to have working in the front office. She always knew how to take care of us.

I also get Migraines, which I had one a few weeks ago. When a headache turns into a migraine I cannot function. I usually get sick and have to go to bed in a dark quiet room. The weekend before last we had our annual American Heritage Girls Father/Daughter event. The Thursday before I was extra tired, my head continued to throb, but I made it through the day, barely. I sat on the couch all day and even watched a movie to try to take my mind off my head. I NEVER do that. Friday, I took Grace to our homeschool co-op, joined the rest of the board for pictures, and came home to get Jackson before getting back to teach. He wasn’t ready yet that morning and normally we’d wait for him but I had to be there early for the pictures. When I got home, I was exhausted, my head was pounding and I told Collin I thought I needed to go to the ER. If someone would have taken a hammer to my head, I would have felt better. He asked if I wanted to go to our doctor first but his office doesn’t open until 10. I told him no, I needed some medicine to knock this headache out. Nothing had been working and I had a very busy weekend ahead of me. I told him it’s probably worse than I thought because I have a pretty high pain tolerance. I’ve given birth to three kids all unmedicated. We dropped Jackson off at co-op and went to the ER.

Here is where the blessings really start. We had the BEST ER doctor. The ER doctor asked when my last CT scan was. I told him I don’t think I’ve ever had one. He suggested I have one. Collin was worried about radiation, which is concerning, but I told him I really would love to find out if there’s a cause of these headaches. They gave me a shot for my headache and some medicine and I was pain free. I hadn’t been pain free in weeks! The radiologist was running behind because of some technical issues so he wasn’t able to read it. I had requested leaving as soon as possible because I was needing to get my kids and help setup for this father daughter event. The ER doctor came in and said we could be released but it looks like there could be a cyst on my brain but they hadn’t gotten the results and I’d probably need to follow up with that. About 5 minutes later, he and another doctor and nurse came in and said they still hadn’t gotten the results but it looked like a tumor on the pituitary gland. He said he had only seen this one other time in the 10 years he’s worked at the ER and has seen over 50,000 patients. He said it was important to get an MRI and see a neurosurgeon next week.

Honestly, there wasn’t much I could do at that point. It was suggested that we cancel the father daughter event but we had 77 people signed up to come, the food was ordered, that honestly would have stressed me out even more. I was still alive and pain free. That’s exactly what I was hoping to be after going to the ER, I just wasn’t supposed to drive on the medication and never expected to have a brain tumor. I also needed to follow up with my doctor and get an MRI asap. When I got home, I called my doctor and he wanted me to come in then. My doctor is also a true godsend and amazing doctor. I was hoping to take an hour nap before working that evening but instead went to his office. He put in orders for the MRI and referral to some neurosurgeons. He told me I needed to see an endocrinologist as well. I should be seeing one every 6 months but haven’t been to mine since 2013 after the miracle of the 3 nodules in my thyroid disappeared. Then I gave birth to my daughter and then youngest son and never took the time to go back. I have nodules on my thyroid again so we will investigate that as well with another new friendly doctor. I’m feeling really old typing all this, doctor this, doctor that…

The ER doctor, Dr. Blakenship, called me Saturday to follow up. He left a voicemail and gave me his cell phone number as he wanted to follow up and see how I was. He suggested two highly rated neurosurgeons. He’s been so kind following up with me and my case. He said as long as my PCP put in a referral I could get in with the highly rated neurosurgeon he recommended.

Monday I got an MRI, walked in my doctor’s office afterwards and he showed me the pictures. He’s just like that, his other patients were running late so I slipped in to say hi since I was a few doors down at Touchstone. He was amazing when Collin had colon cancer and would call him to check on him from time to time. Tuesday I met with my doctor again and he went over the results. I have the tumor, a cyst, a possible brain aneurysm, and basically an ear infection. Y’all my heart sunk. My biggest fear was a brain aneurysm. I held it together. Collin was with me and we asked our church family to pray for us and close friends. I had to get a CTA with contrast for another look.

Friday morning the neurosurgeon’s office called to schedule an appointment for Monday with the doctor we wanted! My doctor called me on his lunch hour apologizing for not being able to get ahold of anyone in their office but had a referral to an excellent surgeon at UT Southwestern in Dallas (I didn’t want to go to Dallas), and another surgeon I already had an appointment with later in November because he’s currently out of the country. I said, “Dr. Whaley, I already have an appointment with Dr. Lee on Monday! They called me this morning to schedule it.” I also said I had an appointment with him in 15 minutes and would see him soon.

At my appointment on Friday, I got the results of the CTA. What they thought was an aneurysm is an enlarged vein that gives the appearance of an aneurysm. Praise God!! You give someone bad news with even more potential bad news, that is something else, it makes the bad news not so bad.

That brings me to my visit today. I cried at the surgeon’s office like a big old baby. I’m not a crier and have not cried at a doctor’s office since giving birth to my babies. However, Dr. Lee is exactly who I would want for a surgeon and doctor. He is a man of faith, told me he is just doing the work God called him to do. He scheduled me with an endocrinologist I'll be seeing this week, whose name I can pronounce (yay!), Dr. Tan. And get this, he referred me to an ophthalmologist who was the first eye doctor I ever had! Dr. Chu, is the eye doctor who helped me see after I failed the vision test at the DPS when I was 15 when trying to get my permit to drive. He saw me that day and gave me contacts so I could see! If you’ve ever needed glasses, you know how amazing it is to be able to see! I was amazed at the details of the leaves on trees! It explained so much in middle school and early high school not being able to see the white board in class. Then we went back to the DPS and I got my permit and have been driving ever since! I can't believe he's still around, and at the same office! All that to say, God is so good! We are counting our blessings, naming them one by one. Now I’m really feeling old being excited to see a doctor, but really, I’m looking forward to thanking my first eye doctor for helping me see. I have lost my peripheral vision and my balance is a little off which is why I’m getting referred to him. I have awesome friends who have been helping drive me and the kids around.

Next steps. After I get the blood test done, and I meet with the endocrinologist, we will know if surgery or medication is the better way to treat this. Honestly I would kind of rather do the surgery than take medication for life. I’m praying for wisdom and good guidance. I’m thankful for one more day. No matter what happens, that’s really all we can do. Be thankful for today and not worry about tomorrow.

I read through the Bible every year. But had missed this part until Saturday when I read Luke 14:34-35: “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.” I love homesteading and gardening or the idea of it and have had gardens for a number of years. I’ve never thought to add salt to soil or a manure pile, which we have used both to grow crops. Did you know, upon further research, that salt can help soil retain moisture, kill weeds, and make soil easier to till. It can also release nutrients in the soil that plants can use. In some cases, salt can help prevent rust and blight in crops and yield your plant growth 2x to 4x. I shared this with my life group Saturday as some of us are into gardening and stuff like that.

My friend shared this with me today from her study Bible. Salt can lose its flavor. When it gets wet and then dries, nothing is left but a tasteless residue. Many Christians blend into the world and avoid the cost of boldly living out their faith. But Jesus says that if Christians lose their distinctive saltiness, they become worthless. Just as salt flavors and preserves food, we are to preserve the good in the world and bring new flavor to life. This requires careful planning, willing sacrifice, and an unswerving commitment to Jesus’ kingdom. But if we fail to be “salty,” we fail to represent Jesus in the world. How “salty” are you?

Each day is a gift. Everyday we have the opportunity to serve, be kind, and bless someone. If you are reading this, God has a purpose for you. Find it! Live it out if you aren’t already. Love you guys! Thanks for reading this chapter in my life.

Update on My Husband's Cancer

My husband was diagnosed with colon cancer at the end of November. They found a massive tumor in his colon the day before Thanksgiving. He was scheduled for surgery December 17th. Two days before surgery they called and said he'd need to reschedule due to staffing issues at the hospital. His surgery got bumped to January 12th. Two days before they called and told him his surgery was changed to another hospital because of staff out due to covid and to get tested for covid. He took a test at home and it was positive. We felt horrible that we exposed a bunch of friends the previous day at our daughter's surprise birthday party. Needless to say, his surgery was cancelled again and they told him to call to schedule once he had a negative covid test. Several people who were at the party with us tested for covid and they all tested negative, thankfully!

How did we do with covid? Just fine. We honestly wouldn't have known we had it except we tested for it. Kids had zero symtoms. We had a little congestion. I took an allergy pill and my congestion cleared up. We do eat super heatlhy. No sugar, mostly organic, and all plant based. We also take a number of supplements and went ahead and took Ivermectin since it's known to help shrink cancer tumors. Not sure if it helped with covid or cancer but that's what we did. 

He got his results from his last test from Saturday late Monday night. It was negative. We've been praying a bunch about this and trying to seek God's will in how to handle everything. After talking to many, many people, including many who have had colon cancer, he's decided to go ahead with the resection surgery. We are so thankful for all the prayers and support we've received. We will continue with our plant based diet. We are greatly enjoying juicing and have seen so many health benefits from doing both. Thanks again for the prayers. 

Grace is 8!

Dear Grace,

You are now 8 years old! Your daddy was scheduled to have surgery the day before your birthday and was going to be in the hospital on your birthday. I planned a surprise party with some of your friends the Sunday afternoon before. We dropped you off at your aunt and uncle's house and you thought you were going to go swimming with them. You showed up at our recreation center and we were there with your friends to surprise you. One of your little brother's friends asked if you were going swimming that afternoon and kind of gave it away. But you had a blast and the party was fun for all. You finally got a swimming birthday party!

2nd grade is going well. Your reading and reading comprehension is amazing. You are excelling in all of your subjects. You enjoy dance and American Heritage Girls. You want to play basketball this summer. Your relationship with God is growing and you read your Bible daily. You love your cat and all the animals. I could see you working with animals when you grow up. Right now when you grow up you want to be a vet. Your best friend is Emma. Your favorite food is macaroni and cheese. We are so proud of the young woman you are becoming. You have your annual checkup with your doctor next week.

Love,

Mom



Pictures from your party.

Colon Cancer

It has been so long since I've blogged. I don't know if anyone will read this. If nothing else, I want to saved so my children can read my thoughts as they grow up. Life is extremely busy and I just haven't carved out the time from our busy schedule. However, I feel it's time I try and make this a priority. Journaling has always been a way I've been able to express myself and putting my thoughts down brings clarity. 

The title of this blog is Colon Cancer. Almost two weeks ago we found out that Collin has colon cancer. This came as a complete surprise. He had been having blood in his stool since August and it was getting worse in September. It took a few months to go to the doctor, get blood work done, visit the GI doctor, and schedule a colonoscopy. Finally the day before Thanksgiving he had his first colonoscopy. What should have been a simple in and out procedure of being there no more than 2.5 hours, turned into us being there 4 hours and discovering he has a massive tumor on his colon. They sent him for a CT-Scan and blood work under STAT, which means life-threatening and needs to be done ASAP. They also did a biopsy of the tumor. We went in the following Monday to see his GI doctor. Since it was Thanksgiving they hadn't gotten the biopsy results back but did have his blood work and CT-Scan results. Both looked good. Praise God! The following day the doctor called and told him the biopsy came back and he has adenocarcinoma, aka colon cancer. This was a Tuesday and the kids had dentists appointments in FW and I was gone with them half of the day. When I got home, Collin was still working and it wasn't until I was making dinner that he came in the kitchen and told me. Tuesdays are our hectic evenings. Caden has basketball practice and all of the kids have Trail Life and American Heritage Girls. We didn't get a chance to fully process it together and basically ate and split to get kids to activities.

While at Trail Life and AHG, some elders from church came up and prayed over us and a few friends joined in the prayer. I'm still in shock but also am hopeful that he can beat this. We are so blessed that the cancer hasn't spread. Later that week we went to the surgeon's office and sat down in his office to talk about surgery. He said he would remove a foot of his colon and test the surrounding area for cancer and that would determine what stage of cancer he has. He said he's extremely lucky it hasn't spread and is not stage 4. He said it was stage 1, 2, or 3, but we wouldn't know until after surgery. He will spend 5 days in the hospital and then it will take 4-6 weeks to recover. We asked if there were dietary changes he could make. He said no. This is frustrating because there is so much you can do if you have cancer. We asked his GI doctor the same question and he told us eliminate pork and eliminate beef for now and if you want to eat meat only eat fish or a little chicken or turkey. But really he needs to eat lots and lots of vegetables. The surgeon also told him he's most likely had cancer for 5-7 years!!! 😧

This leads us to what are we doing now. Caden had a basketball tournament in San Antonio. We had planned to go down earlier than we did but since Collin will be missing a lot of work coming up, we went up the day before. We still got to take the kids to Sea World like I had planned a few months ago. Caden had some tough games at the tournament and barely loss 3 of them. It was so sad. Anyway, going out of town made it a little difficult keeping with our new diet but not completely. Collin has cut out sugar completely. We are juicing organic vegetables daily. Mostly carrots, ginger, beets, celery, greens, and an apple. We're eating big salads, nuts, seeds, and some clean fish. After just one week of this he's lost 8 lbs and I've lost 5 lbs. Weight loss isn't the reason for this it's to kill the cancer cells and make sure this tumor doesn't grow and spread. We've been having oatmeal with blueberries and pomegranets for breakfast, black coffee, and for dinner more vegetables and legumes. We're reading all about alternative methods of fighting cancer. By nature, I question everything and after watching my step-brother die of cancer earlier this year I'm frankly disgusted with the cancer industry. I'm disgusted with the food industry. Our food is killing us and causing so many diseases and it's so hard to break the cycle. Yet in our country there only "proven" mainstream ways to treat cancer, which most fail, is to have surgery, chemo, and or radiation. Billions of dollars are spent on cancer patients, they feel like crap, and lose the will to live. When I truly believe there are other ways. They take work, but there are other ways to kill this disease. 

What are we going to do? Everything is up to Collin on what he wants to do. Of course we want the cancer out. He is tenatively scheduled for surgery on the 17th. However, insurance hasn't approved it yet. Meanwhile, we are cleaning up our diets and looking at alternative methods, including beating cancer with the fenbendazole protocol (oddly enough, we have tons of this medicine unopened because we give it to our goat), ivermectin (say what?! look it up!), and dietary changes. Chris Beat Cancer is a fabulous resource on beating cancer with food. My friend's brother-in-law beat stage 3 bladder cancer with fenbendazole, which has been proven to shrink tumors. I ordered the powder which is what is recommended, we have the liquid. I'm starting to think maybe we could all use a little deworming. Many national healers tend to believe cancer is a parasite. I am not a doctor so I don't know. But I was a journalist in college and know how to reasearch things. I love looking at the research and reading stories about people who healed naturally. Also each person has the ability to take their health into their own hands. It's not the governments job to keep us safe and well. In fact, it seems like they are okay keeping people unhealthy and sick with their poisonous GMOs and processed foods. 

People ask me how I'm feeling. Truthfully, I'm pissed off. I really am. I am frankly angry and it's not at Collin, it's at being lied to by the FDA. I'm angry that cancer is still the 2nd leading cause of death in America, with almost 600,000 Americans dying every.single.year from this dreadful horrible disease and the same old methods are not working well. I was pissed when my brother died from it and yet the drug companies were able to come up with a vaccine to cure covid, which isn't working well and has caused a ton of health problems for many people who have gotten it. Meanwhile, good doctors are able to treat high risk people early with proper protocols and people are recovering easily from it when given the right stuff. We all had it last December and rested and took the vitamins that were recommended. Now you can get the anibody infusion and/or take other things and recover quickly at home if you need it. I have fully vaccinated friends who have gotten the disease and did the antibody infusion and recovered. It's all about the choice and making the best decision for yourself. I don't want to pursuade anyone from doing what they feel is best but I don't think any medical thing should be mandated. I have two blood clotting disorders and am unable to get it. I get my antibodies tested every 6 months and they are still sky high. I also am so so sorry if you lost a love one to covid last year. I'm sorry if you lost a love one to a cancer, a car accident, or other disease. Losing a love one is hard. I'm just angry because of stupid covid we weren't able to see my brother as much during his last years of life and yet cancer kills more people every year than covid did/does.

Please keep us in your prayers. Life is short, we all know this. But seeing diseases eat away at people we love is so hard. My kids are worried and we're trying to be optimastic. We are blessed with some of the best of friends who are going to help us by loving on our children and caring for them so I can be at the hospital with Collin. Please send Collin some encouragement. He's been under a lot of stress at work and working so much extra for the past two years. 

Also, if you are not a Christian, please talk with me. Our biggest hope is in God and through prayer and petition I believe Collin can beat cancer. Please keep Collin in your prayers. 

Grace is 6!

Dear Grace,

Happy 6th Birthday! I am late writing about your birthday and I apologize. You had a wonderful birthday and a fun party in January. This year you wanted an art party. You had a lot of sweet friends over and painted with them. Everyone had a blast! You don't really like cake much so we served a chocolate chip cookie cake. It was a hit! We also had cupcakes for those who prefer that. 

You are such a kind, sweet, and loving girl. I love how much you love and care about your friends and family. If someone is scared you are there for them. If they get hurt, you help them. Your laugh is infectious and your smile lights up the room. You love God and Jesus very much and I admire your devotion to them. You are not a morning person and enjoy sleeping in. You love animals and constantly ask for an inside pet. Sometimes you bring an outside animal inside and make a home for it. 

Kindergarten was a great year. You learned to read, improved your counting and addition, and grew in your love for art. You wanted to paint just about everyday and you did. You played basketball and lost your two front teeth during the season. I was an assistant coach to yours and Jackson's team. You guys were the Puma's and undefeated. You were the only girl on the team and one of the best players. You enjoyed CC, dance class, music class, and playing with your friends. Our country was hit with a pandemic during the Spring of your kindergarten year and the world as we knew it seemed to stop. All of your classes were cancelled. Almost every business but grocery stores were closed for 6 weeks. Churches were closed for 6+ weeks as well and some are still closed now. It has been a crazy time.

Some of your favorites:

Best Friends: Emma, Carrie, 

Color:  Pink

Song: Beatle Songs

Place to Go: Urban Air

Food: Cheese

When you grow up you want to be: A Doctor and a Scientist

At your yearly exam in January,  you dressed in your doctor's jacket, ready to learn from the doctor.  You weighed 51.8 lbs, and were 48 in tall. You are 80% for weight and 90% for height. You're very healthy and smart! I included some pictures from your birthday party. We love you Grace!

Love,

Mom