I wish I could begin this blog by saying that I haven’t written much, because not much has been happening around here – but apparently that wouldn’t be my life right now!!! A LOT has been going on in the Blair home, but as always God has shown Himself even greater. So to spare you an entire book of writing, I’ll give you the ‘Reader’s Digest’ version… I have to admit – I LOVE that magazine, each story is about 3-4 pages long and I feel like I’ve gained enough knowledge to hold a decent adult conversation and sound semi-smart. It’s my trade secret, really. Also, I have a REALLY hard time focusing on anything longer than that… now you know the truth! I’m ADD – I think – but really, aren’t we all?
So… Let me catch you up:
As many of you know, Ted’s older brother Tim (2 yrs older), has been struggling with cancer on and off for about 3 years. It looked like he had it conquered until last year when it came back with a vengeance. Last fall we got the dreaded call that Tim would have about 6 months to live so as a family, we decided to take a
road trip to Florida and spend our last Christmas with him. It was a sad but special time… I’m so glad we went. Then in February, we got the news that Ted also has cancer. A different type, but the same deadly disease. So our plans of sending Ted to Florida a couple more times to see his brother were quickly put away. Over the next couple of months we had to focus on Ted’s care and since Tim was pretty stable, we did not feel an urgency to fly Ted back to FL yet. Until 5 weeks ago when Ted had it on his heart that he needed to go see his brother ASAP. We scheduled the trip to fall between Ted’s chemo treatments. Of course, I had to go also, to care for him and make sure he didn’t get sick while on the trip. (really, he just needed a door-opening, luggage-carrying, car-driving woman by his side ;)) Anyways, I stressed out with the amount it was going to cost for the two of us to fly to FL., plus the basic concerns of Ted’s health outside of our comfort zone, and my body decided to second that motion and render me physically useless for the next week and a half. Then God (as ALWAYS) absolutely provided for us through some precious friends and our trip was set!
Here is where my head starts spinning out of control…
So we safely made it to Florida. AFTER I had an airport security pat me down because the electric toothbrush in my purse - that I threw in last minute - sent the alarm off and they had to search ALL my stuff to make sure it wasn’t really a bomb. Of course, me in my fragile state that I am in - started to cry like a baby and the guard just stared at me and so I explained that it’s not his fault – I’m just stressed out… I don’t know if he really cared or not, but I felt like it was my duty to ease his conscience!
Thankfully, I was able to walk again by the time we were in our hotel room, and for the first half of our week things went smoothly. We had a great time hanging out at Tim’s house. He was very frail and in some pain from the tumor on his neck, which had recently given him double vision in addition to all the other symptoms it had caused. He looked quite different from our visit in December, so I’m glad my girls have memories of him from back then. So for the first 3 days we hung around the house, Ted spent time hanging out in Tim’s room (which Tim rarely left) …talking, sitting, watching TV. Then Wednesday, in the middle of the night, Ted was burning hot. It was 3:30am and I didn’t know where the nearest hospital was – didn’t even occur to me to find out earlier. Now, technically, Ted is supposed to go to the hospital if his temp is 100.5 or higher. He felt HOT. all over.
To spare you the details, we prayed and waited it out. In hindsight, this was dumb. Thursday night and Friday night were the same high fevers. During the day he was okay, for the most part, but at night he was spiking pretty high. However by Saturday, when we were to fly home, Ted was feeling really bad – all day. We missed our flight by 15 minutes so we were on stand-by for the next flight. That we got on the flight was a miracle of God, because they were overbooked on all of the flights until that night. It was only 7:00am – I didn’t think Ted would last much longer. He was sitting in the hot sun shining through the airport windows, with a coat on and shaking with chills. I was scared for my husband and just wanted to be home where I know the doctors, hospitals, pharmacies… so God took care of us.
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were much of the same. High fevers (102.9), chills, coughing fits, shallow breaths. We hit the ground running! The whole week was filled with doctor’s appointments, x-rays, CAT scans, blood tests, breathing tests, lung specialists… While in Fl., we were afraid that Ted had contacted an infection of some kind. The scans showed lung damage in the top portion of Ted’s lungs which was either due to an infection or one of his chemo’s. By the time we met with our Oncologist again, on Friday, he was leaning more towards the chemo rather than an infection. Now mind you, all week we (the Oncologist, Pulmonary specialist and us) were looking for anything from Tuberculosis to Pneumonia to Bronchitis. Because of the shortness of breath, coughing and fevers, this is what it was narrowed down to… or the chemo. The medicine combinations our doctor gave us on Saturday, were now pointing more towards the chemo (Bleomycin) - something Ted had dreaded since the beginning of his treatments. This particular chemo has a possible side effect of hardening the lungs – permanently.
So we have prayed and prayed. This was very scary news for Ted.
Monday we met with the Pulmonary specialist again, and after he examined Ted he was very pleased with how good his breathing sounds. So good in fact, that he really believes that Ted’s lungs will have an almost complete recovery – something that even he was surprised about. Thank The Lord.
This is where our rollercoaster ride continues on… While we were meeting with the lung doctor, Ted received a text from his sister that their brother was not doing good and the ambulance was at the house to transport him to hospice.
Unfortunately, Tim was only at hospice for an hour when he died. I believe he waited for us to come out and see him. It was also his goal to make it to his next birthday. Tim turned 42 on Sunday... he made it!
We celebrate, we cry… and I’m exhausted.
So… Let me catch you up:
As many of you know, Ted’s older brother Tim (2 yrs older), has been struggling with cancer on and off for about 3 years. It looked like he had it conquered until last year when it came back with a vengeance. Last fall we got the dreaded call that Tim would have about 6 months to live so as a family, we decided to take a
road trip to Florida and spend our last Christmas with him. It was a sad but special time… I’m so glad we went. Then in February, we got the news that Ted also has cancer. A different type, but the same deadly disease. So our plans of sending Ted to Florida a couple more times to see his brother were quickly put away. Over the next couple of months we had to focus on Ted’s care and since Tim was pretty stable, we did not feel an urgency to fly Ted back to FL yet. Until 5 weeks ago when Ted had it on his heart that he needed to go see his brother ASAP. We scheduled the trip to fall between Ted’s chemo treatments. Of course, I had to go also, to care for him and make sure he didn’t get sick while on the trip. (really, he just needed a door-opening, luggage-carrying, car-driving woman by his side ;)) Anyways, I stressed out with the amount it was going to cost for the two of us to fly to FL., plus the basic concerns of Ted’s health outside of our comfort zone, and my body decided to second that motion and render me physically useless for the next week and a half. Then God (as ALWAYS) absolutely provided for us through some precious friends and our trip was set!Here is where my head starts spinning out of control…
So we safely made it to Florida. AFTER I had an airport security pat me down because the electric toothbrush in my purse - that I threw in last minute - sent the alarm off and they had to search ALL my stuff to make sure it wasn’t really a bomb. Of course, me in my fragile state that I am in - started to cry like a baby and the guard just stared at me and so I explained that it’s not his fault – I’m just stressed out… I don’t know if he really cared or not, but I felt like it was my duty to ease his conscience!
Thankfully, I was able to walk again by the time we were in our hotel room, and for the first half of our week things went smoothly. We had a great time hanging out at Tim’s house. He was very frail and in some pain from the tumor on his neck, which had recently given him double vision in addition to all the other symptoms it had caused. He looked quite different from our visit in December, so I’m glad my girls have memories of him from back then. So for the first 3 days we hung around the house, Ted spent time hanging out in Tim’s room (which Tim rarely left) …talking, sitting, watching TV. Then Wednesday, in the middle of the night, Ted was burning hot. It was 3:30am and I didn’t know where the nearest hospital was – didn’t even occur to me to find out earlier. Now, technically, Ted is supposed to go to the hospital if his temp is 100.5 or higher. He felt HOT. all over.
To spare you the details, we prayed and waited it out. In hindsight, this was dumb. Thursday night and Friday night were the same high fevers. During the day he was okay, for the most part, but at night he was spiking pretty high. However by Saturday, when we were to fly home, Ted was feeling really bad – all day. We missed our flight by 15 minutes so we were on stand-by for the next flight. That we got on the flight was a miracle of God, because they were overbooked on all of the flights until that night. It was only 7:00am – I didn’t think Ted would last much longer. He was sitting in the hot sun shining through the airport windows, with a coat on and shaking with chills. I was scared for my husband and just wanted to be home where I know the doctors, hospitals, pharmacies… so God took care of us.
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were much of the same. High fevers (102.9), chills, coughing fits, shallow breaths. We hit the ground running! The whole week was filled with doctor’s appointments, x-rays, CAT scans, blood tests, breathing tests, lung specialists… While in Fl., we were afraid that Ted had contacted an infection of some kind. The scans showed lung damage in the top portion of Ted’s lungs which was either due to an infection or one of his chemo’s. By the time we met with our Oncologist again, on Friday, he was leaning more towards the chemo rather than an infection. Now mind you, all week we (the Oncologist, Pulmonary specialist and us) were looking for anything from Tuberculosis to Pneumonia to Bronchitis. Because of the shortness of breath, coughing and fevers, this is what it was narrowed down to… or the chemo. The medicine combinations our doctor gave us on Saturday, were now pointing more towards the chemo (Bleomycin) - something Ted had dreaded since the beginning of his treatments. This particular chemo has a possible side effect of hardening the lungs – permanently.
So we have prayed and prayed. This was very scary news for Ted.
Monday we met with the Pulmonary specialist again, and after he examined Ted he was very pleased with how good his breathing sounds. So good in fact, that he really believes that Ted’s lungs will have an almost complete recovery – something that even he was surprised about. Thank The Lord.
This is where our rollercoaster ride continues on… While we were meeting with the lung doctor, Ted received a text from his sister that their brother was not doing good and the ambulance was at the house to transport him to hospice.
Unfortunately, Tim was only at hospice for an hour when he died. I believe he waited for us to come out and see him. It was also his goal to make it to his next birthday. Tim turned 42 on Sunday... he made it!
We celebrate, we cry… and I’m exhausted.
Nikol,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update on your rollercoaster ride. I'm so glad to hear the ride has a fair share of "Praise the Lords!", along with the holding on for dear life. All I know to do is keep praying and giving hugs! Love you bunches!
Glad to know that God continues to be faithful.
ReplyDeleteContinuing to keep you in my prayers!