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September 28th, 2014

9/28/2014

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I don't have a ton of things to say, but I just thought I would blog a little this morning.  Nicole and I went to a women's conference at our church this weekend, and it was so nice to just be with her, and the speakers were really great!  She and the boys attended a youth rally last weekend that my boss (I work for a Christian author and speaker) and his son did, and it was a call for the youth to rise up and make a difference in their world.  It is called 'The 40 Day Revolution" based on a book he wrote by the same name.  One of the challenges in the book is to fast some type of food, so Nicole decided that for the 1st week of the 40 days she would fast pretty much everything that is not on my diet and join me in eating a vegan and mostly raw diet.  Well yesterday she said she would like to do this with me for the whole 40 days!  So that's been pretty cool.  :-)

While she and I were at the conference, Tim was in Tampa at the first Saturday of Campaign 4 of the marriage ministry training we've been involved with.  We are partnering with Intimate Life and The Basic Idea to bring marriage training to the church leadership around the Tampa Bay area.  It's been a fulfillment of a desire and dream we had probably 15 years ago - I think I wrote about it in more detail in a previous blog - so we're so excited to be a part of this initiative.  The website is www.nextgentampabay.com if anyone is interested in getting involved for their church.



And while Tim was there and Nicole and I were at the women's conference, the boys were out in the community doing service projects for places like a local elementary school and The Wounded Warriors.  After the women's conference, Nicole went to a birthday party and then to a teen girls' small group with her friend's church, and I went to a play downtown with my friend Hollyhead for her birthday.  So needless to say, we had a very busy Saturday!  I'm looking forward to resting today!


Well, it took me 2 days of calling and bugging the scheduling department but I finally was able to get an appointment with the research doctor (get this - his name is Dr. Sexton - pretty easy to remember!)  that my urologist referred me to for a 2nd opinion.  The appt is a week from Tuesday at 7:30am, so that's the next thing on the schedule.  I'm feeling really great with lots of energy and I'm doing tons of research.  I'm learning so much, but I think sometimes the more we know the more we realize we don't know, so I'm looking forward to talking to Dr. Sexton.  I just need to gather all my thoughts and form all the questions I want answered before I go!


Well, it's a good thing I didn't have a ton of stuff to say today or this would be a mini book!  Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.  Blessings to all!
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Cancer

9/23/2014

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  If that isn't a dreaded word, I don't know what is!  However, add the word 'survivor' next to it, and it changes everything completely, and that's what I intend to do!  A week and a half after my mom passed away I received the diagnosis of bladder cancer.  My first desire was to spend a week at a Hallelujah Acres Lifestyle Center only 25 minutes from my house in Plant City, so a week and a half after my diagnosis that's what I did!  I was there from Sunday Sept 7 - Friday Sept 12, and it was phenomenal!  There were 7 other people who stayed there and our group had a great time learning all about ways we can use foods to help our bodies heal, along with eating some amazing food!  It seems to me there are 3 ways our bodies can heal.  One is through prayer - I've heard many testimonies of people being healed through the power of prayer.  Another way is through medicine.  We all know of many examples of people being healed through traditional medical routes.  And the 3rd way is through diet.  Again, many people have reversed diabetes or high blood pressure or other ailments, even cancer, through changing their diet.   Sometimes all 3 methods are incorporated.  Of course, the opposite is true as well.  We know examples from all 3 methods of healing that did not heal.  So what's a girl to do?  This has been my struggle - more than just having the diagnosis of cancer - it is knowing how I should respond to it that has been the hardest thing for me.  I'm very glad I went to the Lifestyle Center and my body is definitely feeling better in many ways since I have incorporated the recovery diet they recommend.  My family has been incredibly supportive holding down the fort while I was gone and then helping me juice and praying for me.  Tim has been amazing in all he has done to juggle working and being here for the family and for me - I'm so grateful for him and his love and care of me!  I truly have a lot to be thankful for!

  So - back to the question, what's a girl to do?  I was supposed to start my first of 6 scheduled weekly chemo treatments last Tuesday, and I just couldn't do it, so I cancelled it.  I then scheduled an appointment with my urologist doctor, Dr. Lockhart, and the first they could get me in was this morning, during my 2nd scheduled chemo appt, so I cancelled that one, too.  This morning's meeting with Dr. Lockhart went very well.  He spent a lot of time with Tim and me and answered our questions as best he could, but he suggested we get a 2nd opinion from a research doctor since we had a lot of questions regarding what research has been done on people who didn’t go the chemo route.  My doctor is 71 and has tons of experience, but he said mainly with people who follow the medical protocol.  He said if people don’t follow that protocol they typically don’t come back to see him.  So I have a call into the research doctor he referred us to and am waiting for their scheduling department to call me back.  In the meantime, we asked Dr. Lockhart if there is any way he could follow up with me to see how things are going.  He said he could order a cytology report and if it came back negative he would want me to repeat it 2 more times and if all 3 reports came back negative I think he said he would want to biopsy me just to be sure and if that came back negative then I would be good for now, but since this is a cancer that recurs so often he would want to follow me closely.  He went ahead and took a specimen today at our request so a cytology could be done on it and the results will come back hopefully by Monday.  That’s where things stand right now.  So, my first prayer request is for complete healing (obviously) and my next request would be for wisdom and direction beyond what we are already doing.  I realized today that I had told many people I would keep them posted, so I think using this blog is probably the best way to do that.  Feel free to comment or ask questions - I'll get an email any time you do and will try to respond asap!  Blessings to all!
 


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Mom's "Memorial"

9/2/2014

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We didn't really have a Memorial Service per se, but we did get together and I know that's exactly the way Mom would have wanted it.  My brother's oldest three kids, Leeann, Mac, and David (we missed Danny!), flew in from Michigan, and my brother, Dan, and sister-in-law, Mercy, drove over from Dallas, and my Aunt Deb was already there.  Nathan and Nicole and I picked up the cousins from the airport on Saturday evening after mom passed and drove down to Port Charlotte, and then Tim and Noah & Nicholas joined us the next morning.  And then my best friend, Hollyhead (it's really Holly, but she calls me Jodiehead and I call her Hollyhead) drove down for the day as well.  We had quite the crew!  Mercy cooked up a STORM - it was all SO incredibly scrumptious!  Noah helped me put together a slide show, we all watched that and shed some tears together.  Christy posted it to Youtube, so you can view the slide show here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR8j5hH4juE&feature=youtu.be
It's still difficult to think about losing Mom, and yet we had been losing her in stages to Alzheimers.  I feel very thankful she didn't suffer through the end stages of that horrible condition, and I believe she was here as long as she wanted to be, and she just didn't want to be anymore.  So I do feel like I celebrate her incredible life and I believe that honors her the most.  
We also took some pictures of our time together, so I will leave you with that:
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    Tim & Jodie


    Tim and Jodie have been married since Nov. 5, 1988.  Tim is a retired Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and retired city of Tampa Firefighter.   Jodie is a happily laid off IBM/AT&T 21 yr veteran employee. So I guess you can say they're both retired, but still super busy!  They have four wonderful children:  triplets Nathan, Nicole, and   Noah born 11/16/97 and Nicholas born 5/16/99.  Nathan is at Trinity College, Noah is at Florida Polytechnic University, and Nicole is at USF.  Nicholas is an EDM (electronic dance music) creator and hoping to make a living from that!  We love and are so proud of our kids!

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