Still Waiting

Matt is working every day (weather permitting) but still waiting for the radiation to kick in!! He has pain medication but does not like to take it during the day. He takes the medication at night to help with the pain and to help him sleep.

Matt had a check up with Dr. McCabe.  She was the doctor who got the kidney stone out.  Matt had a good check up.  Everything looks good.

Matt and Casey have been working on their home.  They started on their retaining walls around the house.  They hope to cement side walk next.  Matt is hoping to get his lawn in soon.

Thank you for your continue thoughts and prayers!!!!

Last day of Radiation

Today was Matt's last day of radiation.  Matt continues to have pain in his hip and radiates down his leg. They said it still might take a week before Matt feels the benefit of the radiation.

 Matt is working every day and busy nights getting things done.  He wants to get his lawn in real soon!
Now Matt is waiting for the pain in his leg to go away and waiting for the call from Madison on the
clinical trial as to when it is going to start.  Until then Matt continues to work hard and  tries to get done the
list of items  he has.

I thank God every day that Matt is feeling good and can work and do all things he loves to do!
Thank you to everyone so much for all your prayers!

Radiation is starting

Dr. Bethany Anderson at Johnson Creek Cancer center has it worked out with Matt's Insurance to do radiation on his leg.  Matt still continues to have pain in his left leg.  The pain is not all day long but when he moves it from a sitting position or standing position it gets a sharp pain.  Also some days it just hurts to walk. 

Matt will have five appointments of radiation.  He will start tomorrow (5/11) and continue Thursday (5/12), Friday (5/13), Monday (5/16) and Tuesday (5/17).   This should help Matt with the pain.  Hopefully he will no longer have any pain with getting this radiation. This will work out with his clinical trial.  Matt cannot be on radiation or chemo for four weeks prior to the start of the clinical trial. 

Matt is scheduled to start on the clinical trial mid June or end of June. 

Matt has been working some almost every day. He is very happy to be working again!!

Thank you to everyone for all your continued thoughts and prayers!!

Doctor Appointment

Matt had a doctor appointment in Johnson Creek yesterday.  We talked about our Trip to Mayo Clinic and we talked about radiation to Matt's left hip.  Matt has been having continued pain in his hip.  He takes pain pills when needed but the pain has been getting worse.  The doctors at Mayo clinic opinion was for him to get radiation also.

Matt also met with Dr. Bethany Anderson about radiation.  She explained how it will help Matt and how to get started.  Matt had to get fitted for a "mattress".  He will lay on this each time he get radiation.  Today
he has a ct-scan on his pelvic to find the spot that he will have to get radiated.  Robin from Johnson Creek Cancer Center will meet Matt at Watertown Hospital for this CT-Scan.

Then Dr. Anderson will review the scan the have to tattoo Matt's leg where they will do the radiation.  Dr.
Anderson said the soonest they can radiated Matt's leg is next Thursday.  She is working on a plan with the
insurance company.  Matt has to have radiation and it has to be done four weeks before he can start the
clinical trial.  So everyone is working on the timing for everything to work out right.

Thank you to everyone one for all the continued prayers and positive thoughts!

Done at Mayo

 Matt sitting infront of the Mayo, Gonda Building.

 Shows' how big all the Mayo buildings are. Same Gonda Building that Matt had his test and Doctor appointment.

Matt waiting a a very large waiting room waiting to get his blood test.

We had a bad night sleep.  Matt didn't take his pain pill or his sleeping pill due to the test he had in the

morning.  He had a hard time sleeping due to the noise and his pain in his leg.  I made the mistake of getting a hotel without a pool.  Matt and I talked about it and decided to check out this morning and get a hotel with a pool for tonight.  We hurried up and packed the car and checked out.  I got a room with a pool.  We left our car  in the the parking lot of the first hotel and started to walk to the Mayo clinic.  As we crossed the street we found out the hotel I booked is just across the street.  We laughed about it and continued our walk to the Gonda building. We checked in and they sent us up to the ninth floor.  So we went to the ninth floor and checked in there also.  We gave them all Matt's paperwork we brought from home and all the copies ot the CT-Scans and Pet scan.  They told Matt he has a blood test at 8:30 and a Doctor appointment at 9:30.

We went back downstairs for the blood test.  We were amazed at how many people were down there for a blood test.  Then we went back upstairs for the Doctor appointment.  We waited for over a hour and fifteen minutes.  We got in to see Dr. Kevin McKian.  He had already gone through the paperwork we had brought and his CT-Scans.  He asked Matt some questions and we asked him some questions.

Dr. McKian said that our Doctors back home, Dr. Holen and Dr. Eastman has been right on track doing everything possible they could do for Matt.  They said the test they  took showed that Matt's organ's are

healthy and pass their test for him to be eligible for three clincial trials at Mayo Clinc. Dr. McKian thought

it gives Matt three more options.  He called and got Matt's name on their waiting list. This way Matt can say no if he does not want to do them or if he is still waiting for the UW-Madison clincial trail then he could decide to do one at the Mayo clinic.

Then Dr. McKian brought Dr. McKayla Banck in to see Matt..  She reasured us that our Doctors were doing a great job.

They did mention a test, K-Rass Or EGFR test done on Matt's sample of tumors they took out the very first surgery from October, 2008.  This test would show if Matt would be able to handle a different type of chemo treatment. They don't want to do the chemo if the test shows it will not help him.  We are waiting to 

see if the insurance will pay for this very expensive test.

Both Dr. McKian and Dr Banck said the cancer in Matt's pelvic bone  is what is causing him all his pain.  They said Matt should go home and get 7 days of radition on his pelvic bone.  This would stop the spreading and the pain in his leg.  We told them we had talked about it before we left home.  

Matt has a Dr. appointment with Dr. Holen on Wednesday and will talk about what happened at Mayo Clinic and abou doing radition.  So by the time we were done talking with both Doctors it was 11:30 and 

they told us no more tests and we could go home.

Matt and I were excited.  We cancelled the hotel for the night and happily headed for home. We got

to Madison at 3:30.  We stopped to shop for a bit and get something to eat.  Matt had not eaten since

the night before.  He had to fast for his blood test.  When we got in the car to head home we eat some

snack food to hold us over until we could stop.  We got to Madison and we were hungry!!

We surprised our families that we were home!  It was really good to hear our Doctors have been doing a

great job for Matt.! We got Matt's name on three lists for different clinical trials.  It gives Matt more options.

We also got a second opinion on doing radition on Matt's pelvic bone. 

We are very thankful to God for the safe trip to Minnesota and back. We are very thankful for the two Doctors that gaves us their opinion.  Thank you to everyone for your continued prayers.



Mayo Clinic Arrival

 Matt and I left today at for Rochester, Minnesota.   We left at 12:40 and arrive at our hotel at 4:40.  We stopped once for gas and a pottie break.  We hit one bad construction that slowed us up for awhile.  It was bumper to bumper for a long time.  We had no problems at all.  We went to eat a sandwich and now we are just sitting around watching TV.

Someone very special sent me this quote:

"Children with cancer are like candles in the wind who accept the possibility that they are in danger of being extinguished by a gust of wind from nowhere and yet, they flicker and dance to remain alive, their brilliance challenges the darkness and dazzles those of us who watch their light"

This reminds me of Matt!  He has such strenght and is always smiling!

Matt's appointment is at 8:00 but they want him there by 7:45 to register.  Plan on getting sleep and getting up early.

Thank you for all your special prayers and positive outlook!