The Last 10 Days with my Daddy!

I wanted to write an update about what's been going on with my dad for all of you who are curious. I will try and keep it short, simple, and chronological:

My dad has been having hip pain for the past couple of months. He thought it was probably bursitis or something equally benign, and he's pretty dang toug; so, he just kept on living life. Well, I didn't know it, but on Thursday, September 9th my dad went in for x-rays because it wasn't getting better. The x-rays showed something of concern, so my dad went in for a bone scan on Friday. Again, I didn't know any of this. My mom called me Friday evening to tell me that they had found a lesion on my dad's pelvis. That was all that they really knew, other than the fact that all of his lab results were normal despite what they were seeing. I cried.

Because of the way the lesion lit up on the bone scan, they scheduled an MRI and a CT scan for the following Monday. On Monday, my dad was diagnosed with Primary Bone Cancer in his pelvis with small metasteses on his tibia, 4th lumbar vertebrae, 1st rib and skull. It was a pretty disheartening diagnosis. It could have been worse: they were originally throwing out everything from multiple myeloma to metastatic renal cancer.

So Tuesday, my dad met with an oncologist in Lubbock. Two things really stuck out from that meeting. First, my dad needs to go see a specialist in Dallas, at UT Southwestern of all places. There are no orthopedic oncologists in Lubbock, so my dad is scheduled to see a specialist, Dr. Maale (pronounced "Molly"), this coming Tuesday the 21st. The second thing that stuck out from meeting is that the oncologist in Lubbock was "not impressed" by all of the secondary areas. He is not convinced that those are true metasteses. So we are holding out hope that those areas are nothing but "junk".

So that's where we are now. Waiting. We have been so blessed so far, in that we haven't had to wait. Everyone has bent over backward to help my dad and get him in to see whoever he needs to as quickly as possible. So the waiting is ok. We'll take it. We have been surrounded by prayers and encouragement and couldn't feel more supported than we have been. Thank you all so much!!! Please continue to pray for the doctors and my family, especially my mom and dad. They are such an amazing team--I feel blessed to watch them attack this battle together. We are still believing that my dad will be completely healed or even better, that this won't be cancer at all. Either way, we're armed and ready for the fight. The Lord is without a doubt a POWERFUL healer!!

Road Trippin'

This entry will serve two purposes:

1. Let you in on my extremely limited perspective of the TEXAS TECH season opener.

2. Tell you a little about our adventure returning to the LBK.

So to start, I will tell you what I thought about the game. Here is my *disclaimer*: I am a girl. I have never played football in my life. Not even powderpuff football. I'm pretty sure my volleyball coach banned our volleyball team from participating--or maybe that was just the excuse I invented to avoid looking stupid (I HATE looking stupid), but that's how I remember it. Not only have I never played football, but I DO NOT know all of the rules. I know most of them, don't get me wrong, but I would never claim to be an expert. I do NOT check RedRaiderSports.com or DoubleTNation.com EVER, and I don't read any other sport-related pages. I occasionally watch ESPN for fun, but mostly it's only on Saturday mornings during college football season. Please do NOT read my opinion and then immediately act on your need to defend the team to me!! I LIKE Tech, I am a Red Raider, and I support my team---but that doesn't negate my right to have an opinion. So here it is:

I give them a hooray with a side of yuck. Not "YUCK", or "YUCK!!!!!!", or "OMG--they're terrible!!"....just a simple "Yuck." I mean, I think I was overly optimistic that somehow we would come out of last season's debaucle, through the off-season's tumultuous overhaul, and come out on the other side smelling like roses. Well, we didn't and we don't....hence, the Yuck. We won--HOORAY!! We had several bright shining moments: interceptions that weren't thrown by our QB and Leong. While I have no objective critiques, I just thought overall, some areas of play could use some major reworking (ie. our ineptitude on the "special teams" end and our sweet sweet QB who tends to get a little too "deer in the headlights" for my liking. Let me take this opportunity to say that I LIKE Taylor Potts. I am a fan of Taylor Potts! I WANT TAYLOR POTTS TO SUCCEED!!! I also want him to learn how to run--I'm not asking for a Vince Young, just move your feet, son! Overall, I just really really hope that we get a lot better in the next two weeks. Meanwhile, Wreck 'Em Tech, beat the Lobos, and get to practice!

Now on to the exciting part of our trip: We almost died! Ok, not really--I tend to exaggerate! But seriously, we drove into a massive storm Thursday night! I should clarify that "we"= me and David and our great friends, Jess and Clay. It started as just an absolutely incredible lightning show. We could see the lightning starting 25-30 minutes before we actually got to the storm. It was amazing; just constant lightning strikes across the sky. A beautiful display of the Lord's awesome power.

And then we hit Seymour. YIKES!! It was actually about 5 miles outside of Seymour when the torrential downpour began. I'm talking, visibility of about 14 inches. Cars were trying to pull off the road, but no one could see where the side of the road was. So we followed the flashing tail lights of the car in front of us at about 15 mph for probably 15 minutes. When we finally got to Seymour, that sweet little town was completely under water. The water was over the curbs, filling every parking lot, and even lapping at the front doors of the homes off the main highway. We had to pull over into a half-submerged parking lot at one point to watch and see if the cars ahead of us could make it through the water. After seeing a couple of smaller cars make it through, we decided to give it a try. When we started driving, water was flying up from the tires 2 feet ABOVE the hood of David's car!!! It was crazy. It became absolutely ridiculous, when we saw the 18-wheeler headed toward us at about 30 mph from the other side!! You got it: he splashed water complete over David's car, and the wake he cause actually lifted our car off of the road and moved us over to the side a few inches. Praise the Lord that he placed us safely back on the ground and got us to the other side. David said at one point, he saw his headlights dip under the water--now that's scary!! But we made it to Lubbock in one piece. The only visible damage was David's license plate and holder being bent at a 90-degree angle from the car and the small tree sticking out from underneath! Fortunately, we had Jess and Clay with us--that made it a little less scary and more hilarious!! Either way, we were glad to get to Lubbock!

We had a great weekend and loved catching up with the friends and family we were able to see. We have season tickets this year, so we'll be making that trip frequently this Fall! And with the looks of it, I'll be making it a lot in the Spring for baby and wedding showers for my friends and family!! Love you all-hope you had a great Labor Day weekend!! I'll add picture tomorrow, so check back!