One Week and Counting!

One week from today I will be writing to you from Johnny's luxurious accomodations at the Indiana University Hospital in Indianapolis.

By this time next week, Johnny should be settled in his room post-op and Ginger and I will be fighting over who gets to fluff his pillow next. It is my greatest prayer that I will be reporting all good stuff from the surgery, and I'll be praying like the dickens all week that it goes perfectly. I wouldn't mind if you all joined me in that prayer, as well.

Many of you have left messages asking what you can do to help. Well, first and foremost, please pray. That, if nothing else, if priceless. Secondly, if you look to the right column of the blog, you will notice that Lori Brawley has again offered to be our meal coordinator. This was an ENORMOUS help during the first weeks of Johnny's diagnosis and we figured that eventually we might need your help with this again. My biggest thing is to make the week we are gone as easy as possible on the kids and my sisters (who will be taking over primary Mom/Dad duties). Carla and Rob (and Griffin!) will be staying here so that the boys can sleep in their own beds and have their schedules remain as normal as possible. Meals for them is a main concern for me. Thanks to those of you who have already contacted Lori. It really means a lot to all of us!

Johnny is still dealing with some remnant side effects from the first chemo protocol. His hands are still numb (for which he takes Neurontin) and his blood pressure is still high-ish (140s over 90s). We are still working on getting rid of these side effects before he starts the next protocol. Looks like the main effect of the next round is diarrhea (I know, yuck) and stomach ulcers. We will start attacking the new side effects straight out of the gates with the next round.

So, I guess we just bide our time until next Monday. Our list of questions will have answers and our minds will (hopefully) be at ease for a little while. Broken record coming . . . please pray.