2nd full round of radiation…FINISHED!!!

Hi Everyone!

Its Naomi again. Its been quite a while since I have posted an update, so since I have new photos and video of Josh to upload, I thought it was high time to say a hello! Ever since Joshua stopped teaching and our weekly trips to Chicago were eliminated its become harder and harder to find time to spend with Joshua and my mom. I have been taking Josh to radiation most every day for his 3 week course, but that is about 30-40 minutes at the most, of time I have with him, and that’s including the time he is back actually getting the radiation. I have three very active and time consuming daughters ages 7, 10 and 12, and we are nearing the end of the school year. So, things are busy on the child front. And, in an attempt to simplify life, maximize our available time, and use our financial resources in the best way possible we now have a “For Sale” sign in our front yard. We don’t have to be ready for showing until the 15th, but in the mean time its requiring that we organize, clean up and downsize what we keep in our house. Our hope is to move into a duplex, condo or rental house for a few years so that we have less space to clean and no outside responsibilities for Travis. He works an average of 50-70 hours every week (works most weekends) and I don’t want him using whatever time we have left of his outside mowing or trimming bushes! I want him with us! And we are excited about decluttering our life. It is so easy to end up with 5 times the amount of “stuff” than you really need, which equates to 5 times as much work keeping everything picked up and clean. More than anything we want a simple life (as simple as we can get it with our first entering middle school next year) with time available to spend with family and friends, with Joshua and my mom. We’ll never get this time back.

As far as Josh goes, Friday was his last day of radiation on his hip. I like to make a big deal of it (add some fun to the monotonous) and celebrate the mile markers. Every time my dad or Joshua finished radiation I always did something fun and this time was NO exception! His gift was a package of dried mangoes, in place of a cupcake or some other sugary celebratory treat. I made a BIG card for him and brought it in for all the radiation nurses and staff to sign before his radiation session. So, when he went in to his radiation we set things up and he walked out to a card a gift and, of course, the bell to ring to signify radiation being done! Its a fun group of ladies we see every day there and they’ve really taken to Josh. Instead of the normal bell “ringing,” Josh rang it by baseball swinging his cane…very “young guy-ish!” I will post pictures and the video of him ringing the bell. Although I did manage to get it on tape this time, I didn’t get one shot of all the nurses and staff that came out for his bell ringing. I was sad when I realized that. But it was fun!

And finally, I have something that I would ask you all to pray for, as you’ve become such prayer warriors for our family. I’ve had digestive problems for all of my adult life and I finally went in this past week for an endoscopy (camera down the throat). I was so curious to see what condition my stomach was in after years and years of medications to treat fibromyalgia and migraine headaches. The scope revealed a couple of things: acid reflux, gastritis (an irritation and swelling of the stomach lining), and biopsies came back confirming the presence of h pylori bacteria. Many people can have this bacterial infection and never show symptoms, but for others it can cause many frustrating symptoms, many of which I have been dealing with for years without a known cause. The infection has to be dealt with as I will continue to exhibit symptoms and may develop peptic ulcers, but more importantly, it is a leading cause of various forms of stomach cancer. All of the above I am in total agreement with as far as being happy to have discovered a cause for symptoms I’ve had, wanting to get it treated and eradicated from my system, but I was speechless when she listed off the meds required for treatment. I do not tolerate antibiotics well. In fact, many of them make me so sick I would be severely nauseated to the point of being non-functional. During a recent bout of strep throat I had to be taken off of and put on three different antibiotics before we found one I could function on while. So, when she listed off the meds it just happened to be the two I just had to discontinue for severe nausea, only this time I would have to take BOTH of them SIMULTANEOUSLY, along with Omeprozole and Pepto Bismol for 14 days. After I reminded myself that I was indeed awake and not dreaming, I told her I wasn’t even sure if that was going to be possible. She responded by saying that if I wanted the infection gone, it had to be!

So…I need prayer for supernatural nausea control! It hits at a bad time with prepping the house for sale and the end of the school year, but we are hoping that we might get Travis approved for family medical leave so that he can help me get through this and keep our household running. I haven’t started treatment yet because I am researching every possible natural nausea reducing treatment, in addition to the two anti-nausea meds they are planning to put me on (which I know won’t be strong enough). I will post a little update when I begin treatment, so people can start praying, but until then, pray that God leads me to the right combination of medications and natural supplements.

Okay, I will post the pics and the video of Josh in this post if I can. Until I write again, God bless!

http://s1053.photobucket.com/albums/s479/naomithompson/