Never a dull moment!!!

I wanted to drop a line or two about Joshua’s physical condition right now and what we all can pray for. Also to let you know what he’s up to, besides sleeping his life away. (side effect from Decadron withdrawal).

Before I do that, however, I want to add our thanks to Bobby, MaryAnn and Dave Snyder, and Kim for all their hard work in bringing the benefit concert to life. It was not only inspirational, Bobby was great, but a lot of fun with the raffle tickets and prizes. I think everyone who attended would say the same thing. Thank you all for your support in coming and giving.

Also, we want to thank Hannah Ilten, Jeff Tomsic,
Erin Gullickson, and Katie Coates for all their hard work in putting together the on-line auction and the weekend get togethers as fund raisers. You are all such loyal friends and so creative in your ideas. We continue to be so encouraged because of all of you. Even in the midst of some very hard days and bumps in the road. The withdrawal from Decadron has not been a fun experience. Poor guy could hardly stay awake and it took awhile to figure out what was going on. He’s a little better now, and yesterday was put on Hydro cortisone to jumpstart his adrenals and then will wean off of that. And if that is not enough, out of the blue came intense hip and groin pain. He had to use his golf club as a cane to get around for awhile. I know…we should have taken a picture of that one. He would fit right in if he was in England. But today he had a physical therapy session with a group at the hospital that deals with trauma patients and they were able to give him a shot in the bootie which has given him some very welcomed relief. Enough so we can drive to Des Moines tomorrow where he will receive an award along with a Bishop for his work in the field of peace and justice. Evidently it is given yearly and he is the youngest man to ever be awarded this particular award. We’re very proud of him. Please pray he feels good enough to go and to give his short speech. I’m sure God will give him the grace to do so. I’m going to try to remember the camera!!

Then we drive back Sunday to pack up the car for our weekly trip to Chicago for his class. So, this will be a potentially very tiring week. Please pray for him. He’s also getting an MRI on Wed. to make sure that the pain in his hip has nothing to do with the cancer, as he had something show up on one of his first PET scans. Dr. Wilbur just wants to make sure…and so do we, of course. We are very pleased with her as our oncologist. She is very open to our thoughts and questions and really tries to listen to our desires and come up with her best suggested treatment. We just found out at this last appt. that her sister and father both have cancer. So she understands what we are going through and I’m sure that adds to her desire to do all she can and the genuine compassion she exhibits. We’re so thankful that God led us to her.

Juicing is getting harder, as Joshua hasn’t been able to help lately and it is very time consuming. We’ve been getting one round a day now for a few weeks. We try to make more at that one daily dose, but there are just so many hours a day and there are so many things to do. His appointment schedule is enough to make a healthy person worn out and we’re worn out before we even start. Good sleep is a rare commodity around here. We’re both going to have sleep studies done to test for sleep apnea. Anything to help sleep more productively. And we’re hoping the hydrocortisone will help boost those adrenals and get him feeling a little more energy.

Well, that’s the latest. Hope you are all doing well. We think of you and pray for you all in our nightly prayers together frequently. This has been a very precious time together that I think we both will always look back on as a real gift.

Love to you all,
Joshua and Kristi