April 14-Chemo

Hello everyone. Sorry I am behind with the updates. It has been a little bit, so I will fill you in.

Last week Mark went to the Master's practice round on Wednesday and to the first round on Thursday with his twin brother Matt, his father, Brent and a good friend, Vance. The four of them had a great time and many fun adventures that entailed walking about 7 miles one day. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves, though. They came home bearing gifts and we all now have Master's souveniers. Thanks so much to Jim Long for the use of the tickets!!!!

We really missed Mary, Shelby and Kelsey and wished they could have come for a visit, too. Hopefully we can see you guys soon.

Mark's family spent the week here and we had a small celebration early for Calen's birthday before they had to leave. They won't be able to come back for Calen's real birthday since it is so close to this trip. Calen will be a teenager on April 22nd.

We had a good Easter. We got up early and the kids all got Easter baskets. We went to mass and Emily was quite the pill during the service, but somehow we survived. We went to Richy and Debbie Brooks' house later for a get together and got to watch the final bit of the Masters which was quite exciting.

Mark had chemo and his doctor's appointment with Dr. Farmer early Monday morning. He didn't have a CEA this time, but the rest of the labs were okay. He was pretty sedated from the medicines to prevent any reactions, so he slept a lot Monday. Sleeping a lot during this chemo regimen is a good thing. When he is awake, he is vomiting a lot. He can't eat or drink anything at all for the entire 3 days. It is miserable for him. Dr. Farmer tried a new antinausea medicine this time that you rub into your wrist every 4 hours, but it didn't work. Mark has been in the bathroom like clock work throwing up. We just try to keep the lights out and noise down so he can sleep as much as possible. He can't swallow anything (without throwing it back up), or we'd just give him sedatives to keep him sleeping through this yucky part. I guess the bright side is that he is more than half way through this round at the time I am writing this. Hopefully by tomorrow evening, he can at least drink some liquids.

Thanks to all of you for the continued prayers and support. God bless!!!