Today is All Saints Day, in honor of saints known and unknown. In light of this, I’ve been thinking about my family tree. On my dad’s side of the family, his father (my grandfather) was an engineer for Union Pacific Railroad. He and my grandmother raised nine children in a three bed-room home in Southern…
When you feel emotionally, physically, or spiritually empty or drained, do you ever ask yourself, is what I’m going through worth it? I know I do. You may have made a principled decision. You may have taken an unpopular stand because you wanted to honor God. You may, like the last line out of Robert…
September 5- coming up soon. That’s the anniversary of the date of my diagnosis. In one way, I’m glad to celebrate. Amyloidosis, being so rare, often goes undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for months or longer. And if that’s the case, treatment options become more narrow and often ineffective. So, September 5 is a cause for me…
There are places and times where God meets us in extreme hardship, unthinkable circumstances, suffering, and pain. Places where we’ve been reduced to nothing and Jesus becomes our everything. For some of us slow learners, it’s more a matter of recognizing him as our everything. He’s been taking care of us all along and we’re…
Dear Clients and Friends of Basic Skills, Just a brief announcement regarding changes here at Basic Skills. As of the 2019-2020 school year, we will not be offering classes. It’s been a pleasure to serve you by offering quality instruction for many years. Basic Skills will continue to make its focus on testing, tutoring, and…
Dear Family and Friends, Curt was able to leave the hospital last week and we were very thankful. The transplant was a brutal process and it really is hard to describe how difficult it was. His cells have begun the engraftment process and his immune system is being rebuilt. He is very weak and…
Dear Friends and Family, Thank you for your cards, text messages, phone calls, love and concern for us. I read them all but cannot always send a response. It gives me comfort. There are no words to adequately describe how grueling the side effects have been from the high dose chemo. Uncontrolled vomiting,…
I mentioned in my last blog post that I had been moved from not being a stem cell candidate to getting the green light by my oncologist, cardiologist, and renal doctor to go ahead. In addition to remaining in remission, my troponin level, a marker of heart function, moved to a safe range. Also, a…
Dear Friends and Family, As you all know, we have been in a battle for the last several months since Curt was diagnosed with AL Amyloidosis. To say it has been rough is an understatement. We feel like we have been in an all-out war, and now we will go to the next level as…
Since my last post, my amyloidosis treatment options have expanded. Funny thing about having choices you didn’t have just months ago. Sometimes the will and desire to take action wanes. What you previously wanted loses its attraction. Sort of like giving your child permission to graduate a year early. Now they don’t want to. Or,…