Fish Tacos?

Thursday, May 20, 2010 – Shorter post for today. The tumor focused treatment seems to being well. Not much to report about the morning or afternoon. At about 4:00 I asked Kellee if there was anything in tarpicular he wanted to do for Supper. I told him I planned to either have leftover ribs or chicken and then Kellee suggested we go out to eat. (I thought, good he feels like going out.) When I asked him where he wanted to go, he suggested fish tacos, if we could figure out where to go to get them. We had heard there was a place in Iowa City that served a great fish taco, all we had to do was find the place. I went up and asked the staff at Hope Lodge and they where not sure. So, I sent a text to Beth (whose house we had stayed at early on in this saga) because she is the one who took my sister-in-law Tami there when she was up in Iowa City visiting Kellee back during the biopsy stay. Found out the place is called “The Saloon” aka “Mondo’s Saloon”, having two different names it is known by was sure confusing! When we got there we ordered right away, beverages, chips & salsa and of course, fish tacos. Kellee was a bit apprehensive about the chips and salsa, he was not sure how his throat and stomach would handle it along with the tacos. But he decided to dig in! The plate had three fish tacos and we both cleaned our plates! We agreed they were the best fish tacos we ever had the opportunity to eat. (Granted, it was the first time for either of us to eat fish tacos!) But still, if you ever get to Iowa City and you have a hankering for fish tacos, The Saloon is the place! As we were walking back to the van I said to Kellee, “It really seems you have turned a corner…” He said he had, he wasn’t sure about eating all the food and he was full, but he felt pretty good. He said the change in the focus of the treatment to a smaller area (George the tumor) makes each day much easier and he is feeling better. (Yes, fist pump!)

Friday is doctor day and we head back to Pella for the weekend. Beginning on Monday there will be only eight (8) scheduled treatments left!

Prayer requests: )1 Thanksgiving for the results so far! 2) Continued shrinkage of the tumor, 3) Kellee would continue to feel well, eat more and get stronger, 4) Wisdom for the doctors as we approach the end of the radiation treatment phase for whatever is next(?) 5) For us to be able to be able to organize all the insurance EOB’s, medical bills, etc so Kellee (& us) don’t get overwhelmed by them.

Biopsy Thursday and the tumor is Re-named!

Thursday, April 1, 2010 -  Here we sit in the waiting room around 8:45 am, one of the members of the neurosurgery team just came to tell us the anesthesia went well and they were now moving on to positioning and prepping for the surgery. They will make about a 1″ long incision on the left side of the skull and then drill a hole, no larger than a dime to go in to retrieve a bit of the tumor to test. We asked again and they said it will be at least a week before we get results back from the pathology lab. They said they do not push for results because it is important to get this part right. So we know that even after today, we get to learn more about patience!

Now to go back and bit and bring us up to this point.When we got home after work Wednesday ,Kellee told us he had written, recorded and posted another song. This one is called, “I Will Rest” have a listen at – http://www.myspace.com/kelleevanhemertmusic  G-ma Faithe came over right then so we listened to it together.  We then finished packing and loaded the van. Heidi and I prayed for and with Kellee while in our kitchen as the last thing we did before we would leave.  We left Pella for Iowa City @ 7:00 last night, we got a couple of miles north of town and had to turn around to get Kellee’s insurance card (and phone charger). So then we left town again @ 7:15.  On the way to Iowa City we listened to songs from two bands Kellee has recently introduced us to. One is called Rend Collective Experiment, if you have listened to any of the songs Kellee has recorded lately, one of them was a cover of one of their songs called “Movements”. They are a worship band from across the pond, from somewhere in the UK I believe. Heidi suggested to Kellee to have The Bridge Band do the song “You Bled” as it is a great song! Check them out http://www.myspace.com/rendcollectiveexperiment  We arrived @ the home of Beth & Mike where we staying last night just before 9:00. They have graciously opened their home to us, which is such a blessing to not have to worry about getting a hotel and they are just 10 minutes from the hospital! When we arrived Mike was just taking cookies out of the oven and yes they were homemade. Just a short time later, Tami arrived when stood around in the kitchen and chatted for a while. (The kitchen really is the best room in most homes!) Sometime after 10 we then went downstairs to get ready for bed. While prepping Kellee told us he really wanted to re-name the tumor. Even though the character Dwight is annoying on the show, he does kind of like him and Kellee thinks the show would not be near as good without him. Therefore, he was going to think of a new name for the tumor. Even though Heidi & I kind of liked the name Dwight, since it is Kellee’s tumor, we were OK with him wanting to change the name. He landed on George as in “George Can’t stand ya” from Seinfeld. He felt that worked better for him, so the tumor is now officially called George.  We set four separate alarms to make sure we got up on time. The alarms worked as planned, Heidi and I were up @ 4:15 and then Kellee was up @ 5:00. Tami got up a bit later as she was going with us to the hospital.

We made it to parking ramp # 2 across from Kinnick stadium (a little Hawkeye lingo for the Hawk fans there) on time and made our way into the hospital, up elevator H to the fifth floor and to pre-op admissions. We checked in and were shown to a pretty packed waiting room. After about 10 minutes Kellee was called, so Heidi & I walked with him to the pre-op area. The hallway to the prep area was full of hospital gurneys (small hospital beds on wheels) ready for the days surgery patients. We were amazed at how many there were.  Kellee was seated in a recliner in pre-op area # 15, most of them were full and we were not sure exactly how many were there. There they had him change into a gown and robe, put some compression socks on him and footies. (Kellee said he can now tell his G-pa Bob he knows what the socks are like!)

Kellee showing off compression socks in pre-op

They took vitals and eventually put 9 more of the fiducials on his head for the MRI.

Fiducials all ready for the MRI

Went then down to the Lower Level for the MRI.  As we left the pre-op area, most of the waiting patients had gone on to their medical trials and most of the gurneys were no longer in the hall. Kellee walked to the MRI.  While in for the MRI, Kellee had an I.V. inserted and he said it really wasn’t that bad this time, but he still hates needles!  Other than a bit of purse confusion  between Heidi and Tami (ask Heidi about it) the MRI went smoothly. However, we did not hear the tumor was gone. Not what we wanted,  we but we know God has a plan!  Then it was back to the fifth floor into another waiting room. An anesthesiologist came in to tell us how the go to sleep part of the procedure would go.  Then they took Kellee with them and we went to the 6th floor to the day of surgery waiting room.  There were quite a few  people were in the waiting room in support family, friends and loved ones. Some of them we had noticed in the pre-op waiting room.  And so now we, like them wait a bit more…

Heidi Just pointed out to me this Psalm she was reading while waiting in the waiting room -   Psalm 27:14 “Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”