Week 3

Sunday, May 2, 2010 - Kellee and Kerry both played at The Bridge today while  Heidi & I went to the 9:30 service @ TRC so we could take another trip to Ames. We went to pick up most of Kory’s stuff so he can just load up his car on Thursday after his last class and come home. We now won’t be back on Ames until January 2011.

Monday begins the third week radiation and we will be staying in the Hope Lodge for the first time.

Below are some prayer requests Heidi typed up for the prayer team at TRC and I thought I would also post them here and share it with those of you who come to this blog for updates. We appreciate all who are praying and yhose who are helping out in other ways.

• Thankfulness for the news of a shrinking tumor after 9 treatments! 
• Pray for an extra measure of peace/comfort as Kellee has the treatments each morning – he gets a strong copper taste when he is being zapped with the radiation and it’s wearing on him a bit.  He has to prepare himself mentally before they call him.  He will have 32 treatments total so we have a way to go.
• Pray for Kent and I as we try to prepare food for Kellee with high caloric and nutritional value – to keep his weight up.
• Pray for restored vision – his double vision is not getting better but worse.  We’ve been so focused on the brain cancer  and treating that, that I sometimes forget what he is living with everyday.  The double vision is Picasso like if that makes sense.  He sees two of things but one of them is up and to the left, I’m not sure if there is distortion, but regardless it’s makes it difficult for him to see clearly.  The prism they put on his glasses (which you can hardly see) corrected the double vision early on, but isn’t as effective now.  It’s one of those unknowns that may keep changing until the treatments are done.  We will see the neuro-opthamalogist when treatments are done to see what can be done to correct the vision.  But until then – I know it’s weighing on Kellee daily.  His spirits are good and his faith is strong!

Doctor Day with Tulips

Friday, April 30, 2010 – Doctor Day, Heidi & Kellee left for Iowa City early this morning for the last radiation treatment of the week. Below is Heidi’s summary of the day and week:

We’ve finished our 2^nd week of treatment in Iowa City and have good news.  An MRI was taken Wednesday and it shows the tumor is reducing in size! – after only 9 treatments!  Which is what the Dr’s expected but seems amazing to me that results can be seen that quickly.  Kellee has one more week of the whole brain and spine radiation – which is the hardest on him.  Because such a large field is being covered by radiation he’s really tired and depends on those anti-nausea pills.  The hope is the nausea should lessen once the radiation is more focused in the brain.  He’s lost 10 lbs which is a little concerning but understandable.  Just need to get the most calories in the least amount of bites – a whole new thought process for me!  More good news – there is a room for us at Hope Lodge (the Ronald McDonald house for adults) on Monday!

Next week is Kent’s week with Kellee in Iowa City.  We’re managing fine, because of your prayers and support, they give us strength!  Kory comes home from school (Iowa State) next week, which will be nice so it’s not so quiet here at home during the week.  Then the following week Kerry will be home too after graduating from Central – Yea more people to mow the lawn!

And now for those of you who will not be in Pella to enjoy the tulips, here are a couple of photos of tulips taken this week. In case you didn’t know, Pella is a small town in Iowa which celebrates its Dutch heritage each year the first weekend in May with a festival. This year the dates are May 6, 7, & 8. For more information see Pella Tulip Time link -  http://www.pellatuliptime.com/

Red Tulips

Tulips

Coming soon…the poll!

A Russian Award

Sunday, April 25, 2010 – Kory called us sometime back and told us he had won an award from the language department @ ISU.  Kory is in his second year of studying Russian. He was not sure what the award was for exactly, but he wanted to let us know. Since Heidi & I have now been parents for (t-cough) years, we have learned a thing or two about when one of our boys tells us something, it means even if he doesn’t come out and say so, if he is sharing it with us, it is important to him.  So we made plans to go to Ames.  We went to the 10:30 service @ TRC and then had Sunday dinner at Faithe’s with my dad and Kellee. Kerry had a senior picnic (or some kind of meal) @ CUI. Kellee gave us a report on how the morning went at The Bridge, which was very good. But he did say how getting up @ 6:00 am to get ready and then drive to Ottumwa, set-up, practice, do the service, tear-down and drive back to Pella by 12:30 made for a long morning and it wiped him out. He was looking forward to a nap after we ate.

We left around 2:30, (Heidi drove so I was able to snooze a bit on the way up, yeah!) When we got to Kory’s room, Heidi and Kory started to gather items he really wouldn’t need the rest of the school year so we could take them home with us and I started a bit of repair work.

The ceremony was held in the Memorial Union on the Iowa State campus @ 4:30 pm. Here is the official title of the event – “The Annual Awards Ceremony to Recognize Outstanding Students in The Department of World Languages and Cultures at Iowa State University.”  (Try saying that 10 times fast!)  Students were recognized for their achievement in the various languages taught at ISU. Kory was recognized as an outstanding student in Intermediate Russian, he received a nice book of Russian novellas (in Russian of course) and a certificate.

Kory receiving award

After the ceremony we took Kory out to eat, dropped him back off at his room and then left for Pella. Heidi called her sister and talked to her all the way to Pella. (How to girls do that?)

Other than being tired, Kellee said he really felt pretty good today. Tonight he even went to El Charro (a local Pella Mexican restaurant) and got a Burrito Loco to go and he said he ate it all! Chips and salsa were really a no go because the chips were a bit hard on the back of his throat.  Kellee left for the Bible study with some buddies around 8:45.

This week when Heidi is in Iowa City with Kellee, it will be the first time as we have traveled this journey, I will not be in Iowa City at the same time as Kellee, so the blog posts this week will be a joint effort between Heidi and myself.  Heidi will have the first hand knowledge and she will either do the blog posts or pass the information to me, we haven’t quite figured it all out yet. But we will do our best to keep the blog updated and to pass along any new developments and/or prayer requests.

VEISHEA Botb

Thursday, April 15, 2010 – Very short post today.

The band, Sons & Heirs will be playing Friday night at VEISHEA  Battle of the Bands because they made it past the first round! They play Friday the 16th @ 6:00 PM. Go check them out and cheer them on if you plan to be at VEISHEA! If Heidi were not on vacation, we would probably go up, but we will be missing this show.

Kellee gets the stitches out tomorrow afternoon, shortly before the band leaves for Ames. He is anxious to have them gone! Pray the removal goes well, no issues. Please continue to pray we as we finalize out accommodation arrangements for during the treatment.

Some people have asked for specifics on how to pray for Kellee: Since his form of tumor is supposed to be very treatable with radiation, pray the tumor shrinks quickly and is gone when the final MRI is taken. Also pray for a minimum of side effects to the radiation (zero would be nice, especially no nausea!) Pray for good rest and safe travels between Pella and Iowa City.

Sunday – Road Trip

Sunday, April 11, 2010 – Kellee left extra early this morning for The Bridge, he had to set up and get ready for the service. He led worship this morning with Matt T. it was just the two of them as rest of the  band was given a break. It gave an opportunity to use some of the music loops Kellee has been working on, it apparently went really well.

I went to the 9:30 service @ TRC  and then left for Ames. Kory had called earlier in the week saying he was having additional electrical issues with his car and he really didn’t want to drive it with the dash lights and the right turn signal not working. So I agreed to drive up the van and leave it there for him to use and I would try to get it fixed. Kory didn’t want me there before noon, being a college boy he needs his sleep. (Turns out Heidi had already called him @ 11:00) When I pulled into the Freddy Court, Kory met me out by his car. He told that one of his suite mates had been in the car messing with the controls so that may be why the dash lights were not working, perhaps they had just been turned off by the dial being moved but he hadn’t checked it yet.  “Hmm”, I thought, “It would be nice if that is the issue, easy to correct – and silly me – why didn’t I think of  having him check that when talking to him on the phone? Did I really need to make the trip?” No matter the turn signal needs to be fixed anyway. We went to eat at Jimmy Johns since the lines at Panera and Hickory Park were too long. It was really good to spend some time with Kory and have him share some of what was going on in his world and to find out what he still needs to do to prep for studying overseas in the fall. After checking out Best Buy and Borders, we went back to his place so I could pick up his car. He told me I would need to gas his car up to be able to make it back to Pella, imagine that!?! (If I can get the turn signal fixed by next Thursday, I can have one of the members of Sons & Heirs to drive Kory’s car back to Ames/ISU and bring the van back. Sons & Heirs plays in a battle of the bands contest at VEISHA on Thursday. If you are going to VEISHA, check them out!)  I made it back to Pella in time to watch the end of The Masters with Kellee, which basically meant I could still take a late Sunday afternoon nap!

Tomorrow morning, Monday the 12th – Kellee  has “THE” ultra-sound, pray the test brings up no surprises!

Here’s another reminder to help out Sons & Heirs. They are trying to play this year at Cornerstone in the New Band Showcase, so the next time you are on the Internet, go to http://www.cornerstonefestival.com/ and vote for Sons & Heirs. You will be asked to set up an account and when they ask you for your cell number, I found you can leave that blank and still get assigned an account. Then you can log on, Click on New Band Showcase 2010 – Vote Now. Then click on Listen & Vote. scroll down to find Sons and Heirs and vote. Can vote once a day if you want. You can also check out more of their music at http://www.myspace.com/sonsandheirsmusic or http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=profile&id=100000111840004#!/sonsandheirsmusic?ref=ts.

A Bit of Normalcy

Saturday, March 27, 2010 – Today we wanted to just have a normal Saturday. I got up and went to my dad’s to do the normal morning routine. I brought our two Pekapoo puppies along, Emi and Meisje, my dad and the pups enjoyed that. I then brought the pups home so I could go get my dad some groceries. I had been thinking about getting a new bike seat for Kory’s bike so he could use it this Spring up at ISU. His bike seat had a cover on it that when it got wet, it took forever to dry out. For some reason Kory did not like going to class with a wet behind, so he did not use it as often as he would have liked and we brought it home at Christmas break.  Well, anyway as I left to go to HyVee, I called Heidi to suggest we go see Kory and that I might see if I could get a new bike seat and we could then call him to see if we could bring him his bike. Heidi said she had also been thinking about going to see Kory. (Great minds often think alike!) We both felt that we have two other boys we did not want to accidently ignore as we walk with Kellee through this journey. Since Kellee would be going to Ottumwa at night and staying over night to take part in the Sunday service, we were wondering what we might do for the evening. So I took care of dad’s groceries and went to get a bike seat. I put it on the bike and we called Kory at a about 11:45 and we woke him up. Imagine that, a college student sleeping in until nearly noon! We had asked Kellee what time would be safe to call Kory and he said to wait until at least 11:00. Oh the life of a college student. Kory said it was fine to come up, he wanted to go to Teavana in Des Moines at Jordan Creek mall, and we agreed if he gave us his order we would swing by on the way up, rather than go to Ames and get him, drive to DSM and then back to Ames. It made more sense for us to go there on the way up, which we did. So we got to spend a few hours with Kory, went to eat at Old Main in Ames and got home in time to watch a movie and believe it or not we both stayed awake for the whole thing! We had a good, somewhat “light” day. So many of the days lately have seemed “heavy” but being able to go see Kory and knowing Kellee was going to go to Ottumwa with Pil, we did not think about the whole situation… as much.