Friday evening, Dana's bittersweet departure

Dear Friends and Family,

This evening we are coping with a fact of life, our time with Dana has come to an end. She and John are flying home tomorrow from Sacramento early in the morning. Nan is broken hearted to see her go yet we both know she has to go home and reclaim her life there and prepare for her job in the school system. Ronnie misses her and she has been wonderful help in every way while she has been here. Through hospital visits, cooking, nursing, laughing, crying, she has been through it all. What a precious sister she is to Nan and Nan will miss her deeply and profoundly tomorrow.

Dana made the decision to go rather rapidly this evening and when Nikki heard she and Keanna came over to say good bye. That was a precious visit too. The bonds of family are strong and transcend distances, ages and personal traits. We will always remember what Dana and has done for us and we appreciate it very much.

Marilyn and Nan went to the oncologist this afternoon and in his opinion the tumor is not smaller but not larger than last time either. He says Nan will need a transfusion next week as her hemoglobin is down to 8.6 now but its been three weeks so thats not too bad really. He says the fevers may be a fact of life for awhile but as long as they stay in the low end, 99s and 100 or so we will continue as we are doing. nan sleeps under only a sheet at night with a variety of pillows which she moves about during the night for comfort sake. She only takes extra pain meds when she really needs to and uses Adavan very carefully and at low doses to help her sleep and get rest.

After the doctor visit today they went to Walmart to get some more gowns but by the time they got home Nan was very tired, throwing up a bit and ready for some rest. She crashed in her hospital bed and slept for hours.

This evening we just sat around and talked, Dana cooked up to nearly the time to go to bed and is leaving many interesting items for us to sample.

Marilyn has been at Nan's side all day helping her as I left at 9 this morning for Tracy for a construction inspection, then to Walnut Creek for a business meeting on the top floor of a office building, then to San Leandro and then to a second home in San Leandro. At that point I headed home thinking I would get here in time to take her to the doctors but traffic decided otherwise moving only about 5 to 10 mph for several miles through Pleasanton and Livermore. When I got home I started to work on a deposit but then Loree popped in, she is our wonderful book keeper and house sitter, pet care giver, occassional Nan sitter and all about wonderful person. She took over the deposit prep and made a good deposit at the bank. She also deposited a generous amount from the Nan's recovery donations she just received from the Tracy SDA Church. We still need to cover some medical things that are on the AMEX and the donation will really help a lot. Nan and I want to thank each and every person who has helped us through this challenging time of medical issues. I don't think you could possibly know the conflicting emotions I have when I hear about a donation coming in. My first reaction is to return the donation because I know there is always someone out there who needs it more. My second reaction is gratitude as many times the fund has made the difference in making a house payment or not. Our business is very slow but in spite of the market conditions in general we still have received a few orders this week that Steve and I have been able to travel to and appraise. We are very thankful to each of you who have helped us and we know a day is coming when we will be able to turn tables and help others again.

As I pause and reflect on this week I see contrasts, between hope, despair, faith, lostness, pain and rest..... I am grateful this evening that Nan has AMN for her GIST tumors. Tomorrow many bike riders are going to ride in a special 112 mile race to race money for cancer research. I heard a man named Paul who was a guest on the Laura Ingram show today who will ride tomorrow, Paul's possee will ride with him, a group of people all raising money for research. He announced that he has GIST and is on Gleevec but has a very serious level of tumor intrusion. It was gratifying to hear GIST mentioned and to learn that two of the highest level research doctors at Dana Farber and Sloan Kettering are also riding tomorrow for cancer research.

I have included a couple photos tonight taken this evening while everyone was saying good byes to Dana.

Thank you dear friend for your prayers and standing with us through this very challenging time.

We send our love to you, know that we do care that you read, that you pray, that you send good thoughts to Nan. This week she has been able to eat very little as it appears she has a partial bowel blockage again but by using the stomach pump we are able to control the pressure that might arrive and with TPN she continues to get the nutrition she needs. Her white count was normal so infection if there is at a very low level right now. A few minutes ago her picc line broke again on the line that has been repaired over and over again so we are down to using one line again. Oh well, we'll just get it repaired or replaced.

Good night

tim and nan and dana and john and marilyn

PS I wrote this last evening and thought it went out but Bob called this morning to say, no Blog. So Its Sabbath morning at 10:30 and I'm back from taking Dana and John to an early flight and we'll try the blog again. So sorry!