Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Boston or Bust! Kickin' Asbestos!
Dad just got back from his evaluation appointment in Boston. He is a candidate for a pleural resection surgery!! Dad met with one of the top mesothelioma surgeons in the nation, and he feels very confident that the surgery will be a sucess.
They will be removing the pleural linging of dads left lung, as well as the section of his diaphragm that is affected. They will be using a heated chemotherapy during surgery, which has been sucessfull in stunting the future growth of these cells. This is not a cure, but Dr.Sugarbaker says that dads chances of managing this are 50% better with this surgery then fighting it with Chemotherapy alone.
We want to thank all of you who have donated so far to help us get our dad the best care! We have been so touched by the amazing out poor of love and generosity from the people around us. Thank you!
We are going to be having a "Dinner for Dave" fundraiser on the 7th of March. The location is still being nailed down, but we would love for all of you to come! It will be a potato bar dinner with a silent auction. Tickets are $5.00. I will be posting more details as they become available. Dad will be there to visit with all of you from 5:30-8:00.
They will be removing the pleural linging of dads left lung, as well as the section of his diaphragm that is affected. They will be using a heated chemotherapy during surgery, which has been sucessfull in stunting the future growth of these cells. This is not a cure, but Dr.Sugarbaker says that dads chances of managing this are 50% better with this surgery then fighting it with Chemotherapy alone.
We want to thank all of you who have donated so far to help us get our dad the best care! We have been so touched by the amazing out poor of love and generosity from the people around us. Thank you!
We are going to be having a "Dinner for Dave" fundraiser on the 7th of March. The location is still being nailed down, but we would love for all of you to come! It will be a potato bar dinner with a silent auction. Tickets are $5.00. I will be posting more details as they become available. Dad will be there to visit with all of you from 5:30-8:00.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
International Mesothelioma Program - Brigham and Women's Hospital
International Mesothelioma Program - Brigham and Women's Hospital
Click the link above
Above is a link that talks about the Mesothelioma Program that we are sending my dad to. This hospital has the best, most advanced Cardiothoracic Oncolgoy department in the nation. My dad deserves the best, and we will do what we have to to get him there! Heaven knows that anyone of his kids would pay for all the expenses ourselves, but that is too much for any one of us to take on alone, so we are asking for help.
We have set up an account at East Idaho Credit Union. If you have an account there, you can call in and transfer money from account to account, if you do not have an account with East Idaho, you can stop in at any branch and make a deposit to the David L. Hathaway Mesothelioma Fund, or you can mail a check to either myself, or my brother Paul.
Dad will potentially be traveling to Boston several times for surgery and post op checks. We hope to be able to have his chemotherapy treatments done close to home, but we will know more after the initial appointment on the 14th.
This program in Boston gives my dad the best chance, so please, please help us to get him there!
Make Checks payable to: David L. Hathaway Mesothelioma Fund
Melissa Belnap Paul Hathaway
861 W. 145 N. 305 Hummingbird
Idaho Falls, Idaho 83401 Shelley, Idaho 83274
(208)313-0638 (208)589-7302
Click the link above
Above is a link that talks about the Mesothelioma Program that we are sending my dad to. This hospital has the best, most advanced Cardiothoracic Oncolgoy department in the nation. My dad deserves the best, and we will do what we have to to get him there! Heaven knows that anyone of his kids would pay for all the expenses ourselves, but that is too much for any one of us to take on alone, so we are asking for help.
We have set up an account at East Idaho Credit Union. If you have an account there, you can call in and transfer money from account to account, if you do not have an account with East Idaho, you can stop in at any branch and make a deposit to the David L. Hathaway Mesothelioma Fund, or you can mail a check to either myself, or my brother Paul.
Dad will potentially be traveling to Boston several times for surgery and post op checks. We hope to be able to have his chemotherapy treatments done close to home, but we will know more after the initial appointment on the 14th.
This program in Boston gives my dad the best chance, so please, please help us to get him there!
Make Checks payable to: David L. Hathaway Mesothelioma Fund
Melissa Belnap Paul Hathaway
861 W. 145 N. 305 Hummingbird
Idaho Falls, Idaho 83401 Shelley, Idaho 83274
(208)313-0638 (208)589-7302
Monday, February 7, 2011
Re-couping....
Dad has been home for a few days and has been doing his best to get some much needed rest! That is not always easy when you have several "motherly, un-credentialed" nurses taking care of you! ;) He is feeling much better, but has had a hard time keeping a whole lot of anything down. He has been slowly weaning himself off of his pain meds, and that seems to be helping.
We have things all set up for Dads evalutaion appointment in Boston. David will be flying with him to be his doctor appointment "chaperone." He has appointments all day on the 14th and 15th, and then we will know what the doctor thinks about surgery. We are all anxious to say the least!
This sunday, our family was able to go to my dads ward for church. Dad had great intentions to come with us, but last minute felt too sick to come. It was nice to talk to all of the people who love and care about him from his ward. We had so many people appraoch us and ask what they could do. Kids from his primary class sent us home with get well cards and notes!
As his kids, we cannot express enough how much we appreciate everyone who has supported dad already in this! The out pour of prayers, and love has been amazing to see! Thank you so much!
We have things all set up for Dads evalutaion appointment in Boston. David will be flying with him to be his doctor appointment "chaperone." He has appointments all day on the 14th and 15th, and then we will know what the doctor thinks about surgery. We are all anxious to say the least!
This sunday, our family was able to go to my dads ward for church. Dad had great intentions to come with us, but last minute felt too sick to come. It was nice to talk to all of the people who love and care about him from his ward. We had so many people appraoch us and ask what they could do. Kids from his primary class sent us home with get well cards and notes!
As his kids, we cannot express enough how much we appreciate everyone who has supported dad already in this! The out pour of prayers, and love has been amazing to see! Thank you so much!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
More good news!!
The doctor called early this morning and he already had the pathology report back on Dads lymphnodes!! NO CANCER IN THE LYMPHNODES!!! We are all jumping for joy today!!
Dad is scheduled for an evaluation at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston Massechusetts on February 15th, and then they will schedule him for the surgery.
Help us get our dad to Boston!! We will be setting up a donation account with East Idaho Credit Union. As soon as I get the account number, I will post it here. We should have the account all set up and ready this afternoon. Any little bit helps! Thanks!
Dad is scheduled for an evaluation at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston Massechusetts on February 15th, and then they will schedule him for the surgery.
Help us get our dad to Boston!! We will be setting up a donation account with East Idaho Credit Union. As soon as I get the account number, I will post it here. We should have the account all set up and ready this afternoon. Any little bit helps! Thanks!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Another hurdle down!
This morning Dad has his thoracotomy done to take a biopsy of the lymphnodes that may or may not be affected by the mesothelioma. The procedure went smoothly, and Dr. Rundell said that nothing jumped out at him as being "abnormal", but that we would need to see the pathology report to be sure. We should have those results back tomorrow afternoon, and then we will get a weekend without suspense!
The great news is, is that Dad got to go home tonight. He was more than anxious to get out of that place, although he LOVED the nurses that took care of him. His favorites were Crystal, Marj and Tonya. He would love to see them all again; under better circumstances! ;)
We are having a special family fast for dad this coming Sunday. We would like to invite any of our family or freinds that would like to join us to do so! We know that this will be a long road, but we have faith in miracles! Our new family motto is "We got this!" We do, we will beat this and we will look back and sigh with relief!
Love to you all!
The great news is, is that Dad got to go home tonight. He was more than anxious to get out of that place, although he LOVED the nurses that took care of him. His favorites were Crystal, Marj and Tonya. He would love to see them all again; under better circumstances! ;)
We are having a special family fast for dad this coming Sunday. We would like to invite any of our family or freinds that would like to join us to do so! We know that this will be a long road, but we have faith in miracles! Our new family motto is "We got this!" We do, we will beat this and we will look back and sigh with relief!
Love to you all!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Our silver lining....
So today was actually a pretty good day. It is hard to say that when someone you love has cancer, but...you take the good when you get it!
We got the pathology report back sooner than we had anticipated, and its pretty good news! It is mesothelioma, and it is stage 3, but...here comes the silver lining.....its the type that responds to chemotherapy! There are 3 types of mesothelioma one type that is resistant to any type of chemotherapy making it impossible to treat. One is somewhat cooperative, and one Dr. Shull called "freindly." I am glad to say that dad has "friendly" cancer! The doctor said if you have to have mesothelioma, that is the kind you want. We would prefer to not have cancer at all, but news like this gives us all a little more hope!
We decided to celebrate our one good piece of news with a photo op! (Its a little dark, sorry)
We got the pathology report back sooner than we had anticipated, and its pretty good news! It is mesothelioma, and it is stage 3, but...here comes the silver lining.....its the type that responds to chemotherapy! There are 3 types of mesothelioma one type that is resistant to any type of chemotherapy making it impossible to treat. One is somewhat cooperative, and one Dr. Shull called "freindly." I am glad to say that dad has "friendly" cancer! The doctor said if you have to have mesothelioma, that is the kind you want. We would prefer to not have cancer at all, but news like this gives us all a little more hope!
We decided to celebrate our one good piece of news with a photo op! (Its a little dark, sorry)
Next step is to do a thoracotomy and check the lymphnodes down the middle of the chest. If they are un-affected, we will be sending dad to Boston, where they will try and resect as much of the cancer as they can!
We know that we have you all to thank for our good news! I told my dad that with as many people as he has praying for him....he will be just fine! So, thank you all so much!
Dad loves visitors, his favorites are his grandkids! Our kids have learned to make themselves right at home on the 4th floor! Dads room is next to a vacant room, and the kids.....with Uncle Jareds help, made themselves compfy and watched some cartoons! Another funny moment in our chaotic week!
Still making us laugh!
Dad has been poked, prodded, scanned, cut into and just plain miserable for the last 2 weeks. That doens't seem to keep his sense of humor from shining through! (I think the morphine helps!)
After his lung biopsy, he had to do a breathing excersize. He has to suck air into a meter type thing, and make the stopper go as far to the top as he can. He hates to do it, but does it because he has about 8 pretty pushy people constantly making sure he does what he is told! Sometimes he would probably like us to go home! :)
Late last night he was FAR from excited when I told him that he needed to do his breathing excersize before I would go home. He reluctantly did it, but managed to make silly faces that whole time!
It was good to see him being silly! Thats my dad! He wasn't too thrilled that I had snuck my camera in, but....he knew I would break it out eventually! ;)
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