Happy President's Day!

A Day off from School! Woohoo! Haven't posted in a looooong time BUT I have been feeling somewhat better and am going to try to be better! =) Hopefully this day off will give me a good start!

Health Update 8/25/08

Friday I had my appointment with my hematologist. I had been put on 40mg of prednisone to keep me out of the hospital while waiting for him to return from vacation. At my appointment my hemaglobin was only 7.5 with the 40mg! With that reading my doctor made the order for me to begin treatments with a chemo drug called Rituxan. It is not chemotherapy just an IV chemo drug that is supposed to kill all of the bad white blood cells that are killing my red blood cells. After the appointment, I went downstairs to the chemo clinic and got registered. Well, I told the doctor that I had driven myself to the appt that day and so he only ordered half of the amount of pre-med Benadryl to help my body accept the medicine. After I got my IV and my IV pre-meds they began the infusion very slowly. The first drip rate was fine and then they served me lunch. I began eating and began to feel my mouth itch and some constriction in my chest. I didn't think too much of it until it grew worse and I felt as if I couldn't swallow and could't breathe very well. I motioned for the nurse to come over and they checked my oxygen level and it was 99% but that didn't make me feel any better, I still couldn't breathe well. They gave me more benadryl to counter the reaction, Tylenol, Zantac for the indigestion I guess I was having and a breathing treatment to relieve the constriction I felt in my lungs. It was very scary. Finally, they began the medicine again and things were ok. After a bit though I could feel my throat begin to hurt a little again but It didn't progress like before so I was able to finish my first treatment. I have to receive this treatment for the next 3 weeks and then wait 1 month to see if my counts go up. This first week I still have to be on prednisone too. =( If after the month is up and my counts don't improve like they want they will remove my spleen. Ugh! So, hopefully this very expensive, 3rd treatment type will actually get my hemaglobin up and it will STAY up once off of the medication. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and please continue to pray for strength as school has started back up again here and for wisdom for the doctors and that I can be a testimony to those I come in contact with for my treatments!

Tiffany

6/6/08 Update!

Well............My hemoglobin level has dropped to 10.4 from 10.8 =(. The doctor is going to continue to shorten my tapering to 10mg every 7 days which I don't really understand, but he also notified my hematologist in Dothan, AL to see what else to do I guess. Also, my hematocrit level is 30.3 which is a little low so just continue to pray for wisdom for the doctors and for me to rest in God's will and trust him.

Thanks

Short Update

Not much to report really. On 5/7 I had a blood draw which reported my hemoglobin at 10.8 and so the doctor had me start tapering my prednisone at 10mg every 10 days and come back in a month for another blood draw. I am now at 60mg ready to drop to 50mg on Friday! I am doing well on the tapering! Such a difference from the 80mg, 70mg to the 60mg! Praise the Lord for his grace and goodness in this situation.

Check back for an update after my blood draw next week.

Health Update

I got a blood draw on Wed, April 23 and my hemoglobin count was 10.1! Praise the Lord! Thank you for ALL of your prayers! Because of my "rapid" increase the doctor wants another blood draw in 2 weeks and then they may start to taper my prednisone then! The hematologist said that they probably wouldn't be able to taper for about 8 weeks! Please continue to pray that once they do start to taper my dose that my count stays up so I won't have to have anymore treatment, BUT ultimately for God's will in all of this. He has taught me many things from this experience.

Hematology Appt Fri, April 4, 2008

The appointment went very well. He answered a few other questions that I had about this whole thing. He said that I did seem to have a very severe case of this warm body autoimmune hemolytic anemia and wanted to give me the chemo drug yesterday. However, since my hemoglobin did increase from 6.7 to 7.1 just from taking my prednisone he have me a 2 day course of decadron, another steroid to maybe suppress my white blood cells more over the weekend and then get 2 blood draws next week and see how that works. If this doesn't work significantly they want to give me this chemo drug Rituxan which does have a good outcome rate but is VERY expensive. It is an IV infusion you get once weekly for 4 weeks. The drug company does offer a potential free course of treatment for certain incomes and uninsured so I am checking into that, so please pray that we would be eligible for that because this drug is not really made yet for my diagnosis, just RA and Lymphoma so far. Then, if the Rituxan doesn't work terribly well, a spleenectomy may need to be done. Hopefully, it won't get that far but that is the potential course of action. I am continuing to feel a little better, not great, but better; maybe I am just getting used to the illness, who knows! Hopefully I will be able to adjust well to school starting again on Monday! I have been out of work essentially for a month since I was admitted to the hospital for 1 week on March 10. Pray for strength! Thank you ALL for your prayers and caring notes!

My Recent (and continuing) Illness

I have been tired for a while but at the beginning of March it was really bad. I began to be pale and dizzy some and then I began to be yellow and almost non-functional. So, March 10 after school I went to urgent care and they admitted me because my hemoglobin level was at 5.5 and is supposed to be between 12-13. They were going to do a blood transfusion but found that I have hemolytic anemia which means that my body is still making red blood cells but my white blood cells are killing them so fast they can't accumulate. I was in the hospital for 1 week being treated with IV prednisone trying to suppress my white blood cells. (They don't know what is causing this) After a week my level went to 6.7 and they let me go home and rest but not work, which I really couldn't anyway. Since being at home, I have been on oral prednisone 80mg per day (a lot!) and after 3 days my levels still didn't go up. So, last week I had to go to the hospital Mon-Thu for a 3 hour IV treatment of hemoglobulin to try to suppress my white blood cells more. Well, I had a blood draw yesterday and my hemoglobin is still at 6.7! ugh! Now, I have an appointment on Friday with the hematologist that my doctor has been in contact with for a treatment with a new chemo-drug (not a full-chemo treatment) that will wipe out all of my bad white blood cells instead of the old drugs which would wipe out ALL of your bad white blood cells. Hopefully this will allow my body to begin to accumulate and keep the red blood cells that it is making. In a nutshell, that is it. I am doing better than I was but not great. This blood disorder with the prednisone is quite a combo of 'side effects'. Please continue to pray that they will figure out exactly what is causing this to occur, whether autoimmune disease or virus or whatever, but 50% of these cases they never figure out what is causing it. Lord TRULY only knows!

School pics

Boys playing b-ball

the black boys playing keep away fro the white boys! =)

Girls having some fun in P.E.

Two of my girls =)

Cheyenne and Chelsie
Carlon and Tim

Carlon is awesome; he wears cowboy boots to school and has a strong southern accent, he's just as sweet as can be!

Tim is in my class and is a really funny, smart guy. We get to spend alot of time together due to his academic probation. He needs to get caught up in his PACE work so he has to stay in every break and 1 hour after school with me every day!

Phil's Learning Center

High School Educational Field Trip to the IMAX

Boys Basketball game that Phil coached

Our Principal, our boss, Mrs. Toole

Boys P.E.

My desk

My Christmas Decorations behind my desk

I had a heck of a time spelling JESUS IS in Christmas lights but I think it turned out dang good!

Each of the stockings hanging was for each of my students and they spelled out

THE REASON FOR THE SEASON

A picture that I drew on my white board to remind me of skiing with the teens and Pastor Greg

Girls P.E.

the High School Learning Center

This is the other half of the room I'm in

the boys playing some b-ball at break

More Ministry pics

The Road that led from where we used to live in Chattahoochee to where we work in Sneads. This bridge crosses over the Appalachicola River.

The Appalachicola River that is dammed by Lake Seminole. Lots of good fishing I hear. Phil is very excited to get to go sometime when he has time.

The road again from the side. This was a fall picture; it was nice to still have some color for fall. Nothin' like WI but it'll work.

As you come into Sneads

The one blinking caution light in the whole town. Don't blink or you'll miss it!!

The road going to school. To get to our new home, you follow this road out
in the country about 10 minutes!

The school/church from the road.

The School Building

The church buildings

Left: Sunday Schools and nursery Right: Sanctuary

The inside of the Sanctuary during chapel

Our pastor, David Pipping

From the church buildings to the school building

The side of the S.S. building leading to the school building

The gymnasium which is connected to the school building

This is our whole school during a Christmas play, presentation

A Few New Ministry pics!

The Sanctuary

Will post more pics later!

Coming Soon!!

Pictures of our new place and ministry in FL!!!

Check back soon!

Fellowship Baptist Church VBS 2007

Short Trip to CA!

My friend Karen and I took a short trip to CA for the weekend from 6/7 - 6/11!! We went to see a graduation @ Walnut High School. The graduate, Danielle, used to go to church with us here in Watertown before she moved to CA with her family. It was good to be there for her graduation and to see her family.



In addition to going to the graduation, we were also able to go to Disneyland and the beach. Saturday evening after we went to the beach, my brother Christian and his wife Elisabeth came to see us. We had home-made ice cream and played Pit!! It was lots of fun. Especially with 8 people!

After these eventful 3 days, Sunday we were able to just gather together in the Lord's house at my home church Gethsemane Baptist Church in Long Beach, CA. There I was able to see many friends and introduce them to Karen.

Monday morning @ 3am came very early to get up to prepare for departure from LAX airport.

Overall we had a great but busy time of "vacation"!!

Saying Hello and Goodbye!

All in one weekend I was saying hello and goodbye to so many friends! First, for graduation weekend I had Beth and Brittany staying with me for graduation, just for a short weekend. Then I was able to have breakfast with my friend Ginny who was my college roommate and bridesmaid. It was very good to catch up with her. I was able to meet Beth's parents at her graduation.

I was also able to meet Adam's parents and see him graduate.

Adam and Brittany

After meeting the families of my friends, I was able to catch up with a few friends, one of which was Mike and his fiancee!!

Congratulations!

Their engagement was very interesting. To learn more click on their picture!!!

On Saturday there was a going away party for one of my friends at work. Liz has left us at ShopKo pharmacy to become a physicians assistant! For her party she chose to go to Chicago.

We left late Saturday morning and drove to Chicago. When we got there we shopped @ Lori's Shoes - The Sole of Chicago and that was quite the experience for me considering I am not a shoe connoisseur at ALL! There were some very interesting shoes there.

Then we ate lunch at Tilli's Restaurant. It was a nice little place. We had chicken quesadillas, calamari, spinach/artichoke dip with pita bread, salad and I had hummus for the first time. It was pretty good!

We then proceeded to the "Magninficent Mile" on Michigan Ave! Lots of shopping was done there! We went to Filene's Basement then to

I have never been to this store but it was very interesting. Kind of a teenie bopper store so Kate and I walked to Starbucks while everyone was shopping there. After that Kate and I separated from the others and took off to "Vickie's", Borders's, the Hershey's Store which was very cool! We then proceded to the Water Tower Place, the coolest mall I have yet been to! It is a 7 story mall with an awesome food court! We didn't have much time left so we didn't get to go everywhere we wanted but we did go to Fossil and on the way we met up with the other girls at Soho where they were trying on hair extensions. It was very interesting and quite realistic. They had beautiful hair clips and baretts there. After that we were out of time and had to proceed to our next appointment at N9NE. There we wined and dined.

For dinner between us we had steak, lobster, shrimp, crab, chicken, veggies and "on the house" "compliments of the chef" sushi! It was crazy! It was a small square of tuna topped with a shrimp topped with cavier all with wabasi sauce on it. I did try it and that was enough for me. This was quite a day of experiences. After dinner came dessert! Yum yum!

This was a HUGE piece of carrot cake

This was a banana ice cream cake with oreo crust!

This was chocolate something with chocolate something with chocolate! =)

This was mine!!! I ordered make um yourself smores! It was awesome!

THEN came the bill!!!

The GRAND total!

What each of us pitched in!!!

After dinner, dessert, and debt came the Ghost Bar (Lounge) upstairs, above the restaurant.

After getting home @ 2AM on Sunday morning my eventful weekend of hellos and Goodbyes was over! Phew!