I have a request....

I'm not really sure how to put this post into words but now that I have the "ok" to do it I will.

My family and I were at my parents house in Jan/Feb and we talked about how this was going to become the "year from hell" as one Queen so nicely put it.

Among a few other things going on in our lives we got some bad news. My Dad had to go to the doctors. It turns out his PSA numbers (prostate specific antigen) were high. This could be because of an infection, or because of cancer. Dad's doctors suggested he do a biopsy. So he did. This was the beginning of a long hard March for our family. There was the waiting and the praying that this would come back as an infection.

When Mom and Dad did go to their follow up appointment last week we got the bad news. My Dad has Prostate Cancer.

I had done some research on my own, and with the help of a friend of mine whose father has had Prostate Cancer, learned that it can be treated by using Radiation, Chemotherapy and by doing surgery.

When my parents came home from the appointment I was told that this type of cancer, because it was so aggressive in Dad, was suggested to be treated by surgery. And that Dad's surgery date is April 1st.... tomorrow.

I'm not 100% sure what else to tell people. Lately it has been something along the lines of

"My Dad has prostate cancer and will be having surgery on Friday. He found out last week and we are praying that this will cure Dad from any other cancer developing"

or

"Dad's PSA levels were high so he went to the specialist and we discovered it was cancer. He has surgery April 1st and we are praying that everything will be fine."

To be honest I'm not sure what or how much people want to know. I can tell you I have learned ALOT about Prostate Cancer, how it is treated, what happens and what the recovery from these types of surgery are like. I can also tell you that it is "weird" talking to guys and telling them to start asking that their PSA levels get tested from now on at their physicals. And how important it is to stay on top of something like this.

Generally when you tell people their responses are

"It's the most curable cancer (and it has a very high rate 90% or better if they have surgery), I'm sure he will be fine"

Or

"I have an Uncle/Dad/Cousin/Brother/ect that has it so I totally understand (which makes sense since 1 in 6 men will have prostate cancer)"

Or

"What is it?"

All those responses are valid and I, personally, love hearing about someone who has it or has been cured from it. It's such a wonderful thing to hear.

I'm writing this post to let you know what is going on. This has been *such* a big thing in our lives right now and it's hard not to share it with family, friends and those people who would support me and my family.

Right now I can tell you Daddy's surgery is April 1st at 11:20am. He has to be at the hospital in the morning. I'm not 100% sure what will happen after that.

From speaking with some friends whose close family members have had this I understand that the first few days he will be in the hospital (for Dad it will be Friday to Monday). Then home with a day nurse coming to check in on him for 2 to 3 weeks (depending on the person and their recovery rate). After that they say that your recovery time is about 8 weeks. A friend told me that her dad was doing alright before 8 weeks but was still slow to get around and in some pain. It does get better.

I am hoping that from this blog post at least 1 thing will happen.

You are a bit more educated about Prostate Cancer
You understand a bit of what is happening with our family and/or
You pray for us tomorrow.

My family (Arnold, Kyler, Quinton and I) are heading down tonight. We will be staying in a hotel to make sure Dad doesn't get sick from any of us. I'll be dropped off in the morning at Mom and Dad's place, visit for a bit and head to the hospital with Dad and Mom. I'll stay there until Dad's out of surgery. My job this weekend, as I see it, aside from visiting with my Daddy, is to be with Mom. It's been hard on all of us right now and I think that both Mom and Dad need as much prayer as possible.

If you could pray about these things that would be wonderful:

*For Dad - for his nerves, his surgery, his recovery process
*For the Doctors - for their hands to be guided and for them to remove all the cancer there
*For Mom - for her nerves, for her time with Dad during the recovery and for her well-being
*For our family - to keep us calm and allow us to take this in stride, esp for Jack who has exams this week, and next, at school
*For our extended Family and Friends - who will be praying for us daily and trying to assist Mom and Dad as much as possible

If you have any questions, ask. If I don't know the answer now I will find out for you, or help you find the answers. If nothing else this will help us be a little more aware of what another kind of cancer is out there.

For My Daddy

These last few weeks have been crazy, between the car breaking down, finding a new one, having our own personal problems here it's just nuts!

Anyway, my Daddy hasn't been able to see the new van so Arnold came up with a great idea... take ALOT of photos!

Earth Hour ~ Are you ready?

Every year we try to do earth hour, this year it isn't any different... are you ready?

The countdown begins:

Earth Hour 8:30 until 9:30pm

We now own a New CAR!

That's right Ladies and Gents! We have a new car, ok well van.

Last week we had car troubles (see previous posts. It meant that our car was DEAD! Completely dead. So our search started for a new one. We looked at over 45 different vans in the time span of 72 hours. We were so good and so well teamed.

A friend of ours from church, Auntie Jaime, loaned us her car and we got the fun started on Saturday. After Amber headed out the boys and I packed up some bags. Each one had snacks, juice box, Kanteens with water, colouring books, crayons, hard things to colour on, tissues, and a few other random things. We got into the car and off we went. Arnold had already gone out and looked at 3 of our list and we kept on going. We started at one side of the city and worked our way over to the other side. Then we went down Kingston Road. Arnold and I did some serious tag teaming. He would pull into one car lot and go ask, and I would call the lot next to it and ask, we did this the whole way down. Sometimes I would get out and check out the other lot, and sometimes they didn't have anything. We went everywhere!

On Sunday the same thing happen again. I packed up the bags and off we went to run around the city and look at so many vans! One of our last stops we found one we liked. After taking lots of photos, and having our "pro" look over it (being Kyler - trust me after this many cars he WAS a pro at it!) we decided we liked it. We went in and talked to the dealer and made plans. After we left Arnold and I talked about it and we were much happier that *I* did the dealing... I got us a better deal than Arnold would have!

Monday was a bunch of running around. Once Kyler went to his Keli school Q and I went and got the new van, took it to the mechanic and had them look at it. Went back to the dealer and tired to get a better deal. We ended up with where we were before and just left it. I went back a few hours later and put down the down payment. That's when it went for work.

The car went out to get the safety done, the e-test, and some buffing and cleaning of the inside. We finally got it back on Friday evening. Arnold went over and paid for the rest of the van and drove it home. We went over to Auntie Jaime's house and dropped off her car we had used. Then to a car wash! The car was so dirty! After that home! It was WAY too late to take any photos so that was a no go!

This morning the boys took the car out to church for men's breakfast, then hair cuts and home. We went on a "field trip" to our old car. We had some things to take off/out of it.

We had *just* put on some headlights. Our neighbour, who's van is a 1998 (ours was a 1997), bought those from us, along with some head rests, 2 captains chairs and some fobs for his van. We pulled off the headlights today and went through and emptied everything out.

Here are some photos of our adventures and our new van:

Kyler, trying to find wires in the green van:


Taking things out:


Oh the toolboxes:


Q working hard:




Resourceful Quinton using his toolbox for a stool!


Our old van:





Our New van:



Our Vans together: