Fun Saturday at Adventure Island

This Past Saturday we went to Adventure Island for a fun day in the sun.

Hope had absolutely no fear of the rides.  She went on every single ride and loved it.

Jayden wasn't ready to go on the big slides yet (I don't blame him). He spent lots of his time in the kiddie areas, lazy pool, wave pool, and cheering on his big sister as she went on the big slides.

But he still had a blast!

We brought our healthy packed lunches instead of eating the yucky fried food and had a picnic half way through the day.

Aunt Haylee spent lots of time with the little ones in the kiddie area chasing them up and down the slides.

The wave pool was one of our favorite places to be. 

Thanks to Aunt Haylee who made it possible for all of us to have a fun day at Adventure Island.  (She's a lifeguard at Adventure Island and gets her family good deals.)

We had a great day but we all missed Justin.  He wasn't comfortable going out in the sun all day and getting his skin graft soaked.  Probably a smart idea but we missed him lots!

Update from the Oncologist

Justin is continuing to heal great.  Each day he is building a little bit more confidence on how his skin graft looks and its healing amazingly well.  As you all know our next step was to see the Oncologist.  We were going into the appointment yesterday thinking that they were going to tell Justin that everything looks great, he’s cancer free and send him on his way.  But that’s not quite how it went.   Because Justin’s cancer was so big and deep it’s pretty much guaranteed that it will come back within the next 1 to 5 years.  And because it’s a very aggressive type of Melanoma it will probably come back even more aggressively and attack an organ such as his liver or brain, ect.   I was always under the impression that Melanoma showed up outwardly on the skin but it’s not always the case.  It can attack an internal organ that you and I can’t see with our eyes.   So the doctor has highly recommended Justin go for a years worth of Interferon treatment.  Which is basically Chemo treatment for his type of cancer.  Other than instead of killing the cancer which is what Chemo would do, it’s going to build his immune cells to prolong the cancer from coming back so quickly.  She said that this is Not a guarantee that his cancer won’t come back.  But it’s going to prolong it.  So instead of coming back in 1-5 years it could be 3-8  years before it returns.  So he is basically “buying himself time” with this treatment, in hopes that if it does return the medical field has advanced even more and there are better drugs and treatments.  The doctor said she doesn’t necessary like this drug because of the rough side effects but for Justin’s case she highly recommends it because he is young and strong and healthy and should be able to pull through this.  It will be a year worth of treatment; the first one to two months he will go to Moffitt Monday through Friday and get daily injections.  After that phase, for months 2-12, he will give himself injections 1-3 times a week.   As far as working…..Every case is different.   She said you won’t feel great and you probably won’t be able to work at all the first few months when he gets the daily injections but after that he should be able to work depending how he feels.  But will want to rest at every chance he can get. 

Soooo……like I said it wasn’t quite the news we were expecting to hear from the Oncologist yesterday.  She sent us home with information pamphlet and an overload of “thoughts on the brain” to think about over the next few weeks to decide if we will follow through with the treatment or not. 

August 11^th is our next appointment.  He will be getting a full body scan that day to double check that the cancer hasn’t spread to other organs in his body.  Assuming that comes back clear we will meet with the oncologist that day to let her know if we will be starting his treatment or not.  If we decide not to do the treatment than he will just go back every 3 months for a routine checkup, in hopes to catch it when it comes back before it’s invaded too much.  

One of her last words to us was that the Interferon treatment will prolong his life.  And in his eyes anything to prolong his life or the cancer from returning too soon I think we will probably opt for.

Thank you so much for the prayers.  Prayers that the scan comes back clear, prayers that we will have a clear answer of how we should proceed to the next step, prayers for JB Lawns and how it will continue to operate through all this, prayers for us financially, prayers for our beautiful precious children, prayers for me and most importantly prayers for my husband to continue to keep his faith, stay focused on God, and continue to be the strong man he is with a positive outlook on life and a long healthy life.    

We are still processing everything we heard yesterday but believe that God has brought Justin to this and will not let go of him throughout it. 

On a side note my family is amazing.  I honestly don’t think we could endure this without God and without them.  They have helped us through this fog.   My mom is going to have a garage sale in either August or September to help raise money for the medical bills that have started to roll in and for our personal living bills as we are unsure of what the future holds as far as income.  So if you happen to be doing any type of summer cleaning and have anything you want to donate for the garage sale it would be greatly appreciated.  

Love to you all!

God Answers Prayers

My brother-in-law sent me an email the very first night after Justins surgery that I wanted to share with you first.  It touched me so much and I thought of this story throughout the whole week.  He said "Our perspective on a situation is biased because of our lack of knowledge in the  final outcome.  It's easy to read about Abraham having to walk up the mountain with his son, the son he waited for for so many years, knowing he was going to kill him in obedience to God. We can't really identify with the anguish he must have felt because a few sentences later we read about the perfect lamb that God provided as an acceptable alternative.  But you can because you are living those "sentences".  You and Justin are walking up the mountain.  The journey not the destination is the essence of faith.  Take comfort on the fact that you walk with the same God as Abraham."


So heres our journey up the mountain:
My last post was 9 days ago when we came home from Justins surgery.  I guess neither of us knew what the next week ahead was going to hold.   I left the hospital with my hubby and a sheet of paper with instructions of how I was suppose to take care of him the next week.  I felt fairly confident in myself that I could handle this on my own and that I didn't need to have home healthcare visit us every day.  My step by step instructions seemed very manageable and I was feeling good about all this.........until we unwrapped his bandages about 36 hours later.... 


Day 1:
So late Friday night I made the first phone call to the doctor.   His head and legs were wrapped numerous times so I wasn't sure how many layers I was going to have to take off.  I also wasn't sure if he could shower or get it wet or.....I was freaking out!  But with my hubbys help and a little help from the doctor, who seemed very irritated I was calling him on a Friday night, we figured it out.  Lets just say I prob should've had home healthcare come to the house and handle the dressing changes every day. 


Day 2-3:
My older sister was in town from Tennessee with her kids just for the weekend.  Originally my mom was taking the whole family to the Nickelodeon hotel for the 4th of July weekend but with Justins surgery we had to cancel.  I tried to spend a little time with her inbetween my nurse duties.  Between the pain meds and the antibiotics we were setting the alarm about every 2 hours for him to take another pill.  Yes, even during the night we were waking every two hours to take medicine for the whole week.  It was like having an infant again. :)


Day 4:
Monday was the 4th of July, it was alittle different 4th this year.   Instead of having bar-b-ques, picnics, beachtime, pool, sun, family and friends we were dealing with cancer.  But my family is awesome and instead of going somewhere fun to watch the fireworks they came over to my house and my brother-in-law and step dad put on a firework display in our front yard so that Justin could watch from inside through the window.

Day 5:
Did I mention yet how awesome my family is.  I don't think I would've been able to handle this "sanely" without their help.  My mom kept the kids prettty much all week so that Justin could have a quiet house.  Not only that, but for those of you who don't know, my mom and one of my sisters Chelsy live in my neighborhood, one street over.  So there were many times during the week i'd jump in the car and drive over to moms house to just cry.  Let out lots of tears.  And every time my family was there to let me cry, hug me, and encourage me.  I wanted to try to stay as strong as I could in front of Justin because he needed my strength. 


Day 6-7:  
My hubby was a wonderful patient!  He didn't whine, complain, cry, yell, act irritated or any of the above!  All of which I prob would've done if I was the patient.  He handled this situation and the week very well.  However those last two days he started to feel a little better and started to get a bit stir crazy.  So Thursday morning he woke and moved to the couch.  Yes, all week his pattern was couch, bed, couch, bed, couch ,bed.  Not much else he could do.  And by Thursday morning my sweet husband was starting to get stir crazy and anxious about the results we'd get on Friday. So I told him to call the doctor to see if they'd give the results over the phone.  He didn't want to because he thought they wouldn't but I insisted that he'd call.  By now the doctor was prob already irritated with me from calling like 3-4 times in the last week, so who cares about one more phone call. lol.  He spoke to the nurse and after being put on hold for like 1 minute even though it seemed like 20 minutes she came back to the line and told us everything came back CLEAR!!!  He hung up and we both smiled and said Thank you Jesus!!!  We both just felt a huge burden released to God.   I'm still thanking him for the wonderful news!


Day 8:
We woke up feeling great about life and about his appointment that morning. We felt that God had answered our prayers that he was now cancer free and that his lymphnodes were clear.  And now they were going to take off the bandages and all would be good in life.  Well it went somewhat that way but not quite.  The nurse removed all of Justins bandages and the doctor told us he couldn't explain our situation.  He said that he didn't want to alarm us earlier but if we went by text book, Justins case would have definately without a doubt been a case that the cancer would've moved to his lymphnodes.  The amount that he cut out was even larger than what they originally thought and he said he can't believe that it didn't move to his lymphnodes.  Justin replied to the doctor and told him it was the "power of prayer".  He said he's had so many people praying for him.  The doctor obviously wasn't a believer because he just rolled his eyes.  (So lets add him to our prayer list, his salvation.)  But the bottom line is God performed a miracle on my husband and stopped the cancer from moving to his lymphnodes when it technically should have.  However because of how large of an area and deep his cancer was he is requiring Justin to see an oncologist to discuss possible further treatment.  The nurse removed his bandages and we were on our way home.  Well if only it was that easy..........It was hard for us both to see the skin graft and permanent scars that the cancer left.  Even though my sexy handsome beautiful husband is still perfect in my eyes he's not perfect in his eyes and I feel his discomfort.   He's still not ready to leave the house or be seen in public because of the insecurity of the way his face looks now.  So i'm here for him, loving him and accepting that it may take a little time but also praying for his self confidence.  My sister gave him such sweet encouraging words....She said..."You are a handsome man of God. Even though it seems hard right now, it is an honor to be used as God's testimony. God chose You, his faithful son, to use as a testimony to others. A testimony of healing, faith, hope, trust, and His miraculous work. In Jesus' human mindstate, He probably would say that Good Friday was a good day, except for the way he looked. He was left with scars from the nails and crown of thorns. Yet the reason behind his scars far outweighed His actual scars. Same for you, precious Justin. Praise God for your beautiful mark of healing. Love you!"   She couldn't have put it any more clearer.  (don't I just have an amazing family.)  God chose my husband to be used as a testimony of his faith.  What an honor!


So that was a glimpse of the past 8 days.  Its still somewhat of a blur.  Somes days were great!  Other days were more challenging and emotional.  But everyday God showed himself to us.  I wish I could just tell you all each and every way he showed his face to us this last week.  And how he has taken care of us beyond what we deserve.   I once again thank you all for your love, support and most of all prayers.  Your prayers have been heard and answered by God!