Garage Sale this week!

Yesterday Justin had a follow up appointment on his skin graft.  The doctor said its healing great!  We are both very pleased with how great it’s healing and the work that the plastic surgeon did.  While we were at the appointment he told us that he received all the records from Justin’s dermatologist.  After looking over Justin’s paperwork the doctor noticed that Justin has about 3 to 4 more spots that are pre-melanoma spots that should've been removed a couple years ago.  So he will be scheduled to have those removed at Moffit as well soon.  He then asked us when we were going back to the Oncologist and stressed to us again how much he Highly recommends that we follow through with the year treatment for Justin.  Being a stage 3 Melanoma that Justin has, we are simply lucky according to the doctor that it’s not in his lymph nodes; but in our eyes we are blessed. :) 
Justin’s next appointment is with a local MD this Tuesday.  He has his doctorate in the medical field but is also a naturalist/holistic doctor.  So he knows the best of both sides.  We are excited to be able to meet with him since he has been highly recommended by a few people and share Justin’s situation. Not only that but God has opened the door for us to be able to see him this Tuesday when his next new patient appointment wasn't until October 20th!  Another awesome "God thing".  
And then also this Thursday, August 11th, is when we go back to the Oncologist at Moffit.  Our first appointment starts at 12:15pm that day and the last one starts at 4pm.  We have 4 or 5 appointments back to back that day.  So it will be a long day for us.  He will have more blood work done, an MRI of his skull, and a full body Scan from the top of his head to his pelvic bone.  These will be done to see if the Melanoma has spread to any of his internal organs.  We have a pretty high chance that they have not spread yet but it’s still a little scary to think that there’s still a possibility.  And unfortunately at the end of the day there is still always microscopic cells that even our advanced technology can't detect.   The last appointment on Thursday will be with the oncologist to discuss the treatment and letting her know what we have decided.  Whether to start the year of Interferon or choose not to.  We are swaying much more to go with the year treatment.  However it’s hard to choose to do something that is going to make you miserable for the next year when he's feeling great right now.  But we both feel that God is asking him to go with the treatment so we plan on choosing to. 
We sat the kids both down on Friday night to explain to them a little more in detail what is going on.  We've tried to keep them somewhat in the dark with all this so that they can continue to live a carefree childhood as they should be able to do with no worries.  But with all the emotions that they've seen us go through; more so mommies emotions lol; and visitors we've had to come pray, and doctor visits we've had they've been asking lots of questions.  So we thought it was only fair to share with them what is going on and what daddy will be going through the next year.  We did choose to leave out the word "cancer" for now and let them know that even though daddy will be very very sick for the next year that he will be okay in the end. 
It’s been a different summer, I’m sad to see the kids going back to school in two weeks.  The guilty mom syndrome makes me feel that I didn't get to spend much time with the kids this summer or do anything extra special or take a vacation with them.  It’s been a summer with lots of tears, many trips to Moffit, lots of research from the internet to books I’m reading, lots of learning, lots of cleaning to get ready for a garage sale, lots of prep work in the house, lots of prayers, many special angels visiting the house and a diet change in the family (learning to feed our bodies foods that prevent cancer and aren't toxic).   But most importantly we've seen Lots of God through all this.  And that has been our only hope at times when it feels so dark.
Lastly I want to let you know that we are having the first garage sale this Friday and Saturday, August 12^th and August 13^th, at my mom’s house.  My whole family has worked so hard to get this garage sale together in hopes to raise a lot of money to help possibly make a dent in the medical bills that are continuing to come in as well as the very expensive treatment Justin will have this next year.  Many of you have donated items for this sale and we greatly appreciate it.  We are still taking donations this whole week and you can drop them off at my mom’s house.  Please email me at anewton81@yahoo.com if you need her address.  We hope to have at least 1 or 2 more sales over the next couple months.