4th chemo treatment today, 2/3 done!

Hi everybody,

Thanks for the prayers for my health and my chemo treatments. Number 4 went well today. I think I feel better tonight than I have felt after any of the treatments so far. Everybody says I am looking good. I don't know what that means. Maybe they expected me to look worse! I felt like going to Sams Club after the chemo, so I did that with Jeffrey and Beth, who hung out with me today. Part of the time, they had to stay in the lobby, as there were so many patients today. As I look around at the other people going through treatment, I realize how blessed I am to be well and healthy! So many people have a much harder road to travel than I do. Rowen and I had a long walk this evening, and I know that the walking is good to work the chemicals through my body and help to get them processed and out of me quicker. I am thankful for such a loving and supportive family to stand by me and love me through this!

I will still be on steroids through tomorrow, and I found out last time that the extra steroids keep me feeling "up" for a day or so longer than earlier in the treatments. Last time, I still felt relatively well through Sunday, and Monday was the day I started the bone pain. By Wednesday and Thursday, I was having the gastritis symptoms, but not as badly as the first time through, before I went on Prilosec (Omeprazole). By Thursday evening, I was over most of the symptoms and then had a good two weeks of feeling pretty "normal." I was even normal enough to tackle cleaning our three bathrooms yesterday, which I haven't done since my surgery in April! (Don't worry, they have been cleaned regularly by my right hand girl, Beth!)

My eye lashes and eyebrows are thinning out, so I think they will be leaving me eventually. My blood counts have stayed good, with just a little anemia, and plenty of white blood cells.

My next treatment will be September 1. Tomorrow afternoon, I will go in for the extra bag of fluids, and the Neulasta shot. Sixth and final chemo will be September 22!

I want to thank everyone again for every prayer prayed for me and for so many people who have sent encouraging cards to me. God has been my joy, my help, my strength, my healing, and my encouragement in answer to the many prayers. I could not make it without His touch!

Love,
Janet Albertson

Visit from Tim and Brenda, and Emily is home!

We left Emily in Missouri with Tim and Brenda on June 27. On July 28, Tim and Brenda brought her back home.
This is Thursday evening on our sunset walk around Johnstown Lake.

They surprised us by coming overnight, and that way we got to be with them most of the day Thursday through Monday 1:15 pm when they left for home. It was so good to have them with us. We spent Friday in the mountains, a welcome relief from busyness and heat! What a gorgeous day!


Like I said, it was a gorgeous day in the mountains!
We climbed the tower at the Dam Store because it had been so many years since we had... Brenda took this picture.

We hiked up to this waterfall at the alluvial fan of the Lawn Lake Flood of 1982. This is in Rocky Mountain National Park.

It was so refreshing to sit beside the waterfall and enjoy the coolness, the spray, the sight and sound of the waterfall.

These next few pictures were taken around the waterfall or that hike.







Later, Rowen, Brenda, and Janet walked around Lily Lake. It was a nice, easy walk. The kids took the mountain climb and met us afterwards.

It actually was cool when the wind was blowing over the lake!

After getting home from the mountains, we were privileged to have Jason and Tammy Dodson, Liliana and Lydia, for supper and the evening. They are on their way to China. We are glad we got to see them before they left!

How does our garden grow?

We got a late start on our garden this year, but it has been a good year with no hail storms. The hair scared away the rabbits, so our garden grows well! We have eaten a lot of lettuce. The tomatoes are still green.

We have been eating zucchini for a couple of weeks. Spaghetti squash are on the left side.

These pictures were taken before the first green bean picking.
Yesterday, Jeffrey picked the first green beans. Beth snapped and canned 9 quarts for us. This is her first time to do it all alone, and it was one of her goals for the summer. Great job, Beth!!

3rd chemo day--half way done with treatment

Here's part of our day in pictures. - captions by Beth

The first thing is getting a tube hooked up to the port, and drawing blood to test. (The blue thing hanging down in front is the tube connection.) Also, you've just got to chat with whichever nurse is serving at the moment. This is Kathy; she was Mother's main nurse today.


We are thankful for nurses who both have a good sense of humor... they keep people coming back--that's for sure. (We actually can't decide if patients want to come back because of the entertainment the two provide, or if it's that they HAVE to come for chemo!)


This is the computer that they type all sorts of information about your vitals and meds in...


Then it's time to get weighed. (The blood they drew is being tested.)


The Medical Assistant, Aubrey, has to check blood-pressure, temperature, etc. and verify medications/vitamins being taken at home.


Mother had a "steroid glow" at this point. First thing when we get to chemo they have to ask her her name and birthdate, which are both on the label (that's on her arm in this picture), to make sure she's the right person!


Visit with Dr. Ann Stroh and check-up is next.


This is the other nurse, April, in her blue gown. The nurses have to wear one of these every time they hook someone up to a new bag of chemo, and dispose thereof in bio-hazard containers. (She was helping someone else in this picture.)


Chemo infusion time.
(Actually, Mother gets some preliminary "juices", before the two chemo meds, and gets flushed with normal saline and heparin at the end.)
This picture was taken right before she hooked up the second chemo. The chemo comes in this big "ziplock" bag; and then the blue gown, gloves, and the first (now empty) chemo bag is put in the "ziplock" bag, and disposed of in a bio-hazard bin.


Mother's reading this book to review it for BookSneeze. I'm sorry I didn't get a better picture of her in her chair today.


Lots of documentation on the computer ...


We didn't get a picture, but we always (three times hand running) have a picnic, because of being there over the lunch hour. Today we brought zucchini cake to share with the nurses and patients.

-----
Chemo 3 report - from Janet

Everything went well today. I took the steroids pills yesterday and that was successful in preventing a reaction like I had last time. Tomorrow I go back for the extra fluid and Neulasta shot. My labs were good. I am a little high on wbcs and a little low on rbcs and platelets, but not enough to be concerned. The Neulasta shot is working, causing my wbcs to stay up there!

If this round is like last time, Sunday will be my hardest day with bone pain from the Neulasta shot. The pain will start on Saturday and last until Wednesday, but lessening each day after Sunday. By next Thursday, I trust I will be feeling mostly normal again. The Prilosec (omeprazole) I take every day for the gastritis symptoms I had the first time, really really helped those symptoms. So I am very thankful for that.

Right now, I feel kinda fuzzy headed and a little bleary, but otherwise good. I am drinking lots of water to flush the drugs so they don't hurt my bladder or kidneys. I will even drink in the night and get up to the bathroom several times in the night. We will take a walk tonight, as is our usual evening activity.

Thank you to each one who is praying for me. God is faithfully helping me. Pray for me on Sunday. I would love to have the pain under control and be able to go to the Sunday School ministry, even if I am in the pew, not doing the story. I love those kids and hate missing every third Sunday.

Jeffrey's 20 today!

On this date, 20 years ago, our family was blessed with our 3rd boy, Jeffrey David Albertson. From the first, Jeffrey was an "easier" child than our earlier models. When I think back on Jeffrey's childhood, I can only remember two really "bad" things that he did. Once he went under the school table, that was disguised as a tent with a blanket over it, and when he came out the front part of his hair was missing! I've told him many times since then, that is why his hair doesn't lay down properly in the front! The other time, we had company, and the adults were busy visiting upstairs. Jeffrey slipped away, got into the game cupboard, and emptied the contents of every game into a pile, and mixed it all up together! That took hours to reorganize.
But most of the memories of Jeffrey as a child are of sweetness, diligence, gentle spirit, helpfulness...About the time he was born, Rowen and I were exposed to more homeschool resources, Christian parenting resources, and after learning a lot of new information, we were ready to be better parents. Thankfully, it wasn't too late for our older two and they benefited from our increased wisdom too.
A couple of pictures from the past...Jeffrey around his first birthday

Jeffrey when he was three years old

I love the expressions of sweetness and joy.
More lately, Jeffrey at Johnstown Lake, wearing the Ukrainian cap he got on his 2009 construction trip to Ukraine. Jeffrey also had the privilege of a Haiti trip in 2009.

Jeffrey is leaving August 15 for college in Cincinnati, OH. We appreciate Jeffrey's commitment to God's ways. He has been such a blessing in our home, helpful and kind, looking for ways to help. He has been a diligent worker and closing manager at our local ACE Hardware store for two years. He has learned much about thinking through people's problems and how to help them. He has a heart for children, and doing God's will above all. We love you, Jeffrey! We are going to miss you like crazy! But we always want you to obey God in everything!

American Independence Day

Reprinted from this Blog post on July 4, 2009 (slightly edited)

One of the things that I did this morning, was what many "red-blooded" Americans have done for generations; I put our family flag in its holder on the front of our house. As I did it, I wondered again why I was doing it, what it really means to me, and what it might mean to others as they drive by our house.

Does it indicate to observers that I am firmly in support of our current federal government, and all that they are standing for and supporting? I certainly hope not!

Does it mean that I want to identify with things like they used to be, say on the original Independence Day? Well, I think so...

Could it mean that I wish to elevate the importance of the U.S.A. above all other countries and peoples on earth? NO! I have too many close relatives living in, and serving the people of countries around the world to ever have that thought...

Is the God of the Bible ever pleased when His people show allegiance to an earthly kingdom, perhaps more, or at least more visibly, than they do to Him? Oh, Lord help us!

I trust that the Lord will bless you and yours by drawing you to His precious heart today and everyday. "Lord, help us to not take for granted the freedom and liberty that are the privilege of each child of God, regardless of where we live on His earth".

2nd round of chemo June 30

Thanks for the prayers today! I needed them. After the premeds were given and Taxotere was started, about five minutes into it, I started having strange and terrifying (to me) feelings. I noticed my tummy felt sick, then immediately my nose and lips started tingling and my head started buzzing. April, the nurse, was across the room and I said, "April, I feel sick, and my head is tingling and buzzing. I think I'm going to faint!" She came over and pushed the stop button on the IV pump, and took my BP, pulse, O2 level. My BP was up quite a bit from before starting the chemo, from 106/67 to 138/86 I think. Immediately, I started feeling better, so we knew it was a reaction to the Taxotere. She went out of the room and asked the doctor what to do next. The doctor said to give me another dose of the Decadron and the Benadryl I had already had, and to restart the chemo at a slower rate. She came in and talked to me, and said if this didn't work, we would have to change chemo regimen to a different drug. She mentioned the drug and it is one I do not want to be on. I told her I would try to behave better! She had to go over to the hospital next door, so she told April not to restart the drug until she was back in the building. So I got some extra normal saline while we waited. When we restarted the Taxotere, I did not react at all. I got through it all fine, though it took longer because of the waiting and the slower rate. So Beth and I were there from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. I did not have any problems with the Cytoxin either. April said she was praying and I was praying too, because I don't want to change the drugs. I reminded the Lord of all the people who had prayed for this chemo day and thanked Him for all the answers He has given. I now have a prescription for Decadron to take by mouth the day before and day after chemo to help prevent the reaction happening again.

I go back tomorrow morning for the Neulasta shot and a bag of fluids. Because my lab work was so good at my "nadir," I do not have to have blood drawn in the middle of the cycle like last time. The lab work showed that my bone marrow responded very well to the Neulasta and that the chemo doses were the right amount for my body.

I am taking two OTC meds to help with the bone pain and gastritis I had after last chemo. I am very hopeful that these meds will help with the pain and tummy distress I had then. We will see.

I am very thankful for the Christian doctor and nurses that I have there. They are so kind and compassionate to everybody who comes in for treatments. I am so glad for God's help when I felt so terrified that something was going wrong and for the quick relief that He gave. I am thankful for my sweet daughter, Beth, who spent the day with me at the treatment center without complaining.

I am also thankful that we qualified for help from the Komen Foundation and all of my co-pays the rest of the year are covered by them!

Next chemo date is July 21.

I want to share something that helped me this morning from a graduation gift my daughter received from a friend. It is in the book: Hugs for Grads, by Jeff Walling.
"Weakness is no one's goal...Yet grief and loss are the ambassadors of growth and the harbingers of wisdom...Look behind the tragedy, and you are likely to find an opportunity to bless and be blessed. Anything less, and the pain will have been wasted. That is the definition of true tragedy. Dear God, show me the lessons in my weakness and the path to service through my pain."

Thanks for the prayers! God is good all the time!

My speech at the Rex Scoles Ministry Retirement Party

Forty-two years ago this summer, that would make it 1969—for those like me who find it so hard to subtract since we passed the year 2000—the Rex Scoles family moved to Joplin, Missouri. When we moved here we had no place to live, no job to begin, six children, ranging from 12 down to less than 2, and the promise of maybe $50 per week.

We stored most of our belongings in Walter and Mary Woods’ garage and moved what we absolutely had to have to live into the four rooms at the back of the church. Mother and Daddy’s bedroom doubled as the living room. The kitchen was also utilized for “spit baths,” after heating some water on the stove, and hanging a blanket across the doorway. The other two rooms held the children and their clothing. That was before there was a restroom upstairs and it was a community project to go to the bathroom in the basement.

We kids thought it was a great adventure, living in the back of the church. Mother and Daddy tried to make it that. I remember on Sunday mornings after getting all dressed and combed, going out the back door and walking down the sidewalk, around the corner and going into the front door of the church. “We walked to church this morning!” we would tell the parishioners. And we were grateful to God.

God provided a job for Daddy through the connection of Ralph Hood to his nephew, Gerald, who had a heating and air conditioning company. God had prepared Daddy for that job the previous year when he worked for Grandpa Smith and learned the trade. Back then, the salary was $2/hour. And we were grateful to God.

God provided a house for us to buy and Grandpa Smith provided the down payment. The renters had to move out, so we lived in the back of the church until they did. For “real” baths, we would drive over to Miami to Grandma and Grandpa Scoles’s house on Saturday afternoons and get that weekly task accomplished for eight people. We got to see Grandpa and Grandma Scoles pretty regularly. And we were grateful to God.

I still remember the day we moved into 1101 S. Monroe. I’m sure Walter and Mary helped, no doubt glad to get their garage back. That evening, Mother cooked our first meal in the new house. I don’t remember what was on the menu, except that we had a big bowl of mashed potatoes. Some helpful little girl carried it over to the table, but it slipped out of her hands and crashed on the floor. I can’t remember which one of us angels that was, but as an adult, I have remembered it as a “moving experience.” I remember several of us cried.

The house at 1101 Monroe grew as we did through the years. The carport changed into another bedroom and bathroom. The storage room was turned into Daddy’s office. The new concrete slab we poured was added onto and made into “the new room.” At first it was going to be a screened in porch, but since that didn’t happen, a screened in porch was added later. The front bedrooms were enlarged and the porch with the swing changed the front of the house. When everybody was big enough to help, the garage was added and the prophet’s chamber upstairs. And we were grateful to God.

Walter and Mary helped with many of the building projects. They were the ones who would come by without warning to see what we were up to. Sometimes they would play ball with us—we used to have room in the backyard to play baseball—over the fence was automatic out and the pin oak tree was third base. Sometimes Mary would fold clothes with us if it was laundry day and that was what we were doing. I loved everybody in the church, but I think I loved them the most because they were there in our lives more than anybody else. We loved it when they came over bearing fresh apple pies Mary had just made. She occasionally brought apple pies randomly, but mostly when we had revivals and hosted the evangelist. Once when she was gone to Kansas City at the start of a revival, Uncle Walter brought over apple pies. We kids were convinced his apple pies were as good as Aunt Mary’s! It was some time later when we found out Mary made them for us before she left for KC. For years, every time they brought over pies, we asked which one of them had made them!

When we moved here, the church had theater seats. They were not the padded kind, either. There were three seats in rows on either side and five seats in the middle section of rows. There was a tiny vestibule before coming right into the church. In the back right corner was the stairway to the basement. It was open with a railing around it. The walls were white painted. The church got a much-needed facelift after Big Ray Smith was here for revival. His posterior was a little snug in the theater seat. The particular seat he was in had a loose, sticking up screw. It was more difficult than usual for him to get up and come to the platform. As he went, some noticed that his big Bible was over part of the back of his pants! I believe, and I hope it is true, that his suit had an extra pair of trousers. It was a good thing if that was true.

Years later, Big Ray told me that he carried a piece of fabric from that pair of suit trousers in his Bible to remember that service by. The devil may have intended to distract Big Ray and keep him from preaching the truth, but God came in that service and Big Ray never forgot it. And we were grateful to God.

Anyway, after ruining Big Ray Smith’s suit pants, there was nothing to do but modernize the church sanctuary! The entrance to the basement was changed by adding a wall and door and turning the stairs around. Carpet was chosen and laid. It was red with black flecks in it. And what a wonderful day when the pews were delivered!! Later the drop ceiling and paneling were put up. Our church looked brand new! And no one ever ruined their suit pants on the seats again! In later years, as the congregation aged, pads were added to the pews, the red carpet was replaced with gray, the vestibule was enlarged and the stairway changed completely, and the outside ramp was added for wheel chair use.

I remember the Sunday School teachers. Aunt Lucile Woods was the beginners’ teacher for many years. Mary Woods, Opal Hudson, and Mary Roland were some of the children’s teachers. Lee Ferguson and Walter Woods were youth teachers many years.

We sang “Everybody Ought to Love Jesus, and Everybody Ought to Go to Sunday School” and collected pennies, nickels, and dimes in the penny march every Sunday.

Memories of my childhood at Joplin church:

I remember our parents telling us kids to behave so we wouldn’t get voted out! This happened more in the springtime of the year, and we really tried to behave during the spring. On annual meeting nights, we had to leave early before “the pastoral vote” and went home in fear and trembling, waiting for the call that said whether we could stay or were voted out.

The baby of our family had the habit of falling asleep in church. One time we left him there, asleep on the floor after the service was over. It was totally accidental, and so emotionally disturbing that some members of our family claim it never happened and is a figment of my imagination!

Who could forget how fast the Joplin church used to sing? At least everybody else thought so. We thought all the other fellowship area churches drug their song services!

Sister Hudson told how long ago the Joplin church needed a pianist, and she prayed and the Lord taught her to play the piano! (Which she did until the end of her life, except for a couple years when she stepped aside to let me get some experience.)

I remember Brother Charley Roland coming up to put in his birthday offering and offering to play a tune on his harmonica. However, he could not play it with his teeth in, so out came his handkerchief to put his teeth into while he played. Mother would cover her mouth and tuck her head, shaking it just a dab.

I remember:

The sharp noise Mother made snapping her fingers when we were misbehaving in church.

The look that made you sure a spanking was forthcoming when we got home.

The many times when God’s presence came, and you knew you had “been to church.” A couple times I remember the words that brought the glory: “Thank God for Jesus” and “All that I have is yours.” God came and melted us all together.

The church people I remember from my childhood: Claude and Dora Smith singing “I’m just checkin’ up on my payments to the Lord!”

The old ladies who sat in the middle section: Sister Stretch, Sister Ada Belle Chapell (our own special midget lady), Sister Connor, so tall and thin, Sister Sovey, Sister Kilmer, Sister Stephens, who had to hide from her husband to read her Bible.

Walter, Mary, and Nancy Woods

Lester and Lucile Woods

The Allen Family

The Rolands and Frankie Copher and family

Lee, Kay and Steve Ferguson

Ralph and Winona Hood and Retha

Brother and Sister Lineback

LF and Dorothy Sams

Opal Hudson

The Dinwiddies

The Nivens

Sister Bessie Jewell, who was completely deaf, but lip read so well.

Kenneth Kelly

Ed Sumpter and his mother Sister Sumpter

There have been others through the years that have been part of the church but these were the ones from my childhood.

I remember when Frank Hudson got saved. We had prayed for him for years, but I had rarely seen him before he got saved. He was under conviction and told his wife he wanted to pray to get saved at the church. They came up to the church and he prayed at the altar. Long years before he had blamed God that their little baby boy died. It had been an obstacle for him for years. But that day all stumbling blocks were taken away. There was hardly a service he did not testify in. And when he prayed, I had to peek a few times to see if Jesus was there beside him. He talked to Jesus just like that. He testified that he learned to pray as if Jesus was sitting on the chair next to him. He was such a blessing in the few years before he went home to heaven! And we were grateful to God.

The area churches and especially the area pastors were always so special to us. The preachers’ suppers, Singspirations, revivals, the youth meetings, and youth rallies are wonderful memories.

I always believed that I had the best preacher in the world for a pastor and father. Only God knows the number of hospital visits he made through these 42 years, the home visits, the times of praying for people, helping people out who were in trouble, interrupting a chess game with a child because someone needed to talk to the preacher, the hours of study, the hours of prayer, crying with the grieving, preaching funerals, attending visitations, sitting in the hospital during surgeries… Daddy was there for his flock.

And we were grateful to God.

We kids didn’t know if there were problems in the church. Any problems were not discussed at home in front of the kids. We thought we had the perfect church. We were loved and appreciated and taken care of. And we were grateful to God.

Our mother was there for us at home. She enjoyed the Ladies’ Prayer Meetings while we were at school. She made the ends meet with the money from the church and daddy’s job. Looking back, I find that amazing! We had a secure and loving home. We didn’t have the privilege of Christian school, but we had the benefit of a Christian home where we talked about all the problems of school and people there who made fun of us for being different. We heard good advice: “If they are talking about you, they have a good subject.” “Don’t hold onto grudges.” “Don’t repay evil for evil.” “Payday doesn’t always come on Friday.” And we were grateful to God.

Mother started babysitting to have more money for giving. Her love language is giving, I’ve discovered through the years. She babysat countless children, many of whom are grownups now; one, Donald Wayne Lansaw, in the Joplin Tornado made it to heaven ahead of us. After Daddy retired from his day job, together they helped train many children.

We were loved; we were cared for and prayed for by our parents and the church people.

Time would fail to tell of all the evangelists and missionaries who were fed or stayed at our house. We were blessed by those associations. We were blessed to grow up as preacher’s kids, raised by one of the best preacher and wife combinations in the world. At least we think so! We love you, Mother and Daddy! And we are grateful to God.

Rex Scoles Ministry Retirement Party June 25, 2011

In another post, I have shared the speech I gave at my parents' retirement service. My parents have given their best to the Master. Daddy has been a pastor for 50 years, 42 of them at Joplin, MO. So many of the ones who have attended church there through the years are already in heaven, so my speech mentions many of them by name. We were honored by the 65-70 people who took time out of a busy day to come and celebrate with us. It was a hot day and the air conditioner at the church went on the blink before the party. We had fans going, moving the hot air around, but kind, gracious people listened and took turns sharing what Rex and Wanda Scoles had meant in their lives. It was wonderful!


There were at least 10 others who came that were not shown seated.

My wonderful and creative sister, Brenda, masterminded the decorations.

Her daughters, Rebekah and Leah were great help.

Some of the doilies Mother has made were used for decorating, along with many pictures from the past.

Leah, pictured above, made this beautiful cake.

Daddy visiting with some old friends.

Everybody had a good time.

While some were eating, others were watching a slide show of pictures from the past 42 years. Rowen spent many hours scanning and photoshopping the pictures to make the slide show.

It was a real blessing to us to be there and recall God's faithfulness through the years. I was blessed to be in the family with the parents God gave me. I love them very much.