sunday update...

tim did well today-church in the morning and a 5pm pot-luck dinner. it is 9pm and he is beat-it was not only a long day, but an emotionally draining one. pastor rhoades (our senior pastor and good friend) had his last day here today. they have moved to maryland.

through this whole nightmare of the diagnosis and the chemo and the transplant and the very slow recovery process he and his wife and daughter were there for us time and time again. many mornings (almost every morning) he would come and see us in the hospital with a starbucks coffee for me and a good story for tim. pastor and susan would come to the house on many occasions as just sit and talk if he was up for it or just pray and go if he was not. their daughter allie has over time become an extention of our family-like having a fourth daughter. we will forever be greatful for all the time and comfort and encouragement and just being there for me to vent once in a while...we have considered him more than just our pastor and he and his whole family will be missed.

so we are going to go and wallow for a while and digest this day.

off to the day hospital in the morning and the speech therapist in the afternoon...

thanks for checking in...

tim and tammy

saturday

not much new today.

tim went to lunch with a friend-that was nice. tam washed a couple of mini-vans, mowed some grass, did some laundry, ran the kids, got some groceries, same old stuff.

we have a day hospital appt on monday and a clinic appt on tuesday. we have speech therapy three times this week, soccer practice two nights, field hockey two nights, kelsey leaves for the beach on friday and megan off to field hockey camp on sunday. relatively easy week.

hope you are all enjoying your weekend.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

the weekend is here

and all is well.

tam worked today...but is off the weekend...yeah!!!

lots of running around today-but all kids are accounted for-lost one for the night, but picked up another one. seems like we never come out ahead.

tim is good-he has been reading a lot more (than ever actually) and trying to keep up with the middle east stuff. and of course, watching the testosterone level of the biker dude. baseball is good and football contracts are being signed and we sit is amazement of how much money those guys are getting...what would we do without CNN and ESPN??

well, it is late and there is more wash to be done, medications to sort and kids to convince they are tired.

thanks for checking in...

tim and tammy

ps.

speech therapy is going ok...but they are having a problem getting the facial nerves to contract or do exactly what they want them to do because of the puffy cheeks (from the high dose steroids). we are going to still continue for awhile and see what happens but so far it has been a bit frustrating for him. keep on praying.

nothing to do...

...until the kids found out. well, the speech therapist was sick yesterday and we actually were going to have the afternoon off and appt-free, but then the kids decided that it would be a perfect afternoon to school clothes shop (or alteast start this process)---so mom and twins were off to park city mall for a few hours. (i am not sure that ANY dad is ever ready to take a couple of teenager daughters to a mall-so he opted to stay home-smart man).

it is a very slow and painful process getting three kids ready for the start of another year-but i must admit it was nice getting an early start. in our school district they have "summer" homework-it involves reading a book and writing a bizarre journal sort of thing and memorizing geography and spelling and a math packet...they get tested on the second day of school...so they are working on that in their spare time-some nights it looks like we are in the middle of the school year. (friends over to study, math questions-which mom is useless at-calculators and college ruled paper and pencils and books and stuff).

tim is doing well-amist all the chaos at our house he is doing OK-it is hard for him to be home 24/7. i think that his head is spinning most of the time with all the activity around here. i try to tell him that he has to just sit back and let teens be teens...or he will go crazy trying to keep up. somedays are a tad bit stressful for everyone with so much "family time"...but we are determined to survive. we will all be glad when tim can drive and get out more and eventually get back to work (and get him away from all these women). i think the poor guy is soon in need of some "guy" time.

back to the grind again today-speech therapy this afternoon and possible a doctors appt. (we are waiting for a call back on that) . continue to keep us in your prayers. we are having some computer issues...if i disappear for a day or so, don't panic. it is very ill and may need to see a doctor or at the very least someone who knows more than me about the innerds of a computer. (which could be just about anyone).

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

tuesday update

tam had work today and fred came down to visit tim and keep him company. he brought a friend from berwick along with him and they had a nice visit.

things are going well...therapy went well yesterday-it is a litttle uncomfortable, but he said he will go back again.

short blog today-kids have soccer practice and the laundry is calling.

thanks for checking in

tim and tammy

monday morning...

it was a pretty good weekend.

tim made it to church sunday morning for the first time (in a very long time), in fact we even went back to church sunday night too. he was able to make an appearance at the big "block party" downtown on saturday also. we walked the stairs at the mall...

it was a very good weekend.

today we have a day hospital appt this morning and then we jet right over to the west shore to his first official speech therapy rehab appt. they are going to start to stimulate that facial nerve today. i pray that all goes well with this rehab-he has really been down in the dumps over this lingering bells palsy stuff. we will keep you posted.

we made another drop in the steroids today-he is now alternating 100mg one day and 25mg the other. we will keep it this way for about two weeks and then drop the 25 down to "o". they want him on 100mg every other day. (not too bad considering he was on 140mg every day-no wonder he is "puffy").

well, gotta get things moving around here-all the kids came back home this weekend and the hamper is over-flowing.

thanks for checking in

tim and tammy

more appts...

...after the speech therapy evaluation it was decided that we should treat the facial palsy aggressively-3 to 5 times a week. they are going to do a three part therapy:

1. the e-stimulation of the nerve
2. a series of ten different facial exercises
3. some sort of facial massage

each session should take about one hour and we are actually going across the river to health south instead of hershey for this. some days this will be a good thing and some days it will be a rush to get from the day hospital all the way to wormleysburg in time. those days i guess we pack a lunch.

they really don't give us any indication of whether or not this will be a short term therapy or a long term therapy, but i guess we still have to get into the one day at a time mode.

as far as the transplant stuff is concerned all is still good-we have been told that we have a bit of GVH (graft vs host) going on-but they are not too concerned-just keeping a close eye on him. sometimes this effects the salivary glands and give you "dry cotton mouth" and that is what he has now. at least he is drinking more water...

well, he is in for the night. i guess i should try and get some sleep too.

thanks for checking in

tim and tammy

a long day...

...but a good day. the day hospital appt went very well today-counts are holding pretty well. a slight drop in the platelets, but our steroids have dropped so we can always expect little changes.

the eye examine went well-when they compared the early results to the results today they were very happy. there is no evidence of any double vision and his peripheral vision is wonderful and other than the fact that his eye lid still doesn't close all the way-they were pleased. apparently this specialist is not the person we go to be able to see...i guess we will be calling barbie.

all in all it was a good day. he got really tired after all those tests today, but he is going to bed early to rest those eyes. they talked about a different plan to keep the eye moist and protected and what some options are if the lid doesn't correct itself. we go back in three weeks to see him again.

tomorrow we are off to speech therapy to discuss our options there...

then we should have a weekend free of appointments...that will be nice.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

off to hershey...

...what a surprise.

we have a day hospital appt this morning and then we will grab a quick bite to eat and then we have the first appt with a neuro-opthomologist (?) at 1pm. they get to use these "cool" prism things(i know you are laughing barbie)- they are going to re-evaluate tims eyes from the bells palsy-and i hope recommend glasses. (because someday they are going to let him drive again and you all will be glad if they got him glasses).

we will update a bit later on when we find out the scoop.

work went pretty well this week-tuesday tim was terrible but he seemed to pull himself together when i worked on wednesday. they had ordered out for lunch-huge improvement-and he even helped clean up the kitchen and got some wash done before i got home!!!! this is BIG!!! thanks for all your prayers in that direction.

well, gotta get.

thanks for checking in

tim and tammy

off to work again...

say a little prayer for tim today-he is really minding me not being home all day. (i guess i spoiled him) i know that he will adjust in time, but for now he is really struggling. when i am home he sleeps until noon, but when i work he gets up early and just "vegges" around the house all day. it is too hot for him to go outside.

after today i am off for a few days-that will be good. kids leave again today for a couple of days-i am not sure if that is good or bad-i think he likes the hustle and bustle around the house (to a point). oh well, i gotta go-thanks for checking in and have a great day!!!

tim and tammy

off to work in a few hours...

hard to believe that it is tuesday already.

hard to believe that it was 99+ degreee's outside. i am NOT liking this weather at all. tim gets exhausted in this heat. (and i can't really say that i do much better). we did go to the mall to walk today-he made it around two laps- and that is a lot of stairs at the colonial park mall. he is really trying to build back his strength and we are looking for just some small break in this heat. but soon fall will be here and we will wish it was summer again.

good labs today-no, actually they were GREAT labs today. everything is either holding where it should be or is on the rise. we are over 60 days post-transplant and all is well. still a slow process of re-building his poor torn down body, but he is really being a trooper.

i work today and tomorrow and then we have appts at the day hospital and opthomology and speech therapy. another full week of fun.

thanks for checking in...

tim and tammy

this is #97...

can you believe that i have updated this blog 97 times???

well, we all seemed to have survived another weekend. work was work...i am still a bit rusty i believe, but that should get better. tim seemed to do OK.

we have a day hospital appt in the morning and they are going to be watching his blood counts closely again since we dropped the steroids again. we will keep you all posted.

tonight will be an early to bed night...didn't sleep much lately.

we went to church again tonight-going in the evening seems to work well. he has enjoyed going and it has been great to see everyone. we haven't ventured out on a sunday morning yet-that could still be a bit overwhelming...but we will see about next week or the week after. it is so hard to be in big crowds...he is still very susceptible and they say the two worst places to be around sick people are in the hospital and in church!!!

the heat is really playing him out too. (but i think it is playing all of us out-YUK)

well, i guess that is it for tonight. thanks for checking in and take care.

tim and tammy

survived first night of work...

I survived the first night back, what a relief. it was
pretty hectic last night, but hopefully tonight will
calm down a little.

anyways, it's been pretty boring around here lately,
which is always a good thing. tim's feeling pretty good,
nothing to really complain about.
the girls are still in berwick for a few more days.

we've been keeping up with the softball world cup,
go USA! they've been doing pretty well if you ask me.

well, i guess it's off to work again
thanks for checking in on us!

friday is here again....

and all is well at the dewalt household.

tim had a good checkup yesterday-all counts are stable enough to try and drop the steroids again. things went a litlle nutty last time we dropped but we are going to try again.

we were able to get an appt with speech therapy "off site" from hershey-they had a bizarre waiting list-so next week we go and re-evaluate the bells palsy facial nerve damage. they (health south) may try the e-stimulation on that nerve and try to get it a tad more motivated. he also has another appt with a neuro-opthomologist (?) to check out his damage of the eyes from the bells palsy. other than checking out the "linearity issues" i believe that they may be recommending glasses for tim. (i have been trying to prepare him-it hasn't gone well)

tonight i work my first weekend in a long time-i am back on third shift for weekends and that includes friday and saturday night. then during the week i am day shift when i work. fred came down and spent one day with tim last week when i worked and that worked out good-he ate. the next day he got up and had breakfast and that was it...i guess he forgot. once our schedule gets set if anyone wants to have some lunch-time company-perhaps we can talk him into a lunch-date. it would get him up and motivated to get dressed and make his day go faster while i was at work. let me know.

well...i should switch over the laundry. it is amazing how much less laundry i have with out the twins here...poor nana.

thanks for checking in...have a great day

tim and tammy

two days under our belt...

well, two days are gone and i just found out that i work this weekend-night shift-this should really be interesting.

but for today-i am OFF

we do have a hospital appt this morning, and need to take some kids to hershey park and then get our niece back to berwick sometime-but other than that it is a light day.

the twins are in berwick for a few days to hang out with nana, pop pop and company.

tim went to church tonight-we actually got there on time and stayed for the whole service. then he felt good enough to go on a walk afterwards-the farthest one yet. he is gaining more strength each day.

well, we are off to bed-hopefully to sleep-two 16 year olds and one 15 year old in the house-wish us luck. it is a minor miracle that i even got on the computer tonight.

thanks for checking in...

tim and tammy

we survived...

and all is well.

but i am very tired and going to bed-it was a long night last night.

i will try and update more tomorrow...enjoy your day.

thanks for checkin in.

tim and tammy

wish me luck...

today i not only go back to work, but i feel that i am putting my kindergardener on a bus for the first day of school. tim had a rough night with that "bladder thing" again. this is the third attack he has had in the last few weeks. it comes from out of nowhere and hits him hard. it would figure that last night would be the night it would come back...i was really hoping that he was feeling well my first day back.

i will be updating later on this evening if i get a chance and let you all know how things are going...i am sure that they will be fine. it is just a minor glitch in the day. usually in about 12 hours or so it clears up.

hope you all have a great day.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

monday morning trip...

back to the day hospital again this morning. monday mornings are the day that all the patients seem to get a really good check-up. lots of labs are sent out and lots of questions are asked. i guess this is the day that they try to catch up from the weekend and make sure that all is well.

tim had a pretty good weekend-we actually snuck into church last night for a little bit. we went in about 15 minutes late and we left a little early, but it was nice to get him there for the sermon and a little music. he did well.

well, he sends his wife back to work tomorrow-i think we are both a little nervous about it. fred is coming down early afternoon so he will have some company and some lunch. i hope that i can find all that knowledge i had shoved in my head before i was off a couple of months....and so do they i bet.

time to get going-thanks for checking in

tim and tammy

a beautiful sunday morning...

hope you all are doing well out there today.

tim had a good day yesterday-we went to another gathering and once again he was able to make it about 3 hours. it was nice to see him out and socializing a bit. we are starting to get a bit more adventurous, especially when we can go inside and outside. we still are very cautious about his social calendar and we should make sure that everyone feels well and we have to watch what he eats-he is still very susceptible to all sorts of infection. we still carry antibacterial wipes and spray and masks wherever we go.

he came home exhausted and had a little headache. it must have really tired him out because it was the first time in about 6 months that he didn't take a "sleep-aid" to help him sleep. this is a good thing!

we are expecting another good day today-he has been eating well and sleeping well and hasn't fallen lately...he is getting a bit more social and inquisitive which is what i have really been looking for...bits and pieces of the "old tim" are coming back. we will probably be watching the big soccer game this afternoon and then go to RITA's. ashley wants france to win and i told her i wanted italy to win because i like to eat at the olive garden.

thanks for checking in-

tim and tammy

over half way...

yes, as of today we are officially OVER HALF WAY to the first 100 days. today is T + 51. (transplant plus 51 days). it has been an amazing journey so far...GOD has been so faithful and for those of that check in on us each and every day...can you believe that we have come this far already??

there are days that tim and i sit and still wonder if we are stuck in a bad dream or something...but then there are days that we sit back and see all the things that GOD has done for us and we are speechless. it will definately be a year to remember.

today we go to the hospital and check on his medication level...this anti-rejection medication is very sensitive. we can be going along and do the same thing day after day and be right where they want the drug level and then one day...the dose is double. so we have to start over and keep checking until they are happy again...or until we drop the steroid level again.

all seems to be quiet here in the dewalt household-so off to catch a few winks-hard to believe that it is the weekend again already-we are loving the weather lately-hope you all can get out and enjoy some sunshine this weekend.

thanks for checking in

tim and tammy

i must be getting old...

i just got back from the opening of PIRATES 2 and i thought it was one of the dumbest and longest movies i have seen in a long time. (maybe it was because it was from 12:01-2:35am).

tim chose to stay home and sleep-smart man.

all went well at the hospital with his labs except for the one medication he is on (the anti-rejection). he is a bit TOXIC today-so he has to cut back and be re-checked on saturday. they think it is messed up because we are dropping the steroid levels. it seems like we are always fixing one thing and breaking something else.

well, i am officially going back to work next week. we are all a bit tense over that tid-bit of information, but it will be ok.

time to hit the sack...have to get up soon.

thanks for checking in...and the kids did like the movie-i think. if you are going to go see it-i would highly recommended that you review the first one again-it would be helpful to anyone from my generation anyway.

tim (who is now sleeping) and tammy (who is wide awake)

off to the day hospital

for his check-up this morning.

they had given us an extra day off because of the holiday-but we are back in the routine again today. i actually think he likes going to the hospital because they run the labs and prove that all is well. (i don't think he always believes me when i tell him he is ok-he goes by how he feels and that is not always an accurate rating). he always seems a bit more relaxed after we leave and he has been given the thumbs up.

we are expecting good reports as usual...nothing weird going on.

he wants to walk the mall later on to start his "stair" exercises. it is amazing how many teen-age volunteers we have to take their dad to the mall today!!!

well, thanks for checking in and we will be in touch.

tim and tammy

back to the daily grind...

...the holiday is over, but it was our best holiday so far this year. tim had some grilled chicken and homemade baked beans and one of his favorite cakes. good friends, good food and good fellowship-that is a good holiday. (our compliments go out to our hosts who were so diligent in finding out exactly what tim could have and do and eat and how to prepare it...it was our first formal outing and he did very well and so did our hosts-you can stop chloroxing and relax now).

he is still struggling a bit with sleeping at night...but tonight seems a little better than last night was-but we still have a ways to go. we are just greatful that we are doing so well post-transplant. tim gets asked about 25 questions each visit and we consistantly get to say "no" to so many of the things that they are watching for. we are seeing other transplant patients come in and out and they are not so fortunate...some have been re-admitted for this and that...we have been blessed. keep the prayers coming.

we hope that you all had a great holiday and got to spend some quality time with some people that you love...we need to try and make that a priority whenever we can.

take care and thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

happy 4th

well, it is 3:46pm and i am serving my husband breakfast. he had a rough night last night-another episode of that BK virus we think. but, he is feeling a little better this afternoon.

we are going to try to go out for a bit this afternoon...and hopefully we will be able to catch some fireworks somewhere later on.

go enjoy the day.

tim and tamy

monday news...

we are back from the hospital and all is well. we had a good appt today and tim's labs are holding steady. they are going to start to drop the steroids a little bit more. tim's energy level seems to be getting stronger and still no falls. they want him to start trying some stairs...wish us luck. we may try a walk at the mall where they have those short sections of stairs every so often.

we had some company yesterday and that went well-it still tires him out, but we really enjoyed visiting with my parents and my brother and family. i know it is hard for him to keep up with all the conversations going on at once, but once every one left, we just reviewed what was said and he actually kept up better than he thought. we skipped RITA's yesterday and went to MAGGIE MOO's...but today we get back on schedule. he is wanting blueberry today.

we hope that everyone has a wonderful 4th of JULY and a happy birthday goes out to judy.

we started this nightmare on NEW YEARS EVE and most of the holiday's since then have been mediocre at best-infact most of them were spent in the hospital. but we are determined to make this one a good one. we start each day by thanking GOD for getting us this far and although it has been a long haul, we are now 46 days post-transplant. almost half way through our 100 days...and no major complications. our thanks go out to all of you for all the prayers and support and encouragement we get on a daily basis.

enjoy the holiday and thanks for checking in

tim and tammy

sunday morning update

good morning to all,

yesterday was a very nice day-tim slept in until the afternoon and then we went to visit at a friends. it was a nice "family" time day (the kids hung out with us most of the day too). he seemed to really enjoy the day and other than having trouble finding a place just the right temperature-he did good. the outside during the day is just a tad too hot for him and the inside air-conditioning is just a tad too cold for him...then last night he even made it through a movie at home with the kids and i.

i know that it probably doesn't seem like a very eventful day-but to us it was huge. no trip to the hospital, the desire to socialize and making it through an entire movie...a huge day indeed. we are looking forward to a great sunday and 4th holiday. we are back to the hospital on monday for our regular check-up appt (but that is ok-any time off is good).

my parents are coming down today-happy belated b-day mom. (yesterday was the big day).

well, meg is still hacking away most of the night-poor kid. keep her in your prayers as well. this constant cough is rough.

thanks for checking in and thanks for all the prayers, support and encouragement. it is what helps us get through each and every day.

tim and tammy

its the weekend...

...and all is well.

friday's trip to the hospital went very well-all the labs are good and holding just where they belong. he is drinking better so they didn't have to give him any (extra) fluids. this is a good thing.

we really are just watching the blood work and making sure that everything holds so that we can drop the steroids some more-he is still on a MASSIVE amount of steroids. we went for a nice long walk again today and he is getting more stable on his feet everyday-i think it has been about 10 days since his last fall. his scrapes and bruises are finally starting to heal-even little things like that take a lot longer to fix themselves.

his mental status is still a bit down-but i actually think i am seeing little improvements. he is asking for a little bit more information about the daily activities around here-he wants to know what day it is and what is on the adjenda for the day. this is a huge improvement. he is struggling a little bit with numbers-like trying to remember phone numbers and stuff like that-but once we review the stuff, he seems to be able to retain it. that CHEMO really wiped him out-more than anyone could imagine. but we are finally seeing signs that if we take it slow and steady-he can be re-built...one block at a time.

thanks for checking in and have a great holiday weekend. our basement is dry and the weather is nice and we are planning for a great relaxing weekend.

tim and tammy