3 down and two to go...

the kids are over half way through the first week of school...and i think they are ready for a three day weekend. they have had quite a bit of homework already plus a couple of tests...i remember the first week of school was getting our books and making paper bag book covers. times have changed.

it is almost 5am and i am getting ready to leave for work. today is the first day they have to get up and out of the house on their own...

the kids all have school
i have to work
fred is coming down to keep tim out of trouble.

he had a rough tuesday night-was sick to his stomach and all but last night was a bit better. he is still holding out for that sept 10th appt.

have a great day.

thanks for checking in

tim and tammy

the day after...

the kids were not quite as excited to get up and moving today...but we are doing o.k. it is so nice to have megan around with a drivers license and a car (thanks to her uncles). she takes them to school so they don't have to ride the bus that each seat had three kids in it and some were sitting in the aisles. (they hate the bus). plus she is able to handle all the field hockey practices...i am finding it hard to know what to do with all my spare time ( i may have to break down and clean or something).

two kids had homework last night...i had homework last night (times three). meg has herself a really full schedule...i don't think we will be seeing too much of her this school year.

tim is feeling ok...he wanted to catch a couple innings at the senators game last night so we walked the bridge and caught a few innings. it was nice-we went to buy two general admission tickets and the ticket guy said that the person who sang the national anthem didn't use his seats so we could have his in the reserved section for free...nice. it was a perfect game for me. we went late and left early and didn't have to pay for anything. my kind of ball game.

he is struggling a bit with his neck pain...yesterday he actually thought that he could feel a lump or something at the base of his neck plus his rib area is still sore. stomach issue was a little better last night. we are going to stick with the sept 10th appt so far.

well...the husband is still in bed and the kids are off to school. two have field hockey practice after school and the other one is going to catch a boys soccer game. i guess i could zip to the grocery store...boy can these girls eat. after school and sports practices they are hungry.

have a great day.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

twas the night before...

...the first day of school and all thru the house...

a typical night before the first day of school at our house.

all the backpacks are being packed
all the outfits are being tried on
all the summer homework is being crammed
we are getting home at 10pm from the ER

a typical night at the dewalt house.

it was ashley this time...another soccer injury. the good news is that the x-rays showed there is nothing broken but she severely bruised her hand and two of her fingers on her RIGHT hand. school starts in 10 hours and she can't use her right hand...goody.

her fingers are splinted and her hand is wrapped in an ace bandage. ice and advil. a first day of high school to remember...YES all three of our girls are in the high school this year. hard to believe that they have parents that old.

tim is struggling a bit tonight too. his stomach is messed up and he just isn't feeling the best. he went to bed early. i wish we could just get him fixed.

well...i have tons of stuff to catch up on. it is amazing what a few hours in an emergency room can do to mess up a night.

to all of you who celebrate the first day of school with me...have a good one!!!

to all of you that struggle the first day of school...try to have a good one!!!

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

quick update...

it is saturday night and my crew is exhausted!!!! meg and kelsey had a field hockey play day in camp hill today and boy was it HOT. tim and i somehow managed to make it thru 5 of the 6 games they played today but then we had enough heat for one day...i always liked field hockey because it was a FALL sport and nice and cool BUT today was a scorcher. then the twins had a b-day party to attend from 6-10pm. a nice outdoor swim party and bon-fire in the middle of a severe electrical storm...it was fun. the best part about that was the temperature dropped from 93 to 73 after the storm blew through. (well, i was happy anyway)

tim had a rough evening...maybe he over-did it a bit today. his stomach was a bit messed up and he has still been a tad bit light-headed and dizzy and he is very achey. we found out that his blood sugar has been running a little low so we have to watch that we eat more frequently. this blood sugar thing is new. they gave him some suggestions for his diet.

we don't go back to see the doctor until sept 10th. we do go in for lab work and keep in touch with his transplant coordinator in the meantime. i am working more hours...the kids start school on monday...the sports schedules are set...kidda back to semi-insanity around here.

gotta go switch the laundry.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

midweek update...

it is wednesday evening and all is pretty good. tim went to hershey today to have some labs drawn but we have not heard back from the transplant coordinator yet. (that is usually a good sign).

he is having some episodes of dizziness that is a relatively new problem...last night he got up off the couch and almost went down for the count. it comes and goes in waves and only after he has been sitting or laying down. just a little something new to try and figure out.

i work the next two days. thursday i go in at 6am and friday i start at 4am so if i don't update until the weekend that is why. i will let you all know if anything new develops but i am expecting a quiet week. lots of little league games to keep us occupied. we alternate between little league world series and law and order marathons!!!

all the kids are busy with sports and summer packet homework. (susquehanna gets summer homework and they are tested in the first week of school).

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

additional info...

the weekend is over and i survived working and he survived not being the in the hospital.

in addition to being told that he had a negative PET scan (meaning that there was NO evidence of any lymphoma) he was also notified that his PICC line (that central line in his arm) had shifted a few inches off coarse. because it was out of place they were concerned that the line may puncture a vein or rest on a nerve. so...friday night we had to go back into the hospital to have the line removed.

having the line removed was a good thing. he thinks the pain in his arm is a bit better and now he can shower without having to wrap himself in saran wrap. the only down side to not having the PICC is that he needs to be arm stuck for his blood work and if he would happen to need any fluids they would have to start an IV.

funny how we think...the first thing he asked the IV team was how long until he could golf...the first thing i asked the IV team was how long until he could do laundry!!!!!

i think they are going to give him a week or so off to adjust to not having the PICC line and being told that the PET scan was negative...then we will get back to work figuring out why he feels the way he feels. i think he deserves a week or so off.

it has been an emotional roller coaster this weekend...i told someone that we have been getting such bad news all the time that we have to adjust to that i don't think we quite knew what to do with the good news. it was kinda weird but i think we are adjusting.

he has to go in for blood work either tuesday or wednesday...they are going to call in the morning. other than that i think it will be a relaxing week. (if it would stop raining i believe there are A LOT of little league world series games to watch).

meg and kelsey have a field hockey scrimmage on tuesday at 4pm. tim will have to take his parka to stay warm.

as always-thanks for your thoughts and concerns and prayers.

thanks for checking in

tim and tammy

**MIRACLE or MISTAKE**

i am sure that title got your attention...

i do not have the time to give a detailed account of what our last couple of days have been like but i did want everyone to know that tim is NOT being admitted for chemo today.

we got a call on friday night telling us that they were going to cancel his admission and his chemo because they CAN'T find any CANCER on the PET scan. (now keep in mind that he still has many issues that need to be addressed but right now we are just going to enjoy the moment for a while).

i know that some of you may think that the doctors just made a mistake and "thought" the cancer was back...but we believe that is probably not the case. we haven't been asking you to PRAY for us for the last couple of years and then dismiss something like this to a mistake...thanks for your prayers!!! we believe that we have had an answer to our prayers. a NEGATIVE scan and NO chemo!!!!! (tim gets to keep his hair-yeah)

well, i have to head out to work and will be updating more sometime on monday...i am not usually at a loss for words but...

thanks for checking in...

tim and tammy

admission date set...

our transplant coordinator called and said that tim will be admitted to hershey on sunday (probably around noon). he will be in for his chemo and if all is on schedule it will be 5 days in the hospital and then back to the outpatient "day hospital" everyday for a couple of weeks and then back into the hospital 21 days later for another blast of chemo.

we need to pray that he stays healthy in between chemos this time...last time he developed two NASTY staph infections. (the first on put him back in the hospital for over 20 days and he lost all that weight...) we are shooting for a better adventure this time.

well...i am off to work. i work friday, saturday and sunday this weekend. i am not sure what i am going to do with my schedule this time around...i guess it will depend on how healthy we can keep him. i will put out the "HELP" beacon if we run into any snags with getting him back and forth to the hospital...meg can now drive, but between school and field hockey we won't be seeing much of her until mid-october.

thanks for checking in...

tim and tammy

blog number 301

wow...301 times i have logged onto this site to update you all on life in the dewalt house. and some of you have actually read all 301 updates...how awesome that we have such great friends and family that are concerned about our lives.

today is thursday already. not any new developments really. tims chest tumor is still there but hasn't really seemed to grow too much. he is still having quite abit of pain in his left arm which shoots up to his shoulder and recently his neck has started to ache abit too.

the big scan is friday afternoon...he is having a base-line PET scan. he had a scan back in april after we originally found the tumors and this will be the second one. this should tell the doctors what is going on inside that goofy body of tims. it somehow makes the cancer cells glow. it is unclear whether we will be starting the chemo on friday night...be admitted on saturday or wait until monday. i guess they just figure we are sitting around with nothing else to do so why bother having any sort of pre-planned schedule.

we do know that he will be getting atleast two rounds of chemo-we think the same kind called ESHAP. this is the one that takes 5 days in the hospital and then 21 days later do it all over again. he has been able to tolerate it decent while he is in the hospital but he gets aweful sick afterwards. he will probably lose his hair again and a few more pounds i am sure.

we will update more as we hear.

thanks for checking in...

tim and tammy

monday mini update...

doctor says 2 more rounds of chemo for starters...

PET scan first for a base-line...

more updates to follow...

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy

sunday morning update

good day to all...

lets see...ashley has left for the beach (for a week) and kelsey comes home from church retreat this afternoon just in time to start pre-season for field hockey. our school (susquehanna twp) has recently put in a new "turf" field and the fall sports (boys soccer, football, and field hockey) are going to share the field this year (this could get very interesting). i guess they are going to have some sort of induction ceremony for the fall sports teams at the field tonight...AT MIDNIGHT. i have not yet decided if i will attend but i am quite certain that tim will NOT be attending this one. (these people must not have day jobs)

early tomorrow morning...the big appointment with dr rybka to see what direction we are going to head. we are both quite certain chemo is in the near future (the mass ? is getting bigger) but i think he is going to try to hold him off for a few days if he can. he is hoping to go in on thursday night so he can enjoy a few more days out and about while he still feels decent. once the chemo starts his summer will pretty much be over.

i haven't mentioned meg yet...she will start pre-season for field hockey also on monday AND SHE WILL BE ABLE TO DRIVE THERE!!! yes, she passed the rite of passage into making her parents worry even more now than before-she has her junior drivers licence and a car. pray for us. (actually megan having her license is going to be a HUGE help to us since i am back to work and tim is most likely going back into the hospital...)

well...gotta get ready for church. have a great day.

thanks for checking in

tim and tammy

end of week update...

we didn't go back to the hospital this week (although i am not convinced that was a great idea but i left it up to tim). he wanted to keep his monday morning appt. and enjoy the weekend.

how is he doing?? well that is hard to say, although i am quite certain there is something brewing on his innards (all left side again). he has times when he feels good and he can eat pretty good early in the day but the nights are still a bit rough. he has pain...but it can be pretty much controlled. he has had a few additional side effects that we are blaming on whatever is going on inside. we are fairly certain that we will be getting chemo sometime next week. it seems as if there may be a tumor growing under his rib that is pushing on the rib cage plus something is going on in his left arm. (we will get him checked out on monday).

kids are busy as usual...kelsey leaves tomorrow for a church retreat with her friends youth group. she gets back on sunday just after ashley leaves for the beach with her friend...i want to go somewhere!!!

meg and kelsey start field hockey "official" pre-season on monday. two practices a day for two full weeks. then back to school (seems like the summer flew by)

well...gotta get stuff done-i work again tomorrow.

thanks for checking in

tim and tammy

girls day out...

what a great day the dewalt girls had yesterday. we had "marked off" this day for back to school shopping quite a while ago and decided that we would still go ahead and drive to king of prussia (even though tim was not feeling up to going). fred came down to hang out with tim and the girls and i took off for KOP.

we still have a few minor items to pick up (like back packs and shoes) but all in all i would say that we had a VERY successful day.

three major highlights of the day:

1. ashley tried stuff on and actually found stuff she liked. (very rare)
2. we got to go to parker ford PA and check out the longstreth field hockey store-very cool and we didn't even get lost (much)
3. we ate dessert at a drive in SONIC in morgantown (can't wait until they put one in up here)

we feel very blessed...and our thanks go out to the very special people who felt the urge to bless our girls with some back to school spending money...thank you so much.

the best part of yesterday (sad to say) was the fact that we (the dewalt girls) could have some heart to heart conversations and some very REAL conversations about life in general. the girls have LOTS of questions AGAIN and each time this happens they get smarter and wiser. GOD has blessed us with such awesome daughters...i think they are going to be OK. i wish i had the answers to all their questions but i don't and they seem ok with that. we are in this together and as long as we are together we will get through whatever comes our way.

tim had a nice day with his dad...he seems pretty tired lately but i can't say that between the weather and the newest developments that i would expect much different. the girls all came home and showed him their new stuff...kelsey was hitting her field hockey ball all around the house last night with her new stick...

well...i gotta go. i work today.

have a great day. nice storm going on this morning...i love thunderstorms.

thanks for checking in

tim and tammy

oh where oh where...

everyone is wondering where we have been...are things so good that we are too busy to update or have things gone south and we just haven't known what to write>>>

before i get to that...i wanted to inject a side bar:

they say that you can pick your friends but you can't pick your relatives...and usually this is in a negative context with regard to the relatives BUT i must admit that we are not sure that we could have picked any better relatives than what we have. tim has one brother and one sister...the brother of course we all know has graciously been willing to donate millions of his stem cells without giving it a thought and we had a great visit with him and his awesome family yesterday...his sister has recently spent hours and hours and hours helping tims dad go through a move and fix up his house to sell (which has been such a blessing to us because we couldn't be there to help).

i have three brothers...each unique in their own way each with great wives and great kids and one awesome grandkid. these guys have gotten together and decided that megan needed a car and those of you who know the type of business they are in...they were able to get a slightly (?) damaged 1998 dodge stratus and make it look GREAT> meg was so surprise and is so thrilled.

GOD has truly blessed us with GREAT RELATIVES and for that we thank him each and every day.

ok...back to the blog update.

unfortunately it is the latter...things have gone south.

sometime between last mondays appt and this mondays appt tim has developed a "thing" on one of his ribs and has pain in the left arm similar to what he had before. although we are NOT positive that this will lead to more chemo we are pretty sure that this will lead to more chemo. they are giving us a week...for what we are not sure...we are to watch the lump and if it grows or we find any more we are to go in right away. otherwise we are to wait until next monday and go back in to see the doctor at 9am.

the doctor seemed to think that chemo was going to be the best route but would not commit for sure but the look on his face when he examined tim pretty much said it all!!! i think we all needed a week to think about the next course of action. we are discouraged but not defeated. tim is sad about losing those 12 hairs he grew back on his legs and he was really wanting to golf.


we will be updating any news as we get it, but for now we just need your prayers. we are entering into that time again when we need to be held up in prayer often. it is a hard time for the grownups but the kids are about ready to go back to school (and two at the high school for the first time) and they are hit hard too.

not much more i can say...it is not a 100% for sure thing, but we are just putting what we know out there for you to know.

thanks for checking in...

tim and tammy

friday morning update...

sorry for the delay...i worked a day then spent 24 hours in berwick then worked another day and came home to a computer without a connection. comcast got us back on-line and i have a couple of days off so here i am.

tim is off his fluids this week...so far...he goes in for more bloodwork around noon friday but this time they want him to wait around for the results to see how high his creatinine (kidney function) level is getting. if it goes too high they will break down and give him a liter or two.

the last 4 days or so have been a little rough...his nausea is back again (but not all day long-he does have some times throughout the day that he feels pretty good). we go to the day hospital on friday and right back to the doctor on monday...we are trying to switch him over to coumadin (the blood thinner that will get him off those nasty shots). during the transition time his blood level needs to be very carefully monitored.

say a prayer for me today...i have had a wicked headache for the past 48 hours or so...this one just doesn't want to let up.

i will pass on more news a bit later on this weekend...

thanks for checking in...

tim and tammy