The Most Amazing Thing Happened

From day one, I have been amazed by the love that has been shown by people in my life. I have never really considered myself to be a friendly person. I am very private and I am not a sharing person. So the outpouring of love that we have been shown has just blown me away. I know we serve an awesome God and He has amazing people that He uses to minister to us, but I really had no idea how much that really meant. I'm not gonna start naming individuals because I would quickly leave someone out that has done something that blessed my life in an amazing way, but I do want to say wow. God has placed people in my life that have showed me what it really means to be a Christian. Alot of people go to church every Sunday and couldn't come close to defining the word love much less being able to show the love that Christ has put in us. I thank God for all the people that He has placed in my life and I want each of you to know how thankful I am that you were willing to let God use you to minister to me and my family. In this day and age we live in where everything seams to be a "take all you can get" mentality, you have really showed me that there are still great God loving people out there. God has placed people in my life that have just been amazing. You have helped to make this traumatic event in my life not only bearable but also a learning experience. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the food, prayers, gifts, thoughts, visits, and smiles. You truly have showed me what it means to be loved. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we continue to battle this cancer. Thank you just doesn't convey the message that I want to get across to each of you, but words never seem to. THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS!!! 

The Surgery

The next week went by in such a hurry that I literally almost missed it. After 7 1/2 years of working 6 days a week, I wasn't allowed to work. I spent alot of time just literally sitting around wondering what was gonna happen next. Thankfully we had Project Wildfire that we were playing at on Saturday so i spent some time getting ready for that. We played PW on Saturday night and I experienced true loving worship. I don't even remember being on stage hardly it went by so fast. Then Sunday morning service was good and I felt ready to battle. I checked into the hospital on Wednesday for the radical nephrectomy (Kidney Removal) and all went according to plan. The doctors were all pleased with how things went and they put me in a room and told me I could go home in 4 to 5 days. The first night they gave me a pain pump that quickly became my little friend. I loved that little button. I had another gravity pump that put pain med to the inside of the incision. The doctor told me that as soon as I felt like it I could get up and walk around and eat (which I was really looking forward to after 3 days of liquid or no diet) I could start working toward going home. So Thursday morning around 4 o'clock I decided it would be a good time to get started. So in my air-conditioned hospital gown I was strolling the halls. Slowly and short were the first trips but they quickly got longer. The doctor came in Friday morning to check on me and was pleased with my progress. He left it up to me as to how long I needed to stay after that so I decided that Friday evening would be a good time to come home. I came home with an internal pain pump, one kidney, and a 14 inch incision. I was glad to be home but still a little scared about what to expect. So I figures the best way to handle things was to just get going. So Saturday for lunch I got up got dressed and headed out to Wright Way Wings and BBQ for some real food and then, like an idiot, I headed to Walmart. It really did feel good to just get back to some sense of normalcy.

The Beginning

Well here we go! I've decided to blog about my journey through beating cancer. It all started on October 28th 2011 and approximately 2 in the morning. After an uneventful beginning to the night I retired to bed after a night of band practice. At approximately 2 am I was awoken by a Grand Mal Siezure. My wife called 911 and the fire department, ambulance, and some neighbors showed up to help. After several minutes, I began to get my bearing back and decided to refuse treatment and transport by the ambulance personel and go on to hospital by pov. My wife and the others helped me to my van and we started towards the hospital. About halfway there, I had another seizure that wasn't as bad as the first. We continued on to the hospital where I had another seizure. The hospital staff then stabilized me and I was finally able to get a ct scan done revealing a small lesion on my brain. The hospital staff made the decision to transfer me out to Floyd Hospital in Rome. After arriving at Floyd hospital the next two days were a blurr of doctors and tests. They began a plan to start an offensive attack on the lesion. Everything seemed to be going ok then the doctor said we needed to do a full body ct scan to rule out any other suprises. The nest day a doctor came into my room not looking very happy and advised us that she had bad news. The lesion on my brain quickly became not so important as she stood there and told us that I had a 5lb 12 cm tumor on my left kidney that had spread to both my lungs and to my brain. They immediately decided that removal of the kidney was now priority. The next day they released me from the hospital. Now I was set to start the fight set before me.