Dear friends, Thank you so much for all of your email and your prayers. We are receiving many emails and calls of encouragement as our letter explaining our situation and Greg's need to find a new job has arrived at many of your homes. I was thinking that I haven't said this here in the blog, but the best way to communicate with me or Greg is through our email. My address is nancyfritz@aol.com and Greg's is gfritz7@aol.com. We are hoping to collect email addresses for those wanting to receive our prayer letters and updates so we can cut down on the paper mailing process. So write to Greg and give him your address if you are interested in that. Thanks!
MY JAW SURGERY UPDATE My jaw is gradually healing. I still have enough pain to warrant pain meds in the late afternoon and at night. The dentist called today to tell me there was no cancer. He cleaned out a pocket of "brown mushy stuff with bone fragments in it" on the bottom right. That is what the painful round "thing" we were seeing on the X-ray was. My other dentist would have called that osteomyelitis without a doubt, so I will have to live with this biopsy report as it was paid for by Kaiser. Hopefully it is cleaned out now and the bone can grow back healthy. Anyway, he explained that he had to go deep to get it all out and could see that a nerve was being damaged in the process. My lower right jaw has been numb since the surgery 12 days ago and is slowly gaining feeling again. He said it could take weeks or months for it all to heal. It feels now like your elbow funny bone being bumped if I touch my chin, or just tingles or hurts like when Novocain is wearing off. I will see the jaw surgeon on Tuesday before Jenni's All State Choir Concert and leaving for Turkey on Wednesday. Please continue to pray for healing of the nerves and bones. I have had no infections.
With my jaw hurting, it is pretty much overshadowing the rest of my body. Only my neck and head have been noticeably hurting otherwise, and my chiropractor can get that to let up some with adjustments. It is just going to take a while for my spine and joints to heal from the Neupogen shots I had during chemo. If I hadn't had them, I wouldn't have been able to tolerate the treatment, so they were necessary and I am grateful for them. But that and the radiation has dehydrated my connective tissue and it will slowly continue healing over time.
EMOTIONS
I cried with Laura tonight. I am so thankful that she is here. What a godly and wise daughter and friend. I just have so many emotions churning in me as I know there is a possibility of us moving if Greg takes several of the jobs that have come up. It would mean so many changes and honestly, I just feel tired. We have such fantastic friends, our church, family, doctor networks, etc., here that it would be hard to leave. But God is big enough that if we have to move, He will help us rebuild that in the next place, but that seems daunting right now. Please pray for wisdom as we decide which of these, or some other job, to take. Greg set up an office here and works regular work hours every day, and has this whole month. He takes little time off. He is such an incredible godly man. I am so proud of him. Please pray that he has time to figure out what kind of job he wants to move into and that we will have peace about which job to take. I think we will have some time in Turkey, away from here to process some of this together between Feb 12th and 18th.
I have officially begun taking Femara daily. It is a Tamoxifen type of drug that is supposed to reduce my chances of recurrance of cancer. Now that I am deemed "Post- menopausal" I can try this one. I had lots of side effects with Tamoxifen several years ago and just couldn't take it. The goal if for me to be on this one for the rest of my life. The pills cost $8.43 a day, but my co-pay per month is only $30 on our current plan- rather than the $200+ they actually cost. This medication is hormonal in nature and can sway the emotions, so I'll need to see how it affects me. I have a feeling some of that is already happening! Just another factor to add into what else is going on in my life right now.
PAUL'S HEART
Our brother-in-law Paul who had a triple bypass 12 days ago, was air flighted to the hospital in CO Springs from Divide today (Tuesday) as his heart beat was irregular and he was very close to passing out- home alone about noon today. He called the doctor and then 911 and they got there pretty fast. They flew him from the school parking lot a little ways from their house and got him to the hospital in 12 minutes. It would have taken 40 minutes or so to drive it in the ambulance. Greg and I went to be with them as they waited for news of what happened. No heart attack, but maybe an infection, reaction to meds, or both, or something else. They decided to keep him there overnight and do some tests and put him on antibiotics. Greg and I came back home at about 5:00. Depending on when he gets to come home, Greg will go down and be there with him on Thursday and Friday and just work from their house and keep Paul company while Greg's sister, Shelby goes to work.
WHAT TO PRAY FOR ME/US
So please pray for me to learn what the Lord wants to teach me. Pray that I would know God's peace to be able to REST in Him. I do fine for several days and then something else happens, and it is all stirred up again. We have still not been given any word from the board regarding our situation. We met with 2 board reps a few weeks ago and still are waiting for anything further from the board. I am sure your prayers for each of them would be very appreciated. They have a full plate right now.
We have much to be thankful for. I am done with cancer treatment, the rest of our family is healthy, Jenni has been accepted at some great schools, Laura is done with college, Greg has some great job offers, we have amazing friends bringing dinners for us currently, my jaw is healing, we have medical insurance right now, we have a warm house and food to eat, gas was down to $1.92 tonight, Uncle Fred is visiting for a few days to represent the board of I360, I got to help Candy prepare the missions month of curriculum for our 1100+ S.S. kids for February, and I have a warm bed to crawl into when I finish this blog update. It is late and sometimes that is the time I do my processing. I'll take a nap tomorrow- don't worry! God bless you. Don't forget to email your address to us! Thanks much! Nancy
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