July 27, 2004

Michael woke up sick this morning and had was throwing up a little bit of blood along with what was left on his stomach. We checked his mouth and it appears that there is an open sore in the back part of his jaw. We called the H/O clinic and they didn’t think it was much to worry about at this point. They are concerned about his nausea and lack of intake so we are increasing his nausea meds in order to try to keep his stomach calm. He started feeling better so Mickey and Justin went on to the radiation appointment. Tammy is still not feeling well and has an appointment with the chiropractor on Wednesday. At Michael’s radiation appointment he began to get sick again. They put him in a room so he could lay down and rest. Shortly after that Michael began to get teary-eyed so Mickey asked him what was wrong. Michael said that God was telling him that if he didn’t take his radiation treatment then he wouldn’t be able to tell others about Jesus. Mickey asked Michael if he would like to pray and ask Jesus to help him, so Michael began to pray and ask for God’s help. When he was done praying he felt better and was able to go thru with his radiation treatment. Michael took that opportunity to let the techs know that it was not his short nap that helped him, but that it was Jesus who helped him! PTL! It is out of the mouth of babes. Michael finally got home a little after twelve today. He laid down around 2:00 p.m. and it didn’t take him long to get to sleep. We only have 11 more radiation treatments to go and you would think that the downhill side of this would be much easier, but instead it seems harder. Michael is really starting to wear out easier even though he gets bursts of energy. His energy level hits highs and lows throughout the day. He also is getting more mouth sores and a lot more mucous although it still doesn’t appear to be all that bad. He has gone back to not eating which may be a combination of the mouth hurting and the chemo and radiation treatments. This means that we will need to give him more nutrition thru the G-button that he has. I am so thankful that his Dr. wanted to put this in while he was well. Please continue to pray for all of us. We feel like we are beginning to learn how to swim these days. (If you don’t know what that means, go back to the beginning of Michael’s journey)