News from Angela

Here's an update from Angela. It seems that this little family is going through it's share of burdens.
Angela please keep faith sweety, Call on Jesus and know that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will never desert you. He's always by your side.
With much love, God bless.

Hi Aunt Joan.

Just wanted to touch base with you and give you an update on what's going on here so that you can update the family. First we got a call from Alanna's doctors in Minnesota telling us that they want to do a surgery called a pancreatectomy and auto islet cell transplant on Alanna in November. November 16th to be exact. During this 10 hour surgery they remove Alanna's pancreas and harvest the islet cells which will be injected into her liver and within time her liver will start to produce insulin much like her pancreas would. However, she will be forced to take enzyme pills with every bite of food she takes for the rest of her life since she will no longer have the pancreas to produce these enzymes to digest her food. She will also be out of school approximately 2 months.

Howard also is to be scheduled very soon to have the nerves cut running to his pancreas in hopes of getting rid of his everyday pain. This surgery which is approximately 2-3 hours long they will collapse his lungs, be put on a ventilator so that the doctors can reach the nerves. He will also be out 4-6 weeks. Our hope is to get him off the narcotics which he must take several times per day. (2 different types of narcotics, 1 every 4-6 hours and the other every 6 hours. The only thing is there is a 50/50 chance the first surgery will work. If they cut the wrong nerves, then they have to go back in and cut more. This procedure unfortunately is not permanent. The nerves will usually regenerate themselves in 2-3 years and this surgery cannot be repeated once all the nerves are cut the first time. After that 2-3 year period we have no idea what the next options are except for a pancreas transplant.

Grandpa Stewart, (Mom's Dad) finished his last "weekly" treatment yesterday for his Bladder Cancer and from what I understand will just have to get one a month from here on out. He seems to be holding up well. But I guess I am much like him by not showing my daily pain and frustration. So if he's hurting he is certainly not telling anyone. But he is stubborn, that's why I love and respect him so much. Proud to be stubborn (I am sure I get a lot of that part from Dad too).

I had a epidural block yesterday for the herniated discs in my back and discovered that according to the doc are no longer working as they should therefore he has sent me back to the surgeon who I have to call on Monday and schedule an appointment with. He said what the next step for me is surgery, which is several options. A disketcomy (sp?), or various other options which all will have me out of work 4-6 weeks. I am hoping to put it off as long as possible, hoping to get Howard and Alanna's surgeries done and have them home healthy and happy, then do mine, which I hope to wait until after the first of the year. Until then, I have been prescribed 3 different pain medications. One med twice a day, the second 3x a day and the 3rd is 4x per day. I am hoping to get over the side effects of this medication which make me extremely tired.

On a good note, I finished my quarter with straight A's again and will be graduating with my bachelor's in legal studies right after the first of the year and will be graduating (if I keep my grades up) in the top 5% of my class. I have skipped right over the dean's list and jumped right to the president's list which means my GPA is nearly 4.0. After that I considered law school but don't think I have the stamina for that. So I will go on within a year or two after graduation and get my master's degree.

We are hoping to start a cookbook to raise money for Alanna's surgery which will be at the University of Minnesota. With hotel costs, meal costs, plane tickets, etc. Is estimated to cost over $10,000. I am hoping to get recipes together and get Stacy to bind, laminate, etc and sell the cookbook to family and friends.

I thought of an idea which I think is cute, is to gather all the recipes from children who have their own little "recipe" which is easy and written in their own handwriting with a picture that they draw of the finished recipe. I also was thinking about putting the child's picture with the recipe so they can have their own little published cookbook. I am thinking about asking my church along with several other in the area to help me out since I do not know a lot of children that are young enough to help with the project. Just ask family and friends to pray for the family. I know that they say God will not give you anything more in a day that you can't handle but he's really pushing his luck with me lately. LOL. My nerves are shot and all I can do is take is hour by hour. Day by day doesn't seem to be working anymore. So now at least I can say, this last hour was a good one, no bad news then. Just have to digest everything that has been handed to us over the last weeks. I was hospitalized the last week of May for exhaustion. They took my cell phone, laptop, everything so that I would do nothing but rest. Did that for 5 days. Mom and Dad were on vacation so they didn't know anything until they returned. By then of course, they were frantic. But I wanted them to enjoy their time away without worries of me. I am working very hard to get the rest I need to ensure that doesn't happen again. Which isn't hard lately with all the pills, all I do is sleep.

Take care, I hope all is well with the rest of the family. Please tell Aunt Jean happy belated birthday. I wasn't online the day of your post and am just getting to cleaning out my emails this morning. Tell her that Grandma is singing happy birthday to her too. I feel Grandma's presence all around me from time to time and keep remembering what she kept telling me every time I got knocked down as a child. "Just pick yourself up by your bootstraps and keep on going. No need to cry over a skinned knee." So I must say I own a pair of cowboy boots and wear them often, especially on days when I need to pull myself back up again. Her words still ring true to me 30 years later.

Love to all,
Angela