Alan's Room Information

Hello to all! I've been at this hospital all week and I just found out that the library has internet, so I can do a quick update. Alan is in a room, but not completely private although he is by himself. It is an in between ICU and a private room area. He just still needs a little extra care from a private nurse than what I can give him. That is fine with me b/c lord knows I'm not a nurse! Alan is still just real groggy, but feeling no pain. There is not much for me to add at the moment. Paula did a great job with the update. Thank you Paula! I would like to add that I think some people are somewhat confused about the tumor, but yes, it was cancerous, but the lympth node came back negative. The Dr. did not have to take any of the pancreas like we thought in the beginning. The tumor had started to grow up the vena cave like we thought, but the Dr.'s were able to remove all of that also. God has really answered some amazing prayers for us lately. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment. Now I know I can check any time during the day...or at least until 5pm. Thank you again to everyone for the calls, prayers, friendships. This has been an eye opening experience that I wish on no one!


Alan's room # is 682, but this might change this afternoon, or he might be in this room thru the night. Who knows. The nurse tells you one thing and then the Dr. tells you another. At least he can have visitors during anytime of the day. While he was in ICU he could only have visitors during certain times of the day and that was no fun for anyone.

Thanks again to everyone. Hopefully Alan will be able to talk on the phone soon and hear some familiar voices.
We love you,
Melissa

Alan Surgery and Hospital Stay Update

Hello, everyone! I am a close friend of Melissa's, and she has asked me to keep their blog updated while she's not able to do so. (My name is Paula.) I will do my best to add information as quickly as I talk with Melissa. If you are following their blog to keep up with their family and with Alan's illness, I know you are just as anxious as I am to know how Alan's doing. Please do not hesitate to add comments and/or questions...I will pass those on to Melissa while she's still unavailable, and she'll be able to read them for herself when she's back online.

Alan underwent his surgery on Monday morning at 10am at Baptist Medical Center in Little Rock. The surgery took approximately 3 1/2 hours. The surgeons did remove the tumor, the kidney, the entire spleen, and a lymph node close to the kidney. Alan did receive blood during the surgery. Afterwards, the doctors told Melissa that the surgery went extremely well.

As of yesterday, Alan had been in ICU since his surgery. He had received a total of 4 units of blood (I believe 3 of those were during surgery). His breathing tubes had all been removed on Tuesday night and the nurses had already had him sitting up in a chair. He is still pretty groggy and a bit out-of-it, but doing well. Melissa was hoping that Alan would be moved out into a room later in the day on Wednesday. I will be talking with her in a little bit this for the latest updates and hopefully will have a private room number for you all. As far as Melissa knew, the oncologists had still not been by to see Alan. She's hoping that will happen once he's moved into a room, alert, and she's with him.

The best news of all so far:
The biopsy of Alan's lymph node came back NEGATIVE!!!!!!!!!!

All in all, Alan seems to be doing very well. Melissa sounded much better yesterday than she has in over a week. Please continue to remember them in your prayers. Until the next update,

Paula

Dr. Appointment and Surgery

(This picture is when we were still in our local hospital...obviously before we found out our bad news. Just wanted everyone to see Alan' great smile.)

We got back from Alan's Dr. appt. around 9:00 last night. Our new word is "optimistic." Dr. Mooney said he was very optimistic about Alan's condition. He did officially call his cancer "Kidney Cancer." He said that he will take the kidney, tumor, possibly the spleen (depending on if it has grown up in it), and maybe some of the pancreas. It has defiantly spread, but apparently it is a slow spreading cancer. He said that this type of cancer is one of the hardest to find b/c there are no symptoms until it is so advanced. Dr. Mooney will also have a general surgeon with him during the surgery if they do end up taking the spleen or other organs. I asked him what the likelihood is of it coming back to the other kidney and he said there is about a 3% chance, so that was reassuring. Alan will have scans about every 6 months for the next 5 years just for precaution. I think everyone should be allowed a scan once a year. Dr. Mooney said Alan could have possibly had this tumor for 5 years and it has just been slowly growing. After surgery and we see exactly what we are up against, then we will get with the oncologist and talk about therapy. They have so many different medicines these days, so we will see what is best for Alan's situation.

Surgery
Since I have been working on this post, they called about Alan's surgery. It is going to be Monday the 8th at 10am at Baptist Health Center in Little Rock http://www.baptist-health.org/. The surgery will be anywhere from 2-3 hours and then Alan will be in the hospital for probably 3 days. We are extremely excited that they are able to get us in so soon, but of course nervous. Now we have to prepare and get ready for upcoming results that will hopefully be in our favor. We will be staying in Little Rock Sunday night. We have to be at the hospital at 8 that morning. We were all doing pretty well until we found out the date and time of the surgery and now the nerves have set back in. I know everyone is, but keep on praying. Man, do we need those prayers!! We are not in the clear yet, but hopefully will be soon. I'm waiting for the moment the Dr. comes out and says everything looks great! Those are the words we need to hear. Poor Sydney and Carson, they are just being tossed around.

Thank you again to everyone! The support is awesome and we love you.

Alan Update 2

I just wanted to let everyone know that Alan's bone scan came back normal which of course is GREAT!! God is already answering prayers for us. We are still heading to LR tomorrow come hell or high water...and I'm not even joking about the high water b/c Arkansas is flooded thanks to Gustav, and we were without power from 10 last night until 5:30 this afternoon. Again, thank you Gustav. And let me tell you, it's no fun sitting in a dark house with rainy and windy weather when you are already depressed enough. Me, Alan and Sydney went to Wal-Mart for entertainment (I'm sure my family in Arizona and California are laughing about our Wal-Mart trip). haha Anyway, back to the main subject. We are still not 100% certain that we will be staying in Little Rock tomorrow, but we are taking extra clothes just in case. Just keep us in your prayers b/c I know they are working.

Carson is back to himself today and is back at home with us tonight. I'm sooooo glad he is better. I hated to leave town with him feeling so bad.

So many of you have called and left messages and I apologize that we have not returned calls, but it's really been crazy around here and then the power was off and we did not have a land line phone, but we do now thanks to our walmart trip and we bought a real cheap one and I don't think it works that well. Anyway, we are not avoiding calls, it's just been crazy.
Love to all!!

Alan Update

We will be headed to Little Rock Thursday for Alan's appt. with Dr. Mooney. Our appt. is at 3:00 and it sounds like we will be staying. We are still not sure when they will schedule surgery. I pray that it is soon. I know Alan just wants it out and if I could reach in there and pull it out I would...ok, I know that sounds a little grouse, but I promise you would feel the same way. Alan had to have a bone scan today and I think that will be all of the testing until we go to LR. I want to let everyone know that the tumor is just on the left kidney. The right kidney is healthy and fine and shows nothing abnormal (I've had some people tell me they heard it was both kidney's, but it's not). There is growth up the kidney vein which runs into the vena cava and up towards the heart. We will probably not know for sure just how much it has spread until they do the surgery. Apparently Alan has basically been living off of his one good kidney for a while, so we know he can do it! While we are in LR, I will probably have a friend..:-) post for me so everyone can check back on our blog for updates. I will probably be off work for a while. If you need me or have any questions, please feel free to email me at home mmccone@alltel.net. Please just pray for Alan. He is really down and the depression is setting in. I'm trying to keep him going and he is doing ok, but of course it's just hard. I know how I feel so I really cannot imagine how he is feeling.

Also, say a special pray for our Carson too. Apparently he has a stomach bug and has been throwing up most of the day. I took him to Wee School this morning and he was fine. I went to work after Alan's bone scan and they called me and he was SICK! I had to take him to my moms and now Alan's parents have him and are keeping him tonight...UGH!! I'm taking him to Monroe tomorrow morning to the Dr. What next!! Bring it on...ok, not really!
Of course, pray for our Sydney too. She still does not know that Alan will be having surgery and I guess we have just put it off telling her. We will probably talk with her more tomorrow about it and I hope she understands.

I also want to throw this in. Ok, I know we live in this little town in south Arkansas, but I really want to commend everyone at our Crossett hospital for taking care of Alan while he was in the hospital. Everyone was great and I felt like they went out of their way to check on him and make sure he was doing ok. Thank you to Dr. Malloy for running all of the test so we would have an answer before we left the hospital. It wasn't exactly the answer we wanted, but at least we know.
Again, thank you to everyone for your calls, emails and post. I mean it when I say we love you and appreciate everything. We have great friends, family and people already all over this country praying for us...and we need it.
I want to leave you with this:

Do not fear, for I am with you;

Do not anxiously look about you,

for I am your God.

I will strengthen you,

surely I will help you,

Surely I will uphold you with

My righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10

We believe that God has our hand and he is leading us through this journey of the unknowing. We are not sure where or why, but he is leading us and he will give us the strength to get through it.

I also want to say that I'm tired of Gustav! This tropical depression is adding to my depression! Thank you Lord for the rain, but please move it on.

A New Chapter Begins

As of today, my family has been faced with a new challenge. Alan, my husband, has been diagnosed to have a large cancerous tumor on his left kidney or renal cell tumor.
Alan had been complaining most of last week with some abdominal pain, but started thinking it was some new meds he had recently started taking, so he made a Dr. appt for Friday just to see. The Dr. noticed a low red blood count and basically Alan just really did not look good and had also been pretty sluggish lately. Doc put him in the hospital for a blood transfusion, blood work and an Endoscopy. We were all thinking ulcers in his stomach, which he did have...8 of them, so that was what we thought was the reason for the low blood count! Doc still wanted to do more testing, so he did a colonoscopy and that came back clear also. So, Doc wanted to do a CAT scan just to be sure and that is when he saw the tumor on his kidney. Needless to say we are all in shock, well, that doesn't even explain what I'm feeling. No words can really explain what I'm feeling at the moment. Actually I think I'm just numb...we all are and extremely concerned and worried about Alan. I think the only reason I'm posting this tonight is just for therapy, so please do not think it petty of me to post this today. I needed it. Please remember my family in your prayers. We go back for a CT scan tomorrow at the hospital and then we will see Dr. Mooney at Arkansas Urology in Little Rock. It's pretty certain that Alan will have surgery this week to have the kidney and tumor removed and we will go from there. I'm sure I've forgotten details, but I'm tired.
Thank you in advanced for your calls and prayers!
We love you!!
I will try to update as I can.

I'm going to be an aunt!!

Finally, after years and years of hounding my brother and sister inlaws, Kara (Alan's sister) and Michael have finally stepped up to the plate and decided to start a family! Alan and I are done. We have two wonderful and healthy children, so it was time for someone else. And, as of yesterday, Kara and Michael found out they are having identical TWINS!! I'm sooooo excited, I could barely contain myself. I can't wait. They should find out in about 8 weeks what the sex is and the babies are due in March. This is going to be so fun...well maybe not so much fun for Kara and Michael, but for me and Alan as the aunt and uncle. hehe Sydney and Carson will finally have cousins.
Trent and Christian...you're next!!

My New Craft

I'm sure many of you know I'm the "Hair Bow Maker" and that is something I love to do, but I decided that I wanted to try a different craft. This all came to light when Sydney came home with her new classroom rules and at that moment, I knew that was something we would need to go over on a regular basis so I wanted the rules placed in sight at all times. (apparently we already need to go over them a little more). So, I got the bulletin board out that had been sitting in Sydney's closet forever to finally put it to good use. Looking at it, it was too plain, so I thought I would dress it up a little with some ribbon and other essentials that a bulletin board needs. Anyway, the pictures below show a few of my new creations. These are all birthday gifts that I have recently done for some of Sydney's friends and they seem to be a hit!

Yes, I am selling these and if you are interested, just let me know. I can do more or less with the design and I have just about every color of ribbon that you would want. I have not done one for a boys room yet, but I'm sure I can come up with something that will look boyish.

Anything that you see on the bulletin board is a push pin and can be placed where ever you would like. Notice the initials and feathers are all push pins....so cute for those girly girls!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Board Size: 17" X 23"

mmccone@alltel.net

Colors on the above board are Brown Polka Dot, Lime Green Polka Dot, White & Hot Pink

Colors on the above board are Mystic Blue Polka Dot, Multi Polka Dot, Lime Green, Purple & Hot Pink

Colors on the above board are Zebra Print, Apple Green Polka Dot, Black & Hot Pink.

Happy Birthday Alan!!

Today is Alan's birthday. I won't tell you how old he is, but I will tell you that when he was born:

the average cost of a new house was $27,550.00
the average cost of a gallon of gas was 55 cents
the average family income was 11,800.00
American Swimmer Mark Spitz wins a record 7 gold medals in the Summer Olympics in Munich
Digital Watches are introduced
Atari kicks off the first generation of video games with the release of PONG, the first game to achieve commercial success

Popular Shows Included:
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Sesame Street
Hawaii Five-O

Popular Music:
The Eagles
Simon and Garfunkel
ABBA

Popular Movies:
The Godfather
Fiddler on the Roof
Dirty Harry

Happy Birthday Alan. Your family loves you sooooo much! You are a great husband, father, brother and son...even when you work graveyards, lol.
Alan and I are having a date tonight....no, no, no...not that kind of date. We are just going to Monroe to eat without kids. I might actually get to finish my meal for once!! Thank you Kayla for taking care of my babies tonight.

Kindergarten Daze!!

Well, we had our first day of Kindergarten Monday. What can I say...it was an interesting day. Alan and I walked Sydney in, of course (see picture below with Alan's head hanging low!!). He was a little sad. I was actually doing pretty well that day, but I think I had gotten most of my emotions out the week before. Sydney remembered where her class was. We let her walk us to it. She found her desk and immediately started talking and asking a million questions, which I'm sure will get her in trouble soon, if it has not already, lol. She is just a friendly little thing and is curious about it all. I pretty much had to drag Alan out of the classroom when it was time for us to go, lol. Again, he was having a hard time. We left our baby girl in the care of new people, but I feel great about the staff at her school and I know they will help those little ones find their way around. We love our teacher Mrs. Goodwin. She will be great for Sydney. There were alot of sad mommy's and daddy's that day, but I guess we all survived! I have to say, I think the hardest part of this whole day was me picking out what she was going to wear for her first day. It took me forever!!

The Pick Up!!

I picked Sydney up from her 1st day of school. She hopped in the car and had a smile on her face, so it looked like we were off to a good start. She said her favorite part of the day was recess....of course! I'm asking her 100 questions and she says she is tired of talking about school, so I really didn't get much out of her the first day.

Here are just a few pictures from our 1st Day of School.

Daddy was having a hard day!

She looks so big in this picture and kind of has the appearance of being ready to learn, HA!!

Wish me luck. She wants to walk in by herself tomorrow. Cross your fingers that she makes it...ughhhh!!

Coming soon...pictures from some really cute birthday parties from this past weekend and my new craft!!

Kindergarten Orientation!!

Well, I guess it is official...Sydney is a Kindergartener! We were able to meet Sydney's teacher Sunday at orientation...Mrs. Goodwin. I'm extremely excited about Sydney 1st teacher b/c I have known Mrs. Goodwin for many years and I know she will be a great teacher for Sydney.

Our orientation started out with the Principal, Mrs. Stephenson, welcoming everyone and from that point my ADD kicked in and I went to another world thinking about my baby girl going to "Big School". All I remember Mrs. Stephenson saying was "sign the 5 yellow sheets in the handbook and return them to the school". Everything else is a blur. We were finally dismissed to go visit with our new teacher and everyone pretty much ran out of that cafeteria to find where their children will be living for the next 9 months. We enter Sydney's classroom, eager and anxious, looking for her desk. We find her desk with her name across the top and an adorable animal print goodie bag from Mrs. Goodwin. I'm squatting down beside her as she is sitting at her new desk telling her to look at this and that and I immediately start to feel my body shaking and the anxiety is kicking in and the voice is trembling. It's official, I'm nervous and scared!! I seriously had to walk away before she noticed that I was about to loose it. The only other time I remember feeling like that was the day of my wedding. We do know a few other children in Sydney's class, but out of the 22 kids in her Wee School class, not one is in her Kindergarten class. That's strange to me. Sydney is such an outgoing child and I have no doubt that she will make new friends fast with her classmates and will probably be the class clown.

To all of the mommy's and daddy's taking their kids to Kindergarten...good luck and I will be thinking of you that day. We will all be strong for each other, LOL!!

To Mrs. Goodwin, please take care of my baby and I hope she does not get in trouble too much for talking, hehe. Is it ok if I stay and observe the first week...ok, just kidding, but you might have to kick me out the first day. Sydney we love you. You are a

The DVD Player!!

So, I 'm sure if you have read about our Gulf Shores trip, then you remember reading about my "Smoking" DVD player that I purchased a week before our trip. Just so happens that this DVD player is a non-refundable item. Sorry, but when something I just purchased starts smoking in my vehicle, it will be refunded. Anyway, I call the company ready for a fight and thankfully I got a lady that could speak English! She started the conversation off nice, so I continued to be nice as well. I told her exactly what happened and of course she says, "hold on please." I'm waiting and waiting and she gets back on the phone and says, "I see this is a non-refundable item, but because of the situation, I will refund your money to you and email you the shipping label." She also stated she was going to waive the "restocking fee" and I thought, I hope you are not planning on restocking this!! She was very nice to me, so I was very nice to her. I sent that sucker back last week with a sticky note attached to the bad screen labeled "FRIED"!! I will give http://www.newegg.com/ 4 stars for good customer service though. They need to just take this DVD set off of the market. It is the AXION AXN-6079.