Not much to say

Terah and Patrick were married on 10-4-14.  It was a beautiful, perfect day.  Without any exageration I can say it could not have gone better.  It was like a wedding from Better Homes and Gardens. 

As for me I am doing well.  My new leg is in and I have tested it.  I am simply  waiting for insursnce to approve.  Then I am off and running!!  I am told to expect something in 7-10 days.  This gives me about 26 weeks of training for the Warrior Dash .  I mostly walked in 7 weeks, so I expect to jog and climb.  Remember, the more the marrier.

I started what is hopefully my last chemo treatment today.  The next 5-10 days will suck while my body deals with and recovers from this.  I'll feal better someplace near day 5.  Then each day is a gradual improvement.

Lastly, I went camping with my dear friend DS, my dad and my wife, April Brewer.  We drove to Cambell Point, MO, which is on Lake Table Rock.  As with any travel experience we blew a radiator hose just north of Berryville.  Then the new hose came lose about 1000 feet from the same spot on the drive home.   This made the whole trip better with a small disaster taken care of.  Cambell Point was beautiful;  Everything was well kept, everyone was Ozark Mountains nice, and the weather was perfect.  I would not hesitate to go back.

Now, it's sleepy time.

Good night, every onr.

One more to go

Well, the second chemotherapy round is done. They removed the pump this afternoon. He is feeling very tired and nauseous and is sleeping a lot. No surprise there. He is still very emotional but hopefully it won't be as bad as before.  We have had a long day and are hoping tomorrow will be better. We love our friends and everyone who is still with us, praying for us. We still need as many prayers as we can get. I love you guys! Thanks!!

My first real fall

I just had my first real fall.  I was on my crutches (with one leg).  My right crutche hit something and it slid away from me.  I hit the kitchen floor hard with my stump and right elbow.  Now it hurts.  Not horribly but it does hurt like you would expect; Sore, bruised, stiffening, etc.  We'll see what it's like in the morning.

Walking again.

Snell laboratories in Fayetteville has the best staff I have ever worked with.  I went in with an impossible goal and they enabled me to achieve it.
I lost my leg on August 11 and they removed a chunk of lung on August 25.  Losing my leg was terrible, but the pain with the lung surgery was much much worse.  I could barely role over in bed for days after the lung work.  I ask all the doctors about walking and they said 'maybe in 3-6 months'.  I was dischared from the lung surgery on August 28, which gave me 37 days before Terah's wedding.  I returned to work on September 2 and my first appointment with Snell was about then. 
Randy at Snell worked with me nearly every workday in September.  I went in for 1 or 2 hours each time.  He assembled a temporary leg from parts in their work room and began fitting my stump for a socket.  I used the 'test' socked to practice walking in all my visits and he had a road-worthy socked ready on October 1, which was 3 days before Terah's wedding.  I used the test socket for about 15 hours of practice and then I wore my permanent socket for about 22 hours over 3 days (about 6 hours of actual walking).  Then it was show time.
I walked.  I was able to walk down the isle with Terah while using one crutch.  It was not perfect, but it was perfect for me.  Terah became engaged last fall, which was before my cancer stuff started.  I was diagnosed with cancer and Terah offered to postpone, but I said 'no'.  Then they removed my leg and she offered to postpone, but I said 'no'.  I promised to walk down the isle on October 4 and I did it.  It was probably the hardest thing I've ever done, but Terah's smile was worth it.

The return of Chemo

My first chemo treatment since losing my leg started Wednesday, September 17 and ended the 19.  It was horrible.  It started with about 3.5 liters of fluid and medicine via IV.  Then they attached a small pump of medicine which I kept for 48 hours.  That red Medicine did terrible things to me.  The nurse who attached it dressed in FULL protective gear .   This included a face shield, head to toe coverage, and double layer gloves.  Her instructions to April included "if this leaks do not get it on you. It will be like a brown recluse bite."  Holy Cow !!!  They are injecting this into me.  I believe the goal of the medicine was to scald the interior of my blood vessels of anything living or free floating.  I believe it did it.
The next several days were rough.  The chemo started at 4 PM on Wednesday.  I awoke on Thursday to a Ievel of nausea which I've never had before.  I had pills for it but the barely helped.  I could only eat soup and crackers Thursday Friday and Saturday.  On top of the nausea was my working hard to fight the chemo.  While it was scalding out the lining of my blood vessels my body was trying to rebuild itself.  This took a lot of energy, but i was not eating, so my body was pulling from all its reserves.  I lost 10 pounds in those 4 days.  With all my energy going to that I had no energy for moving to the couch, or eating, or having intelligent conversations.  It was Sunday before I could eat a normal meal.  I made it to work on Thursday morning, but I left early.  After that I was down until the following Tuesday.  I did get out with April and my dad for small trips to town, but that was it.  I hope the next round is less dreadful.

Catching up...

The past 3 weeks were a tornado of activity; 1 chemo treatment, illness, work, and 1 wedding.  There is no way to summarize everything so I will write a blog for each.

Chemo again

Here we go again!  Another chemo for Damon.  Terah's wedding was gorgeous and Damon did a  fantastic job walking her down the isle and the father daughter dance.  Everyone was crying !  We are glad that the Clarks had a great honeymoon.  They went to Branson and stayed at a new resort and played and went to SDC, The Wax Museum and even went to Ripley's Believe It or Not!  I am jealous. They told everyone they were on their honeymoon and of course received perefential tretament😊. We raised our daughter right!  Damon and I had a even better time spending time with his sister Angelica, but I call her Kelley.  She ran around town with us and helped us do a few last minute things for the wedding, went with Damon to a Snell appointment and was able to see what it is like to work on getting a  prosthetic, and then she spent Monday night with Damon and I at our home watching Tropic Thunder.  She had never seen it!

Damon has been dreading today. Mainly because he knows what comes along with it.  Tiredness, nausea, all of it.  It is definitely not fun but he knows that it needs to be done and continues to be a complete inspiration to me.  I made a joke about next it would be me who lost a leg and it would be the left on so he and I could walk together.  He asked me if I thought I could do it. I thought about it and I know that I don't think I would survive it. I think that I would lose hope. But I also know that I would have him next to me to give me more hope than I ever thought possible because he does that every day for me already.

I am not looking forward to the next week but I will be next to Damon at all times, whether he wants me there or not!😍😛

Sorry that the blogging has been behind lately.  We just had so many things to do to get ready foe the wedding that we had no more time. If Damon wasn't practicing to walk with the prosthetic, at work, or fighting chemo, he was asleep.  Me as well.  So hopefully now we will keep you updated better.  Love all of you for being such great friends and sending us your love, compassion, caring and prayers. Please keep it up cause we are still fighting!! 

Big day

It is Saturday, October 4th at 1am.  My daughter Terah Brewer and Patrick Clark get married in 15 hours.  Everything else has been on hold, including my blogging. 

I'll catch up everything when this is done.