A New Home?

Dear Friends,

There is a lot to catch up on since the last post!

Medical. The second round of Vidaza seemed to hit me much harder than the first. I have had a lot of bad fatigue where the simplest of actions seemed exhausting. Plus some of the nausea. I've also developed some sort of upper respiratory cough/bronchitis thing...not really what you want when your white blood cells have been whacked pretty hard by chemo. So Monday, Doc told me that last week's 5 days of Vidaza was enough, and he thought I should start the rest period early and skip the last two days of Vidaza, which would have nominally been yesterday and today. Today's blood was somewhat low, so I got a medium sized white blood cell booster shot and left. I get tomorrow off, have to get a blood check Thursday. In the mean time, Doc is seeing if the insurance will pay for a couple of other chemo drugs that he thinks will not be as hard on me. So we could be trying something new as early as this Monday. After the clinic this morning, I was feeling a bit stronger, so instead of going straight home, I went to Lowe's to look at refrigerators. I stopped at every man's first stop in Lowe's of course--the riding lawn mowers. After a couple minutes there, I proceeded to appliances, but by the time I made that short walk, the fatigue hit again. I found a seat, sat down, and chilled out for about twenty minutes before I felt safe to drive home. These waves of fatigue and nausea sure are a pain in the kiester.

So, Mike, why were you looking at refrigerators and riding lawn mowers you ask? Good question. Well, in God's gracious timing, we have in the last few days got our pre-approval for the Texas veteran home loan program; and what appears to be the right house, in the right neighborhood, for the right price, has appeared. We currently have verbal agreement and expect to have a signed purchase contract by the end of today. It meets all our basic needs, doesn't bust our budget, and keeps Elizabeth in all the same schools as her friends and cousins, so that our support network should remain intact. And it's close to where we are staying now, so the move should be mercifully less painful. We expect to close around 20 November, perhaps a few days earlier. This Thursday we are doing the inspections, so we will know a lot more then. Here is a link to the house: http://www.ebby.com/property/6274443/3705_Landsdowne_Drive_Mckinney_TX_75070-7142

Please pray that I would continue to recover from the chemo and the bronchitis and that all would go according to God's plan with the house.

If I recover by the end of the week and the house stuff goes well, I am thinking of taking a quick trip to Tucson to visit friends and go to the Copperstate Fly In, which should be highly populated with kit Light Sport Aircraft for me to look over. Not sure about this though. A lot of things have to fall exactly into place for this to happen.

Elizabeth is doing well-pulling all A's and won another softball game last night. Deanna is excited about the house. I think she already has the whole furniture plan laid out in her mind!

Deanna's brother has been so generous to let us live in his house this past year with everything we've been going through. Thank you Scott. You have provided not only a roof over our heads, but a home as well, when I could not. I will miss this house a lot.

Maybe our time in the desert is at an end, and the promised land is now in sight.

Thank you all and we will update again later this week.

God Bless,
-Mike

Hey everyone - I thought I would tack this on to Mike's post about Concurrent Receipt.

A House-Senate conference committee tasked to iron out any differences between separate versions of the fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill decided in early October to drop the House concurrent receipt provision from the final bill. Senate conferees said the House plan to pay for this provision would have violated Senate budget rules. So the bottom line is that Congress has failed this year to pass any part of President Obama’s plan to phase in concurrent receipt for “Chapter 61” retirees forced by disabilities to leave service before completing 20 years.

I don't even know how to express the disappointment we feel right now. I wish that those that are in the Senate could walk just one month in our shoes. Yes, we do have medical care but this month alone I have spent $1036 on supplements/vitamins/ special food for Mike. Truth. Most likely spouses are caregivers and that makes working very difficult. God will provide and we will trust, but if this stirs your heart, please email your Senators and let them know what you think.

Deanna