This next little while....

It is already the last day of August.  The days are hot and muggy here in Nashville.  It feels like we are all suspended....waiting for answers. We have survived moving Dana into her first apartment for college and Superman's Epic 2-week Birthday Party (that included a Cardinal's Game and the Rolla Gang Food Fest).

Denny's next chemo treatment begins on September 2nd through the 4th.  Dr. Murphy has decided to give him another treatment when the original plan called for just 2.  I am not certain when the next film is but I know we are getting close.  I have to work on the 2nd when Denny sees the doctor but I'm hoping she has some news from Boston. 

Superman has been doing great.  His energy level is normal and he is doing all the things he has always done.  To look at him you would never know he is in a fight for his life.  That is a miracle. 

It is a holiday weekend and for two special days all four Woodruffs are under the same roof.  For just these moments, we can bask in being normal.  No phone calls to doctors, no treatments, no jobs to go to, no obligations, no troubles, no worries.  We have time to just pull each other closer for this next little while and soak ourselves in "normal".  That is a blessing. 

Thank you for your prayers, phone calls, cards, and emails of encouragement.  Please don't be offended if we can't answer them all.  Please know it is deeply appreciated!

Wishing you all a safe and healthy holiday,

The Woodruff 4

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Birthday Wishes

Today is Denny's official birthday.  We celebrated on August 10th but today is his actual birthday.  What a miracle!  Who would have thought this day would come when we started this odyssey in 2004?  That was the year he was diagnosed with cancer and we were told all the hideous statistics of those that had gone before him.  The statistics told us that 60 out of the 100 known people with this rare form of cancer died within 18 months and none had lived past 5 years.  So much for statistics!

Miracles have happened to TheWoodruff4 and are still continuing.  Denny went to see Dr. Murphy on Monday for a checkup between chemo treatments.  She has the lab check his blood levels so she can keep informed of his progress.  She said he is looking so good she doesn't need to see him on August 26th.  She said this chemo appears to be working so he will be getting another round on September 2,3 & 4th. She will probably do a film around that time to see what is going on.  No word yet from Boston on the biopsy.  However, we will take what we can get.  The fact that the chemo is holding the tumor growth down is a miracle.  I think that is a very fine birthday present indeed.  Happy 60th Birthday, Denny! 

Days of Wonder

I've been getting many messages asking, "What's going on with the blog?"  The truth is I have not had a spare minute to write anything!  This summer so far has been crazy; not lazy for thewoodruff4.

I'll take a minute to get caught up from where we left off in July.  My last post described Denny's trouble with staph.  Since he caught it so early, he was able to get it cleared up quickly.  He is doing very well on the new chemo.  It seems to be working because he is not in terrible pain, his eye is settling back into the socket and it has quit watering.  All good signs.  We are greatly encouraged that this is holding the line for the moment.  We are anxious to get news back from Boston.  Hopefully, when we do, we will have something else to blast the cancer with.

The last week in July was spent scurrying around trying to get Dana packed up to leave for college.  As the day grew closer, the University posted the student receivables information to her account.  We were upset to learn that she would be getting $1500 less than we had budgeted for due to some fees we didn't know about.  We had turned in all of her scholarship applications except one offered through our Church.  Since she was finishing up her last day at work, I drove it in to drop at the church office.  As I opened the door, Mark (Pastor of the Church) met me with a surprise that left me speechless. Dana and Daniel have a mysterious benefactor who opened up a college fund anonymously for them in the amount of $10,000 to help with college expenses.  I stood there in complete shock.  My eyes were watering and I struggled for words.  I still do not know what to say.  "Thank you" hardly seems like enough.  We have a "thank you" card written to this mysterious person that will be given to him/her through Mark who has kindly offered to be the "mailman".  Through the generous spirit of this person, we are already looking for ways to "pay it forward."  Those of you who know us well, know we will find a way.

We moved Dana and Justin's stuff together into two different apartment buildings.  Between them, we had a 6 x 12 travel trailer, 2 SUV's and a car loaded down with Tuscaloosa bound loot. The Woodruffs and the Fergusons spent August 3rd unloading all the stuff.  Denny and Dan left Sunday morning for home because they had to get the trailer back.  I stayed until Monday to help get school and apartment business done.  We also put together 2 BBQ pits and I installed locking doorknobs to their rooms.  It was a full day.  I got home about 11:30pm Monday night.

Then, it was time to put my party hat on.  I had already sent out about 55 invitations to Superman's 60th Birthday party and the RSVP's were rolling in.  The date was set for August 10th.  Over 130 people RSVP'd - 95% were family and friends coming in from Missouri. Denny and I were amazed at the turnout. 

The party wouldn't have happened without help.  I didn't do it as a surprise because it was too hard to coordinate Denny's schedule between work and his treatments.  My mom, my friend Dana, Ben & Ashley, and friends, Ron & John came in early and worked diligently to get this thing off the ground.  Our sincerest thanks to all of you for making Denny's Birthday so very special.

As the party came to a close on Sunday, we had to regroup for the coming week.  I was not feeling so well by Sunday night.  Being in the heat and humidity on Saturday got a staph infection going.  If you have ever had one, you know how painful this is. 

Denny went to get his chemo treatment early Monday morning and I took the rented tables, chairs and tents back to the rental company.  Dana and Justin returned to college. Dan went to school. I went to work Monday evening and Denny came home; relaxed and said he was doing well.

By Tuesday, the staph thing had gotten worse so I went to the doctor to get some medicine before going to work.  She didn't want to lance it because she was afraid that with a boil that size, it would get in my bloodstream.  I am trying oral antibiotics first.

While I went to the Doctor, Denny went in for his second chemo.  He is tolerating it very well and just went to work afterwards.  He gets home around 5:30pm and is usually in bed by 9:30 or 10.  He woke up at 1am and noticed I was not home yet.  He thought I was working late.  By 2:30am, he was really worried.  So was I.

I was in the ER.  I had gone to work and at 9:30pm started having some symptoms that were of concern:  pain down my left arm, shoulder, and neck.  We were short-handed, so I stayed until the end of my shift at 11pm.  I debated about whether to go home and take an aspirin or go to the ER and find out what the heck was going on.  The ER won.  It was 2:40am before the ER doc decided he was going to keep me overnight for "observation".  I texted Denny where I was but didn't go into details. I did not want him coming down to the Vanderbilt ER and getting exposed to all the sick people in there while he was going through chemo.

They ran all kinds of tests and finally discharged me with the diagnosis of "Acute Tension". The good news is my heart is 100% okay.  Denny was waiting in my room when I came back from the last test around 11:30am.  He had just finished up his last chemo for the week.  What a pair we are!  I told him he could go to work if he wanted since it would take a couple of hours to get all the results and I would call when I knew something. That's what we did.

After leaving the hospital, I went home and changed clothes.  I had to take our old beagle dog in to have him put to sleep.  He was suffering and starting to fail badly this past week.  He died in my arms.  The comfort to me is that he didn't die alone or unwanted.  I buried him out behind the house next to other old friends who have passed: Peeps (Dana's 9 year old chicken), Hunter and Stewie-Woodle (the kid's hamsters).

I have looked at these days with wonder: wonder at the response and the crowd drawn to Denny's party, wonder that it had to be now that I get a staph infection when I never do, wonder why the "Acute Tension" is surfacing now when this has been going on for almost 10 years, wonder that Denny is doing so well on this chemo that our hope for time is getting stronger, wonder if our Woody Dog is in heaven yet, and last but not least, wonder WHO IS THE MYSTERIOUS BENEFACTOR?  I wonder....