Testimonials of Sandi's Impact on You

Sandi was always wanting to have an impact on her world. The family invites you to comment on how Sandi made a difference in your life. The family would love to read how she did that for you.  Ron

Sandi's Memorial

Sandi's Memorial will be held on Monday, November 22 at 2:00 PM. It will be held at Praise Covenant Church ( Harvard Campus). The address is 1611 85th St. East  Tacoma, Washington  98445
Please continue to pray for our family as we miss her so deeply.

See you later, Honey

At 1:00 AM this morning Sandi was called home to be with our Lord and Savior. We will miss her a ton. She was a Beautiful Wife, Daughter, Sister, Mom, and Nana. She leaves a tremendous void in our lives. Please pray for us during this very difficult time. We will miss her Humor, Compassion, Care, and Spontaneity. Sandi faced her greatest fear...cancer...and WON.  Her faith was NEVER shaken.  She held strong to the end and claimed victory for His kingdom. We will post the details for her memorial as they are worked out. We love you and thank-you for all of your support.
Ron

Happy Anniversary Sweetie

March 13, 1970 on a Friday, I met this very special girl. Little did I know, over the next 40 plus years, that she would become my Girl Friend, Life Partner, Loving Wife, Mother of our 3 Handsome Sons ( who we are so proud of), Nana of our 5 Beautiful Grand-kids. I just want to say that I am loving each day that God gives us to share with each other. I know enough with the mussy stuff, no I don't think that this will be the last of it! Last night Dad stayed with Mom in her room here at the hospital. Mom is to be released today to go home to the cabin that she has been living in with Dad. Her care will be provided by the family. Dad will be on the sidelines as her cheerleader. Dawn's surgery went well yesterday. She is doing well and preparing to go home. Sandi had her sedation and pain medication reduced to determine where her pain management levels are. She also needed to do this so that she could take over breathing on her own. Nutrition was started last night at 9:00 PM. This should help with gaining strength, working toward more independence from this level of care.Today pray for Mom and Dad as they go home. Pray for Dawn as she prepares to go home. Pray for Sandi for pain management and progress toward gaining strength toward getting off the ventilator. Pray for Peace and patience for Sandi as she tries to communicate with the boys and I while she is still on the ventilator. We appreciate your prayers and support so much, thank you!

Our Journey

Sandi and I could never have imagined this journey. We are not in charge so how could we have known. We are so glad that God is in control and we are here to walk through this together with Him. What a comfort to have "Him" at our side each step of the way. Yesterday was a very full day. Sandi's Dad was informed that his wife was here in the hospital. The hospital arranged for them to have adjacent rooms last night so he could be close to her. He should be released today. Please pray for him as he goes home while she stays here. Our daughter-in law, Dawn had a gall bladder attack yesterday while visiting grandma. The nurses had her rushed down to ER and that is where they figured out what was going on with her. Later she was admitted as a patient too, bringing the total to four of our family here receiving treatment. As I am writing this she is in surgery. Please pray for her. This AM we had a very serious talk with our Oncologist here. He says that Sandi has some very serious challenges here in ICU. This is the war that we must face. Today we are working on Sandi doing some of the breathing on her own. This is the first step in getting off the ventilator. She will also be put back on some nutrition. Please pray for her strength and the ability to work on progressing to breath on her own.

Grandpa is doing well.  He should be here in the hospital for a couple of days.  Sandi is still fighting.  She is so strong!  Her liver enzymes (they were abnormal yesterday) have improved a bit today.  They are going to give her some blood to help perk her up a little.  She is opening her eyes quite a bit and is making eye contact.  We are enjoying that!  Other than that, we continue the careful balancing act of meds and fluids.  We are ready for our dose of compassions today...how bout you?

1. Lamentations 3:22-24 Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."  Most of us are familiar with this scripture or have at least heard it.  It's a great scripture...it's AMAZING when you need it to survive.  This morning we were informed that Sandi's dad has suffered a heart attack.  They will be giving him blood thinners to try to resolve the situation. He will be in the ICU with us.  Sandi is still holding her own.  She is retaining a lot of fluid and also is developing some blood clots.  Neither of these things are a surprise to the doctors considering all that is going on.  Today will be a careful balancing act of meds and fluids.  Please pray for our entire family.  Pray that God will cover us with His love, grace, peace, and faithfulness.  We would love God to deliver us from this ugly beast and pain...pray.

Things are going better this AM. Last night Sandi's heart Rate was higher than they liked as well as her blood pressure was lower than they were comfortable with. Through the evening and night it was a balancing act to get both moving in the right direction.  Today the goal is for them to make small changes that will help Sandi work toward needing less assistance and gain more independence. They did a Electrocardiogram this AM and it appears that everything is OK.
We have met some wonderful people on this journey, I just wish it was under different circumstances. We just keep learning more things that we wish we would never needed to know. What should we be praying for today:
    - Pray that God would protect Sandi from any other complication to arise.
    - Pray that her heart rate would continue to come down. to a lower level.
    - Pray that God would continue to build her strength back ( She is very weak from all that she has been through this week )
    - Pray that this healing process will move along so we can get back to Chemo as soon as possible to fight the Cancer.
    - As always we are open to God's Healing Totally (Our God is able)
It looks like Sandi will be in ICU for another day or so.
Keep Praying God is in control of where we are and where we are going.

Thank you for your support,
Ron

We are still at the hospital.  Sandi's cytology is back on the tissue of the sack around her heart and it appeared to contain cancer.  They have decided to operate on the abscess in hopes that it will help Sandi gain strength.  I am sure it takes a lot of her energy to fight the infection. She is now out of surgery and in recovery and is stable.  The surgeon was confident in the decision to do surgery.  Please pray for a fast recovery.  Pray for wisdom for the doctors and for Ron and Sandi.  Also, pray for a miracle...it's not to big a job for Him.

Sandi has safely had her surgery. She is now recovering and is experiencing a lot of pain.  She will be staying overnight and should be back to Good Sam tomorrow.  The amazing surgeon stayed and talked for a few minutes after the procedure and stole the hearts of the family.  What a great guy!  He indicated that he did not visually see anything suspicious pertaining to the fluid.  Please continue to pray that the cytology will come back cancer free, that she will recover quickly, and that she will have a reduction in pain.

Sandi is tired today...but looking incredibly stunning in her new beautiful hat that Gail brought to her.  It is understandable why she is looking so tired. We have seen more doctors in one weekend than one would hope to see in a lifetime.  We have had lots going on but yet we still feel God's steady hand and are turning to Him to guide us through each obstacle.  Today's challenge brings fluid around Sandi's heart and lungs.  It is not life threatening and at this time it is not causing discomfort.  The doctors would like to know the reason behind the fluid and have decided to transfer her over to Tacoma General for a day or so to have a procedure done that will drain the fluid.  We have met the surgeon and are feeling encouraged to hear about his strong faith.  We are asking for prayer for Sandi and Ron, that God will sustain them through this.  Pray that the procedure will be performed tomorrow safely with little or no discomfort.  Pray that the fluid drained from her will be cancer free.  Pray that the abscess will continue to heal so that surgery can be avoided.  AND last but not least, pray that our wife and mother will be miraculously healed.  Please leave us some comments.  We love updating Sandi on who is thinking about her, encouraging her, and praying for her.

God is good.  He brought Sandi to the hospital on Friday morning with pretty intense pain.  We are so blessed to have a great variety of specialist at our disposal.  Via a cat scan, they discovered that Sandi has a large abscess on lower intestine.  At this time, it does NOT seem to be cancer related.  She is on intense antibiotics and has a drain tube inserted in it and so far we have been able to dodge surgery.  Her spirits are good and she still has enough energy to smirk at my stupid jokes (and we all know that takes effort!).  Please pray for Ron and Sandi.  We would appreciate every prayer!  Pray for healing in all areas.  We will continue to keep you posted.

Another week of chemo behind us!  Sandi's mouth is healing nicely and she maintained the weight again this week.  We are still battling the low sodium but we are hoping to have that figured out this week.  We are so thankful for all of you who are still praying.  It matters and it does make a difference.  We can't imagine walking through this without God, friends, and family.  Love to you all.

Sorry for the delay on the update!  Our computer is...well...not happy.  On another note, we have AMAZING news to share.  Sandi not only maintained her weight this week, she gained!  Whoohoo!  We also have had another reduction in pain and in meds.  Double whoohoo!  We felt so encouraged this week.  Truly these blessings are from God.  Please continue to pray for healing of the mouth, for continued reduction of pain, for wisdom for our team of doctors,  for rest for both Sandi and Ron,  and as always complete healing.

Tomorrow we go back to see the oncologist.  We are assuming we will be resuming chemo and are praying for good blood results.  We also need prayer for Sandi's mouth.  She has sores all over in her mouth and it is quite painful!  We will keep you posted on how our appointment goes tomorrow.

~Dawn

Ron and Sandi are requesting prayer this weekend.  Please pray for direction for them from the Lord.  They need peace, guidance, and wisdom.  We also need normal labs for Sandi this week.  Thanks in advance!  

Sandi is home!  Please continue to pray for strength, weight gain, normal labs, healing, and for a MUCH calmer week!

It was so good to see Sandi looking so much better today!  She is eating well and even taking strolls in the hallway.  We are so thankful to see such a change from the weekend!  Sandi is expected to get a blood transfusion to stabilize her hematocrit. I know, one of those fancy words again.  Don't worry, we keep saying we have learned everything we NEVER wanted to know about cancer!  Anyhow, the hematocrit levels can let the doctors know if Sandi is low on red blood cells.  Most likely, it is just due to the bleeding prior in the week and the transfusion should resolve the problem.  Maybe she will go home tomorrow. Keep praying :)
.

Okay, deep breath, here is our update.  It has been a long week to say the least.  Sandi's kidney tumor started bleeding this week.  So much so, that she was bleeding more blood than she could make.  This in turn, caused her blood to drop almost to the point of needing a transfusion.  The doctor recommended a chemical embolization of the kidney tumor.  A what, you ask?  Well, since you asked, the doctor basically injects small little particles into the arteries they suspect to be bleeding and hope the bleeding stops.  On Thursday, we proceeded with the procedure and as far as we can tell it seems to be working.  Huge praise!  Then on Friday, Ron took Sandi home and by the afternoon she was not feeling well.  By evening, she was feeling horrible.  Ron took her to the emergency room where they decided that she was having an adverse side effect from her pain medication.  Sandi has had a reduction of pain and a bit of weight loss which both contributed to her feeling the way she did.  She has been in the hospital for most of the weekend but is doing MUCH better.  Another praise!   She will probably go home tomorrow and be able to resume chemo on Wednesday.  Please continue to pray.  Please pray that the bleeding will continue to cease, that Ron and Sandi will get rest, that Sandi will continue to increase her strength, Sandi will gain weight rather than lose weight (bet she never thought she would request that one), that all those around us will feel trust in God's plan, and of course as always HEALING!

Week four of chemo brings praises!  Sandi has been able to sleep in a somewhat reclining position on and off this week.  This is a big deal for someone who has been sleeping upright for the last two months!  We are so thankful for her being able to get a little more comfortable rest.  As we advance on into our fourth week of chemo, please remember that someone who is going through chemotherapy has a weakened immune system.  Their bodies do not have the same ability to fight off viruses as others do.  A simple cold for us could be much more serious for her. Do not feel bad if you have to cancel a commitment with them due to illness.  They will completely understand as our number one priority is to keep Sandi healthy.  As always, we appreciate all your prayers and all the help being contributed.  We are blessed by our friends and family.

~Dawn

I wanted to share a comment that was posted by someone who has helped Ron and Sandi in so many ways.

Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.

What a wonderful promise! God delights in you. In the Hebrew it means that God is spinning around and singing over you with great joy. This picture of God just makes me laugh with wonder.

May your hearts be lifted up today as He quiets you with His love. 

Thanks Cindy!  What a beautiful picture for us as we enter our third week of chemo.

Sandi is tired and the pain is still there.  Yesterday, the pain was pretty intense but today seems to be a bit better.  We tried a new treatment yesterday that is supposed to attack the tumor directly.  We are praying that it will shrink the tumor to provide much needed relief. We also have a final diagnosis.  At first glance, it looked as though we were not dealing with a kidney cancer but now with the molecular testing (a much more accurate test that takes more time) it seems as though it is kidney cancer.  The kidney cancer has metastasized into the lymph nodes and that is why surgery to remove the kidney is not being looked at as an option. Please keep praying and thank you to all those who are and all of those who are helping out.

~Dawn

Thanks to all who have been leaving comments.  It is so encouraging to us all to see those who are thinking about us and praying for us. The increase in pain has been difficult.  It kept Sandi up most of the night on Thursday and prevented her from being able to receive the port on Friday morning.  She was able to pull enough strength together for chemo.  It was a long appointment but she got through it and we brought her home to rest.  We will try again for a port next week.  Eating is becoming a challenge.  The doctor wants her to increase water and protein...not exactly what you crave when you don't feel well but we are exploring new appetizing options. :)  Ron has been doing an amazing job taking care of Sandi.  He is able to make spreadsheets for all her meds and has been helping rub her back during the pain episodes.  He has a much bigger job though...he is her husband, in good times and in bad.  He may not realize it, but his grandchildren are so blessed to have grandparents who chose to love the Lord and each other everyday.  Please join us in praying this week.  Pray for pain relief, for courage to fight this battle, for a response to the chemo, strength for Ron,  wisdom for the doctors, a healthy appetite, and a new routine for this stage.  Also, please pray for all of Ron's family who suffered the loss of Ron's brother, Wayne.

It has been somewhat of a rough day for Sandi today.  The doctor warned us that the chemo could actually increase the pain for the first couple of weeks.  Unfortunately, he was right.  Please pray for pain relief.  Pray for comfort and strength for both Ron and Sandi.  This has not been an easy journey for either of them.  I am so thankful for their solid faith in the God who will carry them through this.

Isaiah 40:29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak

~Dawn

First Day of Chemo

Today was our first day of chemo.  Sandi did great.   They administered the first dose very slowly to ensure no adverse reactions.  Thankfully, Sandi didn't experience any side effects during the appointment.  The doctor did however warn her that some of the side effects (nausea, fatigue)  may start around the second or third day. The staff did such an amazing job encouraging Ron and Sandi.  They really are an amazing team.  Next Friday we will return to have a permanent port put in so that Sandi will not need to be injected each treatment.  The doctors are hoping the tumor will respond quickly to the treatments so that she can get some pain relief...we are too!  Keep praying.

~Dawn

Friday

I have an appointment set up for Friday to begin treatment.  Please pray that all goes well.  It is a long appt., 6 hours because they like to  go slow.  Pray for peace and strength. "Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord." Psalm 31:24  I am reminded of the simple children's song, Jesus Loves Me, one phrase says I am weak but he is strong.

Update on Sandi....The doctor called today and the initial reports from the biopsy have still not identified a source for the cancer.  The doctor would like to start chemotherapy for cancer of an unknown source.  They would also like to compliment the chemotherapy with DCA.  Ron and Sandi are requesting prayer that the doctors will prescribe the right treatment and that Sandi will respond quickly.  They would also like some wisdom in exploring the DCA treatments.  Please continue to pray for pain management and of course a MIRACLE HEALING!  In Ron's words...pray, pray, pray.

~Dawn

Update 8/28/2020 Saturday

It has been another challenging week as we are trying to find the right balance of pain meds.  I have had some adverse reactions to some and also need to take the right amounts. The team that I am working with have a better understanding of what to do.  This is hard for me in that I have not taken anything much stronger than Tylenol throughout the years.  The clinic said that I needed to give myself permission to take what is needed to get the pain under better management and realize that is is only for short period of time. I did get a decent sleep on Thurs.  8 hours with just small interruptions of taking med. from my nurse, Ron.
I have also had to slow up considerably since dealing with this pain.  The pain centers from that fact that the pressure builds up in the kidney because it it has constricted passage of fluids out and so it throbs like a tooth ache and I can not put any pressure on it when sitting or laying down.
The 3 marker tests that they ran on Monday did not yield any information.  They ran one on breast, colon, and one other.  None of them showed anything in those areas.  Then the doctor ordered a test on one of the lymph nodes on Thursday at the base of my neck that he hopes can give some info. 

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

Jeremiah 29:11

Yes, He is in control.  He already knows what He has planned for us.  Tonight we rest in that.  Today Sandi met with the new oncologist.  The staff is very friendly and seems to have the personalized care that Sandi is looking for.  He is already researching to see if the additional testing of her biopsy is available.  If need be, he will order a new biopsy of one of her lymph nodes to see if we can figure out where the cancer is coming from.  In the mean time, we had a blood test performed to check certain genetic markers.  The doctor has promised to call tomorrow morning with any additional details.  It was a lot of info to take in for one day.  Please give continued prayer for relief of pain, strength for Ron and Sandi, wisdom and guidance for the doctors AND the family, and trust in our Healer.

~Dawn

Pray, pray, pray

Please be praying for some pain relief!  Sandi really needs some rest and is not able to get any due to the intensity of pain.  Sandi and Ron are both exhausted and would greatly appreciate all prayers.  Phone communication is a bit tricky right now because of her trying to rest but please email her or leave her a comment.  Hearing from you is so encouraging :)

Dawn

9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12 9-10

I read this scripture this morning and found comfort…but it also reminded me how weak we all are when left on our own. It is so easy to slip in a moment of panic or anxiety. It is so easy to run in times of trials. God tells us there is no need to panic or to run. His power has made us perfect…complete. He does not promise our lives to be without trials, but He does promise compassion and strength. I am going to cling to this scripture as we go through this journey with our mom. I am sure there will be days that we are forced to remind ourselves of this a hundred times and if we need to, we do it again the next day. We have started this blog so that we can keep all of our family and friends updated on the healing of Sandi. It is also a great tool to let her know you are supporting her. Please feel free to leave messages here so Sandi knows you stopped by!

Early in July, Sandi was experiencing some abdominal pain. All indications pointed towards kidney stones…until the doctors reviewed the CT scan. Sandi has a mass on her kidney that has now been diagnosed as cancer. Although there is cancer in her kidney, it did not originate there. We are currently waiting on further test results to come back from the lab to see if we can determine where the cancer started. Sandi has definitely had an increase in pain and we are hoping to be able to have a starting point to a resolution soon. In the mean time, we will be heading up to Renton on Monday to visit the Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness center for a second opinion.

At this point, we would LOVE your prayers for healing, comfort, strength for Ron and Sandi, a reduction of pain, rest, wisdom, guidance, and that His grace will be revealed to all those touched by this situation.

-Dawn