Help!!!

UPDATE....virus arrived hot and heavy Friday night 11pm... first Macy threw up.. and then around 1am, I started throwing up :(  so our weekend has definitely not gone according to plan...Sarah and Jeremy drove back to Natchez from beach yesterday and they all left for Tupelo this morning.  We missed Mylie's dance recital :( but had THE most wonderful news from her yesterday.. she prayed to ask Jesus in her heart :) :) :) - what wonderful news to make even a sick Mimi feel wonderful!!!  Thanks for all your prayers...seems God thought it would be best for us to go through this... wonder why???





okay.... so Sarah and Jeremy left Wed afternoon for a few days of togetherness and adult conversation and are having a great time! Bless their hearts I don't know any two that needed it more!! Well, NaeNae and I have been sharing babysitting duties with Will, Macy and Wesley and it has worked fine. Except.... I go to Nae's yesterday morning and she tells me that Del has been sick with a stomach virus all night and is still sick... now remember everybody... including Del had been at my house Sunday night for Wesley's bd party....so, I try not to freak out and she says he is staying hold up in his room away from kids. So... then Sunny calls me last night and she is not feeling good at all... stomach isssues....aches all over... typical virus feelings and over the course of today she has gone from bad to worse. I guess I should have said at the beginning that if ANYBODY will catch a virus it is Sunny Salters McGehee and me!!! oh and the Loy kids! Well, this morning when the kids awakened me at 6:15AM....I felt okay, then had a few stomach issues but still felt pretty good. Took the kids to NaeNae while I started packing up to take kids with Bill and I to Mendenhall tomorrow for Mylie's dance recital and then to meet Sarah and Jer on Sunday. So next, I ran to Sonic at lunch... small hamburger and onion rings, diet coke....hmmm not feeling so well after eating....chewed some tums, took some advil and layed down for awhile and felt well enought to deal with kids again... which I have done from 4pm until about 10 minutes ago when they went sleep...however... my stomach is quesy and I have that low back pain I get with a virus... SO.. all of that to ask ALL of you this.. PLEASE pray this virus away... I have got to be able to get to Mendenhall tomorrow, taking these 3 with me and then to Hattiesburg to meet their parents on Sunday morning and then home... I can be sick Sunday night.. but PLEASE pray that I dont get sick until then!!!! Also, pray that Will, Macy and Wesley dont get it at all but especially not until they get home to Tupelo!!! Thank you in advance!!!!

God has a plan!

Most anybody reading this already knows that a week ago yesterday our lives were forever changed.  My sweet, wonderful husband of almost 36 years, Bill, was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin's Follicular Lymphoma...cancer.  He is ONLY 54 years old and is the picture of good health.  Bill had an enlarged lymph node in his groin that we had been watching for several months.  He saw Dr. Flattman 3 weeks ago and since it had been there a while and not gone down, he thought it needed to come out.  So, on Monday, April 5, it was removed.  We anxiously waited for the pathology report to come back hoping and praying for those great words, it's benign.  Unfortunately, that is not what happened.   On Wednesday, April 7 at about 3:00pm the door to my office opened and Bill walked in.  Of course I knew immediately that it was bad news.  I put my head down on my desk and the tears began.  He said, "it's lymphoma" and his next words were exactly what I wanted to hear..BUT it's very treatable, low grade and slow growing!  Thank you God!!
And so, our "new normal" began.

Obviously I never did finish and publish the above post.  That was written on April 15 and today is May 15.  Not sure why but I just have not been able to come back here and finish writing about Bill's cancer.  It's been a little over a month now since his diagnoses.  He has had a bone marrow biopsy, ct scan, blood work several times. a pet scan, a port put in and his first round of chemo.  And .. he stills feels good... like nothing is wrong with him.  It is hard to rationalize that you are sick and have to take a strong drug that makes you feel bad(at least for a few days) when you feel SO good!  I think probably all of you reading this know that his cancer is Stage 2 for which we are very grateful!  The only places that showed up on the pet scan were his groin where the original lymph node was removed and a few, mildly, enlarged lymph nodes in his abdomen.  Dr. Rodriguez, Bill's oncologist, is a remarkable man and doctor.  He has been so very encouraging from the first visit.  He has put Bill on a regimen of chemo with a fairly new drug called Treanda.  Bill has the chemo two days in a row and on the third day get a drug called Rituxin which is a an antibody from what I understand.  The first round 3 weeks ago only included the chemo they will add the rituxin week after next during his second round.  He will have 6 rounds of this regimen, then have radiation, then a maintenance dose of chemo every 4 months for 2 years. And then we are praying he will be done!!! We have been told that his type of cancer is one that often comes back later...but we are praying it will NEVER do that!  The first round of chemo did not make Bill very sick and we are SO thankful.  He had a little nausea and some indigestion that medicine took care of.  The worst thing was 3 days afterward his heart began to skip beats and got quite bad for awhile.  Bill had felt his heart doing this about 4 years ago and Dr. Daly had him wear a heart monitor for a few days then.  He was having whatever PVC's are and Ed said it was nothing to worry about.  He has hardly felt it all over the last 4 years.  Anyway, we think the chemo is what triggered the bad episode. So the two doctors are talking about it before his next chemo.  The heart thing was bad that Friday night and gradually improved the next few days and for the last 2 weeks he had been feeling wonderful!  We Praise God!!

Bill will have blood drawn Monday and see Dr Rodriguez Tuesday around noon and then we are headed to Destin for the Ms Bankers Convention for the rest of the week.  We are excited that Bill feels good and we are still able to be there.  We always enjoy the convention and of course I find at least a few hours to sit on "my beach!"  So we are looking forward to that. Then on Sunday, May 23rd we will head back to reality.  His next round of chemo will begin on Monday, May 24th 

Things are good with the girls and their families.  We celebrated Mother's Day at Sunny's & Bud's church having baby dedication and then going out to eat.  Sydney, Tony, Skyler and Mylie came up too, which was wonderful.  Sarah and her family had planned to be there as well but Wesley got sick with strep throat and didn't need to be around Silas or Bill.  We missed them so much!! Baby dedication was great!  Of course out of all those babies, about 13, he was the most precious!!!

We all went to a MS Braves game the night before Mothers Day and had a wonderful time.  But we missed Sarah, Jeremy, Will, Macy and Wesley.  Skyler was so sweet.. he met a MS State football player and came and told me about his, he said "Mimi, I am going to go get his autograph for Will."  and he did!! Skyler turned 12 years old the end of March...how is that possible???  He is playing baseball and I finally got to get over there Thursday night to watch a game and also see Mylie play tee ball.  Still hoping it will work out for Poppa to go over to watch them play and for us to get to Tupelo to see Will play some coach pitch, but not sure it will be possible

Well... that is just really a catch you all up and let you know what is going on post.  I will write another post soon about my feelings and how I am doing with everything soon.  Let's just say I thought I was doing pretty well but my ugly old anxiety disease reared its ugly head Friday morning with a bad panic attack... more on that later.

Michael Silas McGehee

Silas joined our family 4 weeks ago tonight, on Sunday, February 28 at 6:48pm.  He weighed 6lbs and 15 ounces and was 20" long and absolutely perfect!!  That Saturday had been an extremely busy and tiring day for me.  I had helped give two wedding showers and then worked at daddy's helping Becky continue to clean out and pack up.  I did notice on my way in the house for the night that the moon was FULL!  After showering, getting on my pajamas and curling up in the bed for what I hoped would be a good nights rest.. my phone rang.  As I picked it up, I saw it was Sunny and that it was 10:30pm.  "Mama, I think my water broke" were the next words I heard!  To be perfectly honest my first thought was, "oh please..not tonight, I am SO tired" but that quickly turned to..."oh how wonderful, we are about to have another beautiful baby!"  So, Bill and I threw on clothes, grabbed a suitcase and threw things in it and headed to Jackson, praying for Sunny, Bud and Silas and for a quick and safe trip for us!  We arrived at River Oak Baby Suites about 1:00am and were greeted by a very nervous but excited son-in-law who led us up to the labor and delivery suite where our Sunny was all hooked up to the monitors but having very few contractions! The doctor on call decided to let her try to get into active labor on her own over night with the plan to start labor inducing med in the morning if she did not. Bud's mama and daddy had arrived shortly after Bill and I so the four of us along with Bud spent the night in various places and positions in the hospital.  Sunny did not begin having regular contractions so early on Sunday morning the potocin was started.  It has been amazing for me with all three of the girls to see how differently things are done than when they were born.  There were lots of people allowed back to visit her all during the day while things were progressing.  We have pictures of her with just about every member of both families, including her nieces and nephews! As the day went along the potocin did it's job and she began having contractions and dilating. Around noon(I think) the anethesiologist came in and gave her an epidural... ah, relief.  I agree that epidurals are a marvelous thing but I have seen them slow down the progress of labor many times and that is what happened.  Something else I have witnessed, that  happens with epidurals, is the mothers are so numb that when it is time to push they cannot feel their muscles to use and it is very hard... this happened with Sunny as well.  After turning her potocin up and getting the contractions going strong again, sometime around 4 the doctor said it was time to push.  Oh, let me back up and tell you about the doctor.  Dr. Donna Breland has been my ob-gyn for about 15 years so naturally when my girls needed to start those visits they all went to Donna.  She is in a group of wonderful, Christian doctors there at River Oaks and has been such a blessing in  my life.  Donna has delivered one of all 3 of my girls babies now!  She delivered Mylie for Sydney, Will for Sarah(they were living in Vicksburg) and now Silas for Sunny!  We were so thankful that she was able to come in on a Sunday afternoon when she was not on call and deliver Silas!   Now, back to pushing.  I will not go into all the details but just let me say that it was definitely a group effort getting Silas to enter this world!  And it took about 2 1/2 hours.  Sunny was amazing!!!  I could not have been more proud of her!!  And how blessed am I that I have been in the delivery room when all SIX of my grandchildren have been ushered into this world, wonderful  and healthy!  God absolutely amazes me with His unbelievable love, grace and mercy to us.  He amazes me with the blessings that He continually pours into my life!  I cannot help but PRAISE HIM!!!  Yes, life has it's troubles and things do not always go like we want them too... but OH MY the blessings FAR outweigh the troubles and I am SO thankful!! So, baby Silas decided to be a February baby instead of a March baby and is one month old today!  Sunny and Bud are amazing parents already and they as we all are, are totally in love with our youngest blessing.  So, now.. there is the story of Silas' birth, which by the way resembles the way his mother was born a whole lot...I went into labor around 11pm one night, there was a full moon and Sunny arrived the next day....and we are trusting God day by day for his future, praying that more than anything this sweet baby boy will grow up knowing how very loved he is, by his family and by His God.  And that as soon as he is able to understand, he will ask Jesus into his heart and spend the rest of his life, knowing, loving and serving the One who gave him life!! 

Post coming.. I promise!

I promise a new post all about the arrival of baby Silas is coming!  Just have not had time to

sit down and write...but I will soon! 

Stuff!

So, I am SO tired of cold, dreary weather! We were in Tupelo over the weekend and Saturday was actually a beautiful day with the sun shining. Bill, Jeremy and Will went down to Starkville to a baseball game and came back with tanned faces! I guess God gives us a glipse of Spring every once in a while during January and February to remind that winter WILL soon be over. Back to reality though, the forecast is saying we may have MORE snow tomorrow night. I just do not function well in cold weather. I just want to stay inside in my warm bed or by my warm fire and do absolutely nothing!  We did enjoy playing in the snow Friday before last once we got to Mendenhall and had Skyler and Mylie to enjoy it with!  It's lots more fun when there are children around.  We had a good visit with Syd and her family that weekend... watched Skyler play basketball, went out to eat some great catfish and just enjoyed being with them. 

Back to being in Tupelo over the weekend... we had a great visit with Sarah, Jeremy and those other 3 precious grandbabies. They are growing up so fast! I got some cute pictures that I will post. Most of them are of Macy and Wesley since Will was at MS State Saturday afternoon. Sarah and I took Macy and Wesley to the Tupelo mall where they have a wonderful playground for kids. There is so much to do in Tupelo and such good shopping.. but gosh I miss them and wish there lived closer to home.

Before we went to Tupelo on Friday we spend Thursday night at Sunny and Bud's. Baby Silas' arrival is probably less than two weeks away!! We worked on finishing touches in his room and I washed and dryed about 5 loads of "baby things." We are so excited and so grateful to God for adding another precious baby to our family. Sunny and Bud are nervous, as I think all first time parents are. Please pray for a safe, normal delivery and a healthy baby!  I cannot believe that this will be grandchild number SIX for Bill and I!  We are so blessed to be here and be fairly young(as grandparents go) and  healthy and able to enjoy them so very much! Our cup runneth over.. thank you Lord! 

Okay....time for bed... I imagine my next post will be just before or just after Silas' birth.. so y'all be watching!!

Finally!

Well, I finally got my blog to look at least half way decent so I guess it's time for a new post. Wow, it's already February in 2010. I never really got in the habit of writing 2009 on my checks.. not sure why..so I thought I would be glad to go to 2010 but now I find myself writing 2009. Guess that's just the way it is. Change is hard for me...even something as insignificant as writing the year on checks. Accepting the fact that I am the mother of grown children, that I am about to have 6 grandbabies, that I am the "matriarch" of our family...well, it's just hard to deal with! Sydney called last Thursday morning in terrible pain with a kidney stone and ended up in the hospital. As soon as I find out they were keeping her I left work, ran home to pack, and was about to hit the road. Bill came in for lunch and even though I had told him the circumstances on the phone, he said "now why do you need to go?" He said "she is in the hospital, Tony is there, I am not sure why you need to go." With tears welling up in my eyes I said, "because I know what it feels like when you want your mama." I know men don't understand that or at least most of them don't. Anyway, on the way to Jackson I was thinking how there are so many times when I just want my mama or my daddy for that matter! And I do not like it that I cannot run to either one of them! It's hard to accept that, after 55 years of being able to get in daddy's lap or talk to mama on the phone and feel like everything was going to be fine.

Becky and I have still been going through mama and daddy's house,it looks like it is going to take us a year to finish. We found some precious letters that daddy wrote to mama in 1947, 48 and up until their wedding in Sept of 49. He wrote to her just about everyday begging her to marry him, declaring his undying love for her and just sharing what was going on in his life. Mother's parents were totally against her marrying my daddy.. I don't think they wanted her to marry anybody. Over the course of the 2 1/2 years that he wrote the letters mama would tell him yes and then change her mind...I think she must of done that several times. It is a miracle they ever married! Of course her family came to know very quickly what a jewel mama had married and they loved my daddy very much. After reading the letters it was very obvious to me why mama and daddy were so quick to agree for Bill and I to marry at age 19. They would never have said no after what they had been through!

I just looked back and my last real post was before Christmas. We had a wonderful Christmas with all the kids here, but I will be honest, it was hard for me without my daddy. I knew it was going to be sad but I didn't realize how much it would effect me. I went through a few days of a mini depression. Having the kids here helped tremendously but I missed my daddy. The kids(big and small) had a ball and as always had way too many gifts! Every year I say I am cutting back but this year.. I mean it!! Guess we will have to wait til December and see if I follow through.

Well.. guess that's about it.. except SuperBowl Sunday is just a few days away and the New Orleans Saints are finally there!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!

Help!!

Okay.. you people who read my blog and have blogs of your own.. I have been trying to learn more about designing my blog..and am very frustrated....HELP!! I want to rearrange the different elements on my blog.. do I HAVE to use one of the templates on here? Post on here, email me or Facebook me and help me out please!!! As soon as I can figure all this out.. I will make a new post!!!