Miracles Happen Here Every Day

This is a not very good picture of where my father, brother and I have been for the past couple of days.  The famous MD Anderson Hospital in Houston, Texas.
As you know my father was diagnosed with Mantel Cell Lymphoma in late December of 2010.  He underwent chemotherapy which put him into remission until December of 2013.  It didn't look like the cancer had returned full blown but there were scans taken and it show a small increase in growth of the lymph nodes in the groin area.  15 rounds of radiation therapy were prescribed and undertaken. 
And it did in fact shrink the areas that they were concerned about.  But the cancer was active and so a new chemo drug was prescribed and my father began to take it.  Unfortunately my father's platelet count also did a nose dive so more tests were ordered and a bone marrow test showed that my father was now suffering with a whole new cancer. 
It's called MDS or Myeodysplastic Syndrome.  It is also a pre-leukemia condition.  The question was...is the Mantel Cell mutating or was this a whole new cancer.    So my father's oncologist suggested that we go see a specialist in Leukemia at MD Anderson.  She paved the way on Monday and they called on Tuesday and we were on the road to Houston on Wednesday with an appointment on Thursday and Friday.
We arrived at our hotel around 6:30 and called my niece to meet us for dinner.  We didn't realize that Wednesday night was also the night for an NBA playoff game and all the restaurants would be crowded.  But we managed to find a nice seafood place and ate and talked and had a great time. 
We got back to the hotel around 10:30 and we all went to sleep...well if you can call it that.  I had a very hard time sleeping just because I was so wound up.  Thinking of all the what if's etc.  And about the time that I think I fell asleep it was time to get up and get going.
We ate breakfast and caught the shuttle that ferries people back and forth to the hospital. 
My first glance at MD Anderson was one of awe.  It's not just one or two buildings.....it's a small city of high rises and complexes dedicated to this cancer and that.  Children, women, you name it and they have a place for it.  It is AMAZING. 
As I walked through the front doors with the hundreds of other people that morning I said to myself, "Miracles Happen Here Every Day".  Not that we were expecting a miracle, but there is hope that there will be a treatment and that we will have bought time and comfort.  
We got checked in and filled out lots of forms and answered the same questions over and over again.  It's all about being thorough.  In due time we were seen by a registered nurse who works directly with our Dr.  She asked a lot of the same questions, filled out more forms and looked over my dads records. 
From then on we went from one floor to the next, getting a chest X-ray, giving blood and finally having them check out his port so that they could give him platelets and blood if necessary.  It was a very long day.  Our last appointment of the day was supposed to be at 4:30 and daddy was supposed to get 2 units of blood and 2 units of platelets.  We know that 1 unit of blood takes 2 hours to infuse.  So that's 4 hours...that would take us to 8:30...if he started on time.  But then there was still the platelets.  Platelets go faster but that would still be a least an hour so that would be 9:30..if he started on time.  Wellll.......we didn't get called until 8:30 p.m....our day started at 7 a.m. and we're still at the hospital at 8:30!  Long story short my father didn't get out of the hospital till around 3:30 a.m. 
My father ordered us to go get something to eat and to bring him back something later on.  So my brother and I left, got some pizza and beer and I stayed at the hotel while my brother went back and stayed with my dad until it was time to leave.  My dad was pretty tuckered out...even if he did not have cancer....he's 83 years old and that's a long day. 
Our appointment with the Dr. wasn't until 11 a.m. but he had to get his vitals taken before he saw the Dr. and we weren't sure how long that was going to take. 
As it turned out it didn't take long and so we ended up sitting in the waiting room for about an hour. 
We were finally called back and we got our time with the Dr.  He physically examined my dad, listened to his heart and lungs, physically touched him to see if he could feel the swollen lymph glands and then re-read his records.
Here is what the plan is....Daddy will stay the course with the new chemo that he was on before we left for MD Anderson.  It takes several months for the results to become apparent and my father has only had 3 treatments so we will stay the course.  The Dr. wants to see him back in a couple of weeks but he also wants him to see a Mantel Cell Expert at the same time.  We asked lots of questions and they were all answered.  We never felt rushed or that any question was stupid or dumb.  You could see the relief in my fathers eyes that he had been given a reprieve of sorts.  He has time to correct his current situation and he will be able to attend some very important family events that are coming up. 

 

This picture just shows a very small portion of the MD Anderson complex, but you can see from just this small portion just how massive the system is.  Every single building in this picture belongs to MD Anderson.                                   

 

I know that we don't have a miracle but we do have the possibiltiy of hope that things are going to get a bit better and my father is going to feel better in a little while.  And that in a way is miracle enough for us.

Trying hard to make Lemonade

Just as we thought we were getting a handle on my father's condition we were hit with yet another stumbling block. 
A simple nose bleed turned into the discovery of a pre-luekemic condition.
We had a Dr. appointment 2 weeks ago on Wednesday or so I thought.  I normally meet my dad at the hospital and because we are out right about lunch time I stay with him and we have lunch together and then I head on home.
Most of our appointments have been on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  But this week they were on Monday, Thursday and Friday.  I however got it stuck in my head that we still had the  appointment on Wed and went in.  When my father did not show up at the appropriate time I re-checked my schedule that I keep on my phone and saw that I was a day early.  So I called my dad to see if he was up and about and I thought that I'd go over and visit with him for a bit and help me to run some errands if necessary.  When I called him he casually mentioned that he woke up with a nose bleed.  He doesn't get nose bleeds.  So I told him that I would be right over.
I arrived a few minutes later and although it wasn't pouring out of his nose...every time he put a handkerchief up to his nose there was about a quarter sized spot of blood.  I told him that if it didn't stop by 11:30 then we were going to call the Dr. to see what to do. 
It didn't stop and we called the Dr. and were told to go to the Emergency Room.  I called both siblings that are in town to alert them to the condition and we were where we needed to be so there wasn't much else to do except to wait for the Dr.
To make a long story short my dad was admitted for blood transfusion, platelets and a bone marrow biopsy.  He had to stay the night and we all waited together until he was released the next day.
We got the prelim results of the bone marrow biopsy which told us that he had this pre-luekemic condition. 
A new chemo regime was started and he had another nose bleed, he's had 6 or 7 sessions of platelets and 2 more blood transfusions.  Dr. told us yesterday that he needed to see a specialist and so we are off this week to Houston to M.D. Anderson. 
I'm trying very hard to make lemonade with this.  His current Dr. although very competent is just an oncologist.  At M.D. Anderson he will be meeting with a specialist of Leukemia.  He is willing to see us this week and my dad is willing to go seek treatment. 
I know that my father is going to die.  That's a fact.  I hate that but it's the truth and the sooner that I make peace with that the better I'm going to be able to cope when it happens.  What I'm having trouble with is that there are so many family "events" coming up that he really wants to be here for and because my mother isn't here to attend I would like one grandparent who was so much a part of their lives to be able to be present at these life events.  Next month we have 2 graduations....one grandchild is graduating and becoming a Dr. of Veterinary Medicine.  Then 2 weeks later another grandchild will be graduating with his BA in Teaching.  Another grandchild will be getting married in early December.  So I'm thinking positive thoughts and trying very hard to make lemonade out of the lemons that  I've been getting.

Apple Crisp

This just happens to be my fathers favorite desserts, along with ice cream.  I call it Apple Crisp but I've heard it called Apple Betty, Apple Brown Betty and "woe oh Black Betty sham ba lam"...just kidding on that last one.  So we've established that this dessert has several names but I prefer to call it Apple Crisp so for the sake of argument we'll just call it that for this recipe.  And it couldn't be simpler to make so let's get started. 

First off you are going to need some apples.

O.K. so thats 2 apples and a lemon but there is a method to the madness.  Choose 2 different apples to make this dessert.  One should be a cooking apple (I tend to favor Granny Smith but choose what you like) and the other should be an eating apple (I tend to favor a Golden Delicious).  The idea here is that you want some texture to the dish so you have some firm and some soft apple pieces.  I use the lemon to keep the apples from turning brown once you have peeled and sliced them.  See how that works. 

Then you want to peel and slice up the apples and then toss all the slices in lemon juice to keep them from turning brown.  The possoms are gonna be happy, happy, happy tonight.   Fresh apple cores and peels in the compost pile....yummy!!!!

So once the apples are all sliced and put into a bowl and a little lemon juice is squeezed over them, you want to put together the dry ingredients. 

So in a seperate bowl or actually you can put your apple slices into the pan that you are going to cook them in and used the bowl that you previously had the apples in.  That way you have less dishes to do in the end.  See how that works. 

 So you take flour, sugar, butter, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix them all up together

 Cut the butter into the mixture until it's in about pea sized.

Once you've done that then just put the whole mess over the apples making sure that it gets all the way down into the bottom of the bowl.

Now just throw the whole mess into the oven and bake it for about 45 minutes.  It all depends on your oven.  The most important thing is for it to brown up a bit so it might take a few minutes more or less.

Hard to tell the difference between these last two photos but there is a difference.  Here's the recipe.

APPLE CRISP

4 cups sliced and peeled apples..use two different kinds

1\4 cup orange juice or lemon juice

1cup sugar

3\4 cup all purpose flour

1\2 teaspoon cinnamon

1\4 nutmeg..fresh is best

1\2  cup butter

 

Peel and slice apples and sprinkle with the orange or lemon juice.  Then mound the apples in a buttered 9 inch pie plate or 9 x 11 baking dish.  Combine sugar, flour, spices and dash salt: cut in butter till mixture is crumbly; sprinkle over dapples.  Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or till apples are tender and topping is crisp.  Serve with ice cream.  Serves about 6.  This recipe is easily doubled.