The Zoo
This has been a good week considering I had Chemo on Monday. The goal right now is to get my bilirubin below 2. On 2/28 it ws 2.2. We are going in the right direction. At that point, if we can keep it there, I will get SIR spheres. My doc is really pushing for this. If not we may do Arterial Infusion to the main tumor or Chemo Embolization. We will see. We want to attack these tumors from a different angle. I have been taking high doses of Ambotrose. It gives me energy and our friend is cancer free after taking it a year. I think it is a good product.
Margaret, Chris' Mother is in visiting from Denver. It is good too see her. We are going to try to go to the ZOO today. They have some awesome exhibits for boys right now. They will love it. Chris is on vacation this week but it does not seen like it. He still has been putting fires out. You all know how Chris is.
Chris and I went for some counseling last week on how to deal with all the family problems or issues that come up when in our situation. It was good for us. When you are in the eye of the storm it is hard to see what the right decisions are. Communication, kids, extended family. We are going every week now. It is good to know what to do with the kids. Whats best for them? How much should we tell them?
Psalm 63 is a great scripture I read this morning. God is so close and his promises are so clear and true.
Valerie
posted by McCrea Family at 7:34 AM
7 Comments:
You are such a beautiful soul. May God continue to show you His love through this battle. Know that He is with you. God Bless.
Val-
It's been awhile since we talked....about a week? I still think of you everyday. I miss just hanging out together. Hunter and I are getting out lately and I would love to stop by and visit when you have the time.
Enjoy Chris' Mom this week and let's try to catch up soon.
All my love,
Deanna
Dear Val
May the peace of Jesus Christ be with you now and always. That was a super encouraging report that I just read. Jane showed me how to respond, so I jumped at the chance to share some feelings I have for you. I pray for you everyday my dear. I ask God to show you mercy and to shield you from the scourge that lives in your body. And I know my prayers are joined to many hundreds and thousands of others to help heal you from this blight. Faith is a wonderful thing Val. And it is times like these that test our faith to the max. I will have to share a private story with you about the healing power of God. I have witnessed His hand in my life on many occasions. But this event was a meorable one, so I need to share it with you. About 20 years ago my mother, God rest her soul, had an aneurysm in her brain and collapsed at work. Because she worked at a hospital, one of her friends, an orderly, physically carried her to the emergency room.
The doctors performed an emergency cranial surgery to relieve the pressure on her brain. They clipped the aneurysm, but my Mom was in grave peril. I had been on a military assignement at the time, so I was summoned by my commander and given leave to go home to Hawaii to be with her during her final hours. I can't tell you how many prayers I prayed for her on the flight back to Honolulu. When I saw her in the ICU at Kuakini hospital, medicated and asleep, huge balls of tears were welling up in my eyes, but I had to stifle them in the event my mother woke up and saw me standing by her bedside. I had come a long way to be with her, and I was not about to lose it for her sake. I wanted to be cheerful and strong and happy. There were not very many lucid moments for us. She was in and out of a sleep state and could barely understand what was going on around her. My brother and father were bickering about who was doing more and who cared more etc. It was not a good time for them. There was a lot of guilt being thrown around. So I calmly asked them to put down their dukes and go their separate ways and just chill out. I would remain at the hospital around the clock and let them know if anything changed. Where else was I going to go? So I took over the responsibility that they had been sharing for the two days it took me to get home. On the second night of my stay I needed some fresh air so I walked for a few miles around the hospital area and I prayed every prayer I knew and bargained with God. I know that is silly. But like a child I asked Him to spare my Mom so we could have more time with her in this life. Before too long I noticed that I was close to the cathedral of St. Theresa. I had been baptized there as a child, and where Jane and I were married there. God had led me there in my misery and pain. So at 10:30 PM I rang the doorbell of the rectory. I aroused the pastor from his sleep and he was a bit cranky. But I told him why I was there and like a good shepherd he listened to me. I asked him to come and perform the last rights for my Mom before she expired. This is a Catholic sacrament called Annointing of the Sick. In the old days we called it the last rights. The priest agreed to do it. But there was a problem. My mother was not a Catholic. She was not a Christian and had never been baptized. In fact she was a Buddhist. But this lovely person had taken my brother and I to Mass every Sunday on the bus for years, or would get my Dad up from a night of heavy drinking and get him to drop us off so at the parish church so we could fulfill our obligation to the Lord of observing the sabbath day. She made sure our Catholic school uniforms were starched and pressed and looked neat for school. She helped us with our homework every night while my Dad just had a few beers. So she was the glue that kept our Catholic Christian faith alive. I felt she had earned the right to be converted. So I asked the pastor to finally Baptize my mother, give her the first communion (Eucharist) she had ever had, and to annoint her in the event this was going to be the end for her. Both her neurosurgeon and cardiologist had told us this was going to end in a matter of days. I refused to believe it and I resorted to the only power I could reach out to -- God. I admonished the physicians for not having more faith in something beyond their medical books and surgical experiences. Neither of those doctors were Christian. Perhaps agnostics. No matter. I was determined to have my mother finally brought into the Christian faith which she had guided us through in my childhood. But the pastor advised me that he would not do it unless my mother gave her consent for the sacraments to be performed. The next morning I summoned both my father and brother to be at the hospital to participate in this joyous and momentous event. My mother was barely awake but she gave the priest her permission to baptize her and give her the sacraments.
It was a moment of true joy for me that finally my mother would be embraced by the God I believe in and have faith in. And now he could intervene on her behalf as one of the sheep needing special care. Well she continued to deteriorate that day and refused any nourishment. I would not stand for it so I went to the grocery store and bought her some baby food. If my Mom was going to perish it would not have been from malnutrition. So I fed her baby food for two days much to her protest. She had accepted her fate and was ready to leave this life. I was not. I was going to fight for her the only way I knew how, with love and attention to her every need. And God was my back-up. Val as God is my witness, my Mother sat up in bed on the third day after being baptized, eucharized and annointed. The doctors were astonsihed. She was even yelling at the nurses to bring her real food instead of the baby food I had been force feeding her. My father and brother were also stupefied. They had all been resigned to the fact that Mom was a goner. Val I tell you clearly and without hesitation that God cured my Mom. He gave her another 15 years with us. That was a gift from Him that I cannot forget. That is the reason I pray for you each day and ask God to spare you. You are deserving of more time to raise your sons and be a wife to Chris. I don't think the cancer is going to win. If all of us join our petitions to the Almighty Father and His Son Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior, this demon cancer will be defeated. So I ask you sincerely Val to be strong and brave. Many thousands of us are praying for God's healing power and mercy on you. And prayer is a tremendous thing. I have witnessed it in my own life, and I want to be there when you celebrate your 25th wedding anniversary with Chris. Your job here is not done yet. God will find a way to cure you. Keep your faith strong and unabiding. He loves you Val as we all do. But He loves you more since you are His child. And His plans are the only ones that really matter. My sister in Christ I love you more than ever. I will not give up. My hope is that you will have a long and full life with us here on earth. Heaven can wait. So be well my sister. Be strong and unrelenting. Your faith joined to all of ours will triumph in the end. God will save you from this cancer. I am convinced of it. We all still need to pray to Him and petition Him for your restoration to good health. So please be firm in your conviction that the technical details will all work out on the medical end. This is a test. But you are going to pass this test with flying colors my dear. God be with you now and always.
Your brother in Christ,
Michael M. Fontes
Val,
Wow what a beautiful message from Michael Fontes. It proves that God has the ultimate plan for all of us.
I miss the San Diego Zoo. I imagine you all had such a great time with Chris mom and the boys.
I went to church this morning and said a prayer and lit a candle for you. It was such a beautiful church and it was a very moving sermon. I felt the presence of God there today.
I miss you!
LOVE,
Marianne
Val - YOU are such a blessing and and encouragement to all of us - and what Glory that brings to Him! And I have faith that this is God's purpose in this extradordinary trial He has allowed in your life - to use you for the Glory of his kingdom, and you (and your family) will continue to be an amazing instrument of that Glory when He heals you. You encourage us all to remember why he created us all in the first place! Love, Laura
Val-
It was so great getting an unexpected visit from you and the family on Sunday. Steve had a great time talking "CARS" with Chris and it seemed as though the boys really enjoyed spending time with the baby. I told Ryan he will need to look after Hunter as he grows and he had a big smile on his face and said he would. It was so cute to watch him touch the baby.
Let's get together soon my in-laws are in town begining Saturday and we will be in La Jolla Thursday-Sat. If you're up to it come down and hang out with us. We plan to get some R&R and enjoy the ocean/park. Again it was great seeing you and I look forward to getting together soon.
Love you!
Deanna
GO VAL GO!!!!!! YOU ARE THE MCCREA ROCK. LOVE VAL PERSICHETTI
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