A couple people clapped when I walked into the room, which I took as a good sign. Most of the thirty-five students in this morning's reading class are from the 33B class I taught last fall. Two are from 33G, the minority class I taught last year, and a couple others are from 33I, who had me for writing a couple years ago. I told them I wasn't sure whether they would be happy or sad to see me back. (Assuring them they will have less homework this time probably helped a little.) We got started with an article from the Japan Times and got further with it than I expected.
During the first class of the day, I observed a new ELI teacher who is practice teaching at the DAV as part of her training. She's an elementary teacher from Tennessee and did a great job transferring her skills to EFL. She and her husband leave Sunday to teach in Pakse, Laos. In fact, most of the new teachers this year (7 of 11) are headed to Laos. Only three will stay in Vietnam. We could use more - the DAV, where I teach, is down from five ELI teachers two years ago to three.
On the home front, I just got back from taking Nancy to the doctor. She's been having flu-like symptoms since Friday and we wanted to rule out H1N1. It's been ruled out. This early reminder that her immune system is not what it used to be turned out to be a bacterial infection. They gave her antibiotics and she should be back to normal soon.
Showing posts with label Medical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Medical. Show all posts
August 17, 2009
July 28, 2009
On the Road Again
My last road trip of the year ended yesterday when I returned to Orlando from Rochester, NY. It was nice to see old friends, update them on life in Vietnam, and thank some of the people who make it financially possible for us to be there.Nancy couldn't come with me because she had a couple days of radiation left, but now that's over and her cancer treatment is finished! Her follow-up will consist of daily medicine and routine checkups for the next few years, but her prognosis is good and we're very grateful for that!
Our next big trip is to Vietnam. We leave early this Saturday (8 August) and arrive on Sunday. After sorting out out the time zones, it works out to a 32-hour trip (if there are no complications) from the time we leave Hannah's house in Orlando till we reach ours in Hanoi. We've heard all summer that it's been HOT there, but it will nice to be "home."
July 2, 2009
The Next Step
Yesterday I booked our tickets to return to Hanoi on August 8. For $2100, we received two one-way tickets and a mixed bag of emotions. You would think that lots of goodbyes would be offset by lots of hellos, but it's always a tough transition. Side by side with the excitement of seeing old friends, returning to work, and getting back in time for the fall semester (just like so many of us have prayed), is the realization that we've been spoiled by so much time with friends and family in this country. It will be hard to say, "See you next time."And then, there's the 32-hour trip itself, the nagging thought that something might go wrong to complicate things or delay us again, and the knowledge that we'll have a lot of readjusting to do after being away for six months. But, all in all, we're very glad to have a date set to return to what we've been called to.
Nancy will finish her radiation therapy around July 23. We'll have a couple of weeks to rest up, pack up, and hang out with the kids and grandkids before arriving in Hanoi a couple weeks before our first official responsibilities. That will give us time to get over jet lag and meet new teammates. I might even be able to get my teaching schedule early! It will be good to be back.
June 10, 2009
Radiation Therapy Begins
Florida Hospital Altamonte
Well, we've made it. On June 6, we arrived in Orlando just in time for movie night at Hannah & Phillip's house with the New Wave group. Three days later we had one of the best doctor visits we've had since January. Not only did the conversation not begin with bad news or a complication, Nancy was able to be scheduled for "mapping" on the next day and her six weeks of radiation therapy is scheduled to begin on Thursday, June 11.
Our target date for starting radiation was June 15, so this puts us a few days ahead. That, and the fact that Nancy will have six weeks of treatment rather than six and a half or seven, means she will have two and a half weeks of rest after the treatment before we start traveling back to Vietnam.
Many people have been praying that we will be able to be back in Hanoi in time for the fall semester. It looks like that's going to be possible now!
April 1, 2009
A Cool Password Program
Since I don't have much teaching news to post these days, I thought I'd let you know about a password vault program I've found. It's called KeePass. It keeps all your passwords in a secure file so you don't have to try to remember all of them - or have just one password you keep using over and over again. It has some nice features. From what I've seen in reviews, it's quite secure.
On the cancer front, Nancy had her first of four doses on chemo. It's been really rough on her but they say she should start getting her strength back in a few days. You probably already know about her Caring Bridge blog, but I'll add the link here anyway.
It looks like I may do a little tutoring this spring after all. We've attended a Vietnamese Alliance Church a couple of times here in Greenville. They have been great and have prayed regularly for Nancy. We've made a friend there who wants to work on his English and I've got to give him a call this week to set something up. He wants to help me with my Vietnamese, but he's from Dalat and uses a different accent than I'm used to. It's been a lot of work to try to understand, but I'm grateful for the chance to practice.
On the cancer front, Nancy had her first of four doses on chemo. It's been really rough on her but they say she should start getting her strength back in a few days. You probably already know about her Caring Bridge blog, but I'll add the link here anyway.
It looks like I may do a little tutoring this spring after all. We've attended a Vietnamese Alliance Church a couple of times here in Greenville. They have been great and have prayed regularly for Nancy. We've made a friend there who wants to work on his English and I've got to give him a call this week to set something up. He wants to help me with my Vietnamese, but he's from Dalat and uses a different accent than I'm used to. It's been a lot of work to try to understand, but I'm grateful for the chance to practice.
February 26, 2009
Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Caveat - my medical knowledge fits in a thimble, but this is what I've been told.
At Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, the surgeon (4th from the left in the website photo) explained that breast cancer tumors may be "fed" by estrogen, progesterone, or another hormone they refer to as HER2. When that's the case, the patient gets just radiation therapy instead of both chemotherapy and radiation. Then she is given medicine for about five years in order to suppress the hormones and prevent recurrence. The surgeon in the US gave the same explanation.
Nancy's pathology tests in Bangkok indicated that she had a "triple-negative" cancer, so we had resigned ourselves to chemotherapy. As it turned out, there were some insurance complications in Bangkok so we decided to come back to the US and get everything done here.
We had all of Nancy's medical records from Bumrungrad except for the actual tissue slides from pathology and the surgeon really wanted to see those. No worries, she was removing the tumor anyway, so she just had it sent to pathology to confirm the findings.
Some people would say that the Bangkok hospital made a mistake. We'd love to have the slides to double-check them because we believe that the prayers of many people in many languages in many parts of the world were answered with a "yes" -- the second pathology showed that Nancy's tumor was 98% estrogen-positive and somewhat HER2 positive. We're skeptical that an hospital that is certified to USA standards would be that far off on two of their lab tests. We believe that God answered prayers.
After surgery, part of the tumor made the trip to the West Coast for Oncotype DX testing. We should hear the results next week. There are three possibilities: It may put Nancy in a low risk category, medium, or high. High means 4-6 months of chemo (depending on what's type is prescribed) followed by seven weeks radiation. Medium means a decision has to be made weighing the benefits of adding chemo to radiation therapy. Low means Nancy would not need chemotherapy; only radiation and the five years of homone suppressant.
We're hoping, of course, that Nancy won't need chemo. A radiation-only regimine would mean Nancy would finish her treatment in time to be in Florida for the birth of our grandson and we'd be able to return to Hanoi for the fall semester. That's what we're praying for but, not being doctors, we're willing to trust God for the best answer and leave the decision to His providence.
PS -- Soon after we left Hanoi in January, we found out that the sister of one of my Vietnamese colleagues was also diagnosed with breast cancer and was scheduled for surgery. For privacy, I won't include her name, but please pray for a full recovery for her.
At Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, the surgeon (4th from the left in the website photo) explained that breast cancer tumors may be "fed" by estrogen, progesterone, or another hormone they refer to as HER2. When that's the case, the patient gets just radiation therapy instead of both chemotherapy and radiation. Then she is given medicine for about five years in order to suppress the hormones and prevent recurrence. The surgeon in the US gave the same explanation.
Nancy's pathology tests in Bangkok indicated that she had a "triple-negative" cancer, so we had resigned ourselves to chemotherapy. As it turned out, there were some insurance complications in Bangkok so we decided to come back to the US and get everything done here.
We had all of Nancy's medical records from Bumrungrad except for the actual tissue slides from pathology and the surgeon really wanted to see those. No worries, she was removing the tumor anyway, so she just had it sent to pathology to confirm the findings.
Some people would say that the Bangkok hospital made a mistake. We'd love to have the slides to double-check them because we believe that the prayers of many people in many languages in many parts of the world were answered with a "yes" -- the second pathology showed that Nancy's tumor was 98% estrogen-positive and somewhat HER2 positive. We're skeptical that an hospital that is certified to USA standards would be that far off on two of their lab tests. We believe that God answered prayers.
After surgery, part of the tumor made the trip to the West Coast for Oncotype DX testing. We should hear the results next week. There are three possibilities: It may put Nancy in a low risk category, medium, or high. High means 4-6 months of chemo (depending on what's type is prescribed) followed by seven weeks radiation. Medium means a decision has to be made weighing the benefits of adding chemo to radiation therapy. Low means Nancy would not need chemotherapy; only radiation and the five years of homone suppressant.
We're hoping, of course, that Nancy won't need chemo. A radiation-only regimine would mean Nancy would finish her treatment in time to be in Florida for the birth of our grandson and we'd be able to return to Hanoi for the fall semester. That's what we're praying for but, not being doctors, we're willing to trust God for the best answer and leave the decision to His providence.
PS -- Soon after we left Hanoi in January, we found out that the sister of one of my Vietnamese colleagues was also diagnosed with breast cancer and was scheduled for surgery. For privacy, I won't include her name, but please pray for a full recovery for her.
Waiting For the Rest of the Story
Well, we're into our fourth week in Greenville. My brother & sister-in-law have been incredibly gracious and generous during our stay with them. Nancy's surgery went well, which you probably already know from her Caring Bridge posts. The tumor turned out to be Stage 1 and it is not triple-negative, which is good news.
Tissue was sent off to CA for Oncotype DX testing, which is supposed to determine whether or not she will need chemotherapy. We're obviously hoping she won't! We're expecting to find out on Tuesday when she meets with the radiation oncologist.
Tissue was sent off to CA for Oncotype DX testing, which is supposed to determine whether or not she will need chemotherapy. We're obviously hoping she won't! We're expecting to find out on Tuesday when she meets with the radiation oncologist.
February 7, 2009
Surgery Scheduled
We met with the surgeon this morning and scheduled Nancy's outpatient procedure for Wednesday. About a week after that she'll have a follow up visit and then we should be able to find out how long the rest of her treatment will be. We're hoping for the best case because that would allow Nancy to be in Orlando when Hannah's baby is born in early July. But first things first.
January 23, 2009
Transition
After two weeks of medical tests in Bangkok, Nancy's breast cancer was confirmed and the decision was made to return to the United States for treatment. It has been a very difficult two weeks in ways that would take a long chapter or two to tell.
Plans seem to change every morning we wake up and check our email, but at this point we're aiming to go back to Hanoi, pack up a few things, and then travel to Greenville, SC . We'll spend the next several months there as Nancy goes through surgery and follow up treatment. I didn't expect to be watching the Super Bowl in the US this year.
Nor was I expecting to be away from teaching for the spring semester. What happens when two team leaders are unexpectedly sidelined and have to withdraw from a program where they're supposed to be mentoring three new teachers?
Provision happens.
A few weeks before Nancy even noticed anything was wrong, a friend of ours in Ohio, who has had years of experience as a team leader with the China Teaching Fellowship, was feeling led to return to Asia. The CTF Program Director and our VN Country Director contacted her and she agreed to come to Hanoi and take our place. This is another reminder, as bad as all this has been, that it was not unexpected by the one who wrote all of our days in His book before one of them came to be.
Plans seem to change every morning we wake up and check our email, but at this point we're aiming to go back to Hanoi, pack up a few things, and then travel to Greenville, SC . We'll spend the next several months there as Nancy goes through surgery and follow up treatment. I didn't expect to be watching the Super Bowl in the US this year.
Nor was I expecting to be away from teaching for the spring semester. What happens when two team leaders are unexpectedly sidelined and have to withdraw from a program where they're supposed to be mentoring three new teachers?
Provision happens.
A few weeks before Nancy even noticed anything was wrong, a friend of ours in Ohio, who has had years of experience as a team leader with the China Teaching Fellowship, was feeling led to return to Asia. The CTF Program Director and our VN Country Director contacted her and she agreed to come to Hanoi and take our place. This is another reminder, as bad as all this has been, that it was not unexpected by the one who wrote all of our days in His book before one of them came to be.
January 18, 2009
For the Latest
It may be a while before I update much on this blog, due to the craziness of our situation these days. If you want to get the latest news on Nancy, click here to see her CaringBridge blog.
January 14, 2009
Unfortunately
"Unfortunately" is never the first word you want to hear from your doctor's mouth when you're waiting for the results of a biopsy, but that's what we heard today. Nancy will go through staging tests on Friday and then we will decide on where to go for treatment.
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