It is hard to recap a year like this. While a few things changed, the song remained the same. The cancer has been pushed back and is being held at bay. My father is throwing all the numbers that have been given out the window. He is taking all the information you can gather online regarding stage 4 metastatic Pancreatic cancer and disregarding it…correction…God is doing all these things. In September we had  a celebration of beating the 2 year mark. Today was post-diagnosis Christmas #3.

So? What’s next? According to Dr. Dugan and a recent scan it’s his liver. At this point Dad’s liver has moved from being insulted to being named Cirrhosis of the liver. Forgive me if I still giggle a bit at the thought of my teetotaler father with liver disease. While his tumor marker is where they want to see it (been great for months), he is quite jaundice. He was on FOLFOX much longer than most everyone else and as a result the side-effects were increased. The problem is what it did to his liver. Dad is currently having symptoms of liver failure. Exhaustion, jaundice, shakes, and itchy skin are all symptoms of a liver that is past the insulted stage. The doctor has prescribed medication for blood pressure (Nadolol), the itchy skin (prescription cream), and he is still on Coumadin (or what my father refers to as rat poison).

At this point we are waiting for a follow-up appointment on January 18th. We’ll see where we are headed from there.

What I CAN say for certain is that Dad is currently… literally right now as I type this…enjoying his new Kindle that he received for Christmas. We look forward to extending the holiday to tomorrow and spending time as a family.

Please keep him in your prayer as many of you have been already. We look for guidance, wisdom, and grace as God sees fit to continue to minister to His people with and through my father.

That is how I feel as I write another update with nothing much to say. It is as if I just woke up from a deep sleep and realize that a bunch of time has gone by but nothing seems to be any different.

We’re approaching the 2 year anniversary of Dad’s diagnosis and the general update is that there isn’t a update (grammatically correct no matter how dumb it sounds). For a while Dad has been heading off to the doctor’s and getting treatment on a regular basis…not a typical regular basis mind you but regular none the less. Dr. Dugan continues to monitor his numbers and gives him “the juice” as my Dad calls it, and this process repeats depending on his levels.

Recently (July 11th was his last treatment) his liver is showing signs of being insulted again. Apparently it is still pretty touchy and if it doesn’t get its way it makes treatment off-limits. This is due to Dad doing so well. He’s doing so well that he has had more treatments of this “juice” than people normally have. He has had 15 treatments which is more than typical.

His next blood draw will be August 22nd where they will take a look at his numbers and see where they sit. His next appointment with Dr. Dugan is September 7th and we’ll see if there will be any update at that time.

So, as I have said before there isn’t really anything to talk about.

So there you go.

Crunchy numbers

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,400 times in 2010. That’s about 8 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 18 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 43 posts. There were 2 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 2mb.

The busiest day of the year was September 14th with 136 views. The most popular post that day was Insulted.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, mail.live.com, mail.yahoo.com, en.wordpress.com, and whatsthemotivation.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for www.psalm20seven.wordpress.com, thegrowingfaith, donald coldwell sr., maine, praying for laurie coldwell, and “simply trusting every day”.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Insulted September 2010
3 comments

2

but wait there’s more… August 2010
2 comments

3

Ding Ding December 2010
3 comments

4

About Us September 2009
1 comment

5

Up and Down January 2010
2 comments

And there’s the bell. It’s been a back and forth fight for three rounds now with Don Coldwell looking to pull ahead. When this fight started it looked like he would be overmatched based on our defending champ’s height and weight advantage. Take a look as Don has a new man in the corner. His name is FOLFOX and he fights a different kind of fight so we should see some different action.

Up until recently we had been waiting and watching to see what would happen being off Gemzar for an extended period of time. Dad has lost most, if not all, of the water that he has stored while his liver was on strike. His nonalcoholic liver disease (probably caused by grape juice instead of wine for communion) seems to have calmed down but his tumor markers have started to rise again which is the reason for the new regimen.

The side effects of FOLFOX are varied but the one that most people have to deal with is a HIGHLY increased sensitivity to cold. Good thing we’re in Maine, can you imagine living in…well…Canada? So far the only noticeable sensitivity has been in the following few days after the treatment. He still managed to power through his ice cream at Rachel’s (grandchild 1) birthday. I am a better man having watched him selflessly put his discomfort aside and eat the ice cream that was put before him. You are truly an inspiration Dad!

As the verse in our blogs address says Psalm 20:7 – …We trust in the name of the LORD our God. Cancer is a funny thing, it doesn’t react the same way twice in the same person let alone different people. We can’t count on past experiences to define future occurences, however, we CAN count on Jesus to be there when the phone rings and your life blows up. Just over a year ago our lives blew up for the first time and we have clung to Jesus ever since. While enjoying the advent season with your families this year, please be sure to not get caught up in putting the Christ back in Christmas as much as putting the Christ back in Christian. Jesus came even though He did not have to. The earth groans in pain awaiting His arrival once more. The effects of sin are far-reaching and powerful. Sin is not however going to ultimately win as Jesus will make all things new.

I have no idea what to say anymore.

This past Monday, Dad went in for an updated CT scan to get another picture of what was going on. According to today’s appointment; it’s more of the same.

Dad continues to baffle the doctors as his cancer sits and doesn’t move. His spleen is still holding on to his platelets so his counts are low (67 if you pay attention and know what it means) and his liver is still a little irritated. He will have another appointment in three weeks to take numbers again but for now it’s more of the same.

Please take this opportunity to pray that God would be glorified in this and that my Dad’s will power or powerful soul would not be worshiped. This is for God’s glory as all of history has been and will continue to be until the end. We thank God for giving us more time and we praise Him for what He has done in all of us through this.

Remember: November is pancreatic cancer month so wear purple and check out http://pancan.org/ to see how you can raise awareness of this disease.

One year ago the doctors officially diagnosed my Dad with pancreatic cancer. It was a crazy week of daily decisions to keep him in the hospital just “one more day” as they ran test after test. I remember talking with my sister in Hong Kong on a daily basis keeping her updated on the progress. I remember looking at the survival numbers and seeing how bad they can be.

One year later God has allowed my father to officially beat the odds. He has seen family move back from Hong Kong. He has seen me go from unemployed to tow truck driver to insurance salesman. He has seen his daughter-in-law fight for her life against a brain aneurysm. He has taken vacations, and is heading out soon for another. He has barely missed any time at the NEBC library. He enjoys his 7 grandchildren as much as possible. There is much to say but not enough web to say it in.

Ecclesiastes 2:24+25 - There is nothing better for a person then that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? (ESV) …sorry Dad, all I had at my desk was the Lutheran Study Bible, hope it doesn’t change things

Whatever you do, do it for God the Bible also says. John Piper is known for calling on people to not waste their cancer as I linked earlier. The gospel does indeed need to be preached from those with AND without cancer on a daily basis, both to others and to themselves. The grace of God which allows us to function every day, is the same grace that is extended to others.

Please join us in celebrating this 1 year anniversary by FIRST praising God for who he is and giving him all the glory. Second, please consider wearing some form of purple today in honor of pancreatic cancer research. Third, please also consider making a donation of time or money to any of the organizations listed whether that be the Dempsey challenge as the last post spoke about, or visiting one of the links on the right side of this page. Possibly there is a local cancer center where you live, that you can donate to. I would ask that you keep one thing in mind. We ask that you donate in honor of my Dad Don Coldwell Sr., BUT we also ask that you do it in the NAME of Jesus for he is the one that deserves his name to be raised up.

Thank you for your prayers and comments over the past year. I know my parents appreciate reading them all. Please take a moment to read the scripture tab as well, to remind us of what the gospel says to us.

UPDATED INFORMATION IS THAT MY WIFE LAURIE WILL ALSO BE PARTICIPATING IN THE DEPSEY CHALLENGE. WE HAVE BOTH MET OUR REQUIRED GOAL AT THIS POINT BUT WE STILL SEEK TO BRING IN DONATIONS IN HONOR OF MY FATHER. DONATIONS CAN BE MADE ANONIMOUSLY IF YOU SO CHOOSE. VISIT  http://dempseychallenge.org/ AND SEARCH FOR PARTICIPANTS. YOU WILL FIND SEPARATE PAGES FOR MY WIFE LAURIE COLDWELL AND MYSELF DON COLDWELL.

PLEASE ALSO VISIT  http://www.dempseycenter.org/ TO SEE WHERE THE MONEY IS DONATED. I LOOK FORWARD TO PARTICIPATING IN THIS EVENT AND WE HOPE TO HAVE PICTURES AVAILABLE ON THE BLOG AFTERWARDS.

THANK YOU AGAIN.

I am competing (hoping to finish) the Dempsey Challenge 5K in honor of my Dad.

I ask you to consider donating on behalf of my Dad towards this great cause. I do have a goal requirement to raise however, I want to ignore that number and shoot higher.

Please pray that I would be able to reach the fund-raising requirement AND actually be able to finish the race.

Here is a link to donate. http://dempseychallenge.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=333480&lis=0&kntae333480=9DF9483F87DF447CA1E901A54235A199

I am a part of a team of coworkers at AAA and our team is AAA Lewiston if that link does not direct you correctly.

Thank you.

That is how my father’s liver has been described. Insulted. Apparently all those jokes we used to tell at the holidays have taken a toll on the poor thing and now it’s insulted. It was just unhappy before, but now it’s insulted. If Dr. Dugan didn’t know any better, he’d think my father was a regular imbiber of frosty cold beverages, followed by long sessions with Dr. Daniels. You can imagine the laughter when Deanne and I heard that my father’s liver looks like he drinks too much! Dr. Dugan asked if Dad had ever taken Lipitor and yes indeed he has…we wait to see if we can cash in on a class action lawsuit! Lipitor is famous for insulting livers all over the place.

Either way, Dr. Dugan is trying to figure out what exactly is causing the issues. Either the liver has a disease that is separate from the cancer and is causing problems, or the gemzar that he was taking was the culprit in insulting his liver. There is a VERY small chance that it is the gemzar but with Dad, all things are possible in the realm of weird. His water retention has slowed and that seems to be under control so we wait for more testing and study to find out what this could be, which leads me to my next point.

Dr. Dugan – “Have you ever had any damage to your liver, or anything to cause strain on it?”   Dad- ”Nope”…silence.   Deanne – “What ever happened with the time you turned purple from the waist down and almost missed graduation?”   Dr. Dugan – “Huh!!!?”   Dad – “Oh yeah”…goes on to explain. Apparently there has been a little miscommunication regarding the mysterious Grimus disease of 05 that put my Dad in the hospital for a week. Dr. Dugan is currently trying to get the records from that episode and will take a look to see what, if any, correlation there could be.

So, the gemzar is gone. Our old nemesis Tarceva is back. Instead of a pill every day which clearly was not a great experience. He is taking 1/2 a pill every other day. There is some rash and discomfort at even this level so they are monitoring the rash to catch it before it gets as bad as last time.

In a little while my parents are off on vacation. They look forward to time away enjoying the scenery, shops and shows that they so love while on vacation. There is at last one more appointment before they leave so we will let you know if there is anything that comes up before they head out.

We continue to pray that God would be glorified in ALL things and we thank you for reading this and leaving comments.

Now that you are all caught up, there is an update.

You will remember that they upped Dad’s diuretic x4 and that does seem to be working. So far he has lost appx 1.5 GALLONS of the 3 GALLONS of water that he was carrying around for a while. This water is displacing his organs and causing a bit of discomfort…yeah you think?  The scan from last week was so unreadable do the water so it is impossible to get an accurate picture of what is going on inside of him. There are a few things that are noticeable and the most noticeable is his liver being dilated. Dr. Dugan referred to this condition as an “unhappy liver”. Apparently Dad’s doctor majored in oncology and minored in romper, bomper, stomper boo with Bob Ross. I must say that the simplicity of his explanations are much appreciated…and cause for a good laugh.

This entire situation is kinda ticking off his other organs as well; his spleen is enlarged from 13cm (normal) to 18cm, dilated blood vessels in the esophagus (hope spell-check looks at that one!), and his platelet count. They have officially taken him off chemo until further notice. An endoscopy has been ordered and they are hoping that it will happen next week. This will help them take a “looky-loo”, not sure if that is Deanne or Dugan, and this will be both diagnostic as well as therapeutic as they will fix things that they see are wrong while they are in there.

Well, consider yourself up-to-date. We await word on the procedure next week and will keep you all in the loop. We enjoyed the time of boring no news and now it’s time to update regularly.

Ok then. Dad has been placed on an every-other-week schedule for chemo and this week was his ‘on’ week. They did the typical blood tests to start the day and once again his numbers were not in the optimal range. Upon realizing that things seem to be stalling the doctor did some extra questioning. There is a chance that Dad’s spleen is not functioning correctly and it is holding on to platelets. This would cause his blood tests to come back low even though there are technically enough in his body. Dad had another scan that afternoon to take a look at the spleen and see what is going on. When Dad goes in to see the doctor this week they will look at the scan and find out the latest. If this is not the issue, then more testing will have to be done. Dad has also gained quite a bit of water weight and Dr. Dugan has quadrupled his diuretic prescription. We ‘weight’ to see if this new dose will work…cue the crickets.

On Sunday August 1st we had a surprise $%#^th birthday party for Dad at URob-Biddeford Campus and much fun was had by all. There was great food, great tunes, and great company. A big thank you for all who were able to attend it made it a special day. We followed the party with some family pictures taken by Angela Milkins and I must say…we are pretty close to having all 7 grandchildren smiling at the same time…close.