Dad update

Here is the latest news that my dad has sent out. Again I am just posting his email as he words everything better than I could. Again I will try to keep you up to date as we have more news. Thank you to all those who posted comments on the last dad post and at the moment we just long for your prayers.

Dear family & friends,

Thank you for your encouragement and your prayers. I wish you could see the messages we receive. They are filled with courage, comfort and wisdom. Being part of God’s family makes such a difference. We even receive e-mails from our Sunset School of Preaching class of 1975. The years make no difference. It is marvellous to hear from all of you and we really appreciate it. We had another meeting with my oncologist at the end of January and we asked a lot of questions. He talks about more chemo because the cancer spots are not located in one place. However second line chemo would not be as effective as first time and the side effects from this particular chemo (Irinotecan) are generally worse. He also tells us this treatment would not be curative. Indeed when we questioned him he said the statistical average for life extension from it was only 6-8 weeks. We have to think carefully about that. He also recommended we leave it for a while because the side effects reduce quality of life and currently I feel very well. Therefore we have decided not to take treatment just now. He did say that I have already exceeded the average life expectancy for this type of cancer. I have asked for a second opinion so that we can hear what another oncologist has to say before we make the next big decisions. Right now I am doing well physically. The battle with cancer is often more mental and emotional. That’s where we are just now. Again, we ask for your prayers. Thank you.

God bless.

John & Irene

20 week scan

I know that there is other stuff I need to blog but I just wanted to get these pictures up so family could see. We had our 20 week scan today. David got time off work to go which was great. Everything looks as it should, the actual images on the screen where so clear that we were able to see each individual toe. It was amazing, the sonographer was really great and explained everything that we were looking at. I am afriad that the pictures below are not great as they are pictures of pictures but it was the best I could do. Other posts to look out for soon ....... David's birthday, update on my dad, new laptop and of course more of Abby.




Profile of head with hands at the chin.



Full body profile showing the spine. The baby was stretching out.



Another profile of head. You can just make out the wee nose.

All through the scan the baby was thrashing about and kicking his/her legs. At the moment baby is breech but there is still lots of time and room to move. It is very late so more posts later.

What a weekend!

We have had a very fun filled but hectic weekend. John A, Kristen, Brennan and Jonathan arrived back from their trip to the USA. They spent some time with my parents before returning home on Friday afternoon to find a very cold house. Their central heating boiler had broken down - So they repacked some bags and along with my parents came up to our house in the hope of getting it fixed on Monday or Tuesday. So our house just managed to accommodate 6 adults and 3 kids! At the same time we still had our Christmas tree up since we were going to have a second Christmas with them when they got back. So on Saturday evening we went out to dinner as part of our Christmas celebration, on Sunday evening we had a finger food dinner party to celebrate David's birthday (which was on the Monday). JA and family went back down to their house on Tuesday evening. My parents left on Wednesday afternoon. It was just as well they all came as it turned out to be one of the coldest few days we have had this year with regular snow falls. The best part was that on Sunday afternoon we got our Christmas tree down! I could not believe how much space we had, it had been up so long I had forgotten what it was like to have room. Though there were so many of us in the house we seemed to have enough room and we had some great fun. The kids all coped great and seemed to have fun with all the attention from grandparents and aunts and uncles.




My sweet wee nephew, Jonathan.




Cousin bubble fun - Jonathan, Brennan and Abby




Sweet cuddles with Grannie



Dada's forest fire, I mean birthday cake. (I'll post more on David's birthday later)



Story time.



Out in the snow.