Hello & Thank You

A couple of days ago I found a lovely little note in my email inbox from Jodi @ Pleasant Home letting me know that she had stumbled across my blog and was going to share about it on her blog. It was so incredibly sweet of her :)

The funny thing was that I had just been over to hers only days before drooling over how absolutely lovely her blog is!! If you have never been over to visit her you must go right away. She has gorgeous photos of her sewing projects, tutorials, recipes and you've just got to check out her 'Needle little Inspiration' section to find some of her favorite blogs she has found :)

And if one blog just isn't enough eye candy to satisfy your need for all things sewing related....

You just have to see her new blog Sew Picture Perfect *grin*
Oh wow! So many photos of fabrics, quilts, crafts, aprons, sewing notions and more from other quilters and crafters. It's sure to bring a smile to your face every morning :)

So thank you Jodi for the feature and for all of the wonderful inspiration that you share on your blogs and thank you so much to all of you that visited, left lovely comments and hello to all of my new followers :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Celebrating

Celebrating.....

That's just what we have been doing around here!! I wanted to share with all of you the wonderful news we received this week regarding my dad's colon cancer and surgery.

HE IS CANCER FREE!!!!

The tests results came back and there is absolutely no cancer in his lymph nodes or any of the surrounding tissue that was removed with the section of his colon. That little 1 cm portion they removed seems to have been the entire spot of nasty cancer that was growing inside of him. Oh my word it is a miracle. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and well wishes. I just know they helped :)

The doctor removed his staples and the incision continues to heal nicely. There is still one spot right around the belly button that is slowly healing but there is no infection and the doctor said he is doing great. So for now he is supposed to continue taking it easy for at least another 5 weeks and then they will do blood tests every 3 months for the first year and an annual colonoscopy from here on out to make sure they keep a close eye on what is happening internally.

I know my dad is strong and puts on a brave face but this past week of waiting was extremely hard on him. You could just see by looking at him that he was worried. His spirits were low and he looked grave a lot of the time and today he looks just like his old self and he has even been out walking around the property a bit more. I don't know what we would do without him and I am just so thankful to the Lord for watching over him during this past couple of weeks and to all of you wonderful friends that have emailed, called and checked up on us.... You're the BEST :)

Big (((Hugs))),
Rosina

Kicking Cancer in the Butt

♥♥ Thank you everyone for all of your prayers ♥♥

My dad had his surgery Tuesday afternoon and he did fabulous! The operating room was running behind schedule so we ended up waiting until just before 3pm before the doctor finally came out to talk with us and get Dad all prepped for surgery. Originally we had been told that they were going to go in laparoscopically to remove the cancerous section of his sigmoid colon but just before they took him the doctor informed us that he would be opening him right up.

Of course this is scary news when you have mentally prepared yourself for little teeny tiny incisions with minimal damage and all of a sudden there's much more involved. In the end it turned out to be a good thing though as the doctor was able to have a really good look at the colon, surrounding tissues and the liver. All of it looked great and the cancerous growth was only 1 centimeter in size!!! Can you believe it?! Praise the Lord ♥♥

I swear sometimes I think my dad has lucky horse shoes up his behind LOL. We were anticipating to find him in recovery with a feed tube up through his nose and the possibility that he would have to have a temporary or permanent colostomy bag and there we found him smiling. I'm tearing up as I type this because I was so scared to see what he was going to look like and there he was actually smiling when we went to sit with him and wait to be moved upstairs the the med surg floor. With the minimal destruction to his colon they were able to reconnect the two sections nice and neatly so there was no need for a bag or feed tube. Again praise be to Him as this is just such fantastic news :)

We finally got moved to the ward he will be staying on by 8pm and then we hugged him goodbye. Yesterday we spent the day with him and he was a little dehydrated from all of the colon flushing that he had done previous to the surgery and from not being able to take much liquid by mouth as they were afraid if he took in to much it might cause vomiting but by evening he was feeling much better. He was sitting in a chair and even took a little walk around the floor so he is truly doing great :)

He will be in the hospital for a few more days to recover a bit more before going home and the results from the section of colon they removed should be available within the week. They will tell us if there is any cancer in the lymph nodes and then define what sort of treatment such as chemo he may need at that time. I am being completely optimistic at this point that it has not spread!!

Thank you again for all of the prayers you are sending up for him. I know they are helping immensely and words cannot express how thankful I am to all of you ♥♥

Big (((HUGS))),
Rosina