Picture Links & Picture from Last Night

Harry & Zeke; Harry, Dr. John and Herman

Here is the link to last night's pictures from Dinner at College Inn and Music at Rock N Bowl for the Eddie Bo Benefit..


http://www.flickr.com/photos/72973194@N00/sets/72157617474517588/



Here is the link to picture of our family barn fire..
http://picasaweb.google.com/mike.alleman/AllemanBarnFire#

Surgery and The Farm in Rayne

Harry will have outpatient surgery Monday May 4th at EJGH to put in a new bard port. We should be home by mid afternoon. I fully expect everything to go just fine.

For those of you who attended our wedding out at the farm in Rayne.. This morning at 5am the barn where we had our reception burnt to the ground. I am awaiting pictures now. No one was injured but many years of things are now gone. Please include my family in your prayers ...

Thanks..

Mona

Surgeon - another Benefit

We are going to see the surgeon today to put the bard port back in for chemotherapy and his favorite thing blood work..

I will let you know..

Also look for the flyer... Alan Reese, his gracious wife Peggy and many others have put together another benefit for us - June 14, 2009. First there is a Poker Run and then music and dancing at the New Rock N Bowl. There is also a motorcycle on sale on our behalf.. I will post details on all of this today.

Mr. Reese - you and your wife are angels walking on Earth. Thank You

Another Friend Gone

Our sympathy goes out to the family of Billy Bell... We will miss Billy and all the smiles we shared. I got an email from his daughter that she would let us know when they set up a memorial for him.

Doctor Visits

We started the morning with a visit to Dr. Jeanfreau - he increased Harry's diabetes medicine - Harry is on a lot of steroids and that increases his blood sugar.

Next we saw Dr. Black, his oncologist.. He is putting Harry on Chemotherapy in pill form until he can get a port put back in.. We see the surgeon on Tuesday. The original port was removed back in October because of an infection. It is a simple surgery - Harry came through it with flying colors last time and I suspect it will be the same.. last time we went in at noon and were home before 5pm. After that Harry will get half doses of chemotherapy while he is on radiation therapy then probably a full dose.

And last we saw Dr. Schuette - his pulmonologist. He explained that this new round of cancer is really an extension of the first diagnosis but had not grown to sufficient sizes to be identified. What has reappeared is all in the lymph nodes and they are in the same area as the previous ones - so it has not spread beyond chest and is really a part of the same disease that existed the first time. So there are new tumors - none of it is as big as the first treatment area and all in the lymph nodes.

Both of us walked out of this long day with a much better feeling about this whole new round. It is still serious and all of us are hoping that the cancer responds like it did the first time and if it does - great! If the cancer does not respond then the prognosis is not so good. But we are going to be optimistic that the cancer will respond to treatment as it did before..

So thank you for your prayers and support...

And a personal note.. Bobby West.. rest in peace - you will be missed..

Mona

Doctor Visit - and visits

Harry saw Dr. Monsour yesterday when he went for radiation therapy. He adjusted the pain and other medications. Today Harry will get the 6th of 20 radiation treatments. Tomorrow is see a bunch of doctors day - he has appointments with his Medical Internist; Medical Oncologist, and his Pulmonologist with a radiation treatment in between. So my guess is he will be very tired by the end of the day. I will update tomorrow night on all the visits..

thanks for all your prayers and support..

Mona

Good Days and Bad Days all on the same day...

Harry has been having good and bad days since he started radiation therapy.. the biggest problem is pain.. They are adjusting his pain medication and last night he did very well. I am going with him to the Doctor this afternoon - I will update when I can..

Please take the opportunity to watch Harry with his 2 young cousins - passing on the gift of music ..both videos are attached...

It's memories like this that are worth their weight in GOLD..

Mona

Harry & Ava Playing Drums

Harry & Chase

Drum Class; Dinner with Friends and less pain

Yesterday Harry's little cousin Chase came by for a visit while his dad cut our lawn (thank you Mike). Harry custom cut some drumsticks for him and showed him the drums. Pictures were taken by Janice and Mike Sr. and as soon as I get them I will post them. Harry was beaming when he described it to me last night.

Harry also had a great night out with musician friends.. thank you Bobby.

He had his 2nd radiation treatment yesterday and number 3 today. He is in a lot less pain with the new medication and that make me happy...

So Thursday April 16, 2009 was a very very good day in the Ravain Household..

Thanks for all the prayers..

Mona

Harry is back in therapy...

Harry started radiation again yesterday.. He will go everyday at 3pm for 20 days excluding weekends. The pain has gotten much worse so they added oral pain medication for the breakthrough pain. He seemed to have a pretty good night after he got a couple of pills in.

I want to take a minute to thank Dr. Monsour and his staff. If you remember back when Harry finished his first round of radiation treatment I said Harry was going to miss seeing all of these guys everyday, well I can't think of a better place for him to go everyday for help and encouragement. What a class act everyone in that office is.

He is looking forward to his cousin Mike Jr and his son Chase are coming over today to help out by cutting the grass. Harry wants to show Chase his new set of drums he even cut down a pair of drum sticks just for him. Then Harry is going to dinner with some music buddies.. So all in all it should be a good day for him.

Thanks for all the prayers -

Mona

Dr. Monsour

I just spoke with Dr. Monsour and they are going to start radiation therapy again today.. don't know how many treatments but hopefully he will start to feel better soon..

Tax Day and other stuff

Hope all of you have finished your taxes and are having a quiet day. We went to dinner last night with Harry's Ravain cousins last night and he truly enjoyed himself. His new treatment rounds have not started yet but I suspect that will happen in the next day or two. His pain has increased over the past couple of days - have a call into the doctor for that and new things pop up everyday. But all in all he is well - he tires faster than a week ago but we are charging ahead. He will not see his medical oncologist until the 23rd so probably no chemotherapy until the end of April or the beginning of May because he will have to have surgery to put a new port in - they took the other one out in October when it got infected. I will post more when I have more.

New Treatment

Harry had an appointment with Dr. Monsour today.. they marked him for his new round of radiation therapy. Dr. Monsour will spend the next day or 2 mapping his treatment plan. Harry's cancer is definitely back and has spread to the lymph nodes in his upper chest near his throat, this is causing new pains and his right eye to droop.

Dr. Monsour says he has a 50/50 chance of getting the cancer. If he is not able to beat it the prognosis is not good, 6 months to a year. We of course are going to pray that he is able to combat the cancer.

He has also sent us back to the medical oncologist. We are waiting to hear back on when his appointment will be and whether or not they will be doing chemotherapy as well.

So the posts will become more frequent again.. I will post any news and updates as soon as I have the information.

Thanks for all the prayers and support..

Mona

Update

I have some not so good news. The cancer is back and it is bigger than when we started. The doctor called Harry directly so I have few details other than he will be undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments again. On Monday we go for a simulation scan.. I do not know what that is but we go at 1:30pm. When Dr. Monsour spoke with Harry he said he was going to have to get fancy with him.. Again I do not know what it means but whenever I have a chance to speak with a doctor and get details I will and I will update it here.

So we need another round of prayer..

Thank you for all your support..

Love Mona & Harry

PET Fusion Scan

Harry had a PET Fusion Scan today and we expect the results sometime tomorrow... I will post as soon as I have information..

A First for Us..

A few years ago Harry bought us matching bikes for Christmas. Due to my lack of enthusiasm - we never used them. However while I was out of town my sister Missy and her husband Raymond and son Jay came to visit Harry and help out around the house and one of the things he fixed was the tires on the bikes. Well yesterday we rode around the neighborhood for 30 minutes... Harry really really enjoyed it.

So more on Wednesday after the PET Fusion

Dr Visit

Harry had an appointment with Dr. Monsour yesterday. He has scheduled another PET Scan for next Wednesday. I am not sure what they are looking for but Harry has been sweating for the past 3 weeks and he has had a couple of bad days - so I guess it is better to be safe than sorry.. But he had a fabulous day yesterday.

Thanks for all your support..