Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Update on Dad

Philip Ray Brown (8/7/08)

I posted earlier about my Dad being diagnosed with stage 4 Multiple Myeloma (plasma cell cancer). There have been a lot of changes since then so I thought I would update his situation. The doctors were relieved in the beginning that he had this type of cancer because it typically responds well to radiation. The radiation makes it go into remission and MM cancer patients can live years with this disease. We took that as good news. And I was excited that we were talking years instead of days. But as with all types of cancer, you never know what to expect.

My Dad finished radiation treatments a few weeks ago. One of his tumors was almost completely gone, so we knew it was working. When the radiation was over, he was supposed to return to himself (meaning less pain, more energy, more mobility, and more Phil-like), but that was not the case. His body started deteriorating after the radiation treatments. He got a yeast infection on his throat (didn't know that was possible, but Dad's body found a way for it to happen) and couldn't eat for a week. His body has become frail and weak. (The doctor explained to us that his bones were like swiss cheese with holes inside of them because of the MM.) One night he got up in the middle of the night without his walker and fell over which resulted in four broken ribs. Those broken ribs, along with many other pains, make it hard for him to breathe and to walk.

At the beginning of this week, the doctor thought that he had a blood clot in his lungs. And I just found out today that my Dad has pneumonia and is being admitted to the hospital as I write this. This scares me for two reasons in particular. One is that I'm not there and that is killing me. The second reason is that with his weakened condition, he has a small chance of fighting the pneumonia. Especially in a hospital rampant with disease. And he's old. So today I write this post in hopes that whoever reads this will say a small prayer for my Father, Philip Ray Brown. A prayer of hope that he will not be in pain any longer whether that means he is with us longer or he joins my Mom in Heaven.

Thank you.
Lexi, Casey, & Dad (8/7/08)

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I Love Playing Dress-Up

My favorite thing to do when I was little was to play pretend and dress-up. Whether that meant dressing myself up or dressing up my barbies, it didn't matter, as long as pretend and dressing up was involved. So when my friend Parker invited me to play on her Six-Man team, I was more than happy to play because the Six-Man tournament is like pretend dress-up for the adult volleyball world. I played on the Sunset Tan team and Casey played on the Spyder team (aka 801 team filled with his Utah buddies). It was so much fun. You dress up and play volleyball. Does it get better than that? My team ended up taking 16th place and Casey's team took 3rd place. This is definitely going to be an annual thing for us. Here's a picture journal of the weekend.

Sunset Tan Team 2008 (I'm kneeling in the middle)

Spyder Team 2008 (Casey's standing far left)

Me blocking the ball

My hot man,"Thor"

Coral, me, Baja, Rica, & Blair watching the boys play

Me & my Baja (Yes, that's a fake horse she's holding)

Baja & Tyler

Two of my favorite girls. Rica & Baja (ELK 4 LIFE)

My favorite guy with two of my favorite girls

Casey's man friend Joaquin

The Kids at the 2008 Manhattan Beach Six-Man tournament