Journal entry by Debbie Heiman — 7/25/2017
Last Sunday, July 16th, was such a special day for our family! Not only was it the day of the race, but my Mom celebrated her 65th birthday! For those of you who don't know, this was a huge milestone for my Mom! She has been battling cancer since she was 47 years old. She is an amazingly strong individual and has fought long and hard. We're so blessed to still have her with us today and pray that she will be with us for a long time.
I had been looking forward to the Race to Cure Sarcoma since I first found out about it. I want to spread awareness for Sarcoma. It is not a cancer that we hear much about, and I want that to change. We need so much more research to be done to find a cure for this deadly disease. We were so blessed to have over 65 people register to run/walk for Team Heimanstrong! We were the largest team at the race, and I'm so grateful for the love and support that was shown to our family! It was the first year that they had it in Oconomowoc. The had over 700 people. I would love to see that number doubled next year. I'll let everyone know about it as soon as I find out when it will be in 2018. We'd love to have you join Team Heimanstrong with us. I will never forget that day!
We are currently on vacation. Every summer, we take a 10 day vacation. Since Scott was diagnosed in April 2015, we have not been able to do much vacationing, especially for 10 days! Scott's treatments took up so much of our time that we could never get away. Since we made the choice to take a break from treatments this summer, here we are, enjoying a 10 day getaway. We feel so blessed to be able to have this time to enjoy our favorite family activity- camping.
We do not look forward to the scan that will be coming up at the end of August, but we pray that God's will be done. He knows what is best for our family, and I pray that it means we hear that Scott's cancer remains stable. That would be the most amazing news that we could hear!
The fact that Scott is looking and feeling great brings me so much joy! I haven't seen him this happy in a LONG time. This break in treatment is exactly what he needed. We will never regret making this decision.
Please join me in praying for another month of Scott feeling great and being able to enjoy his treatment free summer. Everyone who has been around Scott lately would probably agree that he is genuinely happy! He is enjoying life and making the most of the time that God is blessing him with. I can't begin to tell you how much I love and adore my amazing husband! He is such a fighter and I'm so proud of him.
Journal entry by Debbie Heiman — 7/31/2017
Our family started vacation at Scott's parents house on Lake Arrowhead. After 3 days, we headed to Lake Wazeecha for 3 days for the annual Heiman family camp. The last 4 days was just our family at Chutes Pond Campground in Oconto County. The whole vacation was wonderful, until Saturday night.
Scott started to feel nauseous and have some abdominal pain around 3PM. He pushed through it and cooked dinner for us on the campfire, even though he was beginning to feel worse. He even went on a hike to a lookout area that we went to earlier in the day. We told the kid that we would go back in the dark to see the stars. We got back around 10PM. We sat around the fire. The kids had dessert, and then we all went to bed around 11.
Scott was feeling terrible at bedtime, and the pain was worsening in his abdomen. He began vomiting around midnight and throughout the entire night. By noon, he had stopped vomiting and was completely exhausted!
I had called Scott's Dad by this point, because I knew Scott couldn't drive in his condition. They were still at Lake Wazeecha. I don't know how to drive our 1976 Dodge van. It's a 3 on the tree stick. Gary said that they would finish packing up, take their camper home, and come to us in their Mustang.
We needed to get Hannah to Camp Bird, which was our original plan for camping only 30 minutes from there. I called my friend Linda who was dropping her daughter Lucy off on Sunday too. She was SO kind to go out of her way to pick Hannah up and take her for us. I'm sad that we didn't get to drop her off. I pray that she has a fun week and doesn't worry too much about her Dad.
Scott's parents arrived to our campsite around 3:15 or so on Sunday. They kindly told us to take the Mustang and get Scott to the ER. Scott wanted to go to Froedtert, so we made it home. He slept most of the trip. They packed our camper up for us, took our kids and dog and went to their house for the night. They will bring everything to West Allis sometime today (since it is already almost 4AM).
Scott and I got to the ER around 7:15PM on Sunday night. They did bloodwork an x-Ray and a CT scan. The bloodwork looked good except for elevated white blood cells. The x-Ray and CT confirmed a bowel obstruction.
They placed an NG tube in the ER. I wouldn't wish this on anyone! It's hard enough being nauseous. Scott was still vomiting up the IV fluids that they were giving him. It is so hard to see him in pain.
We were told that we'd be admitted to the 7th floor in the new CFAC building, but around 2:45AM, he was wheeled up to the 5th floor in the main hospital. I wasn't too thrilled about that.
Finally, at 4AM, they just hooked up the suction for the NG tube. He's trying to sleep and remain calm, but it's very difficult. Please pray that we aren't here for long.
Our oncology team will come and see us tomorrow. They will discuss the CT scan with us in more detail. They weren't able to tell us much in the ER.
Journal entry by Debbie Heiman — 7/31/2017
Thank you for all of the prayers, love and concern that has been shown to us. I have gotten many offers to help in whatever way is needed. I appreciate knowing that I have people to turn to if I need anything. You are all such a huge part of our fight! You help keep me strong without even knowing what an affect you have on my strength.
All of the prayers are being heard by our gracious God! Scott is doing so much better today. A huge part of his improvement was removing the NG tube. My neighbor hit it on the head when she said they might as well call it a torture device. It was hard to see him suffering and not be able to help him. We're both so happy that the tube is out!
They can't promise that they won't have to place another NG tube, because we don't know how his body will handle eating or drinking yet. If he starts drinking water tomorrow or eats and continues to vomit, that could mean that the bowel obstruction isn't gone. He is tolerating his IV fluids without vomiting, so that's a good sign. He has no abdominal pain today either, which is a huge blessing. His pain was at a 10 on Saturday night at the campground. I have to admit that was very scary, knowing I had no way to take him anywhere if I needed to, except calling 911. God made it all work out, and I'm so thankful! Scott is so tough and has endured so much. I'm thankful he's had a nice break and has felt good up until now this summer.
The surgical oncologist is unsure about what he sees on the CT scan. Besides for the bowel obstruction that he saw, he doesn't know if there is new tumor in the peritoneum or just scar tissue. This seems to be a common problem with scans in people with DSRCT who have had abdominal debulking surgery. We will pray that it's scar tissue.
We have no idea how much longer they need to keep us. We also don't know what the future plan for treatment will be. We didn't get to talk to our oncologist Dr. Charlson today. Hopefully we'll see him tomorrow.
Scott was supposed to have a scan at the end of August. That may change, but we're used to going with the flow. What else can you do? God's got a plan, even though it's hard for us to understand.
Keep the prayers coming for further improvement day by day and getting back home to our kids and our beds! It's been a long time since we've been home sweet home.
Love and hugs to each and every one of you!
