Debbie's (My Sister) November & December Caring Bridge Updates on Scott

Enjoying Scott's break!

Journal entry by Debbie Heiman — 11/10/2017

I have to say that this continued break in treatment has been so nice!  I realized that I haven't updated since September 22. So much has happened during that time, but not much healthwise for Scott thankfully!

 Since I last updated about Lexi, she was hit in the face with a volleyball a second time. It happened on October 4th, the day that she was to be cleared to play again. She has been visiting a concussion clinic ever since, and was even a part of a trial study for children who have had concussions and are suffering long term affects. Hopefully it will help other children who have suffered concussions. She sees a physical therapist, who is trying to help her with some neck pain and headaches.  She has still not been cleared, but we hope that with all of the therapy she will be cleared soon. 

 On October 15, I threw a surprise 40th birthday party for Scott. He had no idea it was coming, and it was truly an amazing day! He deserves that and so much more! He is truly a remarkable man.  He is not always completely honest about how he is feeling, but I  can you read him pretty well,  and I truly believe that he has been feeling good. 

 We are trying to live in the moment, and not think about the scan in January. That is not always an easy task, but more and more days go by that I don't even think about his cancer. That is a blessing that I can't even begin to explain! 

 Scott received some amazing gifts for his birthday, including tickets to a Packer game this Sunday at Soldier Field, and a gift card to the Signature Room in Chicago. It is my first Packer game ever! I'm praying that the forecast for rain is wrong.

Scott and I will be leaving tonight to head to Chicago for the weekend. I am so excited! We think that we will spend Saturday at the aquarium in Chicago. This should be quite a memorable weekend for us, and I'm so blessed to be spending this time with him!

My Mom has been in constant treatment, and continues to battle with pain. She is strong and pushes herself daily, however, even going to workout daily. She is truly an inspiration!

I have a prayer request for my Aunt Sharon. She lives in Elkhart, IN with my Uncle Bill. This past Sunday, at a Reformation service, she went into cardiac arrest and needed to be revived. We are all so thankful that by the Grace of God, her life was spared. Everyone at the church acted quickly and calmly from what I hear. She is still hospitalized and waiting to have another procedure. My Mom has relayed positive news to me about her improvements. Please pray with our family for a full recovery! We love you Aunt Sharon!!!

I will try to keep this page updated more often for those who look for updates. I appreciate continued prayers for Scott, Lexi, my Mom and Aunt Sharon! Prayers is so powerful, as we've witnessed in our 2 1/2 year battle. God grant us the strength to keep fighting and NEVER give up!

Love to all from the Heimans 💛

18 years in Heaven

Journal entry by Debbie Heiman — 12/8/2017

18 years ago today, my Dad was called home to heaven. It saddens me to think of everything that he has missed in my life, since I was a 21 year old college student at the time. It was exam week, and I was a senior heading into my semester of student teaching. Those were rough times, but I got through it. 

I hope that my Dad would be proud of the wife, mother and now caregiver that I have become! I want to make my Dad proud and live my life to God's glory. I know that's what my Dad would want for all of us! He was such a faithful man, and would be proud of the faithful leadership that Scott has in our family.

Scott has been fighting for 2 years and 8 months already. We are currently in a pretty good place. We're enjoying our time together and loving the treatment free days. His hours at work have slowed down, but he's still going to work every day. It's so awesome to have him home early every day though! The kid's moods have been so much better with him being home more. I love it! It really makes me much happier too!

We pray that the good days can continue. We will find out a month from today when Scott has his PET scan. We will get the results on January 10th.

Scott has been so amazing with the kids! He's definitely enjoying them as they get older and he can joke around with them and they can laugh together. It truly warms my heart to see him interact with them. Sometimes I wish I was the fun parent, but I'll let him savor in the  glory. 😉 

It's hard to believe that he has cancer most days. He looks so healthy and strong. He never skips a beat! The fact that his liver has had so much cancer in it for over 2 1/2 years, yet is functioning so well, is truly a miracle in my opinion. It's nothing short of God's amazing Grace! HE is so good to us!

We will be spending a lot of quality family time together over the Christmas break. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to spend this time together. I pray for safe travels with all of the driving that we'll be doing to IN, MI, and MN. It will be great to see so much family.

I may not post again until January. If that's the case, we wish you all a Blessed Christmas, pray for safe travels wherever you may be going, and much love to all!

Debbie's Caring Bridge Post - Results for Lexi, Mom and Scott

Updates on Lexi, my Mom and Scott

Journal entry by Debbie Heiman — 1 hour ago

I'll start by updating about our 14 year old Lexi. She got a concussion during volleyball practice on Monday, September 11th. She also hurt her neck when she got hit in the face with the ball. She had a follow up x-ray and met with a neurologist today. She is doing much better and was able to take the neck brace off for most of the day. If she feels good and has no pain, she can leave it off. However, they want her to have it in her locker in case her neck starts hurting, so she can wear it for support.

She will be cleared to play volleyball as soon as she is completely pain free. She is still having headaches. They said she should rotate between Ibuprofen and Tylenol as needed. She also was told many times to stay hydrated!!! Drink lots of water, because like a car, water is the gas that makes us run.

Next is my Mom's update. My Mom has bone cancer. She has tumors on her spine, which cause her a lot of pain. She has been undergoing chemo and radiation recently. She had a scan on Wednesday and got the results today. The good news is that 3 of the tumors on her spine shrunk a little. 2 remained the same. The bad news is that there is one new tumor. The doctor doesn't know why a new tumor would show up during treatment, while other tumors are shrinking. They will be performing a needle biopsy sometime soon to check and see if it's a different kind of cancer than the other tumors. Please keep my Mom and Don in your prayers! It's been such a long time that she's been battling cancer! It will be 18 years at the beginning of the year. She's quite an amazing woman, if I do say so myself!!!

Last, but not least, I'll fill you in on Scott's recent results. First I'll tell you that on Tuesday, September 12th, Scott turned 40. That is a huge deal for us. We're so thankful that he's come so far and is doing so well currently!

Our nurse practitioner walked into the room with 2 thumbs up. I said, "Are you serious?!?" Both Julie and Scott said, "I don't think we would joke about something like this." She said his scan was completely stable once again! For those who are new to our journey, stable means that his liver still has inoperable tumors, but no new tumors were found in his peritoneum (abdominal area). He had surgery in June 2016 to remove all of the tumors in his peritoneum. I believe this is a true miracle and blessing from our good and gracious Savior!

She told us that we don't have to do anything right now, and that he will have a PET scan in 3 months. That would put us at December 20th. She said that they just don't do scans a couple of days before Christmas. That's fine with us. He will have a PET scan on January 8th and we'll get results on January 10th.

He has to go every 6 weeks to have his meta port flushed and make sure that both the inner and outer port are still functioning properly for future use. His labs looked excellent as well. His one liver number is slowly getting closer to normal counts. It was very elevated after surgery and slowly but surely is coming down. All in all, the news is amazing!

We talked about why we aren't doing any maintenance chemo right now. They said that you do what works. Being treatment free is working well for us. There is no proof that he would be any better off doing chemo. He feels so much better when he isn't in treatment, and his quality of life is so much better. He hasn't had treatment since March and has remained stable. Praise be to God! This doesn't work for everyone, that's for sure, but it's working for Scott.

Our prayer is that Scott remains healthy and fever free throughout the winter. We also pray that he is able to enjoy an additional 3 1/2 months of feeling pretty good and hopefully remains free of pain.

God hears all of your prayers and we are so thankful for all of the love and support that we have. I told Scott that God's not done with him yet. I believe he has great plans for Scott, and I can't wait to see what he has planned for Scott's future and for our family. We will continue to hope and pray for many more years with Scott. He is such a blessing to so many! I can't think of one person who doesn't like him. He is a remarkable guy. Of course I'm biased though. The kids and I just love him with all of our hearts!