Prayers/Positive Thoughts Requested

[jillywilly65]

Thanks for the update Keys. Having lost my mom to cancer, my heart goes out to them at this time. I wouldn't wish chemo on my worst enemy. So painful and It breaks your heart that theres nothing you can do but pray and stay hopeful.
Lord Keep blessing Sid

Jilly

[jillywilly65]

Lets not forget our AWESOME TROOPS abroad and at home. They need extra special prayers during these especially dangerous days. Plus they are homesick beyond belief this time of the year I'm sure.
I am so thankful for their courage and dedication..God Bless them everyone, and their families

Jilly

[genieintx]

My need isn't anywhere near as important as anything else in this thread, but any help you could throw me, I'd really appreciate it.

Hey, I could really use you ladies' help. I don't post over here a lot I realize, but we are all family, right?

I am very excited! My recipe “Granny Hazel's Chocolate Creme Pie” has been selected as one of the 100 semi-finalists in the Chefs.com Treasured Recipes Contest.

The 5 finalists from the voting results will be flown to San Francisco, California, for a cook-off, and a panel of celebrity judges will determine the grand prize winner. So I really need your vote!! Please Please Please vote for me.


You must be a registered member of chefs.com to vote. It’s not an invasive registration, so please register and vote for me.

The direct link to register is: www.chefs.com/register.aspx

The direct link to vote is:

Each Chefs.com member is allowed to vote 5 times per calendar day. Please vote for me as much as possible. I really really appreciate it!!!!

[Joan S]

Please keep my neighbor Denise in your prayers. She was diagnosed in 2005 with cancer and it has come back. She was operated on again last month. Please say a prayer for her and her family. Thanks!

[keysunset]

Oooh, Genie, I see you are at #6! Best wishes to you!

JS, thanks for sharing. Prayers for your neighbor, her family, and all who love her.

Thanks to you Jilly for your prayers too.

Sid's chemo #2 was yesterday. He's says he's still kicking! He's a fighter that one. Keep the prayers and good thoughts coming for him and his family.

[keysunset]

Cool, Genie, I see you are hanging up near the top of the contest! Vote all, vote!

Chemo #3 for Sid tomorrow. Y'all please keep him and his family in thoughts and prayers, too.

[keysunset]

Sid F'er had chemo #3 today. Here's an update he posted at the Leper House message board:

I find I feel best Mon-Wed, with most of the side effects hitting me worst Thur-Sat. Mostly just a hungover feeling with lots of naps and not much of an appetite. And now a delightful rash which looks and feels more like my face has been dunked in a deep fryer. Today I've also found that I have the ability to remove clumps of hair from my scalp with no effort, so I believe I'll finally get to shave my head in a pre-emptive strike.

So in general, it's been more difficult than I expected since I thought I'd breeze through it for some reason, but still not too bad.

Three down, five to go. Then the fun starts.

The fun being the radiation treatments. Please keep sending the positive thoughts and prayers. Thanks.

[Cheza]

Just stumbled across this thread tonight. It shows what a loving little community has been brought together through Mr. MC. I have noted all the requests for prayers and positive thoughts.

My request is as someone else described their own (nowhere near as important as the others here), but today I found out some exciting news and I wanted to share it.

One of my former students, Cedric Houston, is a running back for the New York Jets. Sunday he ran for 105 yards and two touchdowns against Green Bay. This has netted him a nomination for the Fed Ex Ground NFL Player of the Week.

He is coming back from a knee injury that had him off the field for seven games...so you can only imagine how big a deal this is for him...not to mention how big an honor being nominated is.

However, he's up against stiff competition. Both of the other nominees (Washington's Ladell Betts and San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson) ran more yards, but I've never met a young man who loves the game more than Cedric (and that includes Carolina Panther DeAngelo Williams who I knew when I taught at his high school during his senior year).

Ced comes from a small town of about 2,072 people called Clarendon. The folks in that town would be super thrilled if he were to win...I'm sure his nomination is the talk of the town . He's a good kid (even though he's an adult now...he'll always be one of my "kids") and he's a very sweet guy.

So, how can you help? Go to the Jets website: www.newyorkjets.com - There you will find a link to vote in an article about Ced's nomination. I'm not sure when voting ends, but any votes would be appreciated. I know how much you like to vote for things *wink wink* .

Thanks and I will check the thread periodically for new requests for prayers and positive thoughts. I think this thread is a fantastic idea!

[Cheza]

Please send prayers and positive thoughts the way of my friend, Betz. Betz and I met through a support group for psoriatic arthritis (a disease which we both deal with). She is a single-mom (divorced) of a pre-teen girl with Asperger's Syndrome (high-functioning autism). Betz and Rachel have both been in and out of the hospital recently. Betz has developed Iritis and is losing her sight. She has such a great faith and a positive outlook on life that I know she will be fine, but she's having a really hard time right now. While she was in the hospital a couple of months back, her employer terminated her health insurance along with her job - and that has left her with a huge bill and no way to pay it. Betz and Rachel have created their own addendum to "Footprints in the Sand" called "Butt-prints in the Sand"...because every now and then you just have to sit on the shore a while and rest.

Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Peace,
Jenn

[keysunset]

Cheza, thanks for posting your request.

I'm sending positive waves and prayers for all of you.

And "butt-prints in the sand" heh, heh, I like that! Thanks for sharing that too.

eta: Tomorrow is Sid's chemo treatment #4. Keep him, family, and the staff at the University of Chicago Hospitals in thoughts and prayers.

If you want a little info about where he is going:
www.uchospitals.edu/specialties/cancer/head-neck/

Thanks.

[Cheza]

Hey all,

Tonight I must request prayers for myself as this has been a difficult week.

Peace.

[dawn]

Hi Cheza

You have my utmost sympathy & respect for being a teacher, I couldn't do it as I would have outbursts at the teenagers/kids daily.

I hope you've managed to reach some sort of answer on this subject and that the talk with your Supervisor went well.

Thinking of you

Dawn

[keysunset]

Continued positive waves for you Cheza. Teachers do have a hard life of it sometimes.

The things I did to my teachers ... another day, perhaps.

Update on that Sid F'er - halfway through the initial chemo! I'm going to repost his updates from Leper House:

They haven't killed me yet. Got a catheter implant in my chest today - good times. And the doctors even left their offices today to visit me in infusion therapy to see my impressive rash. So you know it's good. Even asked if they could take a photo. Maybe I'll end up on a brochure someday. And I thought my modeling career was over.

and re: the chest catheter, I asked what that was:

Basically a little implant just under the skin in the chest that runs into an artery so you don't have to get an IV every time. They just stick the line into the port and you're good to go. Can also draw blood from it. Speeds up the process, reduces all the bruising/burning, and just more convenient.

The first line of defense on the rash is just cold compresses and moisturizer. That wasn't cutting it, so they put me on some antibiotics that were supposed to help. Still pretty bad, so they gave me an Rx for some magic cream that might help. Supposed to level off and maybe even tail off a bit. If it doesn't, they might skip a week.

If they don't have to skip a week, then Sid will check into the hospital on January 13 for the first round of chemo/radiation. Every other week for ten weeks. Keep those prayers and positive waves coming for him and his family.

[keysunset]

Just a note from my friend the Chai-rista - her father is improving! Thank you all so so much for all your kind thoughts and prayers for him. All we want is for him to be able to function and "putter" around doing some few things that make him happy, and not feel so weak and short of breath.

Do say a prayer or send a positive wave to them all as they deal with this, yet another "first", Christmas since the Chai-rista's brother died in April.

xoxo

[dawn]

Cheza - any news? How are things now at school? Hope the situation worked itself out & you're not getting any from it.

Key, that's amazing news about your friends dad It's nice to think that the positive thoughts are doing some good.

[keysunset]

Chemo #5 tomorrow for Sid F'er. Here's his update:

I shaved what was left of my hair today. Made the transition from Matthew Fox to Bruce Willis.
Rash much improved this week, and chest seems to be healing.
Getting ready for week one of the next cycle starting on Tuesday with the full chemo cocktail.

Please continue to keep him and family in thoughts & prayers. Thank you.

EDITED TO ADD: 12/19/2006 - Sid's through chemo #5 and says:
I'm still alive. Chock full of taxol, carboplatin, and erbitux, but still alive.

Liver enzymes were way up again today. But they aren't concerned yet. RBC was a bit below normal again, but recovered a bit from last week so no action required.

Everything else is cool.

Thanks all for your positive thoughts and prayers.

[keysunset]

Tomorrow (12/26) is chemo #6 for Sid F'er. Please continue to keep him in prayers.

[Cheza]

Hey Dawn,

Thanks for asking. Things are okay.

I found a book I bought on Classroom Management a few weeks back. I think I'm going to try to find time to read it before classes resume. I like an analogy the guy who wrote it used and I'm going to tell my kids that along with his one rule. The one rule is that any activity that prevents me from teaching this class effectively or a fellow student from being able to learn can be punished. He then had a student walk to the pencil sharpener and sharpen his pencil and another walk to the wastebasket to throw something away...you can guess where all the kids eyes were, can't you?...On the other kids...of course!

The analogy he used when doling out punishment was thus. "I'm like the highway patrolman. All speeders are doing something punishable, but not all speeders will be punished even though they all deserve a ticket (because not all will be caught). If you are misbehaving and I catch you expect me to punish your behavior...I'm not promising that I will catch everyone all of the time. " I'm so tired of kids yelling that this one or that one should have one punishment or another. I've finally resorted to asking them: 1. Are you the teacher? and 2. Do you want to have 200 sentences yourself for trying to discipline my class, which is not your job?

In other news, I've been trying to help a kid in another English teacher's class, through after-school tutoring. She made a 40 on her final after we worked on what was going to be on it for an hour on Monday...the test was Wednesday...and her father came to see me Wednesday afternoon. He didn't blame me, but now he's had her moved into one of MY CLASSES for the Spring semester. Pray that I'll be able to help her. I don't know what the problem is...unless it's test anxiety. The bad news is she ended up failing the first semester and if you fail English in 7th grade we hold you back. He was asking me what would happen if she got a B during the second semester...I told him I didn' t know.

Pray I will be able to help her once school resumes on Jan. 2.

Peace.

[Cheza]

keysunset said:

Tomorrow (12/26) is chemo #6 for Sid F'er. Please continue to keep him in prayers.

Will do. I'd also like to ask everyone to remember three of my students (Jackie, Andrea, & Tory - all sophomores) and my step-cousins (Hannah & Carole Anne) who are all going through their first Christmas without their dads. My step-cousins' dad died of pancreatic cancer on Christmas Day last year and Jackie & Andrea both lost their dads to cancer within the past year. Andrea also has two little sisters. Jackie said they hadn't even put up a tree at his house the other day...they just weren't in the Christmas spirit.

Say a prayer for them this Christmas and New Year's as you count your blessings.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

Peace.

[starcrossed]

My thoughts and prayers go out to them and to anyone else having a difficult time.

The loss one takes with death is greater than anyone can imagine. It's hard to get into the spirit of the season, when a part of your heart feels like it is missing. Time will make things better or at least a bit easier, but loss of loved ones will never fully go away. It's not such a bad thing...the memories will always be in there hearts.

My mom always took down the Christmas decorations and tree on Christmas Day (at night), because my grandmother has passed away 2 days after Christmas. My grandmother had gone to the hospital Christmas night. That was almost 20 years ago...

Last night(after my son when to bed) my husband helped me take down the tree. I was crying and I couldn't leave the tree there. First it was a few bows..then an ornament..in the end the tree came down. It just didn't "feel right" being up. This morning I put the tree in the garage... I keep telling myself that it would have just been in the way and the neat freak in me needed to use the space for my son to play around....

Things will get easier, but the pain will never go away.

Just pray for them and love them even more....