Hello Family, Mom asked me to update you all on my Dad. I'm sure that you are hearing as much through the heads of your families. We believe (with blood counts and doctors' words) that Dad is coming to the end of his journey. He has had a rough couple of months here with painful ear infections, coughing, nausea, and extreme fatigue, among other things--and the antibiotics and chemotherapy are no longer working to improve his condition. Though he is, off and on, pain free and coherent at least while he is awake (which is only about 20% of the day), we believe he is ready to be free from the intense struggle he has fought for the last 10 years. Mom would love to express her extreme gratitude to all who have supported her in every way through this journey. As much as this has been an emotional time for her, she feels peace in the route the Lord has chosen for our family to travel.
As for visiting my Dad, he appreciates and enjoys brief visits, but he truly is too weak and tired to carry on a conversation much longer than a few minutes and appreciates it when people are conscientious of this. The rest of us will talk your ear off if you're not careful :)
The doctors that have been so close to him these years are telling us he might last a few more weeks or months. He couldn't be a better candidate for the beauty and rest of the next life and we are eager for him to experience this though it is hard to let go. We feel that the fasting and prayers of the past have created miracles despite doctors' misgivings--he has lived many more years than they ever predicted. We do have the feeling though that the Lord needs him home. Thank you all for your constant love. We feel it every day.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Update on Amber & LaMarr
Hi!
I took Amber to the Doctor yesterday. (Reed went back to work after missing two weeks.) She has completed her Radioactive Iodine treatment, is out of isolation, has started on thyroid, monitoring her levels of calcium and will continue to check if they got all the cancer. She is gaining more strength every day. We feel blessed that she is doing as well as she is.
We had LaMarr's doctor appointment this morning. The good news is, he does not have pneumonia and the radiology report does not show lymphoma in the lung. (Our cancer doctor is looking at it himself to make sure of no lymphoma.) They feel it is scar tissue from when he had two liters of fluid drained from his lungs a few years ago. He does have acute sinusitis, is on more very expensive antibiotics (after being on it already for about three weeks), and is scheduled for a sinus cat scan next Tuesday. He has a fever, ear infection, deep cough, spitting up gunk and they are disparate to clear this all up. His IGM Protein is going up and up, way higher even than it was when he first got sick. They need to give chemo (which kills the good along with the bad) to get it down, but don't dare lower his white and red blood counts any more (his is currently very low so has no fighting power) till they get this infection cleared up. They gave him another aranesp shot to keep trying to boost his red blood. He is taking it easy and resting most of the time. We are hoping the weather will soon warm up and we can get out a little. As we left the doctors office, they said, "Go and have some FUN" -when you can. So, we are looking forward to the summer and plenty of get-togethers, parties, trips, reunion and FUN.
Love you all,
I took Amber to the Doctor yesterday. (Reed went back to work after missing two weeks.) She has completed her Radioactive Iodine treatment, is out of isolation, has started on thyroid, monitoring her levels of calcium and will continue to check if they got all the cancer. She is gaining more strength every day. We feel blessed that she is doing as well as she is.
We had LaMarr's doctor appointment this morning. The good news is, he does not have pneumonia and the radiology report does not show lymphoma in the lung. (Our cancer doctor is looking at it himself to make sure of no lymphoma.) They feel it is scar tissue from when he had two liters of fluid drained from his lungs a few years ago. He does have acute sinusitis, is on more very expensive antibiotics (after being on it already for about three weeks), and is scheduled for a sinus cat scan next Tuesday. He has a fever, ear infection, deep cough, spitting up gunk and they are disparate to clear this all up. His IGM Protein is going up and up, way higher even than it was when he first got sick. They need to give chemo (which kills the good along with the bad) to get it down, but don't dare lower his white and red blood counts any more (his is currently very low so has no fighting power) till they get this infection cleared up. They gave him another aranesp shot to keep trying to boost his red blood. He is taking it easy and resting most of the time. We are hoping the weather will soon warm up and we can get out a little. As we left the doctors office, they said, "Go and have some FUN" -when you can. So, we are looking forward to the summer and plenty of get-togethers, parties, trips, reunion and FUN.
Love you all,
Monday, April 7, 2008
Amber & Reed
This is Monday. Amber came home Saturday and then had to be rushed back to the hospital. It has to do with here calcium levels. We have been with their kids. Amber will hopefully come home tomorrow. Her mother got here this morning to help. She does have thyroid Cancer and will be having radioactive Iodine Treatments. They meet with that doctor this Thursday to find out what all is involved. It is one of the most treatable cancers. We are thankful for that.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Amber
We are at Reed and Amber's, with their kids while Amber goes in for surgery today at 3:00 pm to remove her thyroid glands. They found lumps that have been growing and feel the need to remove them. She has had biopsy's on them, but they were unable to tell if they were cancerous, so there will be a doctor their checking on that as they take them out. Please remember her in your prayers and we pray all will go for the best and be helpful with some of her health situations.
Monday, March 17, 2008
LaMarr's doctor
Hi everyone,
We had a doctor's appointment last Thursday with LaMar's cancer doctor. LaMarr always has lab before he sees the doctor, so the doctor knows what his counts are. He came in and asked how he was doing and how he felt. LaMarr has been feeling reasonably well, doing some spring garden work and pruning and it has been going pretty well. The doctor said, well, according to this report, clinically, I should be treating you. Your blood counts are still way low, about the same as it has been, which is not good. Your IGM, or protein in the blood has gone way up, even higher than when you first got sick, which is not good. So, clinically it tells me I should be treating you, but when I look at you, compared to other times, and you are doing pretty well, I think we have got to go logically and not treat you right now. Sometimes the experimental chemotherapy they gave him earlier takes time to work and bring counts to more what they should be. He said, it is obvious that that chemo has done some good (he thought the worst before, when he was desperate and decided to try this experimental type), so I think we need to give it more time and just watch you, and not put your body through more right now.
So, that is what we are up to now, working around, enjoying our children and grandchildren, waiting to plant our garden with spring coming on, hopefully soon. We feel so blessed. We have talked a lot to the doctor and can tell he is totally up on the latest and knows what he is talking about. We are thankful he doesn't just go by the books only. He delves into all the latest studies and totally keeps up on things. We have talked to others that have gone down to Utah to the Huntsman Clinic, or to Washington to the big cancer center there, and they have sent them back saying MIST, our cancer clinic here, can do anything we can do. So, we feel very good about things here.
Just a few minutes ago, we got a call from a doctor at the Utah Hospital where we have been doing the big family Genetic Testing studies. They had just had the Kofoed family (LaMarr, his mom and brothers and sisters) go down and be tested - the first of March. They didn't do near as much testing as they did the Walker family, but they did do the bone density test and took some blood. Well, the doctor was phoning because LaMarr's blood counts in all these areas I mentioned with his cancer doctor, were so alarming. He didn't know he was under a cancer doctor, but he felt he needed to let him know to get to a doctor immediately. LaMarr told him what his counts were from Thursday's appointment and that he was under a doctors care. He said that was pretty much what they had found out and was greatly relieved that we were already being cared for. LaMarr asked about the rest of his family. The doctor, of course, said because of confidentiality he couldn't disclose that, but he did say there was nothing too alarming about the others. That was good to know for the others.
Anyway, we are going on, doing fine, and feel very blessed thanks to everyone's prayers, love and concern. We are so thankful for all of you. We love you all so much.
Love, Daleen
We had a doctor's appointment last Thursday with LaMar's cancer doctor. LaMarr always has lab before he sees the doctor, so the doctor knows what his counts are. He came in and asked how he was doing and how he felt. LaMarr has been feeling reasonably well, doing some spring garden work and pruning and it has been going pretty well. The doctor said, well, according to this report, clinically, I should be treating you. Your blood counts are still way low, about the same as it has been, which is not good. Your IGM, or protein in the blood has gone way up, even higher than when you first got sick, which is not good. So, clinically it tells me I should be treating you, but when I look at you, compared to other times, and you are doing pretty well, I think we have got to go logically and not treat you right now. Sometimes the experimental chemotherapy they gave him earlier takes time to work and bring counts to more what they should be. He said, it is obvious that that chemo has done some good (he thought the worst before, when he was desperate and decided to try this experimental type), so I think we need to give it more time and just watch you, and not put your body through more right now.
So, that is what we are up to now, working around, enjoying our children and grandchildren, waiting to plant our garden with spring coming on, hopefully soon. We feel so blessed. We have talked a lot to the doctor and can tell he is totally up on the latest and knows what he is talking about. We are thankful he doesn't just go by the books only. He delves into all the latest studies and totally keeps up on things. We have talked to others that have gone down to Utah to the Huntsman Clinic, or to Washington to the big cancer center there, and they have sent them back saying MIST, our cancer clinic here, can do anything we can do. So, we feel very good about things here.
Just a few minutes ago, we got a call from a doctor at the Utah Hospital where we have been doing the big family Genetic Testing studies. They had just had the Kofoed family (LaMarr, his mom and brothers and sisters) go down and be tested - the first of March. They didn't do near as much testing as they did the Walker family, but they did do the bone density test and took some blood. Well, the doctor was phoning because LaMarr's blood counts in all these areas I mentioned with his cancer doctor, were so alarming. He didn't know he was under a cancer doctor, but he felt he needed to let him know to get to a doctor immediately. LaMarr told him what his counts were from Thursday's appointment and that he was under a doctors care. He said that was pretty much what they had found out and was greatly relieved that we were already being cared for. LaMarr asked about the rest of his family. The doctor, of course, said because of confidentiality he couldn't disclose that, but he did say there was nothing too alarming about the others. That was good to know for the others.
Anyway, we are going on, doing fine, and feel very blessed thanks to everyone's prayers, love and concern. We are so thankful for all of you. We love you all so much.
Love, Daleen
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Letting you see!
I'm seeing how easy this is to keep family informed.
LaMarr has a doctor's appointment tomorrow, Mar. 13th, to see how his counts are doing, but in the mean time he is feeling pretty good. We are getting spring fever and loving to get out and clean and prepare our garden and flower beds.
We are excited for Kerri and her family to come and be with us for most of the summer. Cory graduates at the end of April and has a job in Dallas, TX starting the first part of August, so they are coming during the break. You can check Izzy's blogspot: izzycostley.blogspot.com for updates on her. She is doing pretty well right now. We have got to get her connected with doctors and the cancer center while she is here, to keep up on her treatments, so working on that.
We love you all.
Daleen
LaMarr has a doctor's appointment tomorrow, Mar. 13th, to see how his counts are doing, but in the mean time he is feeling pretty good. We are getting spring fever and loving to get out and clean and prepare our garden and flower beds.
We are excited for Kerri and her family to come and be with us for most of the summer. Cory graduates at the end of April and has a job in Dallas, TX starting the first part of August, so they are coming during the break. You can check Izzy's blogspot: izzycostley.blogspot.com for updates on her. She is doing pretty well right now. We have got to get her connected with doctors and the cancer center while she is here, to keep up on her treatments, so working on that.
We love you all.
Daleen
Monday, March 3, 2008
Getting started!
The W.H. Walker family is setting up a family website/blog where we will have links to blogs for each of the immediate family and from there you can find links to their children and grandchildren. So this is the LaMarr & Daleen Kofoed Family blog and we would like to link any of our family from this site that would like to be included.
I'm at Traci's, she helped me set this up with what pictures she had. Sorry Sonja is missing from the family picture. We'll try to update it when we can.
I'm at Traci's, she helped me set this up with what pictures she had. Sorry Sonja is missing from the family picture. We'll try to update it when we can.
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