Services - updated

Here is some additional information on Friday's services....

Services will be held on Friday, April 3, 2009 at the First United Methodist Church, 4308 West Davis Street, Conroe, Texas 77304. (Phone: 936-756-3395)

Receiving begins at 12:30 with a Memorial and Celebration of Life service to begin at 1:30. A reception will immediately follow at the Weems' residence (maps will be provided at the church).

A nursery will be provided at the church on Friday starting at 12:30. If you plan on using nursery services, you may want to call the church office to make sure they are able to get the correct number of workers.

In lieu of flowers...

the family would like to request that donations be made in support of the NeuroCircle Brain Tumor Support Group. Please direct donations to the "Methodist Hospital Foundation / NeuroCircle", 6560 Fannin St., Suite 944 , Houston , TX 77030.

Services

First... thank you so much for all of your well wishes and prayers during this difficult time.

The services for David will take place this Friday, April 3, at First United Methodist Church (see below). The schedule is as follows:
- Receiving @ 12:30
- Memorial service and celebration of life @ 1:30
- A reception will immediately follow at the Weem's residence.

Please email me at news4david@fieldfish.com if you have any questions.

First United Methodist Church

4308 West Davis Street, Conroe, Texas 77304

Phone: 936-756-3395

David Weems

I am so sorry to have to report that after a long and hard fought battle, David passed away this afternoon. While the speed of deteriation was suprising to us, he went quickly and peacefully.

I will post information here on services.

He will be greatly missed by all that knew him... and me.

David's brother-in-law.
Gareth

Wii R Family

Well, it was bad enough that the cancer snagged me, then the infections, surgeries, radiation and chemo treatments….now my mother-in-law is buying and encouraging the use of products designed to shorten my life. She managed to find us a Wii Fit board and insists that it be part of my recovery. Anyway, if you don't know how these work you have to set up a little Wii person (a Mii) who works out for you and every Wii person gets rated by your abilities and the machine gives that Wii person an age. My Wii age was a stellar 43, Emma 11, Jessica (our most fit member) 25, Ethan 27, and bringing up the rear, Nicola with an astounding young 57! So it just goes to show you even with ¾ of a brain I've still got plenty of talents, I'm just not going to waste it folding clothes.

So, we are sitting up here again at MD Anderson waiting for another MRI. Hopefully we will get home before midnight this time as Jan is at the house with the kids. We are getting a little better at the scheduling stuff to give me more time during the day to keep up with sales calls and other work responsibilities. It's been tough being so distracted by battling this disease and I've really missed my customers and the feeling of being able to help others who are also battling for their lives. It's funny how much you appreciate what you had when it changes so quickly. I do not take anything for granted! And my new thought is to try and make at least one memory (that sticks) everyday. If I can teach one of the kids something new, or make someone laugh or smile…I consider it a successful day. Not trying to be corny here, but being nice is a whole lot more fun than being a grump (not that I ever was).

New milestone…Ethan is now officially a cub scout and a proud serving member of Troop 143. Evidently, I am too. But I am NOT wearing a uniform or sleeping in a tent for that matter (unless Nicola makes me and I'm sure she will). The troop seems well organized and I think Ethan is enjoying being around a bunch of boys and away from his sisters. He looks really cool in his uniform and I think he's going to be a great scout. He's already asking for a knife.

He looked way too cool not to share a picture! Evidently he's got brains like his dad as his head was too big for his cap, so we had to exchange it for a bigger one.

Another great feat that I have been particularly proud of was Jessica got her picture in the sports edition of the local newspaper swimming the 400 freestyle relay for Conroe High. It was Nicola's keen eye to detail that caught the picture and it is nice to have as a keepsake. She has had a good year swimming and maintaining perfect grades (completely impressed and proud of her). Obviously, she gets it from me.

Emma continues to be the chicken master around the house. These chickens follow her around like she is the mother hen. Although she won't admit it, I think she really loves the chickens and the fact that they love her more than anyone in the family. Our fridge is over flowing with farm fresh eggs. Ethan is afraid that we are going into the egg business which he isn't comfortable with after seeing the movie, Kit Kitteridge. I like the chickens too, and I still say it was one of the smartest Mother's day presents that I have ever bought.

So, as for me….after completing the first cycle of treatment, we have some updates. One thing that the first round has shown us is that we are going to have to change directions in our treatment. We are starting February with a new treatment plan involving several new agents designed to more strategically target the tumors we are dealing with. We have not seen the desired response from the other treatments and the new approach is going to be more aggressive. Comes with a little more risk and some side effects that will have to be managed, but it's not anything that we are unwilling to go through to beat this thing. We've come a long way and I'm still feeling strong and good. Even though I complain about the PT, I can already tell there is a difference in my muscle strength and tone and the stronger I can get, the better I can fight. I am always encouraged when I get to read your responses to this blog and faith and your prayers are lifting me up when I'm having bad days.

Something else that I was reminded of about cancer and statistics: cancer doesn't win 100% of the time. That leaves room to beat this thing.

Keep praying, have faith and we'll beat this thing together.

David

PS: If anyone is interested, I'm doing Relay for Life. It's a benefit for the American Cancer Society. Here is the link if you care to read about it.

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY09PL?px=4461505&pg=personal&fr_id=17584

Post SRS

Saturday, January 31, 2009

David spent a week recovering from his sinus infection last Thursday, but we headed back down there for his fourth round of SRS treatment on Monday anyway. He is use to it by now, and we know all the nursing staff. They treat us like family. Lovely, caring people. David's sister stayed at the house while we were gone all day which was a huge help with the kids. We even got to watch the Bachelor together that night. That's going to become our routine now I think. David felt okay after the treatment, but still extremely fatigued. Unfortunately, we were not able to make it to San Antonio for his meeting. He spent the week trying to recover. He did start physical therapy on Thursday which we think is going to be great for him. He has a great therapist named Vickie who has put him on an extremely regimented routine which even includes folding laundry! Of course, he hasn't done that yet, old habits die hard, but I'm going to report him, so she can tell him offJ. My mom took him on Friday for his second appt. and apparently, Vickie worked him hard because he has been in a lot of pain today. Last night we went to the movies to see Gran Torino and out to dinner. Very nice to be able to do "normal" things. Don't ever take those things for granted! Today, Jess had a swim meet and went home with a friend to spend the night and Emma is at a friend's overnight too. So, Ethan and David are watching a movie currently. I believe Clint Eastwood's in that too. Dori arrives again tomorrow, but the PET we had scheduled for Monday has been cancelled as insurance didn't see the necessity in it. Go figure. We go on Tuesday for a CT scan and Wed. for an appt. with Dr. Papa and an MRI – it will be a long night. Hopefully we will have more information after our appt. as to where we go from here. We are in a holding pattern right now.

I'm sure I have forgotten lots of things to tell you, but I'm tired. It has been a long week. Thanks to everyone who has had to listen to my ranting this week. I am hoping to go to Dallas with my great friend, Margie on Friday to visit our other great friend, Cathryn. Scott has volunteered (I hope) to stay with David. It will be nice to step away from it for a bit. We are coming up to five months, and it has been the hardest five months ever! One blessing is that I have found some great friends that are unfortunately going through the same thing. One lady, I haven't even met yet, but have chatted with via email. We have surprisingly similar stories and I can't wait to get to know her more.

Thanks to everyone who has helped us this week. Oh, and David has a page for our Relay for Life team. I will post it on the blog as soon as my dear friend, Tricia helps me with it. Thank you Tricia for being such a rock, even though I know this is probably very scary for you too.

Please keep praying for David to get stronger and that our tests next week are okay. Please also keep the kids in mind, as they are missing their dad in their daily lives and have been the best little caregivers ever! They are all very good at telling him what he is and isn't supposed to be doing.

Keep praying, have faith, and we'll beat this thing together.

Nicola

The Five Minute Plan

So, we're back on the five minute plan – for today anyway……

For those of you that haven't heard, the "five minute plan" was instituted back in September when we realized that trying to make plans further than five minutes out was futile. Everything changes so quickly. The plan today, as of last night, was for my dad to take David for an MRI (something that has become routine), in preparation for Monday's SRS. However, David woke me up at 5am and said he had chills and that we should take his temperature. Long story short, we ended up in the ER. After a battery of tests, they released him with a course of antibiotics. Nothing major… just a sinus infection. But when you are on chemo, any infection is bad. He feels much better now and is now sleeping. We did learn one thing today though. We love Dr. Pappa, our new doctor. He is very attentive and thorough. We are looking forward to a nice weekend at home with great weather!

Keep praying, have faith, and we will beat this thing together.

Nicola