Update From Papa Bear:

"Well helloooooooooooo laa la laa la laa,

My surgery is scheduled for Friday, April 3rd. Friday is just around the corner, or should I say just a skip down the road. I might as well skip while I can. I’m not in denial; I just don’t see the point of dwelling on it.

So my musical (Chaps) is on schedule. The cast is a lot of fun and Deborah Jones is great. It opens on May 7th. We rehearse every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. It will all take place at the Burley Theater again. I love that old theater!

We just came home from District Speech and the students did great. A couple of 1sts and several qualified for State. State is on April 17th so I need to be ready to travel by April 12th. It is great being back to work. I will miss it again. The time I get to be with Sayda and my kids is what makes this all bearable.

Our dear friend Eileen (Sayda says I should say Dr. Eileen Frelier) has helped us a lot through these tough times. I wish she could be here to be my internist. I am so grateful for everyone’s support and everyone’s prayers."

Family time, good friends, doctors, good news, and bad news.

Posted by Mom:

We went to Utah for two days. Dick had his "yearly diabetic eye exam" on the 17th, St. Patrick's Day. Good news at that doctors office! (NO DIABETIC RETINOPATHY) After the doctors appointment, we went to Golden Corral. Everyone was instructed to get all green food on our first serving. The plate that had the most green would be the winner. (PRIZE: $20.00) I lost because I put some white ranch drsg. on my salad. After a late lunch we headed to The Wagstaff's. We just love this family. They are so hospitable. Edye was so excited about her new Trivial Pursuit Wii game, that she had to play it. While they played, I blogged. That game makes me feel so stupid because I never know the answers. Then Edye played the piano and sang a song just for me. The kids had a great time with Ruby, Vosco, and all the neighborhood friends. I think that it is so neat how all their neighborhood friends know Anson and Aubrey. When they see me they always ask... "When are we going to see Anson and Aubrey again?" We spent the night there and next day we headed to Huntsman.

We were there all day! Dad had some blood work and an MRI. Then he had a chest CT. These almost took all day. We visited with the surgeon that will remove the tumor after he reviewed the MRI. He told us there was some good news and bad news. The good news is that the tumor did shrink a lot and that the spot that was on Dick's lung, when they did the first chest CT had not changed so he was almost positive it had nothing to do with cancer.

The bad news was that the tumor is still wrapped around the sciatic nerve and it didn't release after all the radiation. He told us there was 3 options. 1st option... Amputation from the hip down and that he didn't want to go there. 2nd option... Scraping the cancer off the nerve. He told us that he didn't want to do this, but he would do it if this was the option Dick chose. This would leave him with full use of the leg but the risk of getting cancer back was 60%. If he would get a recurrence of cancer on this leg again, he would have to amputate because the cancer would not be contained in the muscle anymore, it would be all over his leg. 3rd option... To remove the sciatic nerve, which the recurrence of cancer would be less than 10%. With this option, Dick would loose the use of his leg from the knee down and he will have to use a brace for the rest of his life. He will have to go to physical therapy and learn to walk again because he won't have sensation from his knee down. The reason for the brace is that his foot mainly, would just flop because he won't be able to bend it at the ankle without the nerve.

My first thought was Option 3 of course! We will have dad with no cancer!!! Then I looked at dad's face which looked so pale and scared. His eyes were tearing up. Then I thought, boy this wasn't as easy for him to decide right then and now. This is the man that doesn't know how to walk slow. If you're walking by him, you practically have to run so that you can keep up with him. Now, he will have to learn to walk. This is the man that as I write this, has gone bike riding with Aubrey to Ace Hardware because he needs a part to repair something in our home. This is the man that loves to garden. This is the man that both times we've gone to New York, makes me hate New York because he wants to run every where and not miss one thing. I on the other hand, like to take my time. This is the man that can't hold still 5 minutes because he thinks 5 minutes of his life will be wasted. Let alone take 5 minutes to put on a brace so that he can walk. At first he wanted option 2. He wants to keep his sciatic nerve so bad. I think now he has decided on option 3.

After Huntsman we bought some rail round trip tickets to Layton and back to SLC. Every time the train passes by us on the express way, dad always says he wants to ride the train. So... we did!

We timed it just right. After the rail we met up with Kellan Hatch and his family. Lily, his wife fixed a perfect dinner for us. His son played the piano for us too. He played really well. We took Anson ice skating for about an hour and a half. Kellan and Lily went with us. Their sons had tons of homework so they couldn't go with us, since it was a school night for them.
After that, we headed to Idaho.

Update From Mom:

"I sent the camera with dad when he went to Perkins with his students. Well, he didn't take any pictures. He forgot he had the camera with him. I guess if mom doesn't take pictures nobody does. About 12 students showed up. He had a great time with them. He sure misses his students.

Besides church, a nice little nap, and watching the Academy Awards today, he had his monthly scout meeting. The people in the picture, especially Karen Dayley have been running the scout program without dad. Right after dad got called to be the Scout Master he got diagnosed with cancer.

He has treatments Monday-Thursday this week and he's done. (25 radiation treatments!) I guess they will see him back on April 1st for MRI's, testing, scans, whatever. On the 3rd of April (Grandma Chavez birthday) they have scheduled him for surgery."

An Update From Papa Bear:

"This week has been pretty good. The nuclear physicist visited with us yesterday. He said everything is going on target. My leg sure feels good. Sayda even caught me crossing my leg underneath my other one. I hadn't been able to do that for so long. My lower leg is huge because of the lymphedema. I guess that was expected. The tiredness is getting worse. Man the treatments drain me to the point where I almost can't function. 17 down, 8 to go! Thank you for all of your prayers."

Waiting to see the doctor.




Out-running a train.

A Post From Mom:

"Another week has come and gone. Dick has had a total of 12 treatments. He needs 25, so I guess he is just about halfway there. He has tolerated the radiation so well. His leg is in good condition. No burning from the radiation or blistering. We bathe it good with lotion right after his treatment and at bed time. He keeps on getting very tired and sleepy, but that is all. Yesterday he saw the Radiology Oncologist. For some reason, Dick and I thought that the radiation would shrink the tumor, but she told us that the reason they are doing the treatments is not to shrink it, but to harden up the tumor so that it will not spill cancer cells when they remove it. She told us that the next time they check the size is right before surgery. I guess the pictures they take right now are just to make sure they are shooting the right places.

We took Aubrey with us this week. Last Friday her teacher gave her all her homework for this week. Man... that was a lot of homework! It was so nice having her with us and not missing her. I love my husband so much. He is so strong, so positive, and never complains. The only thing he complains about is not having received the script for his next play from Samuel French, not being able to be in his classroom with his students, not being able to take his students to speech competition or see their material they're competing with, not being able to pull our kids from school so that they can always be with us, not being able to be here on Feb 11th for Anson's birthday, etc. He never complains about his health. He gives me so much strength. He is my love and my hero. Thank you sweetheart for keeping us together at a time like this. I can't wait for all of this to be over so that you can do all the things you love doing."

To see more pictures of the past week visit "The Call Family Blog" by clicking on the link to the right.

A Note From Dad:

Cooling off after radiation.

Things are going along very well. Herman seems to be getting smaller. The hardest part of this whole thing is the waiting and waiting. I wish we could get it done. I hate leaving home and my children. I miss my classroom and my bed. For those worried about what's going on, everything is going as scheduled. We just need to wait it out. Thank you again for all your prayers, thoughts, and concern.

"Our Short Little Weekend"

This is an update from my mom's blog:

"Saturday... Anson has some Bionicle's he got for Christmas and birthdays years ago. He hasn't played with them in years. On Saturday Dick and I were in the living room watching the golf tournament and cute Anson showed up with all his Bionicle's. He even let Aubrey put one together. He usually doesn't share his toys, thinking someone might lose parts. He reminded me of my little boy again.



Sunday... I was at a meeting during the Super Bowl and Brianna didn't take any pictures but she said they really got into it. I made them all reenact Super Bowl Sunday for pictures.


Can you tell acting is part of our family? Dad, you've trained them well.


Tomorrow we will leave again to SLC for another week. We have had a great weekend in our little B town! It just wasn't long enough. Dick bore his testimony at church today. I love that man!!!"