CANCER FREE-5 YEARS

This is supposed to be a milestone for cancer patients, so I'm claiming it. Just had my 5 yr. chest ct scan last week, and got the results today. I never felt like I had cancer. Didn't know I had it until after my surgery in recovery. They got it all and I had 6 wks. of radiation. Some may call it luck. I call it listening and obeying the spirit within me to quit putting off getting the chest ct scan. In the time the scan was done and the surgery (2 months) the tumor had attached itself to my heart lining. Ignoring the still small voice to get the scan done would have given the tumor permission to continue to grow and perhaps squeeze my heart to death. I know of a sweet lady in my church who died with hers b/c they could not find the problem. In her situation the thymus gland was BEHIND the heart and it wasn't showing up that it had a tumor. Thymoma is a rare tumor and still even more rare to be malignant.

Little did we know, while I was going thru this, colon cancer was making a home in my sister's body. She put off having a colonoscopy just like we ALL do. (I just had my 1st one done in September. And I should have had one when we found out about my sister) We get busy and can make all kinds of excuses to avoid THAT test. 6 months after MY ordeal, she honored me in a cookbook the bank employees made up to honor cancer patients-survivors and deaths. Had we known, she could have put herself in it also--b/c 6 weeks later she found she had cancer. She fought the good fight, but her body just couldn't deal with it all and about 18 months later cancer overtook her life. I sure do miss her. She wasn't in my everyday life, but on the special times, she was always there. For instance, I would be calling or emailing her about today. She'd be so happy for me. When I go home to my parents now, there's a void. That's when we always got together and did something--anything from garage sale shopping to fried ice cream at Cuco's to driving around and looking at Christmas lights with our kids crowded in the car. And by ourselves when the kids were too old to want to go.

Here's to Jean----she left a void in quite a few people besides me. My parents, my sister Debby, her children, her grandchildren, her husband, neices, nephews cousins, aunts and uncles, co-workers, many many friends and a host of fellow church members. One grandchild she didn't get to see, who's having her 2nd birthday right about now. Maybe she can see from where she is, or better still maybe she was present when that little soul left heaven to join her earthly body. Maybe she kissed her bye as she was leaving the Father's arms. Hmmm! I like that idea!!

Hold to what's dear, ya never know when you'll have to let go.

I give God All the Glory!

Makes my medicine go down easier

I've been in a email prayer group the last 44 days. Below was her message for today. I hope it helps you as it has me. Now my prayers are shifted ( as hard as it is to swallow) to praying for Obama as well as my country. GOD BLESS AMERICA

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

I wanted to send you a brief note to tell you a couple of things on my heart.

I do not for one second believe God has let us down. Of course, I am disappointed, but I refuse to be fearful. God is still God, and He loves us so much.

As the election drew nearer I began to see that if McCain/Palin won, we would find it harder to continue our prayers for our nation. Many would have believed our prayers were finished. But that would not have been the case at all.

It occurred to me that God might answer our long term prayers for healing by saying no to our short term request. Yes, we were praying earnestly for Senator McCain to win, but the greater calling was to pray for healing of our land.

A fellow prayer warrior wrote this earlier today, and I believe she is right:

"I do believe that the greatest prayer is still to be answered and I do believe God is at work in that area.....He is reviving His people.... We didn't need to get all that we asked for....we would have then relaxed and let McCain/ Palin take the lead. Instead, we are now forced to intercede and trust God for every piece of legislation and every policy and so on..."

We've all had our email boxes full of prayers and calls to prayer during this time. God has clearly started a prayer movement in our country. When He has done that before in history, revival soon followed.

Sisters and Brothers, our time on our knees continues, and let us continue like watchmen waiting for the morning, expectantly seeking and awaiting America's healing.

It has been such a blessing to pray with you these past 44 days.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

MY HOPE

Psalm 37:3,5-8
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.

Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.
He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
Do not fret - it only causes harm.

Psalm 31:24 Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the Lord.

God is still in control ~ May God bring us as a nation back to
"In God We Trust

Why The Financial Mess - 1999 New York Times Article

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending

By STEVEN A. HOLMES

Published: September 30, 1999

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.

''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''

Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''

Under Fannie Mae's pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 -- a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.

Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.

Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the economic boom of the 1990's. The number of mortgages extended to Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. During that same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by 46.3 per cent.

In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for homes increased by 31.2 per cent.

Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.

In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.

The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.

RD's Back

This is really old news, but thought I might follow up on my last blog about RD. The morning after I wrote the blog, he showed up on my porch as if nothing was wrong. Except there WAS something wrong. His eye was missing or rather hanging on the side of his face. Just the skin or lining of the eye, was left--no eyeBALL. Took him to the ER and got him tended to. He'll be alright, just he'll be R-r-r D now as Mark likes to say. Silly Mark, he won't even look at him!!! He still has ONE perfectly beautiful blue eye.

I'm thinking wherever he was, he had access to the internet, read my blog and decided it was time to face the music. It took me over a week to let him back outside again, but he doesn't stay out long.

We'll never know what happened. Did he run into a limb fallen from Ike? Did he get snake bit? Did he get run over?Was he in a cat fight? Did a dog get a hold of him? Hmmmm-----

We're glad to have him home. Life was not the same without him. Not a day of those 11 long days went by without looking for him. Go figure--all I had to do was blog!! Life is good again!!

Roy D. Mercer

..Roy D. Mercer (RD) adopted us about 10 years ago. Showed up on the porch, and of course I fed it. The next morning he kept jumping on Wayne's lap while sitting at his desk in the garage. Wayne then claimed him as HIS cat and his name would be Roy D. Mercer. The 2 himalayan cats in the house wouldn't have anything to do with this mere tabby, but that didn't stop RD from marching right to the food bowls and making himself at home. This is the reason I can't figure out why RD would have left on his on. The same week he disappeared is the same week a new cat entered our home. RD was an adoptee himself. Surely he didn't leave because of a new cat. He's too laid back for that. That's what's so cool about RD. He is very calm and passive and doesn't like to fight- only in defense will he fight. He's been gone since the 17th. I have a friend whose cat came back after 9 months. RD is diabetic and I give him 2 shots a day, so if he does come back, he will be very sickly. Or if someone has taken him, they don't know he needs his shots...

Please come home RD, please!!!!

Myasthenia Gravis(to those who know the story-skip this one)

Listening to my profile song prompts me to tell this story. And I'm a detail kind of gal, so don't say I didn't warn you.

The 3rd wk. of January '03, I noticed I was having trouble with my vision. Ever sat to close to a movie screen in a theater?? That's how it was for me, and toward the end of the week- I was seeing double. By then, I was also having slurred speech and having trouble eating. Talking to a dr. friend- Wayne took me to the ER. Because of my age-51 they assumed I had suffered a stroke or an anurism. All the necessary tests were done with no answers in the end. Stupid dr. said I had an asaphalgic headache. (non-pain headache) I thought he made it up until I googled it when I got home 2 days later. He was sure a little pill would take care of the problem. 3 different pills later, I was no better and even worse b/c of the last 2 pills.

I previously had been going to a master herbalist and made a visit early March to her. She told me it sounded to her like Myasthenia Gravis (which her mother had). Had they tested me for that? she asked. There's another word I'd never heard of before. Asked the dr.'s nurse could they test for that, she quickly told me the test cost about $2000. Well, I knew where she was going with this, as we didn't have ins. Someone recommended another neurologist and I made an appt. After telling her my symptoms, I was about to ask her about this disease I'd heard of and she took the words right out of my mouth. I knew I had found a good dr. I felt in good hands. A simple blood test (which btw was only $400) would tell if I indeed had MG. Meanwhile she gave me a prescription for the symtoms and said if 30 minutes after taking this pill, the symtom went away, it was a pretty sure thing. The pill worked wonders, but it only takes care of symtoms. The disease is an auto-immune disease that has no cure.

This is a muscle fatigue disease. My facial muscles (eyes, lips, cheeks, tongue, eyelids) with repeated use would get fatigued. It also affects my arms and legs, so no more cleaning houses and walking 4 miles a day. :( !! She wanted me to get a chest ct scan in search of a thymoma (tumor of the thymus gland) another new word for me. Never knew I had a thymus gland. lol This gland sits in front of the heart and has to do with the immune system mostly as a child. As a child grows- the gland shrinks and bone marrow is the main immune system then. (as I understand it) I didn't have this done until early August. I hated to spend the money. Not everyone with MG has this tumor so I was gambling. ..

It turned out, I had a thymoma and the best way to remove it was open-chest surgery. A very well known and respected surgeon agreed to do my surgery free. Can you believe that? I just had to work a payment plan with the hospital. That took some figuring as my early 03 stay in the hospital was $21,000 with them already.

The ct scan showed the tumor to be contained and not spread, so that was a good sign. My surgery was not til early October, my fault trying to find other means in Galveston. UGHH!! Thank God that didn't happen. In the 2 months time the tumor had grown and attached itself to my heart lining and it turned out to be malignant. After 6 wks of healing, I had 6wks daily radiation as a preventive measure. Christmas Eve was my last treatment. What a gift!!

The expense of it all was just killing me and now I couldn't even help out cleaning houses. I felt like such a burden. Wayne worked so hard to provide for us. Hospital human resources called me Jan. 04 to say if I could bring our 02 tax returns to her, she might could get the amt. owed to the hospital reduced or erased. Result was the amt. was erased. Praise God! again and again.

I believe God had everything to do with how things turned out for us, all thru this ordeal, the right people at the right time was put before me. Him nudging me to get the ct scan, b/c in just 2 months it had started growing on my heart. As it was-- part of the heart lining had to be cut away. I had bookoos of people praying for me and I was really trying to listen to God's leading. Hard as that seems to be at times, He is there, we just have to listen. Sometimes it's thru his word, or a teaching or a friend. Sometimes it's that still small voice like the one that kept nudging me to get the test done. (money or no money)

Anyhoo, the song says it all for me, I feel I've lived every word of it and still do, ck it out:

Even though I walk thru the valley of the shadow of death

Your perfect love is casting out fear

And even when I'm caught in the middle of the storms of this life

I won't turn back, I know you are near

And I will fear no evil. For my God is with me

And if my God is with me, whom then shall I fear?

Whom then shall I fear?

Oh no, you never let go, thru the calm and thru the storm.

Oh no, you never let go, every high and every low.

Oh no, you never let go, Lord, you never let go of me.

And I can see a life that is coming for the heart that holds on

A glorious life beyond all compare

And there will an end to his troubles, but until that comes

We'll live to kno you here on the earth

Still I will praise you, still I will praise you

(back to--Oh no)