Some pics!

YES I can do pics again!! Know why? Know WHY???? Because our wonderful, dedicated, PERSISTANT (stubborn?) friend Mike got us set up with a Freedom server!!! We can download pics, we can sure any internet page we want, we can play WORLD OF WARCRAFT! Oh my husband is SO happy!!! Not only THAT, but my folks brought up our Xbox today so Mark was able to play that too! The man is on overload right now!

Thank you, Mike. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! Our 30 days might go by without us killing each other out of pure boredom and withdrawl now!!! LOL

I do have news for y'all, but Mark is anxious to get on for a few tonight so I told him I'd just post pics and blog later. By the way, there is less for me to talk about lately since things are going smoothly and spirits are high. I will blog at least once a day, but if it only comes once, it will be in the evening. So check in at night for the day's update!

This is the view from our 8th story room. Not bad!
Mark a couple days in...feeling a bit better.
First night here. He was SO sick. I'm not sure what prompted me to take this pic, but I'm kinda glad I did because it shows how far he's come.
Here he is tonight...guess what he's doing??
World tour baby. Oh he was happy! Wore him out though.
My parents brought the kids up to see me. This is in the waiting room of the floor we're on. They stood in the hallway and saw their dad. We decided as parents that if we were responsible about it, seeing them was in the best interest not only for the kids, but for Mark. They were about 20 feet away from him...but something is better than nothing. 30 days is too long.
Sweet boy. He's taking it the hardest. He is so connected to Mark and he's SO sensitive. The entire 10 minutes or so they stood outside I don't think he looked away from his dad once. And everytime he could lock eyes, he said, "I love you, Daddy", or told him a story of his day. He was so happy to see him. They are "best pals". Just ask him.
And sweet baby girl. She just keeps asking me if she gets to go back to Nana's. Stinker!! It's easier that way though...it makes my life easier knowing they are happy and well taken care of. Thank you Mom and Daddy.

I will blog either later tonight or tomorrow morning about the going on's with treatment. There are a few updates, but I want my man to get his fix!!

YOU NAGS!!!

I double checked with the more experienced nurse...I'm fine not wearing the mask. Now stop nagging me!! LMAO!!!!

Love you!!

GREAT day!!!!

Oh my gosh you guys...today was like a normal day in the Bagenski house!! Well, not house, hospital, and not normal cuz the kids weren't here, but MARK was feeling GREAT today! Oh what a pleasure he was! We even got to banter and get irritated with each other!! What a blessing!

He's officially started on his chemo. He'll be on one constantly for the next 7 days, 24/7 it'll be dripping into him. Then there is another that he gets once per day. That one was kinda weird cuz the nurse had to sit bedside with him and inject it over 15 minutes! Was very interesting! He has two tubes going into the vessel near his heart through the Groshong Catheter so he's got chemo going through one then the biocarbonate to protect his kidneys and any anti biotic he needs through the other one. We had a new nurse tonight that spent about 20 minutes with us explaining how it works! It was SO interesting!!! His pee is toxic now so I get to wear gloves and a mask when dealing with it...well, not the mask cuz i'm just holding my breath...I'm lazy! LOL He's still wearing his little boot things to keep the circulation going in his legs. His body is SO swollen! He's hard to the touch, like an unripe tomato kind of, and the doc says he's gonna start feeling like the state puff marshmallow man!! He had a GREAT appetite today tho and ate almost all his food like a good boy and his color is good as the 5 units of blood he had over the last two days finally did some good. His red blood cells were up from 6.8 to 9.8! Praise God!! His platelets are at 24, but the doc says that's nothing to be concerned about at this time and actually it's good. He said at points during this process they will get down to 10 and below! His bruises aren't growing though, so we're ok for now.

Mark felt well enough to steal the laptop from me today and he went to the blog to read all the messages. He was truly overcome with emotion. He's amazed at the outpouring of love and support here and is so happy to read the messages. He read every single one of them you guys....it made his day!! Thank you so much and please keep it up! He's going to have bad days when his spirits will need to be raised and those comments and messages will do it! He wanted to tell everyone how much he loves you and that each and every person got a mental hug from him!! Did ya feel it?? I'm sure once he's able to see people again he's gonna be VERY touchy feely!!! Be prepared!! He gives GREAT bear hugs!! :)

It's a pleasure to give such a great report today! I hope they are like this EVERY day!!

Thank you guys!! Love you!

Amazing

A good friend of ours has been sending us Bible scriptures in the last few days. That has been one of the changes in her life with this sickness...she picked up her Bible. She sent one last night that truly amazed us. I'll tell you why first, then I'll quote scripture.

After I read out of our Bible what she had sent on, Mark got really quiet for a second. Then he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said "You know I kept having the same vision over and over for two days after we first got the possible diagnosis. I was seeing a knight, in full armor, very shiny and strong. With the his shield up, his sword drawn. He was standing behind an iron gate with nothing else around." We sat in this hospital room and just stared at each other for the longest time and then I think the biggest grin I've had in weeks broke out across my face and I said to my Beloved, "Oh...God has SO got this!". Mark smiled and said "Yes, yes he does."

The Armor of God
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt fo truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes frome the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." - Ephesians 6:10-18

We feel the power of our Lord in this room today as we start the chemo that will beat this evil. We feel His hand over us. We feel the love and consistancy of our army of prayer warriors given to us by God. We see His work in Mark today who is in high spirits and feeling better than he has in two days!

Oh yes, He's SO got this. We will prevail.

Amen

March 4/evening

Today started off a little iffy. Mark had a rough night as I stated in the earlier blog, but it got a bit better. He was given some steroids and some pain meds and was able to sleep most of the morning. He has some bruising on his arms that we are watching. Because his platelets are so low, any injury that causes a bruise can lead to a bleed...kinda scary. The ones that we are watching haven't gotten too much bigger so we're hoping they won't become anything serious.

With the amount of rest he's gotten and such an outpouring of love and support from family and friends, Mark's spirits are very high tonight. That helps any healing process!!!

He had two more units of blood today so I'm anxious to see if that helps with his red blood cell count tomorrow. The ENT doc came in again and took another look down his throat. His vocal cords are a bit more swollen and the ulcers are bigger, but the doc said that's to be expected with the acute leukemia and as soon as the chemo starts working they should start to dissipate. Currently the herpes in his throat and lungs is the only infection he's fighting, please pray that no more exposure takes place and he can remain healthy for the chemo treatments. We figure chemo will make him sick enough without having to deal with something else!!!

His infectious disease doc gave him some different pain meds and also a sleeping med that will help relax him and destress him so hopefully sleep will come easier tonight and the coughing won't keep him awake. The nurses do enough of that with their 2 hour vital checks!! hehe

Also, Dr. Caton changed his anti biotics around today to hopefully surprise that herpes virus and chase it out of there. Regardless of that pesky thing tho, we are ready to start the chemo in the morning. He shouldn't get all that sick from it in the beginning we are told, his body will react worse and worse the longer he's on it, so we're hoping for at least some time of feeling better before we get to the feeling bad again! OY what a year this will be!

Have a wonderful night and I'll chat with you tomorrow! Love to all!

So Blessed

Tonight I sit here in amazement. It's taken me approximately two hours to go through all the heartfelt messages, blogs, texts, and msn messenger notes from everyone thinking about our family. I get at least 3 messages a day from people I've never met, people Mark has never met, just loving, faithful people that have heard about us "through the grapevine" or from reading someone's blog, or from a prayer chain requested by someone who loves us. It's brought Mark's faith back in people. He said tonight, "I'd given up on people, but really, people are still good."

This experience has already been such an eye opener for us. We have taken so much for granted. Our marriage; our relationship as partners and as friends, we need to focus on that and nourish it more. Our children; we need to spend more time together as a family, doing silly family things that bring us closer together. Our friends; we need to chat more, get together more, play and love more. Our extended family; we need to be in more contact with each other, let everyone know that we DO think about them and pray for them and miss them when we can't be together. Our co-workers; let them know how much we respect them and appreciate the experience of working with them and getting to know them. Our lives are filled with so many people that we can be sharing with, congregating with, worshipping with, partying with!!! We have realized that we take it all for granted, that everything that we've been given in this life could be taken away in a second and we'd live with regret of not appreciating every opportunity.

It's an amazing thing to go to the blog of a friend of a friend of a friend, see the picture of my family on their page and have a post about us, asking for more prayer. PEOPLE STILL DO STUFF LIKE THAT?!? Wow. To see God's hand through these people's kindness and ability to think about people that are not in their own "circle" is humbling to say the least. It makes me want to be a better person, a better friend, a better Christian.

So I thank you, not only to those visiting and reading my blogs, but also to the people that they tell, and then the people that are told after that! And for all the prayer that is going up for my beloved, for all the kind words, for all the support, the well wishes, the blood donated, the offers for help, the encouraging words, the visits even knowing that you couldn't come in, but just to drop off cards and let him know you cared enough to come. We are blessed indeed. And we thank you. And we love you.

God bless you all as he has us.

Blood Donations

Ok. Turns out the blood credit system stopped a couple years back. Bummer. BUT, what you can do is just give blood at your local blood bank, tell them why you are there and a card will be sent to us letting us know that you have donated in Mark's name.
It is still the best thing to do if people want to give Mark something. You can donate every 8 weeks to insure that Mark and people like him will always have blood to bring them back to health. If people didn't donate, we wouldn't have the blood available for people who need it the most. You don't get paid to do it, but you are literally giving the gift of life.
AND you'll get a cookie!!!!
It's the little things....

Thank you again, Sean for all the info and the time you took today to find it all out.