Halfway There!

We’ve made half of the chemo journey!

Kyler received a special bear from his class. The bear was to help Kyler remain strong when he was getting anxious about getting his port accessed. The shirt says, “I will help Kyler be brave today” and lists all his classmates names. Thanks for such a creative way to help Kyler. Many of you have been praying about his anxiety during those times. Thank you.



Chemo number 5 went well. Kyler passed out Valentine’s cards to kids on the floor along with a little toy (a car for boys or stickers for girls). The Valentine cards had jokes on them and he had to share each individual joke with his nurses. He was so excited about it that could not even wait for them to venture a guess at the punch line. He jumped right in with the delivery. He has not experienced any nausea that we can tell and it’s been five days since treatment. Perhaps this is due to the 50% reduction of the Cisplatin. That reduction will also hopefully minimize any additional hearing loss.

He appetite has been good. He absolutely loves watching cooking shows. Right now his favorites are Alton Brown and Rachel Ray. Sandie bought some DVD’s of their shows and both boys are asking if they can watch and try making stuff.

Kyler went over to a friends house and they made turkey cheese roll-ups and ice cream tacos from recipes in a cook book he got for Christmas.



Sandie’s dad, Walt, is doing well. He is in a rehab center in Redding recovering from his second stroke.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support.

Blessings,

Darrell

Hearing Test #2

Kyler had his hearing test Tuesday the 9th. To our disappointment, it revealed further hearing loss that has now reached down into the vocal frequencies. Sandie sat with Kyler on her lap as he was tested. He had headphones on and was supposed to throw a block into a basket when he heard the tone. Kyler sat motionless several times while Sandie could hear the tone escaping from the headphones. Despite the results Kyler has not indicated and difficulty in hearing. Neither his teachers nor we have noticed any significant changes in his hearing during the daily run of life. Because of the further loss in hearing they will be reducing the drug in particular that is causing the most damage.

His next round of chemo is this Tuesday January 16th. Thanks for continuing to pray.

Sandie’s father, Walt, did have to undergo surgery. We were told that there was an enormous amount of blood in his head and that he would die without the operation. The operation itself was a very risky one and the family was not given a good prognosis. This prompted all the kids to come home fully expecting to be arranging a funeral very soon. Thank the Lord he made it through the surgery and the doctors are hopeful that not much additional damage was done. They will know more in time. He shoud be moving out of ICU in the next day or so to begin recovery. Your prayers for Walt were much appreciated and we would ask for your continued petition to God on his behalf.

Blessings,

Darrell

Kyler's Grandpa Ewart

I know we are using this space for updates about Kyler, however, we need you prayers for Sandie's father, Walt.

He has suffered another massive stoke and is in the hospital. It is continuing to bleed and the medicine used to thin his blood is not allowing it to clot properly. They are giving him vitamin K to try and counteract the effects. Please pray that this is effective and that they will not have to do surgery.

Thank you.

Darrell and Sandie

Good News!

Normally when Kyler has an MRI we have to wait up to several days to get results. This time, however, they knew we were going to see our pediatric oncologist directly and had the films ready by the time Kyler was finished coming out of anesthesia.

We took them with us and our doctor looked them over for a few minutes before we came in and she announced to us that everything looked good. Sandie announced, “I just had Christmas!”

He will have to go in tomorrow to check and see if he needs platelets, but he is above the neutropenic mark and able to go to school. Despite a slight improvement in appetite he has not gained any weight. It seems like no matter what he puts in it doesn’t stick. He is not ill or more tired than he normally is, but he is still wearing the same clothes he was a year ago and he has not gotten any taller.

A recurring problem with Kyler is his anxiety prior to getting accessed, or ‘poked’ as Kyler calls it, and de-accessed. He is very sensitive about his port. He gets so worked up that his temperature gets elevated and the doctors feel the need to do a blood culture to see if anything is growing in there and come close to admitting him. His temperature goes back down when he calms himself but the fever is a big red flag for the doctors and they are quick to react. Early on in the chemo treatments he was actually admitted and spent four days in the hospital because he had a fever in the office. They never found anything in his blood and he never spiked a fever after he had been admitted. The fever, we believe, was anxiety induced and after he calmed down he was fine. We can’t seem to talk him out of it and he will even start getting worked up days ahead of time if he remembers he has an appointment coming up.

We would appreciate your prayers for his peace of mind.

Blessings,

Darrell Haskins

P.S.
For those of you wishing to visit Bayside of Lincoln this Sunday at 10:00 AM it is located at 645 5th St. in Lincoln, CA 95648.

Happy New Year!

We hope you had a wonderful holiday season. So many of you blessed us this year to make this a very memorable Christmas for our family. Thank you.

We went to Chico to be with family on Christmas Eve. It’s about an hour and a half from here. Actually, the town they live in is Orland, but not many of you would have known where that is. For a further discussion of northern California geography please see my other blog.

Sandie’s parents, Walt and Ann, along with her sister and three kids joined us Christmas day. We had a great time. They spent the night and headed home the 26th.

The days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve passed in a blur, as they seem to every year, of trying out every new gift, trying to figure out how to make them work, eating leftovers, and thinking about the next year approaching.

New Year’s Eve just doesn’t seem to be the same kind of holiday it used to be before you had kids. Staying up till midnight no longer holds the wonder it once did. Maybe it’s because you know someone under the age of 10 is going to wake up way to early looking for some food and they start their search in your bedroom and not the kitchen.

The week before Christmas Sandie was told that Kyler did not need to come in the 26th because it looked to them that his counts were going up. We both thought that was odd since it didn’t match up with previous timelines from other rounds of chemo. Usually it’s the third week after a round of chemo that his blood counts are at their lowest. We noticed he was really tired after Christmas and showed other signs of low blood counts. Well, on the 27th Sandie wound up having to take him in and sure enough he needed both blood and platelets and was neutropenic. They spent the entire day there at the hospital. He’s in great spirits now and his blood counts are probably on the rise. We’ll find out tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, he has his next MRI then. We’d appreciate your prayers for a clean one. He also has a hearing test next week and we are praying that there has been no more hearing loss since his last one. Also, Kyler is still having a great deal of anxiety each time his port is accessed. It does not really hurt due to the numbing cream we put on ahead of time, but he is nonetheless fearful. It seems to really depress him when we have to mention it the day before his appointments. “That’s what I hate about my life! That’s why I wish I wasn’t sick! I just wish I were in heaven! I wish I was dead!” That’s really hard for us to hear on a regular basis from him. How to respond to that has been a real challenge. Typically, we just hold him till it passes, but we also talk a lot about God’s plan for his life remind Kyler of Gods presence with us. I hope it is starting to sink in for him. It will never really make sense this side of heaven but it reminds Sandie and I that we have another day and God is working in the world and we can choose to join him in that work. We are invited to participate in his plan of rescue, redemption, and restoration here on earth. And we have to choose each day to opt in. If our boys can start to get that now, wow, how will that change how they approach life. It’s not a series of random events that happen to us, but we’re on an adventure, a mission. We’re ambassadors to this world of God’s love and mercy declaring there is a new way of life made possible through Jesus Christ.

On a different note, since I have not been church planting I’ve had opportunities to speak and lead worship at other churches. It’s been good to see what God is doing in other parts of the body of Christ.

On Sunday January 7th at 10:00 AM I will be leading worship at Bayside of Lincoln. They meet upstairs at Beerman’s on 5th St. in Lincoln. Yes, a church meets in a place called Beerman’s. Pretty cool, huh? It’s a historic building that was a restaurant/brewery. Pastor Ed Kemp is starting in interesting series called “Raising G Rated Kids in an X Rated World.” You’re welcome to join us there if you’d like.

We’re still trusting God to reveal the next step in ministry for me.

Thanks for your continued support and prayers. We love you.