The Bushgang Blog

Stephanie's mom, Genevieve Ross, has been hospitalized. I have set up a separate blog for those of you interested in following her status. She has been struggling lately with her M.S. and has run into some complications that required her to be admitted. She really is not in good shape. I am asking everyone who is reading this to please stop what you are doing right now and say a prayer of healing for Stephanie's mom, my mother-in-law, and Levi's "Lollie". Thank you in advance for the blessings!

Stephanie saw the doctor yesterday and he removed the last two drains she had in. That is great news. If you have never seen them or heard someone talk about the drains, you can't imagine. Good riddance! The doctor doesn't want to see Steph for another three (3) weeks so things are going as he had hoped. I will update as things progress. For those of you not on Facebook , this is the new and preferred method of communication for many! If you were not aware, I update this much more frequently and Stephanie updates only on Facebook . Please consider signing up by clicking here . I would be glad to give anyone a training session of quick run-through on how to use this wonderful website! Not only do I provide updates but I post pictures of Levi all the time!

Sorry for not updating in a while! Stephanie had her first follow up appointment with her doctor this morning. He said everything was looking good. She needs to leave her two drains in for one more week and then she will at least be free from foreign things being attached to her body and only one thing foreign in her body, the port. Stephanie has been doing extremely well, walking every day and even getting out of the house a little to attend church and of course, you guess it, shopping! We felt strongly about adopting a child for Christmas and weren't sure if we could make it happen with everything going on. While at church on Sunday, they had some children and families left on the adoption list so we went ahead and got the list for a 5 year old girl. Stephanie is thinking the shopping is fun but I am struggling with the chore of finding the gifts. Anyhow, things are going well. Levi is in Houston with Stephanie's aunt this week and our wonderful neighbor Connie has meals ...

The doctor has called in Stephanie's release from the hospital as of this morning. While the paperwork is being processed, Stephanie is taking a shower and getting meds filled. She is not having a great morning. She is soar and fighting a little nausea again. Please continue to pray for her healing and for a good day today! Thanks!!

I just spoke with Stephanie and she is not feeling too great this morning. She didn't sleep well and is uncomfortable today. They gave her a unit of blood yesterday because her "counts" were low and it was assumed the infusion would help improve the way she felt. This has not occurred yet but we are hopeful that will change! The doctor also started her on iron supplements to help speed up the development of new blood. We will have to see what the doctor says today but we are not sure if Stephanie will be getting out of the hospital today or not. Please pray for continued healing and a quick release from the hospital! Thank you all!

Now that was a quick answer to prayer! Stephanie is now in room 705 and was able to take a shower and feel clean. She said she feels "a thousand time better." Dolly is on her way to pick up Levi from his grandparents and bring him up to see mom. This will be the first time Steph has seen him in 4 days! Dr. Lemmon stopped by today and said that she may be able to get out of the hospital Tuesday evening or Wednesday. That is great news! Please continue to pray for fast healing and a quick release from the hospital. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this e-mail and attached document(s) may contain confidential information that is intended only for the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby advised that any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action in reliance upon the information is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender and delete it from your system.

Sorry for not updating last night. I got wrapped up in other things and forgot. As of this morning, Stephanie is still in ICU. This is not because she is not progressing but because there are no regular rooms available. This is keeping Stephanie from being able to take a shower and see Levi. She is doing well otherwise, getting up and around and managing the pain. If someone is curious, you can go to YouTube.com and see a 9 minute version of the TRAM Flap surgery Stephanie had. It is a little gruesome for some but interesting none the less! :-) Please pray that Stephanie would get moved to a regular room as soon as possible and that in general, she is wrapped in God's favor.

Stephanie is hanging in there this morning. Fighting some nausea and a change in the nurse. Hopefully things will smooth out a bit now that I am up here and can help out. The Physical Therapist came and helped move Steph to a chair and taught me how to assist her. The nurse will be removing the cath today and we will see how the afternoon goes. I have been told also that they will take her off the morphine drip today and begin to administer oral pain meds. The nurse said today will most likely be her worst day. Please pray that is goes better than anyone expects! I'll update this afternoon. Thanks! CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this e-mail and attached document(s) may contain confidential information that is intended only for the addressee(s). If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby advised that any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action in reliance upon the information is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail...

Stephanie has been doing very well today. She has been eating although that is a little challenging. When she raises up to a sitting position, she gets a little queezy and asks for something to help with it. That makes her really tired. She jokes that she feels like one of those little kids that falls asleep while eating their food. I can testify to that! I had to wake her up multiple times to get her to eat one bit of the baked potato! :-) She really is doing well though. The progression to a regular room (leaving ICU) is at the doctor's discretion however the nurse seems to think she will get a room on the 7th floor tomorrow. That will be quite nice! She sat in a chair today for about 3 hours. Tomorrow will be the first day for her to try walking. I will update everyone on the progress tomorrow. Please continue to pray for a fast healing and strong mental health as Stephanie fights her way back to the shopping machine we all know and love!

Stephanie is doing well this morning after her first night of recovery. She has a morphine drip and they are administering oral pain killers as well. I am at home this morning but will be up at the hospital by 10:30am and I will leave when they close it down this evening. I will update no later that 8:00 tonight and more often on Facebook if you are so inclined to check it out. Levi and I are doing well. Levi will be spending the morning with his good friend, Selah . I am pretty sure that will result is some sort of picture being posted on FB , as it usually does. As a reminder, please continue to pray for Steph's quick recovery! Thank you all! To end this transmission, I would just like to say that we have the most awesome God ever! Thank you Lord for wrapping us in your love and never leaving our side. I hope that others see the difficulties in our lives and how we handle them as a testimony to your never ending love and amazing grace that we rely on constantly. I am truly humb...

Surgery is complete and Dr. Lemmon said it went very well! Stephanie is in ICU, awake and dealing with a little nausea. Please pray that this goes away quickly! She will be monitors closely for the next 48 hours to make sure the tissue is getting adequate blood flow and she is getting better. I will keep the blog updated but probably not as frequently as I have been today. I will shoot for 2-3 times per day. Thanks for the prayers! Please keep them coming!!!

Last call from the OR I received said that they were installing the mesh wall on her abdomen and working through the rest of the microsurgery. Stephanie is still doing very well, they said!

I received an update call from the OR. A different nurse, Amy, this time. Anyway, she stated that things were progressing well and they had started on the microsurgery portion of the procedure. Expect another update in a couple hours. Please keep up the good prayer warrior work!

I just received another call from Janice in the OR. She said Stephanie is doing fine and the surgery is still progressing. I don't expect to hear much beyond that for the next 7 hours or so. I will continue to provide any information I get! Please continue to pray! With the length of the surgery, fatigue has got to be an issue for the doctors and nurses. Please pray for them in this process!

I just got the call from Janice, one of the OR nurses. The surgery has started! Stephanie was in good spirits this morning. Everything has gone quite smoothly so far and I expect the same will continue. The staff here is amazing! They have booked a patient consulting room for me to camp in all day. It has a couch and a chair with electrical plugs for my laptop. I am comfortable and working. For those who are curious, Stephanie's surgery is being performed at Baylor Regional Medical Center of Plano. One note from my previous post, Stephanie will be in ICU for up to 48 hours post surgery. I will let everyone know when she can start receiving visitors. Keep those prayers coming! They have been working great this morning already!!!

Hi Friends and Family! I thought I would post a quick note to let everyone know that Stephanie will be having reconstruction surgery on Friday, December 4th. We have to be at the hospital between 5:30 and 6:00 am for check in. The surgery will take somewhere between 9 and 15 hours depending on many things. Please check our blog frequently for updates through out the day on Friday. What can we expect? Stephanie will be in ICU for 24 hours post surgery to make sure the reconstruction was successful. There is a lot of microsurgery that will occur and they need to monitor blood flow closely. The information we have been given puts Steph in the hospital for 4 to 7 days depending on her recovery progress. What do we need from you? Lots of prayer! Please pray today and tonight for Stephanie to be free from anxiety and that all people involved with the surgery are well prepared, well rested, and have clarity of mind for tomorrow's event. God is in control and there will be many reasons to ...

Hello everyone! As most of you know, I am blessed to say I am finally walking the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk this coming weekend, November 6-8. The last 2 1/2 years have been one heck of a journey and I can only imagine how amazing this walk is going to be for me and all those walking with me. I have a team of 8, The Hopefuls consisting of both family and friends, that will be walking (probably in front of me- LOL !). I am so incredibly blessed and grateful for these dear friends and family who have dedicated a tremendous amount of time and sacrifice in training, preparation and fund raising. I am also blessed to have those who donated last year and this year and most importantly for the thoughts, prayers and support. I would ask for prayers for my team that God gives us the strength and endurance to make all 60 miles. Now comes an even bigger request. If any of you have time to come cheer us on any of the 3 days, I would love nothing more than to see your smiling faces an...

I got up and headed to work this morning like any other weekday morning. It was dark outside and traffic was light. As I was turning onto the feeder road from FM407, I witnessed a silver Toyota Rav 4 rear-end a white Ford F250 hard enough to do damage but not injure anyone. My first thought was, "Great, these cars are in front of me and there is very little room to get around!" To my pleasant surprise, the F250 turned and appeared to be headed to a safe area to check vehicles and exchange information. "Good call on moving out of the way of traffic!", I thought. As I rounded the turn and headed down the feeder road about three cars behind the Rav 4, I saw the F250 pulled off out of traffic and the guy looking at his bumper. Then I saw the guy in the Rav 4 just keep driving! My thought, "That dude better be pulling off up ahead!" I watched...but no such luck for Mr. White Truck. I wasn't too upset since it appeared the F250 had taken no damage and I was ...

I know, we are horrible parents for waiting this long to introduce Levi to a dentist. His visit was uneventful but he started off quite hesitant as you might expect. Hope you enjoy the photos!

Levi has been so excited about attending school. We went for open house yesterday and he got to meet his teacher, see his room and survey the playground. Mom dressed his up and sent this picture from school. He will attend from 9am - 1pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Just a cute little tidbit, he loves to tuck that little stuffed dog under his left arm and carry it just about everywhere. He named it "Arf". I know I am biased but I truly believe I have a cute, stinkin' kid!

Alright everyone, Stephanie is having her second to last treatment today. In general, we are excited to be nearing the end of this chapter in our story but there are a few things that temper our excitement...let me explain. One thing we now realize is that treating cancer is not "science". There is scientific evidence that abnormal cells in your body will die when exposed to certain chemicals or radiation. Doctors use this information to "design" a treatment program. The order of chemo, radiation and surgery varies from doctor to doctor and so does the dosage. Treatment is an art form, there is no doubt. Stephanie's current medical oncologist has suggested that she may recommend a continued chemo plan to remain in place indefinitely. She also wants Stephanie to get whatever remaining radiation she can to reach her lifetime maximum exposure. Reading between the lines, what does this say to you? What it says to us is the doctor is not sure if or when the cancer wi...

Stephanie had treatment #12 today and has her regular weekly break next week. Hooray! Not much to update everyone on this week. We are in a groove and working through it week by week, day by day. If anyone is interested in providing Stephanie with words of encouragement or just following her and her thoughts on FaceBook , click here . House update: It is still on the market. We have an occasional looker. When they see the place, there is always good feedback but just short of an offer. Please pray that we have discernment on this in relatively short order! Thanks for all the love and support!

Stephanie had her 11th treatment yesterday. She is such a trooper! Many people stop and ask me how she is doing. From my perspective, she is doing great. She does get tired after her treatment as I have mentioned before but beyond that (and hair loss), there really are no in-your-face side effects. Thank God! Once again this week, our neighbors and friends stepped up and into our lives to help. Connie went with Stephanie to the hospital and Deanna brought us her amazing lasagna last night for dinner. That is very helpful to have dinner prepared and delivered at critical times like this. Thanks so much!!! I pray that the generosity of time and effort by those around us provides in return blessings that fill their lives with overwhelming joy. The Lord is good. Mark 12:28-33 28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answ...

Well, many of you may have noticed that I skipped a few updates on Stephanie. I am actually surprised that only two people have given me a hard time for slacking. Rest assured, I am looking to get back on the wagon so-to-speak. Stephanie has her 10 th treatment today. She is still going downtown for her treatments as we were never able to get the Lewisville location to administer the drugs. It is unfortunate but not the end of the world. Steph's good friend, Susan, just moved away and is not able to take Stephanie any longer. (Thanks for all you have done Susan!) I have tried to pick up the slack by taking her and picking her up but it is hard for me to stay there all day with her and actually work so I go up 75 to the office and then head back to pick her up. It isn't the best option for Stephanie, but she is a trooper for sure! We will have some decisions to face in September as the doctor is wanting to pursue further treatment options. Please pray for some clarity and pea...

Picnik is a great option for those who don't want to mess with a program like Photoshop for editing their pictures. Take a look at what I did in a matter of 3 minutes or less. Before: From 2009 Maui After: From 2009 Maui Notice I cropped it, removed power lines and made the image more vivid. Picnik is free for most things and a very lower yearly fee for more advanced features. Check it out!!

Sorry for the late post. Steph had treatment number 6 last week. She is doing well although still battling with sleep the day or two after her treatment. They give her dexamethasone during her treatment to counteract an allergic reaction to another drug they are giving her. Bottom line is not a lot of sleep. Please continue to pray for a complete healing. the goal would be that come September, check ups just become routine and worry-free. Thanks for following Stephanie's updates! God bless!

Stephanie is headed to Dallas this morning for another treatment. Hopefully, they have arranged to have the remaining treatments, except when she has to see the doctor, in Lewisville . Our friends and neighbors are once again stepping up! Connie is going with her today and Deanna is watching Levi. I am sure he will not want to leave when mom goes to pick him up. We have the least number of fun things to do at our house compared to our wonderful neighbors. :-( Levi just loves to visit and play. Stephanie got a new wig last Thursday and it looks really great! She will be celebrating her 3rd Mother's Day (2 nd with Levi breathing air) on Sunday and looks better than ever! I find it hard to express how great of a mother and wife she actually is. The amount of love she shows all the time, the tenderness that is exhibited in times of need, the thoughtfulness and planning that keeps our family running even when she doesn't feel like doing anything but sleeping is inspiring to me. Ste...

Today my wonderful wife has yet another infusion of drugs meant to eradicate the cancer from her body. Treatment #4 means she is roughly one fifth or 22% of the way to completion. Stephanie's hair is thinning enough that we are going Thursday to look for a new wig. Thank you for your prayers on this issue. Apparently God has greater plans than keeping Stephanie out of a wig. :-) On another front, We officially put our house on the market Friday, 4/24/2009. We already have an interested buyer and we should have an offer today. There are several homes we have found that are interesting all in and around Highland Village or Lantana . We will keep you posted on these developments as they unfold.

Today Stephanie goes in for treatment numero tres and next week will be an off week. At this point, the main thing to update everyone on is the fact that she still has all her hair and she is feeling very minimal side effects from the chemotherapy. I do ask that those who are praying for us, please ask for a special blessing to be given to Stephanie. She would really like to keep her hair. She is emotionally and spiritually prepared for whatever happens and we don't want to get in God's way so His will be done above all but it would be especially nice if Stephanie never had to sport another wig, especially over the Texas summer. Again, I cannot begin to express in words our total gratitude for the friends and family members that surround us during this time. Please accept our humble thanks and know that we will gladly return the blessings however and whenever we can! Oh, I almost forgot. Easter at our house was crazy and included a sick little Levi that kept us from following...

Stephanie goes in today for her second treatment of chemo (18 in total). The praise is that she felt much better than we had thought she might after the first treatment. Being tired was about the extend of it. Stephanie will be accompanied today by a good friend and neighbor, Susan. Thank you Susan for watching over my sweetheart! Another good friend and neighbor, Connie, is taking Levi to school and maybe picking him up. Thanks Connie!! We sure are blessing to be surrounded by such good people! God's plan is amazing. If you are curious, just ask me and I will be glad to share how all this started! I will update soon. I promise!

Stephanie's chemotherapy begins today. I am typing this blog post from the waiting room. It is 20 minutes until 2:00pm and we have been here since 10:30 this morning. We have at least 4 hours to go from the time they call us back. Who knows how long it will be! Stephanie's regimen is 6 cycles. Each cycle consists of 3 weeks on and 1 week off. Her last treatment will be on September 1st. This is enough time for her to be back to growing hair before the holiday (and picture) season is upon us. :-) Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers as we muddle through the next 6 months!

Dr. Clifford came in and told me that the surgery went well. Thank you Lord! Instead of doing a biopsy, he went ahead and took all the questionable tissue out. The concern with this is healing. Since one of the chemo drugs she will be taking suppresses healing, we need to wait until Stephanie has healed enough before we start. Please pray that this healing occurs faster than expected! Steph will be in recovery for about an hour and then we will head home soon after that. Thanks to everyone praying for us! Next update will probably be in the next few days.

They are running behind. Stephanie was just wheeled out of the room. Should be about 1 hour and 15 minutes for surgery. She has not been given anything yet so surgery probably won't start before 1:00pm. 1 hour in recovery and then we can get ready to go home. I'll update when I hear from the doctor.

Sorry for the short notice but Steph is having a meta port put in at 11:15am this morning. We are at the hospital right now and Steph is ready to go back. We are also having a biopsy done on a questionable spot. The outcome, cancerous or not, won't change the fact that she will be going through chemotherapy once again but it would be nice to know that cancer has not come back a third time. Please pray for a successful surgery, good outcome on the biopsy and a quick recovery. It is expected that chemo will begin in two weeks. I'll post updates as things unfold today! Thanks for your prayers!!! Kevin

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Trying this feature out...we'll see if it works! Go XBox!     Sent to you by Kevin via Google Reader:     Xbox Live is making ten times as much money as the Playstation Network via Fidgit by Tom Chick on 2/25/09 Variety blogger Ben Fritz gets to the bottom of the debate between Xbox Live and the Playstation Network (PSN). If you're interested in the business of video games, there's only one statistic of any significance: Sony has generated $180 million in gross revenue from PSN two-plus years of life. As of the last E3, after about five and a half years, Xbox Live had generated over $1 billion. That's not terribly surprising considering Xbox Live has a subscription fee and the Playstation Network doesn't. However, there's no way to untangle how much of Xbox Live's revenue is from subscriptions and how much is from sales. It just does to show that you can't trust videogamers to actually buy stuff. It's better to charge them a regular fee...

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long delay between updates on Stephanie. My New Year's resolution is already falling into the pit of forgotten promises. Don't worry, I don't plan on giving up easily! Steph and I are heading to Maui on Friday. Steph's Aunt Dolly has been very helpful in the past and is going to watch Levi while we are celebrating our 17 years of wedded bliss. Seventeen years! Wow time flies when your having fun! On that note, the last two years have been a little slower to pass as most are aware. Our medical oncologist made a recent decision to move back to the west coast. That event led us down the path of finding a new medical oncologist. We did. He reviewed Steph's case and determined that a strategic move was in order...more chemotherapy. When we return from Maui, Steph will have another PET scan to check once more for cancer that may have spread to another part of her body. Once the results are back, a chemotherapy regimen will be established. I...

Sharing my experience with you... I had an offer from a good friend to attend the Dallas/Portland NBA game Wednesday night and although I am not a big NBA fan, I chose to go along for the company and the experience. It just so happened that these tickets were free to us but the price printed on them was $334. With a price tag like that, we knew they would be good. In fact, they were 3rd row on the floor! Just so you can appreciate the expense here, there are 45 home games in a season ticket package. That means, someone or some company wrote check for a little over $60,000 for our four seats. A really nice guy named Chris was sitting behind us. As it turns out, he is one of the guys that sells the season tickets. He pointed out several people around us that were "important", including "Don", an eccentric 67 year old gentleman who owns half the land in Uptown (Dallas area) and gives a lot of money to charities and the church and supports a lot of missionary work. He ...

Pandora - Internet Radio For those who can stream music at their job, at home or through your iPhone ! The best thing about this site is how it selects music for you. All you do is put in your favorite song or band and it will start playing music of similar kind. The quality is great by comparison with XM Radio 's online music. reQall - To Do List Pronounces like "recall", there are a few things that make this site great for your "to do" list. 1. Available on the iPhone and on their website and they stay in sync. 2. They have a buddy list so you can assign a to do item to your buddies. My example: I remember while at work that we are out of toothpaste. I can whip out my iPhone and speak or type, "Toothpaste - have Stephanie buy some today." (I can do this on the website too.) What then happens, reQall recognizes "buy" and puts the to do item in the "Shopping List" and also recognizes that I have Stephanie in my buddy list so it ...

Everyone has probably picked at least one New Year's resolution to break, right? Well, I am hear to tell all that my New Year's resolution is to be more active with blogging and do everything I can to not break it! In fact, I will be taking my blogging to another level. What is this new level you might ask...glad you did! Family updates was and is level 1 blogging. That won't change. The next level is nothing more than various posts of stuff and junk I find interesting. I will do my best to title and label these appropriately so that you only need to read what you find interesting or somewhat amusing. Stephanie's health issues of recent will always be labeled with "breast cancer" for example. So I hope you all enjoy the new "level 2" blogging! If you like an article, please leave a comment!