(Written by Becky)
Mom and Dad are at the ER right now getting Mom’s hip checked out. She thinks it might be fractured as she’s had a great deal of pain the last few days, needing crutches to walk. She just had an x-ray and it was inconclusive because it’s not 3D, so she’s waiting for a cat-scan now. Prayers appreciated for healing of the hip and the cancer and our weary emotions.
Also, chemo starts Tuesday…
(written by Becky)
Mom is in surgery right now getting a port installed to be able to receive chemo. She’s very emotionally weary. We’d appreciate your prayers for physical healing as well as emotional weariness and depression. Chemo starts in a few days. The two rounds she received in Summer 2011 went relatively ok with only moderate side effects. She didn’t lose all her hair (it just thinned out a bit) and she was only sick/in bed for 3-4 days after each treatment. They were a hard few days, but she bounced back in a few days. However, her fighting spirit seems alot more intense then.
Please pray for us the next few weeks… for Mom’s responsiveness to chemo and the side effects after and for the family as we care for her. Since Mom needs so much more care, I’d appreciate anyone who can bring meals for Dad. He doesn’t eat healthy when he’s busy and tired. If you could bring him things that can either be frozen or in the fridge for a few days incase he has plans the day you bring something, that would be great. Then, we can just concentrate on Mom’s diet and treatments.
Thanks!
(Written by Becky)
So… Mom is going through a rough patch – low energy, chronic pain, etc. That means a few things: she’s not eating well because she doesn’t have the strength or energy to prepare stuff. And it also means that John Richmond doesn’t eat well, either. When he’s tired, he just gets junk to eat most days.
I’d like to do more cooking for them and was wondering two things: Would anyone like to take over cleaning their bathrooms for me? They have three bathrooms. The one in their room needs cleaning once a week and the other two are rarely used and I just swish the toilets quickly and clean every other week. You can do it any day of the week you want and I’ll get you a key.
Also, if you’re cooking and want to drop off leftovers for Dad, feel free! Just don’t bring him anything that needs eating that day incase he already has plans. Something that will last a day or two in the fridge, maybe with directions written on the foil? If you’re interested, I can give you ideas on getting food to him, either by dropping off at home or at his office. Mom’s diet is so restrictive and she can’t eat anything you bring Dad, but if others help me feed him, I can concentrate more on her diet.
Also, anything that can be frozen for Dad would be awesome, too, like chili or a lasagna. That way, if he gets too much at a time, he can spread them out. If response to this request is really high, I’ll start an online meal sign-up like we did last year.
Let me if you can help. Thanks!
(written by Becky)
Hi all,
We are, perhaps, at our lowest emotionally. Please keep our (and especially Mom’s) emotions in your prayers? It’s draining to have to live with cancer as a reality day after day. It effects everything we do from the soaps we buy to how we clean the house to a rigid set of rules for food and drink. It’s alot of work.
Mom’s latest scan (last week) showed another small degree of growth. The amount of growth itself was not that significant, but the fact that this is the second negative scan in a row was. She is now officially resistant to her current treatment.
She has two choices: a clinical trial out of Dana Farber in Boston or conventional chemo. The clinical trial is in it’s second phase and has had some success, but Mom is apprehensive because only 20 people around the country are in it. On the other hand, it’s targeted pills and not the globally invasive drugs of regular chemo that attack everything in your body, the good and bad. However, Mom’s reaction to the two rounds of regular chemo she had in July 2010 was relatively ok and this was the period when we had the biggest amount of success in fighting the cancer.
We’ll keep you updated to what she choses to do, but for now, would you please pray for our emotions? Please pray again depression which is a very real thing when you fight something like cancer for so long. Please pray for strength and energy. Please pray for discipline to stick to the routines we know are good, like diet, nutrition, exercise. These things are hard to do last minute when you are so tired and need to be planned well.
Again, thank you for standing with us!
BY THE WAY: TOMORROW, 10/16 is MOM’S 60th BIRTHDAY. LET’S BOMBARD HER WITH MESSAGES! 
(written by Becky)
Mom has hinted at a 50’s themed party for quite some time and Dad delivered! This weekend, Mom had the shock of her life when she entered the gym of the YFC building with Dad claiming he needed to check something and, instead, was greeted with a crowd of loved ones all dressed in 1950’s. Even Elvis made an appearance!
She’s been very tired lately… both physically and emotionally. But on this night, she was her old self again. She was happy and having fun.
Here are links to our two Facebook albums of photos. There are too many photos for just one album!
(Written by Becky)
Many of you have been asking me how Mom is, what happened in Boston, etc. Apologies for not replying to each of you individually… hope this blog post isn’t too impersonal! It’s just easier to hit two birds with one stone.
Here’s the gist of it:
Mom’s scan in mid-May sent us reeling a bit into a little panic, worry, confusion. (See previous blog posts). While we waited for news on a possible trial at Sloan Kettering (which never panned out), Mom spent three weeks at Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida doing some cleansing, learning about nutrition and relaxing. The day she came home, we went camping for a week just the six of us: Mom, Dad, me, my husband, brother and nephew. This seems to be when Mom is the happiest: when she has her whole family around her at the same time. We had many great visits that week from her siblings in Rochester, too.
On July 10th, Dad took Mom to Boston’s Dana Farber Hospital. Mom left that consultation very encouraged and has decided to continue seeing that doctor as her primary oncologist. He’s a world-renowned doctor for lung cancer and she felt like she really clicked with him and can trust him. She’ll continue to see her doctors here locally as well. We are grateful the doctor in Boston has taken on Mom’s case! He was very encouraging and suggested that the news we received in May wasn’t translated to us accurately. He said it wasn’t as bad as we thought. Yes, it’s bad, but not as bad as we thought. He said put Mom back on Tarceva, the drug she was on from August 2011 to May 2012. (The local oncologist took her off it because the growth in the cancer looked like resistance to Tarceva). The doctor in Boston said it’s too early to call her cancer’s growth a resistance to Tarceva and too early to put her in clinical trials. So, back on that drug we go and chemo and clinical trials have been put on hold for three months.
Mom had a scan yesterday, the 24th, for the doctor in Boston to have his own baseline measurements. He will want another scan in three months to compare. Until then, we wait. And pray. And beg for your messages and visits to keep Mom’s spirits up. (May and June were difficult months emotionally.)
On a side note, my husband and I took Mom for a bike ride last weekend and she did amazing. She’s a fighter and we made it about 3 miles with just one rest in the middle. She was very encouraged by this because she’s been weak and tired lately and this bike ride got her blood pumping! She said this is the first bike ride since she was diagnosed with cancer and it made her feel like she won a small battle in this war.
Go Mom!
(Written by Becky)
Hi again… two posts in two days… what a record for us lately!
I wanted to let you know that my brother is organizing a fundraiser to raise funds for Mom’s treatments. (Below is the poster.) If you, or anyone you know, like to rock climb, please come! And spread the word! Even if you don’t like to climb, come hang out with us at YFC’s new Adventure Center! Mom will be there and we’re trying to arrange a little prayer service for her during that time. For climbing, regular gym rates apply and all proceeds will go towards Mom’s treatment. Check out www.TheEdgeHalfmoon.com for more info on the climbing gym.
Here’s how you can help, if you’re interested:
1. Come and climb!
2. Come and be an encouragement to those climbing and hang out with Mom.
3. Copy this poster and post to your Facebook page and spread the word.
4. Let us know if you’d like a hard-copy poster to hang at work or church.
5. Donations can be sent to Youth for Christ, P.O. Box 443, 1544 Rte. 9, Halfmoon, NY 12065 with “Climb for Cancer” in the memo-line.
(Written by Becky)
It seems like our family is treading water… waiting. We’re going through the motions of going to work, doing house projects, etc. But these take all our energy and we’ve been like hermits this past month, barely able to make it through the days before crashing in bed completely drained. We apologize for the lack of communication the last several weeks. Our minds are reeling with the news from the last scan and our emoitions are tapped out with trying to figure out what to do next.
Mom asked me to send a quick note apologizing for the lack of communication the last several weeks. The news in early May of Mom’s latest scan caused our family to halt most things in our lives and retreat a little while we digest the news and figure out our next steps. While we wait for second opinions at nationally recognized hospitals in NYC and Boston, Mom has been at a health institute in Florida where she is receiving several different holistic treatments and learning much more about diet and nutrition. She returns this Thursday after three weeks away. She reports that she is tired most days but very hopeful and learning more each day to trust God. I’m taking Mom to Dana Farber Hospital in Boston this Friday.
So, it might be a few more weeks until she is back in the swing of things. I hope you will understand and continue to be committed to praying for her.
Thanks so much! Please don’t hesitate to contact Mom and she’ll get back to you as soon as she can.
With love from the Richmond family,
Becky
Postponing worship/prayer time this week..we possibly will change the night, and maybe move to the YFC building, so to be more central for those who want to come. Keep checking this site and also facebook for info.
And THANKS for your prayers. I’m looking forward in great anticipation to the next few months!
Love
Chris
I would like to invite my family and friends to come to our home each week, on Tuesday nights….7:00 – 8:00 pm, to join us in a time of worship and seeking God in prayer for His will to be done in and through all of us, as we continue this cancer journey. To God be the Glory…the enemy will NOT have the victory. I declare in Jesus’ name.
If the numbers grow too many for our home, we’ll move to a church, or the YFC center. I believe God has something for all of us in this new chapter.
I’m also asking God to provide someone who can play guitar or keyboard and who can lead in anointed worship to our King. Please pray with me for that request. Someone who understands the difference between leading worship and leading singing….
Thanks…I’m sensing God wants to reveal Himself to us all in a fresh, AMAZING way in the next few months.
Love,
Chris
