Cara Lobaugh

Yesterday I had a bit of excitement.  Our cat, Lily had been missing for 4 days and 3 nights so I decided it was time to go looking for her.  I started with the trees in the forest, calling her and looking up.  It took about 15 minutes and I found her up in a tree, terrified!  I was so happy to see her because I was worried that a wild animal had gotten her.  It was quite the adventure getting her down but with the help of my sick dad and my mom and the neighbor lady, we got her down.  God answered our prayers and kept her safe, then led me right to her.

So, I’ve been out of the swing of things for a while.  I had a great 4 week vacation.  Unfortunately when you work in sales, it takes a few weeks to build momentum;  You always have to be on top of your game.  Since I was gone for so long I’m just now starting to get back on a role with work.  That’s the down side of sales.  You never want to take a vacation.

My sweet baby cousin is one month old today.  She’s so beautiful, I’m sad I’m not going to see her grow up.

It’s funny how in life you always have waves of happiness and waves of sadness.  You just can’t get away from the sadness, it’s always going to be there.  That’s why you really need the joy of the Lord no matter what.  In the last week I’ve been told that a dear friend has cancer, another dear friend had a massive stroke and died yesterday morning, and my cat disappeared and is nowhere to be seen for the last couple of days.

These are all part of life, thank goodness I have God to show me that bad things happen so we need to pray a lot and stay close to God.

Light defeats darkness…..ALWAYS

Let Jesus be the light of YOUR world.  Not the light of the world but YOUR world.

I haven’t been on here for a while because I’ve been busy traveling around.  I witnessed the birth of my young cousin’s first baby.  Her name is Emma.  She was born July 2nd at 740 am.  She weighed 7.71 pounds and was 22″ long.  She seems like a pretty long baby, but that little girl is tiny.  She’s absolutely beautiful and amazing.  I love her so much already.  She was born about 3 days late; not bad! So, I travelled back and forth between Nebraska and South Dakota.  My aunt lives in South Dakota and my cousin lives in Nebraska.  They’re about 20 miles apart.

I had a lot of fun in the hot sun.  We went to the lake, to the pool, climbed to Nebraska’s largest water fall.  Which is pretty but not very high.  I actually hiked to a couple different water falls. I went to Rapid City where Mount Rushmore is.  I’ve been to Mount Rushmore a couple of times so didn’t need to go back.  I saw the black hills and went to a famous place called Wall.  I don’t know why it’s so famous but it’s a cute town.  Plus much more.  It was a great trip but I’m excited to get back to work.  A lot of stuff going on with work right now between the open enrollment coming up for both the health care reform as well as Medicare.  I’m going to be so busy, then I’m going to be done with everything after March.  It will be interesting to see how that plays out.

My dad seems to be doing pretty good, although I haven’t seen him.  His infection is pretty much gone and hopefully he only has one more chemo treatment.  I’m confident that with God’s help he will be back to his old self in no time at all.

Yesterday was a great day celebrating father’s day with the family and some friends.  We all brought a little something over for a BBQ treat to my dad’s house, the weather was perfect and we had a wonderful day.

The good news for those who don’t know, the spot the doctors were worried about that they thought was cancer is not cancer!  On the other hand, the doctors have never seen anything like it before and are perplexed.  For now, they are keeping him on antibiotics and keeping a close eye on the spot hoping it will disappear.

It’s been about 4 1/2 weeks since my dads last chemo treatment so he’s scheduled for a 5th treatment this coming Wednesday.  We’re still not sure if he’s getting 6 treatments or 8.  It would be nice if it were 6, but we think it will be 8.  The bottom line is killing the cancer for good.  Then my dad can get his life back and work on getting healthy again.  He’s very sore still from the surgery.  After all, they cut a huge chunk out of his rectum.

Thanks everyone for your continued prayers.

Who is in charge of your life?  If it is you, then you have good reason to worry.  If it is God, than worry is unnecessary and counterproductive.  When you start to worry or feel anxious, give it to God then back off a little redirecting your focus to God.

Luke 12:22:31

Worry is natural but it is so draining.  It accomplishes nothing and only hurts.  With this news about my dad, my first thought is that it can’t be cancer and I’m not worried, let them rule it out.  Then my mind starts to wonder, I talk it out with other people and all of a sudden I’m really worried.  I love my dad more than anything and just want him to be well.  My worrying isn’t going to help him get better.  The good news is that God is in control, today he is having the biopsy and once we know one way or another, we will be able to fix the problem.

Well the news that we got from the surgeon was a little shocking and unsettling.  Tomorrow my dad has to go in for a biopsy.  It seems that it’s possible that the infections he keeps getting may be cancer.  Not lymphoma but a different type of cancer.  Please keep my parents in your prayers.  It wouldn’t be so worrisome if the surgeon said he wasn’t too worried about it, just wanted to rule it out, but I guess he’s very concerned.  That’s about all I know.

My cousin told me that her boyfriend isn’t as bad as it sounds.  His bile duct in his liver isn’t working very well so they put a draining tube in his side this morning.  I guess they caught it early enough and hopefully he will be just fine by the time their little baby comes.

Well, it looks like my dad is going to have to wait to get his chemo treatment.  I’m assuming he will have to wait a week, but I don’t have the details yet.  Today he’s meeting with the surgeon about the infections he keeps getting so I should have more information tomorrow morning or tonight.  Other than that, as far as I know he’s doing just fine.  His infections are all cleared up after spending a week in the hospital with a ton of antibiotics.  He also got a couple of pints of blood.  When I last saw him Sunday he was in great spirits and was feeling really good.  I know he didn’t want to delay the chemo because he just wants to get it over with.  He doesn’t ever want to go back to the hospital again and he’s sick of all this, but he’s tough and it will all be over soon.

Please pray for my cousin Rachel and her boyfriend Kyle.  Rachel is pregnant and is due to have her baby in a couple of weeks and her boyfriend Kyle was just flown to the University of Nebraska hospital.  I don’t know the details yet, but when Kyle was a little boy, he received a liver transplant.  That transplant failed  so he got another transplant and that one worked.  I’ve heard that he’s been in the hospital and today I just found out that they are transporting him to another hospital.  Nothing can happen to that boy, so please pray.

I hope everyone had a fun memorial weekend.  It’s time for an update on my father.  So far he’s had 4 chemo treatments.  We’re not sure if he’s going to get 6 treatments or 8.  So at least we know he’s half way through.  I haven’t discussed my dad in a while because he was doing so well.  Better than I was when I went through treatment.  Chemo is pretty brutal though so you can’t expect to just fly through it.  Last Friday he went in for his 8 day check up to check his blood levels.  While he was there, he began shaking violently with the chills and said he was going to throw up so the nurses went to get a bucket but he couldn’t wait.  He threw up all over the place.  My mom told the doctor that the previous day he had a temperature of 102, but it went down after an hour.  Because of the temperature they put him in the hospital. He had an infection called coxide but I’m sure I’m spelling it wrong because I couldn’t find it when I googled it.  Then they found some more infections.  They seem to be on his bottom.  He’s still in the hospital, but it sounds like he’s coming home today.  Wednesday he has an appointment with the infectious disease doctor and it’s possible they will postpone his chemo treatment a week.  I think that’s a really good idea.  I never had my chemo treatment every 3 weeks, it was always every 4 weeks for one reason or another.  So that’s the update.  He looks a lot better than he did back in March and he still has a great attitude, so no worries, just keep him in your prayers.

I just got a call from my doctors’ office and my cat scan shows no sign of cancer.  It’s funny, I felt just fine before I got the call, not really worried at all.  After I got off the phone I started shaking and now I have a terrible headache. My stomach hurts too. It’s funny how that happens.  Anyway now I can start making plans through the end of the year.  I’m gonna start planning my trip to see my cousins’ new baby next month among other things.  I’m very happy I’m going to be healthy and can help other friends as well as my dad if I’m needed.

Thanks for all the prayers!