The camel riders

I had to post pictures of us riding the camels-that was a highlight for us-Jeff would have shipped one home if he could have figured out a way to do it! Jeff @ Gaza on his camel.
This was also at Gaza. I was just getting ready to go up on my camel- we also rode camels at Petra in front of the treasury building. They really weren't that uncomfortable to ride.

Jeff & I continue on to Jordan & Egypt

This is the treasury at Petra-these buildings were carved out of the rocks in this canyon-This place was incredible! A whole civilization lived down in these rocks thousands of yrs. ago!
This is the area on Indiana Jones-"The Last Crusade", where they ride the horses out of Petra-
Jeff & I all dressed up for Egyptian night on our cruise ship gliding down the Nile River-
These are the 3 pyramids of Gaza, just outside the city limits of Cairo. They were very impressive!
Jeff & I posing in front of the Mosque of Mohammad Ali in Cairo-no, not the boxer!

Our trip to Israel in October of 2007

Ford & I in Caesarea next to the Mediterranean Sea-it was lovely there!
Floating in the Dead Sea w/friends Tammy & Tara from our tour group-
This is what a manger looks like-Christ was laid in this type of manger when he was born-
This is the Dome of the Rock on Temple Square in Old Jerusalem-Ford's wearing his hat-
Jeff, me, & Ford on the Mount of Olives in the place they call Gethsemane-

Baby Ducks are hatched

I found this nest by our front porch on April 21, '08
This mallard "momma" had 12 baby ducklings on May 23, '08

We kept a vigilant watch over her nest whenever she was gone feeding.

History of Ford & his fight w/colon cancer

On October 28, 1999 Ford was diagnosed w/colon cancer. He went into surgery on Nov. 3rd to have it removed. During the surgery Dr. Clark Rasmussen found that the cancer had spread through the colon wall into the lymph nodes, then in the blood stream to the liver. His cancer was a level 4, the highest stage for this type of cancer. He was given 12-18 months to live. That was very difficult to hear when the Dr. gave us the news. We all cried together! He did almost 7 months of chemotherapy after he recovered from that first surgery. He finished chemo the end of June, in July he went back in for another colonoscopy only to find out the cancer had come back in his colon. He went back to surgery in August of 2000 to have that tumor removed. Dr. Rasmussen performed that surgery as well. It was decided that Ford wouldn't need to do anymore chemo at that time since the last round of chemo did very little or nothing to prevent the cancer from reappearing. It was obviously growing while he was on chemo. After that surgery he developed an incisional hernia from surgery #2, so he had to do surgery again to repair the hernia. It was a same-day surgery so he wasn't in the hospital overnight. He rebuilt his strength & was feeling pretty good when he went in for a Petscan. It showed 3 "hotspots" on his liver. Each spot was in a different place. One was at the top of his liver w/a small part of it lapping over onto the 2nd lobe, that was the largest spot. Then the next one was located mid-way on his liver on the edge. The last one was the smallest & it was located at the bottom tip of his liver. Dr. Rasmussen told us that these tumors on his liver were out of his league. He didn't feel confident enough to operate on all 3 areas where the tumors were located. He recommended Dr. Brent Christensen to do that surgery. We went & visited w/him about Ford's situation & after looking at the Petscan he said he felt he could safely remove all 3 tumors w/out causing major damage to the liver. The liver does regenerate itself, so as long as he didn't have to remove tissue from both lobes of the liver it should be all right. Ford went in for cancer surgery #3 in August of 2001. The Dr. was able to remove all 3 tumors, the one at the top being the hardest one because it did overlap a little onto the other lobe, but all went well. We met w/a radiologist oncologist when he was healed to see if he thought radiation might be an option. He didn't feel that was the right thing to do at this time, so we were very happy NOT to do any radiation. Ford had a reprieve from surgeries for 2 years, but then in October of 2003 he had more cancer in his colon & questionable spots in his abdomen area. Again Dr. Christensen was consulted. He said since we knew the cancer was back in his colon, that would need to be taken out & while he was in there he would check out the spots in his abdomen & see what they were. If they turned out to be cancer, then he was going to close him back up after he took out the cancer in his colon, if it proved not to be cancer, then he would be with us a while longer. He also decided to do interoperative radiation in the pelvic & colon area, while Ford was still opened up, then follow up w/more radiation after he had healed. This surgery, #4, was the most difficult one for me to handle.
When they had wheeled Ford away into surgery, the Dr. came to see me & told me to pray for a long surgery, otherwise, it meant that the spots on his abdomen were cancer & there would be nothing he could do to save Ford. I was a nervous wreck as we waited for the outcome. My children had always been w/me during the other surgeries, but this time our daughter Natalie was at Disneyland w/her family and in-laws. She was willing to come home for the surgery but we told her not to, that we would be just fine. Our other daughter, Tina, had just had a baby & wasn't up to traveling that distance, 10 hours or more, w/a brand new baby & her other 4 children. We told her to stay home & take care of her family. Our 3 sons were w/me plus an adopted son, Nick Frost, & some dear friends, Mike & Jan Weiss. I think my brother, Doug, may have come for part of the wait, but I'm not sure. If he did, he wasn't able to stay the whole time. That was probably the last surgery. It's hard to keep track of all the details when you continue to go through this again & again.
Anyway, it was around 7:00 pm when they took Ford to surgery. At about 2:00 or 3:00 am the Dr. sought us out, we were the only ones in the waiting room at this point, & told us that he wasn't able to close him because he was bleeding so badly. The surgery had gone well, the spots were NOT cancer after all, & they had taken him to the radiology department to do the radiation after the cancer in his colon had been removed. They found out that the cancer had orginated in the pelvic area this time & grown into the colon. They had him on a breathing machine & kept him out until the Dr. could finish the surgery the next day. It had been one of the longest days of my life! I was totally wiped out, but so very grateful that the surgery had indeed been a long one. Prayers had been answered one more time! He was in the hospital for 18 days that time. Both of our daughters did come see their dad in the hospital, much to our surprise. Natalie came by on their way home from California & Tina came w/her family because she couldn't stand not being there for her dad knowing he had gone through so much & wasn't out of the woods yet. In the process of the surgery, his uterer tube had been cut, so the Dr. could get down into the pelvis to remove the cancer that was there. The urologist was called in to sew the tube back together. A few days later we realized that the tube had broken in the middle & urine was flowing into his other cavities, which was not a good thing. They had to take him down to the radiation department again, & this time they put a drain tube coming out of his back, going into the kidney that had been affected by the tube breaking. He came home with that tube in his back. We'd have to go back to the hospital once a month to replace the tube so the skin wouldn't grow over it. We did that twice. When he had healed from the surgery, 2 months later he was back in the hospital to have that kidney removed completely. It was the week before Christmas. Dr. Deckett was the urologist who performed that surgery. He was able to do it by taking the kidney out through a few small incisions in his back instead of having to be cut open & doing major surgery. We were in the hospital only 3 days. I was afraid we would end up there for Christmas, but again we were blessed & able to be home w/our family for the holidays. In January Ford did radiation for 6 weeks, Mon.-Fri.. The side effects were minimal, compared to the side effects he experienced doing chemo after the first surgery.
He got another 2 year break from cancer. In 2005 he went in for another scan & they found a spot on the bottom tip of his liver, close to where the other tumor had been. In October of that same year Dr. Christensen again did surgery to remove it. That was probably our easiest cancer surgery. He was in the hospital for only a week & recovered fairly quickly. This was surgery #5 for cancer removal. In March of 2007 Ford's CEA count started to elevate. The CEA count is what measures abnormal cell growth in your body which may indicate there is cancer. Cancer patients have their blood drawn every few months or so to check their CEA counts. When Ford's started going up, Dr. Christensen ordered a Petscan for him, which showed a couple of small spots in the pelvic area once again. He couldn't be sure it was cancer & there was no way to test the spots to find out, so we took a "wait & see" approach. His CEA count continued to go up but the spots remained the same size, not changing at all. We were all pretty frustrated because we were getting mixed signals of what was going on. By this time we were back in touch w/our oncologist, Dr. Nibley, at the Huntsman Cancer Clinic. By the end of Oct. Ford was experiencing sharp pain in his pelvic area & he felt ill, which has never been the case w/him before when we knew the cancer was back. Something was terribly wrong! Ford suggested they do an MRI instead of a Petscan to see if that showed anything different. Our oncologist finally agreed & it revealed a tumor, oblong in shape about the size of an egg, located on the base of his tailbone, not the area where the small spots had been, but close to it. Dr. Nibley felt Ford should do some chemotherapy to try & shrink the tumor before he opted for surgery. Our surgeon, Dr. Christensen, wasn't even sure he could safely remove the tumor because of its location. So he agreed to do more chemo. He started the day after Christmas. This was an altogether different type of chemo from the first go around. There were 2 new drugs added to the old drugs he had used before. One of the drugs caused neuropathy which could become permanent if it was used too long. Both new drugs were supposed to speed up the shrinking process of the tumor & had been successful in most of the patients who had used that drug combination. This chemotherapy was the hardest thing on Ford. He was so sick! It's hard to even describe how bad it was. After the 2nd treatment, I was worried that if he continued doing this & at the same drug dosage each time, that it would end up killing Ford, literally! The neuropathy was pretty intense. It didn't help matters that we were experiencing a colder than normal winter. The cold is what triggered the neuropathy & caused him to get shocked, have sharp stabbing pains in his feet, tingling sensations in his finger tips to the point of not being able to feel the tips of his fingers & so on. It was brutal!! He lost his appetite, started losing weight, had no energy at all, but still he kept trying to work. We had to buy him new coats, gloves, warm shirts, the very best we could find that would keep him warm when he was outside since his work required him to be outside measuring homes. Jeff stepped up to help him out & did the house measuring outside for Ford. He got some fast lessons in putting appraisals together & doing whatever else he could to help his dad out. Ford was just too sick to be able to do it all himself. I kept notes of all Ford's side effects & when we went to see the oncologist again, I read him all that Ford had gone through. He was shocked to find out how sick Ford had been. He cut the one drug out for 4 weeks, the neuropathy causing one, & reduced the other drugs to 50% strength. After that happened he was able to tolerate the treatments better. They wanted Ford to try & make at least 8 treatments before he quit. After treatment #4 they did another MRI only to find out that the tumor had not shrunk! We were devastated! The pain he had been experiencing prior to the treatments had gone away, so the chemo must have helped to eliminate that, but the tumor hadn't changed . They took his case to the Cancer Tumor Board & presented it to the other Cancer Drs. & Radiologists, all who had a lot of experience with different types of cancer. The board opted for Ford to stop the chemotherapy & get ready for surgery. In the meantime, Ford had gone through 2 more treatments making a total of 6. He was only too happy to stop the treatments & prepare for surgery. We visited w/Dr. Christensen again & this time he thought he could take the tumor out, but he would need to remove Ford's tailbone to do it. It took 6 weeks before they could do surgery so the drugs could get out of his system & allow the blood flow back to the cancer site. That was necessary to help with the healing process after the surgery. The other new drug used on Ford stopped the flow of blood to the tumor enabling it to shrink from lack of blood supply. Only it didn't seem to have quite the same effect on Ford's tumor. Finally on April 21st of this year, 2008, Ford went in for his 6th cancer surgery. The Dr. ended up taking not only his tailbone, but the bottom 2 vertabraes on his sacrum, & all the surrounding tissue around the tumor. There was cancer in everything they took out. They couldn't get clear margins this time, since everything was taken out that could be removed & all that was left were the important body parts that Ford needed to still function like his bladder, back bone, & nerves. During the surgery some of his nerves were cut & damaged which is still causing him some problems even now. We don't know if the damage is permanent or is the nerve endings will heal in time. We are desparately hoping for the latter.
Since his surgery in April, his wound which is located on his backside(bottom area) got infected. I was irrigating the wound out twice a day for a while. The Dr. realized it wasn't getting any better, so he took Ford back to surgery again, reopened him, cleaned out the infection & put a wound VAC in the wound. He had to carry a pump around w/him 24/7 for almost 6 weeks, trying to heal the wound. The cavity was so large when I saw it after the second surgery, that I was fearful that it would take forever to heal it shut. That was not an exaggeration! The wound tech & our surgeon thought it would NEVER heal because of the extensive tissue damage done from the radiation he received after surgery #4 in his pelvic area. They were just putting the wound VAC on to keep it from getting larger. We found that out after week #4 w/the VAC. But, once again, prayers were heard & answered because his wound did respond to the VAC & started healing faster than they ever imagined it would. They also put him on oxygen at night to improve the healing process since they discovered he had a little sleep apnea going on. This pretty much brings me up to date with Ford. Two weeks ago he was able to have the wound VAC taken off because the wound was too small for it & now I'm back to taking care of it, changing the bandages twice a day & keeping the area as clean as possible. We were going into LDS hospital 3 times a week, Mon., Wed., & Fri., & now we only have to go once a week to have them clean it thoroughly, measure it to see how the healing is going, & make sure progress is still being made. What a journey this surgery has been! Ford was only in the hospital for 4 days after the surgery, which has been the shortest stay for a cancer surgery, but the recovery has been terrible! He still has severe pain that has not lessened any in the last 4 months from the surgery in April. He is still on pain meds to help him tolerate the pain & function as much as he can. If the nerve damage ends up being permanent, he may end up with chronic pain because of it. Not a pleasant or happy thought!! He still has problems being able to sit for any length of time. It hurts after about 15 minutes or more, depending on how much pain medication he has in him. He is far from being over the surgery & recovery. I have faith that the Lord will help him to heal completely, it may just take more time. He has blessed Ford so much in these past 9 years that he has fought cancer & we have witnessed miracle after miracle in his behalf. The Lord is the reason Ford is still w/us!!! I thank Him every day for my husband! We are so grateful for all the prayers that have been said for him & for our family as well. It means more than people will ever know! We love you all!
Now that I have brought everyone up to speed on how Ford is doing, I will try to continue to give new updates on his condition as things change. Whew! This was quite the epistle! I'll try not to be so long-winded from now on! I didn't even share all the details of the past 9 years. That would make a book! Bye for now!

These are our 2 grandsons born after our family photo-top: Wyatt Reeder & bottom: Nate Beus

Our lovely family minus 2 grandchildren

Let me introduce our family:

Top row-l to r: Jaren Ashby, Kassy Reeder, Jason Reeder, Dianne, Ford, Jesse Beus, Jeff Reeder, & Jordan Beus

Middle row: Amber Ashby, Travis Ashby, Cohlton Reeder, Porter Reeder, Duane Beus, & Nick Beus

Seated on the ground: Ethan Ashby, Natalie Ashby, Ashley Reeder, Justin Reeder, Tina Beus, Cassidee Beus, & Chrissy Beus

Since that picture was taken we have added 2 more grandsons- Wyatt Reeder, son of Jason & Kassy, & Nate Beus, son of Tina & Duane