Count Your Blessings

I stopped by work earlier today to check email and make photocopies of my tax return (anal rententive engineer needs copies for her files). While reading email, I found a message from Michele, a long time internet friend of mine in TX (she was a tremendous support and help to me when I was going through my divorce and my family emotionally abandoned me).
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Merry Christmas!!!

I’m sorry that our seasons greetings this year are in the form of an e-mail but was either this or nothing and we didn’t want to let another day go by without saying hi and catching you up on the Ce**a Family Saga and to encourage you to get in touch and tell us what is going on in your neck of the woods.

We’re not planning on anything special today and tomorrow… Medical bills have eaten up the majority of our funds this year so Chrismas will be slim, but we’re well experienced with that and find the slim ones have been the best ones. We’re getting ready to go to church for Christmas Eve services and then will come home, order pizza and open presents. Tomorrow morning we’ll laze around and Tom will make us a wonderful lasagna dinner.

This has been a really tough year for us. We regret that we haven’t stayed in contact with the very people we should have and for that we’re sorry. We won’t go into all the details but I thought I’d give you a little run down of how our year has been (after typing out the “little run down”, I’d hate to see what we’d have if I had given all the little details!)

We hope that you’ve had a better year than we have and we want to hear all about it. We enjoy living vicariously through the lives of others! BUT if you haven’t had any better of a year, we hope you’ll also tell us all about that too and we’ll pray that you have a better year next year, just as we are praying for the same for ourselves.

Here is how our year has gone…

November 26, 2004 Tom’s brother Vince diagnosed with esophageal cancer

January 26, 2005 Tom’s brother passes away

Katelynn Leann Ce**a is Born!

(Dad & Mom – John & Cynthia Ce**a)

February 2005 Tom is screened for cancer and after 96 biopsies of esophageal lesions is diagnosed with Barrett’s Esophagus a precursor to esophageal cancer. Barrett’s has a 65% cure rate. Esophageal cancer has a 5%.

March 2005 We see a specialist in Dallas at UT Southwestern to begin clinical trials of a new chemotherapy agent called Photo-frin (if your interested in THIS saga go to www.photofrin.com and check it out…) BUT insurance denies the therapy because Parkland Hospital is not in-network, to use out-of-network will cost us $185,000 or travel to an in-network hospital out of state.

April 2005 Dr. appeals the insurance company’s decision

May 30, 2005 Michele is accepted into the Grayson College School of Nursing and is due to start classes on August 30^th.

June 2005 Insurance company reviews case and approves the therapy at Parkland Hospital and will pay in-network benefits (our out of pocket is reduced to $ 1,500)

June 20th – 24th Tom begins the Photo-Frin treatments and everything goes fine. On the first day of treatment biopsies are again taken. On the last day we’re told that the lesions have progressed to cancer. The good news is that this type of cancer is RARELY caught this early. Most are terminal with multiple mestates by the time they’re diagnosed. He must remain completely covered unless in a dark room and cannot work for 6-10 weeks.

July 2 Tom is admitted to Zale Lipshy Hospital due to complications to the therapy. He has burns over 30% of his body.

July 30 Tom is seen in the ER with a severe burn to his hand and chest, again due to a side effect of the treatment.

August 8 Tom is choking and having trouble swallowing and has to have his esophagus dilated. At this time, more biopsies are taken and the results are still positive for cancer. Because of the complications to the treatment, another round of chemo is not possible and the Dr. recommends a complete esophagectomy.

August 30 Tom is admitted to St. Paul University Hospital to undergo a complete esophagectomy. They will remove his entire esophagus and part of his stomach. They will pull the remainder of his stomach up and connect it just below the larynx. The surgery is LONG almost 12 hours, but he comes through with flying colors.

Michele is supposed to start school today, but is sitting in a hospital waiting room. After a conference with the Dean of Students, her academic record is reviewed and a leave of absence is granted for 10 days. This is UNHEARD OF!!

September 9 Tom comes home

October 15 Tom returns to work 65 lbs lighter but doing fine!

November Tom’s oncologist tells him that when he’s hit by a bus and killed they’ll be able to say the cancer didn’t get him, but at this point… THE CANCER DIDN’T GET HIM!

December 12 Michele ends her first semester of nursing school with an 89.7% overall

December 24, 2005 Tom is fine, Michele is WORN OUT, Brett is being a typical 21 year old bachelor, John is living in Cali and remains mesmerized by his daughter and Eric is eating us out of house and home. We’re are missing everyone that has passed on OR too far away (YOU).

January 2006 We will stay in better contact with all of those we care about.

We hope to hear from you soon… We think of you often and miss you every time you cross our hearts…

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Tom, Michele, Brett & Eric
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After reading that, I concluded that the problems I've been dealing with this year have been minor. It's always nice to hear from an old friend, and as much as I hate to hear she's had so much trouble, it's a reminder that I should be counting my blessings out loud instead of complaining.