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Tarheeldad

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  1. Today, I received a package in the mail. I opened it, and it was a book. Inside the book, was a card. I opened them both, and read the card....IT is a Sympathy card and in writing under the verse it says: Donna, Our thoughts and prayers are constantly with you. You and Warren touched our hearts in a special way--We are glad we met and we will stay in touch. Please call anytime. Love + prayers, Bill and Sandra Lee ======================= Inside the book was written: Donna- We share daily in your grief and adjustments brought on by Warren's cancer and death. We are so grateful that God gave us precious moments together. God Bless, Dr W.F. Lee. ======================== I looked at the book...and it was written by..... Dr William F. Lee. The name of the book is: STRESS: The Inevitable PEACE: The Possibility This book was written by "Bill" the man Warren and I met in the Limo on the way back from CTCA. I am gonna read this book! HUGS Donna
  2. It has been 10 days now...I miss Warren so much!! This just sucks. I wanted to tell you something that happened when we left the CTCA that Sat. March 11. I know it happened for a reason, I was not sure what it was at first, but I feel now it happened to give Warren some hope after having it crushed so brutally at CTCA. We were to leave in a limo at 9am. When the limo got there it was full, and we were asked to wait for another one. When the next one came, we got in and were told there was another couple that would be coming. A frail looking old man and his wife got into the car about 5 minutes later. The man looked very tired. After the limo got started, Warren, being the talker he is, started talking to the wife. She wanted to know where we were from, and when Warren told her NC, she said they were from there also. On the hour drive to the airport, the man started talking. Warren told the couple what the Dr told us, and how it was so bleak. The man, Bill, then told Warren that several years ago, he himself, had been told by Dr's that he only had a few months left. He said they told him he would never make it to 60, but that he would be 63 in a few weeks. He told us how he thought he was dying one night. (He had pancreatic Cancer, and his liver was affected also.) His legs were swollen like Warren's and he could barely walk. He said on this night. he was barely conscious, and he felt a "ripping" inside his body. He said, after that everything went blank. Days later, when he became aware of his surroundings again, and after going to the Dr., He was told there was no sign of the cancer. Miracle? Truth? I don't know, and it does not matter. I DO know the man has 3 PHD's and he was also a councilor. He is also a very smart and learned man. He told Warren several things that he needed to eat. Veggies..Black Strap Molasses...Soak in a tub with Vinegar in it to reduce the swelling.. This man had a whole list of things. I wrote them all down, and also his phone number. He told us that he rarely talks to people when he is out, but that there was just "something" about Warren and I, that he "had" to talk to us. Before getting out of the Limo, we all held hands and prayed. Bill, called Warren almost every day the next week..and he called the day Warren died. I know all of this sounds strange, it was strange to me too, but ...There WAS a reason we met this man..In a limo we were not supposed to be in. and I believe that reason was HOPE. Hope to help Warren make it to the end. I know it helped Warren, and that is all that mattered. Warren's wife, Donna
  3. Warren -aka Tarheeldad passed away Friday, March 17th at 4:24 pm in the home of Troy and Sheila Bradford. His Wife, Donna was by his side, holding his hand and talking to him when he passed. He leaves behind a wife that loves him very very much, 2 sisters, 1 brother, His mother, 2 daughters, 2 Step-daughters and 4 step-grandsons Warren fought until the very end...and would have continued to fight if he could have. I let him know that I would be OK...and it was all right for him to go on without me. I told him how much I love him and that we would be together again...that I promised this. That the grass would be so green it would hurt our eyes.. I know Warren loved me. I already miss him...I will continue to miss him, but I know I will carry him in my heart until I am with him again. Forever love, Warren's wife Donna
  4. I really don't want to be writing this, but Warren died yesterday. I was at his side holding his hand, and he was fighting so hard--had been all day. I talked to him for about 15 minutes, I told him I would be OK...to not worry about me, and that I promised we WILL meet again, that he had to let go. I told him that where he was going there would be no more pain, and it would be nice. That the grass would be so green it hurt your eyes. Warren opened his eyes and looked at me...Not saying anything...then he closed them and stopped breathing. I am gonna miss him so much..I already do....but...I know he is at peace now. Again, Thank you so much for standing by him. I know it meant alot to him. Warren's wife Donna
  5. Hello everyone. I am Warren's wife, Donna. I have read your posts, and kept up with his as he has written them. I am glad Warren found this place, I think it was a place of Hope for him, and he could talk to other people that were in the same situation as he. Cancer. I hate that word. What I have to say is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, (even harder than taking care of my mom when she was dying of cancer.) Although I know there are gonna be harder times pretty quick. There is no easy way to say anything like this, and I am not good at sugar coating things. It is hard to keep from crying, and I know more is coming. Warren and I went through the tests and things at the CTCA and today, we were to consult with a Dr. I had a bad feeling when we walked in, he told Warren he wished he had met him many years ago, to stop him from smoking. It got worse, and bottom line is that Warren has about 2 months. and yes, He told us to contact Hospice. He wanted me to post on here..I know he will post later, but I think right now he is having alot of things rushing through his mind. I can't imagine how hard this is for him. I can't tell you what it feels like for me to know how limited our time is left. 60 days.......not enough time---never enough time. It is hard right now to try to be strong, I feel bad because I can't stop myself from crying and then Warren is the one comforting me..I feel selfish that he is leaving me, and I feel so sorry for him because there isn't anything I can do to help him on this journey other than walk with him as far as I can by his side holding his hand.....and then let go. I DON'T want to let go damn it. I am not gonna say all the stuff that people say, but you can bet that I have thought it.....am thinking it. I don't want to bore you, but...I was married for 23 years to a controling, drunk, a-hole. I met Warren and he has been the most wonderful thing that ever happened in my life. We have only had 5 SHORT years together, been married just over 3---how unfair is that? ============================================= Actually, I thought about erasing the things I put above, I know life isn't fair, I know there are no promises, and the LAST thing I want is for anyone to feel sorry for me or for Warren. I just want you to know that he is GOOD man--the BEST thing that happened in my life...and I am SURE I will be with him in our next lifetime....and I will know it when I find him........... Thanks ya'll for letting me talk....NO, it hasn't helped me....and never will, but...I KNOW this place has helped Warren..and for that...I thank you....for supporting him, I thank you...and for giving him strength I thank you the most. Forever love, Donna Stearns, Warren's wife...
  6. You can count on this being passed around.
  7. Tarheeldad

    Dad went to heaven

    Lisa, So sorry for your lose, our thoughts and prayers are with you and all you family. Warren & Donna
  8. Adela, You and ED are in my prayers. I know you are doing the very best you can, ignore idiots like that step-son. You are doing one of the hardiest things anyone can do,I know because I helped my wife with her mother a few years back, she had SCLC. Now my wife is supporting me. You know ED and I are the ones with the Cancer but you and my wife are the ones in my opinion dealing with more than I am. Sometimes I feel like a burden to her, of course she tells me I'm not and reminds me just how much she loves me. Not sure what point I'm trying to get to here, just keep doing what you are and it will be OK. Take care, will be thinking of you. Warren
  9. I'm new to this board, but you folks are amazingly wonderful people. My thoughts and prayers are with Fay as with all of you. Warren
  10. SCLC survivor here. Almost one year, 12th of this month. Still trying to find a chemo to stop it in Liver BUT am NEVER giving up. Going for CT on Monday the 6th, wish me luck, just hope it's not still spreading. Then on the 7th I'm flying up to Chicago to go to the Cancer Treatment center of America for another opinion. Wish me luck there to. Keep up the good work, you guys are GREAT support. Warren
  11. That was beautiful. If there is anything I can do to help you support the site, let me know. My wife builds Websites in our business. So if we can, please ask. Warren
  12. HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE !!!!! **Hugs** to ALL
  13. Hey Maryannne, Yes, I'm feeling pretty good right now, physically and mentally, considering I’m at Stage IV level of SCLC, AND trying to rebuild from the house fire. OH, went out today to Sears to purchase replacement appliances for the house. You know everything needs to be replaced. Well Sears is having a 20% rebate now on appliance purchases over $399 per appliance purchased on your sears card. So I went today and bought everything I needed, came to just under $10 grand, so my rebate is going to be about $2000.00, that made me feel pretty good, saving that kind of money. Thanks for the good wishes Maryanne.
  14. Hey Carleen & Erin, GREAT to hear from you again. My wife and I are flying into Chicago on 3/7 in the evening, from what they tell me they will be evaluating me for 3 - 5 days there in Zion. I'm getting a current CAT scan done on the 6th so I can bring that with me. Read what Erin wrote below your post, that sounds encouraging to me. Getting excited here again. I wanna kick this thing in the butt BAD, just want to find the right Ammo to aim at it. I can put up with anything it wants to throw at me just give me a weapon to fight back with. Donna (my wife) and I would love to meet you guys while we are there, lunch, dinner sounds great to me. Erin, would also love to meet you as well. Your words about the CTCA up there sounds great, looking forward to meeting these people. We are staying over there at the beach resort also, during the evaluation period. Love to you all, and keep up this good work, so glad I found all of you.
  15. Hey Guys, Well I've updated my profile since I was last here and reading that you can see why I've been a little busy lately. Time to go for another Evaluation got a lot of positive responses from some of you great folks here about the Cancer Treatment Centers of America. So my wife and I will be heading up there on the 7th of March for 4 or 5 days of evaluation. Wish me good luck guys. Thank you again for your support, it really does make a difference. Warren
  16. It is very comforting to know how many people out there care and offer such support to a total stranger. I thank you for myself and for, I'm sure the hundreds if not thousands of other people you have done this for. I have received besides here on the board, E-mails also that have been very helpful. I'm gonna beat this, I know I am. Just have to find the right direction to head, and then go full bore. I will post my history here and soon as I get a copy of all my info. again. Something I haven't mentioned to you yet is that our house burned Nov. 2, 2005. Lots of damage. Everything that wasn't destroyed by the fire itself was damaged by smoke and water damage. My wife and I are self-employed working out of our house and all our computers were damaged or destroyed and all my Cancer treatment info was recorded on them, so one of the nurses in my oncon office is making me a timeline list again and I will post here when I get it. With all that has happened I can't keep that stuff straight in my mind. Right now my wife and I had to park one of those contruction trailers, you know the kind the ones you see at road building sites on highways. Well, anyway we have that parked outside the front door of our house and are working from there now while we are rebuilding the house. These contractors we have are great, they are about halfway done. Hopefully we can be back in our home by the middle of April. Again, thank you all so much, and if anyone has more info for me please post or E-mail. Warren
  17. I forgot to mention that I did get a second opinion right after the radiation. The Dr from Winston-Salem consulted with my Oncon, and they started me on a 3rd type of Chemo. He also told me that as early as my cancer was caught, that he felt I probably could have whipped it, but would not have told me that before treatments. After 2 treatments, it was determined that I was alergic to this type, and they put me on a 4th kind. This is the one that I get once every 3 weeks, and I have had 1 treatment so far---number 2 is coming up this Thur.
  18. Frank, Rich, Ginny, Sharyn and Joanie, thank you so much for the welcome. Quick response, going to be a real active board here, I can see that already.
  19. Hi, My name is Warren AKA Tarheeldad. I have a wonderful wife (Donna) and five girls. 3 of which are out of the house. Two are married, with two children each (one has a set of twins) and one will be getting married in April. My youngest two girls, 15 and 12,have begun getting preped for college, both are straight A students, and I am very proud. Just joined last night. Seem to have some wonderful people here. I have SCLC, diag. 3/12/05 when I had a CAT scan for Pneumonia I had. I was 46 at the time and I was devastated. Not really surprised, though unfortunately I started smoking at an early age, living here in great state of North Carolina as a boy every summer had to work on my granddaddy’s farm growing guess what - Tobacco. Anyway, I went to a surgeon at the referral of my family doctor. He confirmed the cancer in the left lung on the outside of the lung and in two of the nodes, center chest. Still did not know what kind it was. He operated and took out the larger tumors and left small amounts in the lung. No other signs of cancer anywhere else. With this he confirmed it is SCLC. I then went to an oncologist, she looked at what was left and told me with that little bit left that she felt confident that she could "cure" me of this with Chemo. While I was in the hospital recovering from the surgery a radiation Dr. visited with me and suggested I clean up the rest of the cancer with radiation treatment. I was reluctant to do that, radiation scared me to death. I went with the Chemo treatments, for several months I had a combination of two chemo treatments, handle them very well not much problem with side effects. Then went back for scans CT and MRI and to my surprise, the cancer had grown and SPREAD. Now I have cancer in my Brain, Lower Spine and Liver besides still being in the original lung. I was shocked after the Dr. told me she could "cure" me. Dr switched me to another Chemo drug, did that for weeks, it didn't work either. We decided then to go with radiation. Had 15 radiation treatments to the brain, spine and lung. The liver can not have radiation, as I understand it, radiation will kill the liver. The radiation worked, somewhat, Cancer gone from the brain and the spine, but still some left in the original lung and growing more in the liver. Looking back I wish I had done the radiation first instead of the Chemo. I am now in the middle of my fourth Chemo treatment, trying to find one that will work on the remaining cancer. I have to admit I'm getting frustrated at not being able to find a chemo that works. This current one I'm on, they can only administer once every three weeks, it scares me that at this slow rate of treatment this stuff is just growing and growing inside me without knowing if this one is working either. This SCLC spreads very VERY fast. I have been looking at going somewhere else for other opinions, I'm looking at the Cancer Treatment Center of America located up near Chicago,IL, actually in Zion,IL. Do any of you know this place? Had treatment there? Know anything about this place? I'm also looking for any other info that any of you may have that I could try. I'm willing to do about anything and go anywhere it takes to get this poison out of me. I'm going to beat this, I know I am, I just need to be going in the right direction, I feel like I'm spinning in circles here and don't know which path to get on to end this nightmare. Gotta run for now, but thank you for letting me vent a little.
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