A Little More News!

(Daddy with Grandma Curtis and Aunt Carol)
Well, it has started. Dad started losing his hair this morning. Mom was going to take the clippers up tonight to shave his hair. We will get a picture soon. Danny's hair has been growing too long and hasn't been cut in a month or two so I am going to shave his hair too. We will get pictures of that too. Tonight Mom was bringing pizza and they were watching fire works. The city puts on a Big "First Night" celebration with fireworks Dad said that they were up as high as the fireworks. Dad is up on the 8th floor and the hospital is pretty high up anyway. So that is all for tonight. From Our Family to Yours, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Going in the right direction

The results are in for the latest bone marrow biopsy. When dad had his first one, the cancerous cells made up 95% of his bone marrow. Today, that number has shrunk to 20%!!!!! Clearly, that number is still way too high, and the doctors will be starting dad on another week of chemotherapy today. Still, we are rejoicing in the improvements we have seen so far. This will guarantee that dad will remain in the hospital for another several weeks, so please continue to pray. The support they have been getting is overwhelming and a huge encouragement. Please, as time passes, do not cease to pray and send cards when possible.

The photo you see above is the view from daddy's room at night.

A better day!

Good afternoon everyone. I just talked to Dad and he was having a better day today. He still doesn't feel like eating much though. Tomorrow is Mom and Dad's anniversary and we are hoping to set up a nice dinner, although Daddy wont be too interested in eating but at least they will be together and it should be nice. I don't know when the Bone Marrow biopsy will be but I hope we will hear soon. I am sorry that this is short. Danny is starting to get a cold so I am giving him Zicam in the hopes of staving it off and Kali is getting some Airborne Jr. to help her not get the cold at all. I am also taking some Airborne to help me keep from getting a cold since we are supposed to be back at Mom and Dad's this weekend with Melody and Joe and Marc and Elizabeth. It has been great to hear from you all. Please keep praying and when you get a chance, send Dad a note. He loves getting mail.

Christmas weekend

(Picture was taken at the hospital. Hosanna was allowed in the room for a little while as long as Dad didn't hold her or she didn't get too close. First row -Tina, Mom and Dad, Heidi and Elizabeth. Second row-Ed, Joe, Melody, Doug, Marcus and Hosanna. Dad wanted a picture of all of us in masks so that is what we did, but we didn't really have to wear them unless we were sick. Melody and Joe and Tina are wearing gowns because their chilren were sick and they didn't watn to hug Dad after being sneezed and coughed on.)

Well, it has been an eventful weekend. We all made plans to get home this weekend so that Dad could have his Christmas wish of having the whole family together. Melody and Joe and the boys got in Friday night after Ed and Tina and the kids and I had left to come back up here. Ed had something he wanted to do on the computer and they wanted to do some visiting. Ed and Tina an d Melanie ended up staying the night. On Saturday I had to work so I went to work, had the best day of work I ever had and then changed my clothes and drove straight to the hospital where I was met by the rest of the family. Doug had brought the kids down earlier in t he evening. All the kids had to have baby sitters because they weren't allowed in Dad's hospital room. Elizabeth's sister is spending Christmas with Marcus and Elizabeth and Hosanna so she stayed in t eh family waiting room with the baby. Our kids went to a family friend's house and Melanie and Nathan and Joah stayed at Grammie and Papa's house with the youth pastor from their church. THANKS PASTOR MATT! All of these arrangements so that we could spend some time with Dad. We did our gifts and we sang together. Dad had some thoughts that he wanted to share with us and Marcus read the Christmas story from the Bible for us. Dad had been having some bad reactions to some of his medication and of course to the chemo but not long before we all started to arrive at the hospital, he started feeling better and he actually looked really good. He tires very easily though and was ready for us to go.
Today we all made it to church with Mom and then we had a nice dinner together. The kids ate first and watched a movie while the adults ate. After lunch came the opening of gifts and then everyone started to pack up to leave. Ed and Tina and Melanie went first. Then the kids and I and Joe and Melody shouldn't have been too far behind us. Marcus and Elizabeth and Elizabeth's sister, Elice and Hosanna are staying for the week. Melody and Joe and the boys and the kids and I and maybe Doug will head down there at the end of the week for what was supposed to be the regular family Christmas. Ed and Tina had no way of being in Ohio that weekend.
We don't see any signs of Daddy losing his hair. He has horrible sores in his mouth that make him not really want to eat and his appetite has changed since the chemo has changed the way food tastes to him.
One more last update, he has been moved again to room 8412. There is a sign on the door asking that he have no visitors except clergy and family. He doesn't like to talk too much because it makes him cough and he is worried about losing his voice and not being able to sing anymore. He also gets very tired very quickly.
Merry Christmas too all!

Dad Update

Hey All,
Dad's fever is back. He isn't reacting the way he did a couple days ago so the fever is taking longer to break. Some of the medicine is causing him to react oddly and go in and out. My mother has said delerious or delusional. Please pray for his body to be able to fight off the infection and the nurses and doctors will know how to take care of him. Dad has also lost his appetite. He has very bad sores in his mouth from the chemo and the Leukemia and it makes it hard to eat and he really doesn't ahve any interest in it but he knows his body needs energy. He forces the food down but he gets no enjoyment from it. We ar in for a long hard week. The doctor says it will only get worse, before it gets better.

"Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and Lean not on your own understanding. In ALL your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path."

Direct from Mom via e-mail

Hi Everyone!

Heidi has probably updated the web site but thought I would give you the latest. I stayed at church only long enough to play for the singing and then went back to the hospital. Daddy was still not feeling well and was running a high fever. I sat down in the recliner and read for a while because he finally felt like reading the paper. After that, the nurses had been coming and going and giving more antibiotics and taking vitals etc. so I sat down beside the bed and we opened the mail. I read all of the Christmas cards and get well cards(including one signed by all of the MPC choir members) to him and then read all of the family Christmas newsletters that accompanied many of the cards. About half way through all that his fever broke and he started perspiring, so that was good. He thought about watching TV but when he called a short while ago he said he was going to ask for his Percocet and go to sleep. He (we) are on a roller coaster as far as how he feels from hour to hour.

Dan from our former choir at MPC stopped by today and Pastor Dayton too. After they left Steve was pretty tired out so he asked me to put a sign on the door asking visitors to limit their visit to 5 or 10 minutes. Later on when he started getting chills and shaking violently he asked me to make a NO VISITORS sign....so that is the status at the moment. Who knows, tomorrow he may want to see lots of people. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dan brought a beautiful poinsettia, so I had to bring that home. The church folks gave me more food - cookies and cake - and money for gas and the men of the church are bringing part of the Christmas ingathering to us tomorrow afternoon. Our youth Pastor's wife gave me a meat loaf (which, I just remembered, is still in the trunk - at least it is cold enough!)

Tomorrow morning I am hoping to get Ed to go with me to Mc Guffey Plaza for the Job and Family Services appt. I still have to gather all the stuff they want. I know they will want "official" verification of my income and I am as "official" as it gets. Those kind of places NEVER believe me, so I know it will be a hassle. : (

Well, my bed is covered with gifts to be wrapped, so I need to get busy on that while I wait for Ed, Tina and Melanie to arrive. Thought I would give everyone the news at the same time. Talked to Dennis and to G & G tonight. Their church caroled for them so that was nice. We had a Civil War reenactment group - in costume - carol for us up and down the halls of our department. That was very nice. Daddy's nurses know him well now so they all check up on him even if they are assigned to other patients or other areas of the hospital for the day.
We love you all.
Resting in the Lord,
Steve & Jan

Dad

they think Dad has an infection. He has a temperature of 101 and he has chills pretty bad. One thing I forgot to tell DD to tell the family is that they are going to really cut back on visitors. Mom said that at one point all the color went out of Dad's face and he looked gray. Mom ran out to get the nurse and when she came back in Dad had put his oxygen back on and she watched the color come back into his face. She said it was very strange. Please pray!
Thanks for your prayers!

An Update straight from Mom

I copied and pasted this from an e-mail Mom sent me tonight. It just seemed easier!

I just talked to Daddy. He called me at 10PM (Tuesday). He is feeling much better. While I was there this evening they gave him medicine to settle his stomach and two Percocet for his headache. He went right off to sleep while I was watching Jeopardy and talking to Heidi on the phone. At 8:00 I kissed him goodnight and he woke up enough to say Bye and went back to la la land. He slept a good while and then they woke him to go take an x-ray of his lungs. They told him they want to be sure that the lungs are as clear as they sound. He sounded good and said he was hungry. The nurse showed me a fridge full of sandwiches, yogurt, jello, juice, etc yesterday and she told me he could have anything he wanted, so I told him to ask for something to eat, not to just bear it until tomorrow, because he needs to keep his strength up. He said I could take the 5 # weights up there tomorrow too. I am greatly encouraged so I thought I would let you know.

Anniversary Notice

Hey Everyone, Wednesday December 27th, is Mom and Dad's 38th wedding anniversary.
I just got off the phone with Dad and he said that he wasn't feeling too good today. His cough was coming back and he was feeling feverish last night and has had the chills. He didn't say anything about feeling nauseated but it wouldn't surprise me. Okay, Mom just called me too and she says that Dad has vomited once and really isn't feeling well at all. His blood pressure is up too and Dad is worried about that but Mom is going to talk to the nurse about changing his diet to a low sodium diet because Dad isn't used to all the salt they put in their food. I am not sure why they didn't do this in the first place but hopefully Mom can get it taken care of.
Here is a picture. This is not an actual wedding picture of Mom and Dad. It is from a Vow Renewal ceremony that they took part in with a few other couples. Sadly we don't have any of their wedding pictures scanned onto our computer yet. Thanks for Praying. Mom tells me all the time that she can tell people are praying for them. The Lord is doing great things here!

Please send all cards to ....

Steve and Janice Curtis
515 W. wood St.
Lowellville, OH 44436
and e-mails to
janice.m3@juno.com

A couple additions

Doug and I stopped at the hospital on our way down to a party and the kids WERE allowed in Papa's room and were able to hug him and spend a few minutes with him. They are healthy so the nurse said it was fine. Dad was doing really well and sounding much better. The reason for Doug to stop at the hosptial was to get a picture before Dad lost all of his hair. Dad says that he feels a little nausea but it hasn't been too bad and he hasn't thrown up at all.
I did want to mention something. Balloons. If you want to send balloons, make sure they are Mylar and not latex. They will not allow latex balloons into the hospital because of some of the severe reactions people have if they have an allergy to latex. .
We got some good pictures today of Dad and Mom and the kids so when we gets those downloaded, I will post them.
This week is going to be slow in the updates because the only thing going on will be his chemo treatments. If he is having some bad reactions or something I will let you know but don't expect updates everyday this week. We are playing the waiting game for a while.
Keep posting those comments. I pass them along. E-mails are good too.

Change in visiting

Dad restricted his visitation when he first got to the hospital because he was so tired but he has since started feeling better. However, having started chemo, he may very well start feeling bad again but for now, he would probably enjoy a visit from people, just try to gage how tired he is.

Whoops, I forgot..

His room number for the moment is 8421 right now and his phone number is (330)480-8421. He may be moved soon. He is not in a private room and the hospital is loosing money with Dad in that room. There is one other private room on Dad's wing so they are supposed to keep asking about moving Dad into the private room. We will let you know when they move him.

I know... (Dad with Daniel)

... you are all anxiously waiting for news. Dad's procedure went well yesterday, as Doug wrote last night. It took a while for them to move him onto the Cancer wing today and then longer to get the chemo therapy started. They gave him the medicine to help counter act the nausea and then the heavey duty chemo for 15 minutes and then the chemo that he will be on for a week straight. He will lose his hair. He may or may not get sick and he will get very tired out. He will be even more susceptible to infection after the chemo so please, if you are going to visit him, make sure you are healthy and haven't been in contact with anyone who is sick.
If you are close and would like to help out, the nurse suggested giving Dad regular baby wipes. Not the kind with alcohol in it though. These are useful to Dad since he will need to keep his hands as clean as possible. Also, if you are interested in bringing a meal, check with mom when it would be best to bring it and see how many people will be in the house. If it will only be her, a couple small portions of a meal that could be easily reheated would be a good idea. Also things that can go in the freezer easily. If the family is going to be around, food for a big group would be greatly appreciated so Mom doesn't have to worry about how she is going to feed us all. Also things that don't take a lot of work to prepare are a good idea. Ready made food. Some things to keep in mind are a low sodium content. Nothing with a lot of spice, since Mom gets heart burn easily.
Sending cards are a good idea. If you do, send some news about your family. Dad likes to hear how others are doing. I think balloons would be okay too but please no live plants or flowers. You can feel free to send artificial flowers though. He has a small artificial tree in his room. We will be able to do almost anything to decorate the room too. Dad isn't all that gung ho about Christmas decorations though so we wont go over board. We have family pictures up in his room. I bet he would like to see pictures if you have any to send along with a card or note. I think we will probably start an album where we can put all the cards and notes and even pictures. He can look at them whenever he wants and keep them nice and neat and hopefully not lose any.
I hope this update is helpful and if you have any questions, I am at home and you can feel free to call or e-mail. Also, I have been sending the comments that are left on the website to Mom and Dad and they are keeping up with them. Time to eat!!
"Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, & I will give you rest."

The Latest

The procedure to install the catheter into dad's chest went well. It is in and fully functioning. Because dad will be starting his treatments in the morning, they will once again be moving him into s different wing. As soon as I have a new room number and phone number, I will post them after about one week of chemotherapy, they will be performing another bone marrow biopsy to determine how well he is responding. Thanks again o all who are praying for my father's health. Remember to pray for mom as well, and to not only pray for their health, but their spirit too.

AML

It was suggested that I not use acronyms when giving updates because you all don't know what they mean. I actually didn't know what it meant either but Doug had a PDF file on the desktop about AML and it gave the meaning so here it is.
AML = acute myelogenous leukemia
There will not be another update until tomorrow evening because I wont be near a computer to do it. Maybe, I can get to one before them but don't look for an update. If something goes wrong with the surgery, we will make a few phone calls and ask for others to pass it on. The reason for this is because we will all be at the hospital. Once we get back to Mom and Dad's we can send e-mail but again, you might have to pass stuff on if we don't catch everyone.
"Trust in the Lord"

Dad's surgery

One more update. Dad is having surgery to put a catheter his chest for the next phase of chemo tomorrow at 11:30 AM. It should last an hour and he will not be totally put to sleep. Melody said he is a little worried about it. Mom says that the doctor says there is a 1 - 2 % chance that something could go wrong but it isn't likely.
I am headed down tomorrow after Danny gets of the school bus. Meanwhile I will be going in to work to tell my boss that I am quitting. Not an easy task. I am asking for prayer as I do this. She is not a compassionate person and isn't very nice.
"His grace is sufficient"

Okay, here it is!

This is what Melody called and told Doug about the meeting with the doctors. Dad has AML M-4. M4-M8 is the scale of how far along the cancer cells are. Dad is at half way. His Chemo is 3/7 which means 3 days of one type of chemo and 7 days of another. He has a 50% chance of remission. A Bone Marrow transplant is a possibility but Aunt Carol would be the only one who could possibly be a match. There is a 50% fatality rate. Dad should have fewer side effects from the chemo because of the drugs that they have been giving him. They are starting blood transfusions tonight and he will have surgery to have a chest catheter tomorrow. He will be receiving two different kinds of Chemo therapy. The first one he has been getting since Friday is to bring his white blood cell count down. He has responded well to this. The second is to kill off the bad blood marrow. There is 50% chance of remission. Mom and Dad were pretty shaken up when they were told these things. Doug and I were aware of some of this because of our Internet research, but it is still hard to comprehend. Please pray for Dad's spirits. I think so much depends on his spirits. He needs to keep them up. Mom too. Dad will be in the hospital for 4 - 6 weeks this time. If you want to share some especially meaningful Bible verses that you have found helpful, please do. I will post them.

Daddy

No real news yet

Good morning all. There is no real news right now. The big news will come this evening after the doctors consultation. Mom is going to the doctor this afternoon herself because she has had a cough for a little while and wants to get herself better before she gets worse so she wont have to keep away from Dad. I have to work tonight but I will be posting everything I learn as I learn it. Since we have DSL, I can be on the phone and on the Web at the same time. This way, I wont forget anything.
Later!

Stephan John Curtis

Hello to all. If you are visiting this website, odds are you know and love Steve Curtis. This site is dedicated to keeping all of you updated on his health and progress. You all know that he was diagnosed with Acute Leukemia late Friday night early Saturday morning. December 8-9 2006.
As it did with you, it came as a shock to his family. I believe we are all holding up well.
This website is mostly to cut down on the phone calls. Mom is not big on talking on the phone and the long distance bills would be huge for any of us. I, Heidi, will be doing my best to keep everything as up to date as possible on this site. If you have questions, we ask that you contact me or Melody. You are more then welcome to send e-mails to Mom and Dad even call once in a while but please don't call too much.
As of now, Steve is in room 8321 in St. Elizabeth's Hospital. He has a really bad cough that kicks in when he talks and when he sits or stands. If he coughs too hard, his vegan nerve seizes and cuts off the blood flow to his head. This causes him to pass out. Because he has passed out, he is on a monitored floor where he is hooked up to a heart monitor at all times. Yesterday, he had a bone marrow biopsy. Tomorrow he has a consultation with the doctors. Melody will be there for the consultation and take notes so that we can be better informed. We have many questions that we hope will be answered at this consultation. How long he will be in the hospital? What kind of treatment options are there? How long will it be before his immune system is strong again? Because his immune system is so vulnerable right now, he cannot have live plants or flowers in his room and there are no visitors under 13 allowed. He has asked them to restrict his visitors to 2 at a time and for only 5 minutes. He gets very tired out very quickly.
Friday night after the doctor's did a CAT scan, they started him on Chemo pills right away. Since then, the doctors are thrilled with how much his white blood cell count has dropped. What they don't understand is the power of the hundreds of people praying for Dad right now.
Dad's sister, Carol, flew in Sunday morning to be with Dad at the hospital while Mom went to church and also to be with Mom at night. I went down Monday morning since Aunt Carol had to leave Monday afternoon. I got to the hospital about 30 minutes before Aunt Carol headed back to the airport. I sat in his room and dozed off and listened to music. Dad also dozed off and we chatted when he thought of something he wanted to talk about. Never for a very long period of time. Mom came up after her piano lessons and Dad had her help him get cleaned up and get clean sheets. He felt much better after that. He seems to be very a hot all the time. He is sweating a lot, even with the air conditioner running. I left this afternoon around 2 PM because I had to get tow work but Melody came in about an hour and half after I left. She will stay until tomorrow. I am hoping to go back on Thursday or Friday but that has yet to be determined.
We have started a journal that we keep in Dad's room to write down questions and answers, important happenings, the names of the doctor's and what kind of doctor they are, the medicine's Dad is getting and what they are for. Anything we think is important. Melody with take notes from the consultation in the journal.
We do want to thank you all for the prayers you all have offered on Dad's behalf, Mom's behalf and the family's behalf. We know that they are holding us up right now. The e-mails, phone calls and notes and cards are a great encouragement to us all. We have so many offers to help in anyway I am not sure we know where to start. I do know that if and when we need it, we will be asking for it.
Most likely I will be adding a new post tomorrow evening to give you an update on how the consultation goes. We thank you again for your thoughts and prayers. Keep them up.