Studying?

I thought after college I would never have to spend countless nights researching information and writting what I have learned. Well I don't have to anymore for anybody but myself! Well the past 2 weeks I have been researching, looking up, studying all kinds of remedies, cures, natural supplements, prevention etc... on cancer. What would I do without the internet? Look in the encyclopedia? Man, we have come a long way!


I found several helpful sites and have spent many countless nights reading that my head hurts! I found a cancer fighting strategy page and it gave me 100 pages of what can cause cancer and strategies that have been tested that have been proven to work. People who have cancer, of course their immunity is down, also have low levels of PH in return can cause......... a whole list of things! When yourPH level is low, cancer thrives because your body stores more toxins in cells and that reduces oxygen which are both fundamentals to the development of cancer. It seems like one thing can go wrong with your body which causes something else to not function normal which causes something else. It seems like the never ending story!


I found a whole list of all natural organic supplements that have been proven to stop the spread of cancer and get rid of stage 4 cancer completely. When you have cancer already it says to take 5 to 10 x's more the recomended dose. I have a whole list of organic supplements and what they are good for to take with us to the doctor's office on Monday to see what he thinks. I saw something on the news last year about a lady who spent all kinds of money on an 'alkiline' water system in her house and it cleared her, dementia, arthiritis and a few other issues she had. This site also talked about the effects of alkiline water! Something about the oxygen in the water and it helps neutralize the PH in your body. Well most people can't go out and afford 5,000 for an alkaline system. So it said put 3 teaspoons of baking soda in a glass of water everyday and it is the same to drinking alkaline water. Huh?


We all know how picky Cody is when it comes to food (Thank Jed for this!), but I also found a list of foods that are cancer fighting and I think I will have to hold Cody down while I shove them down his throat! :) Or I could use my juicer and mix some veggies in his juice! :) Everyone always talks about how good green tea is for you. Most people buy the green tea already made, full of sugar, and it doesn't work the same. You have to get the real deal green tea, Japanese green tea is the best and steep in water for 10 minutes and drink within the hour. After the hour it looses its cancer fighting stuff. So the next time ya'll come visit, we might be green tea people! :) Here is a list of all the cancer fighting foods I found and how to eat them! If you care :)

- Fresh ginger or ginger root ( fresh grated ginger over stir fry veggies or over soups or salads, teas, cereal)

-Tumeric powder ( also known as curry powder, I think, mix teaspoon of Tumeric with teaspoon of olive or canola oil with a pinch of ground black pepper, add to steamed veggies, soups, salad dressings)

Brussell sprouts, bok choy, chinese cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower ( steam briefly/stir fry rapidly, cook too long kills cancer fighting compounds) This is the one I will have a hard time getting Cody to eat, he will not touch anything green and I don't think you can juice broccoli!

Fresh garlic- not in a jar, the clove of garlic! (saute with olive/canola oil with onions and veggies and you can toss it in the tumeric with pepper) over steamed whole grain rice!

Soy Milk/Soy yogurt- Cody loves his milk and I know he will never drink this willingly! Maybe I could just pour the soy in the regular jug? LOL

Pomegranate juice - 8 oz with breakfast every morning

Fish- 2-3 X's a week (even sardines in a can work) LOL that is so what the website said! Daddy, I know you love sardines! That is what you would feed me and Kristen when we would stay with you and I still like them! Although I haven't had them since I was 10.

Dark Chocolate- (small piece a day with at least 70% cocoa)

Lemon, grapefruit, oranges, tangerine PEEL ( zest on top of cereal, yogurt or boil in water and drink)

Blueberries, rasberries, cranberries, strawberries-( mix with your soy milk and cereal or oatmeal) I have started making Cody a lot of smoothies with soy yogurt, fruit, and a little bit of apple juice and he loves it, and I haven't told him about the soy yogurt yet :) Suprise Cody!


Hope this is helpfull to all and maybe next time we are all at nannies we can have a tea party!



Cody just came home smelling like a skunk and now our WHOLE house smells like one too!

Karen

P.S. Don't forget to click away!

Sweet Monday

Never thought I would ever enjoy a 'Monday' but I did today. We finally got back to our normal schedule, except for the fact that I had to get up at 7:30 and bottle feed the fawns while Cody slept in :) Cody got out of the house majority of the day today and he is not sore tonight! Since Cody has been in the house all week laying around, of course I wanted to lay around with him and got nothing done at all! So today I was able to clean the house and go grocery shopping since I was home alone!


I figured Cody would have been super bored all week being in the house and not being able to lift anything heavy, but he was a good little patient and he had plenty of company between me and 'little girl' learning to jump on the bed, sudoku, puzzles and lots of movies!

Hopefully next weekend we can put her outside. I know she is missing her buddies and she has way tooo much energy for our house. We thought a little buddy would join her this weekend, but the sick little fawn we brought inside didn't make it. I just couldn't get her to eat enough :( She passed away Saturday around noon. That was a sad sad day. I also noticed that one pen outside has had more sick doe than the other, but they have all survied where as doe in the other pens haven't made it. This pen also has stopped taking care of their babies!!!!!!!!!! Sometimes when a doe gets sick, her number one priority is herself and she stops taking care of her baby but another doe will usually take care of it. I figured when the doe gets better she will start nursing her baby again, but I haven't seen a doe nurse one baby in at least a week. Majority of the babies were born in May so if momma won't let them nurse, then I think they will be able to make it cause their old enought to be weened. There is one buck fawn that was born early July sometime and no one will let him nurse! I have watched him for 5 days straight and he goes from doe to doe and not one will let him nurse! Although he is not weak and looks healthy, it can't be good he is not nursing at such a young age. He has way to much energy for us to catch him and bottle feed him, so I am hoping he can make it without those stupid Doe!

Karen

50 candles and 1 to grow on!

Kim finally joined all her friends and has entered into the 50 + box! Happy Birthday and hope you had a great day, even though we didn't do much but get the worst Oklahoma pedicure ever, ok maybe the 2nd worst pedicure ever.

I handed Jed my camera and here is his great pic! J/K You left out the cake buddy! :)

As you can see by this picture, Cody is starting to feel normal again! He did venture on out for a bit today and came home hurting a little, but getting out a little each day should do him some good.

Well little boy buck didn't make it. I went out one last time last night to try to get it to take a bottle and he could barely lift his head but Cody gave him a shot last night so he wouldn't hurt and he passed away this morning. This is the sad part of this job. The other sick fawn we found last night has taken up residence in our closet today, our other fawn in the house was picking on her and biting her, so I put her in a more tolerable environment. haha Deer usually pick on the weak, well not in my house missy! I did get her to take about 5 oz today, which is better than none, but still not good. She just can't get the sucking part down with the nipple. She sucks away at my ear though. She will only eat about an ounce a feeding, if that, so I try to feed her every hour, just so she will have something in her belly. I hope she makes it! I am looking forward to getting back to our regular routine next week! So happy we have Louis here, he has stepped up so much this week and has helped Cody out tremendously. He has been feeding the whitetail for Cody since he can't lift anything heavy and running most of the errands, picking up feed, dropping and picking up deer from the vet, filling feeders on top of his regular chores and extra projects they have going on around the ranch! I don't know how we could ever make this up to him! Louis is so sweet, he has been so worried about Cody. The first day home Cody stayed in bed all day and was out, and everytime Louis called he wanted to know how Cody was and when he could see him. He finally came over yesterday and you could tell he was happy to see Cody! They have definitely bonded even though there is a huge language barrier, but Louis is learning more English everyday! Cody's parents are leaving in the morning. Jed has been spraying the deer pens everynight for Cody while I spray the hanging strips over the deer water and bottle feeding the babies. Kim has been opening the gates for Jed and that cuts spraying in half! There are so many gates! I figured we would have had a harder time making Cody take it easy, but I haven't had to put my foot down once. He did get out more today but he didn't lift anything heavy and I know that was good for him!

We are fixin to start a game of cards and I am so tired I am sure I will come in last!

Karen

God is good, All the time!

Well, I have pretty great news considering. Cody's surgery went really good. They think they got all the cancer out. The Dr. showed us pictures of the cancer and it looked so scary. It looked like a cross between calliflower and seeweed/coral reef looking thing. Glad that is out of his body! We go back August 3rd and the doctor will let us know then how bad a grade the cancer is and he will go over our options with us then. From experience, the Dr. said just by looking at it, it looked low grade because they seem to think they caught it super early and Cody will just have to have regulat scopes for 10 years to make sure nothing else scary is growing in his bladder. But we will know the facts on the 3rd! My Poor Baby! He isn't looking forward to the regular scopes, he was in so much pain during the first one. He is taking it super easy this week and still very very sore. Everyone keeps making the comment, "You probably felt the equivalent of a women having a baby," Not a good thing to tell the wife of the man who just went through all that pain and hasn't had a baby yet :(


Today we found a sick fawn in the deer pens, her mom got sick last week which we have been giving meds to, but when a Doe gets sick, she just takes care of herself and not her baby. Usually other doe step in and take care of it, but no one did this time. The fawn was really week and dehydrated. Cody and Jed caught it and brought it home. I have been trying to get it to take a bottle all afternoon, but she would never take it. Maybe, hopefully she will be super hungry in the morning and suck that bottle up! We had 3 fawns in the house and 2 have already graduated to outdoor pens. I was so looking forward to sending that third one out this week, but she might need to stay in longer with this new one, if she makes it. Hopefully she will. Tonight while we were spraying the pens(Kim and Jed are here helping me out since Cody has to take it easy), I found a buck fawn not looking to sexy either. He was really skinny and dehyrdated. He let me come right up to him and he licked me, I ran home, made a bottle of electrolytes and tried to get him to take a bottle to rehydrate. He drank about 2 oz and Cody went and gave him a shot of some fluids to maybe help him rehydrate. We will see how little guy is doing in the morning.


P.S. KIMBERLY ANN PEDEN CAMPBELL IS TURNING 50 tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!

Sometimes you find Gold at the end of the Rainbow..sometimes Not.

How do you tell someone they have cancer? I always imagined that it would be real dramatic, making a scene after you hear the news, and taking one look at your doctor's face, you would just know something was horribly terribly wrong. I don't think that is the case anymore.

Last March Cody saw a drop of blood in his urine, went to the doctor, everything checked out and they found no sign of blood. Sent him home and said if it happened again to come back for more test. We had forgot about it because nothing else came of it. Last Sunday Cody saw more, this time a lot more. Monday we went to the doctor here in Woodward. They checked and found no trace of blood. Since this wasn't the first time for Cody they referred him to a Urologist. His appointment was suppose to be tomorrow (Friday) but someone called Monday afternoon and asked if we could go to the hospital and get a CT on Tuesday and then bring the result to the Urologist and he would go over the results with us. When we arrive at the hospital everyone was surprised we had the Urologist we had and that being from Texas and new to the area, how we got in to see him so quick. They had nothing but good things to say about him and said he was the best and people come from all over just to see him.


When we arrive at the Urologist he goes over Cody's CT and says it looked good and no sign of trouble. Since this has happened to Cody before, he wanted to do a scope, just to make sure he wasn't missing anything. The Dr. let me go in the room with Cody while he was doing the procedure and the whole time the Dr. is talking to us saying, "yup, looks good, nope, nothing here, Oh' wait, just a sec, yup here is something right here, a tumor, would you like to come look at it ma'am?" I think Cody was in so much pain, not sure if he heard that word or not, I sure did. My heart dropped to my knees and I looked and saw the cauliflower shape tumor in my husband's bladder. The doctor tells Cody to get dressed and kindly tells us to meet him in our original room. Me and Cody are in shock, but still, just a tumor, right? That's all it is, lets stay calm till we get the facts. The Dr. proceeds to draw us an illustration of what is in Cody's bladder and just blurts out the word cancer like you blurt out the word cookie to a child. The energy in the room was real calm, not really emotional, the doctor was very respectful but matter of fact. He gives us really good odds, says they caught it early, it's super small, you will have to come back for the next 10 years to get regular scopes and the prognosis looks good. He tells us it needs to come out and ask if we had any other questions. I only had one, "Is it a tumor or is it cancer?" He calmly replies, "It's definitely cancer." He gives us a piece of paper stating when the surgery will be and we leave.

As we leave, we are just in shock, maybe this is a dream, maybe we misunderstood him, maybe we should go back and ask him if we heard him correctly, your 27 years old and you can't have cancer, your my life, you have my heart, I need you here to guard it forever, I love you, this can't be happening to us, this only happens in movies, I love you, did he really just say that, no, yes, maybe, I don't know, what are you thinking, not sure, what are you thinking? Then the tears flow like a raging river. We had our 20 minute emotional breakdown in the parking lot of the Dr. office, got our composure and started making our phone calls.


When we make it home we just lay on the couch while our phone's blow up with calls. We had all day to try and process this information. We laughed, we cried, we felt sorry about it, we prayed about it, we were in denial, still shocked, we had our little pity party, we thought negative, we thought positive and then we thought "we will kick this in the ass!"

We will know more Tuesday when they go in and take it out.


I just read in the dictionary, one definition of cancer said 'an evil influence.' Well maybe we did find gold because we have God on our side fighting with us and not against us.


My love, my life, my everything good, we will beat this.

Finally....the rainbow!

We sure are glad we made it through last week. Things finally slowed down a bit by Friday. We have started spraying the pens everynight and we think this seems to help, we are also cleaning out their water tanks more than we should, and putting in a little bleach and we can already tell how much that has helped! Jeff also came down this weekend and brought his family. We finally got to meet Jeff's wife Jackie and 2 more of their kids. What a great family!



It also hit 116 degrees here on Friday and Saturday. It was like standing by a fire everytime you went outside. Since we slowed down a bit this weekend, luckily, Cody was able to come in during the hottest part of the day and get out of the heat. We usually head back out to the deer pens around 7 everynight to check the deer, and fill their water, spray and clean water and this usually takes us till about 10.



Well we broke down yesterday afternoon and put Cody's girl outside. She was just toooo much for the house and it was time for her to go outside. We tried to put it off as late as we could for little girls sake, but it was time for her to go! We still have little girl for a few more weeks to make sure she is strong enough and maybe it won't be so hot in a few weeks! She might get lonely though and if we have to we will put her out sooner so she can be with her buddies. What led up to the incident that led to her going outside is hilarious!!!!!! Cody came in for a bit Sunday afternoon to check his e-mail and make a few phone calls. I was in our room sitting on the floor, just got done bottle feeding the 2 fawn. Usually after their second feeding, Cody's girl gets fiesty and starts running around the house 90 to nonthing! To top it off, Cody comes in, which makes her more fiesty! Cody is sitting on our bed on the phone with a guy talking about deer, I am sitting on the floor playing with little girl, and Cody's girl is running 90-to-nothing around the island in our closet then around the foot of our bed where I am sitting. I had to dodge her a couple of times because she was heading straight towards my head. All of a sudden I see her in mid air over our bed! It was like slow motion, she jumps over Cody, jumps over our whole bed! She didn't quiet make it over the whole bed, landed on the edge and flew off into the window! I can't believe she didn't bust out the window! That was the final straw! She is outta here! :) It was super entertaining though and we had a good laugh!


We have also had issues with our insurance here. GRRRR! Apparantly Cody got denied coverage in Oklahoma and for some strange reason with all my medical issues, I did get covered! I have been on the phone all day trying to take myself off our Texas plan and making Cody the primary while we get this stuff situated here. Texas said Cody has 6 months of coverage before he has to be off and on some kind of insurance here in Oklahoma. I also recieved a letter in the mail today telling me since we live 10 miles north of the actual town of Woodward, that my premium each month will go up 100 dollars a month???????? Since Cody got denied coverage, they said we can appeal it but they haven't known a case yet to win an appeal. We can transfer his coverage from Texas over but it will go up ALOT! But at least we are keeping deer alive this week! :)


Karen

When it Pours...It Floods

What a week and it is only Tuesday. Last Thursday Cody found our 2nd largest breeder buck dead. He was fine the night before, running around, looking fine, and the next morning DEAD! We took him to the vet to do an autopsy and we won't get the results for a week or 2 but we think it was EHD, a disease that love white-tail deer and there is pretty much nothing you can do to stop it! Cody was sick. Well Sunday when we were doing our last walk through for the night we found a dead doe laying by the fence. We took her to the vet to for an autoposy and will know in a few weeks. Also, Yesterday Cody noticed 2 doe not looking good at all, so he darted both of them with antibiotics and crossed his fingers. Then this morning Cody noticed the 2 year old breeder buck acting weird so he darted it full of meds and said a little prayer. At lunch Cody went to check on them all again and the buck wasn't doing good at all. Cody called Mike Roach, (Thank goodness for this guy) He is a deer breeder that lives around here and has helped Cody out a lot, giving him extra remedies to try and answering any questions Cody has and just reassuring Cody that he is doing everything he can to take care of these deer. When Cody informed Mike that the buck is really sick and asked him what he thought about tranquilizing it and pumping him fool of fluids, antibiotics, and vitamins and of course it's the middle of the day, hot, and so not good to tranquilize a deer and Mike told Cody that and said he should do it tonight when it was cooler, but Cody was sure if they didn't do it right then he wouldn't last till tonight. Well Mike came running over here to help Cody, cause they needed to keep him cold (with a water hose) while he was under and check his temp etc and Mike would help. By the time Mike got here and they got all the meds in needles and went to give him his shots, he was already dead. Cody was sick! We took him to the vet and they just looked at us like "Really" another one! The vet said, "umm do ya'll have a way to dump the body when we are done because we don't" well they did the other day! If someone was paying me $300.00 a pop to dump a deer, BRING IT ON! Which it wasn't a big deal, it's just gross going to pick up a stinky deer after they have messed with it for a few hours! We went into town ran some errands for an hour or so and went to pick him back up to dispose of the body. When we got there the vet said this was the coolest thing ever. At first you look at us like "really" and now your telling us this is cool! Don't tell someone who just lost an expensive deer that this is "cool." Well apparantly they haven't seen anything like it before and it was super 'cool", they know he had pneumonia and said his insides looked really cool :( and maybe EHD but we will know in a few weeks for sure. Well I guess the vet won one today and we lost! At least we gave them something cool to do for the day...NOT!

While Mike was here, Cody showed him the 2 sick doe and they seemed to look a lot better. So we planned to tranquilize both tonight and pump them full of meds. We also decided to go ahead and pump big guy (our only other breeder buck left) full of antibiotics just in case, because it wouldn't hurt anything. When we get to the pens we see 1 doe hanging on for dear life. Cody runs to the house grabs about 6 different medicines, while he is loading them in needles he needed some fluids, so I run to the house, run back to the pens and when we go in to give it all the shots, she is already dead. Cody was sick! The other doe looked like she was doing about 45% better but we decided anyways to go ahead and tranq her and give her the appropriate meds to be on the safe side.

So tonight was super busy, it is 11:30 and Cody just got out of shower and relaxed! We had to bottle feed big girl, spray the pens (we are starting to do this everynight trying to fight EHD) bottle feed little girl and Cody's girl, and tranq a deer, which this was the first for Cody, all by himself! He did GREAT! He was super nervous and kind of shaking but he was GREAT! He shot the doe with some meds to put her out and she was out within 10 minutes. We sneak up to her, give her about 6 shots, antibiotics, B-12, EHD med, and a few others and then the reversal. She came out just fine. Cody just got back from checking on her and she got up, a little wobbly but hopefully she will come out of it.

Cody talked to Richard today (Jeff's financial advisor, confidante, friend, Great Guy) and Richard talked to a guy from Samson's Ridge which is a huge Game ranch in Illinois, I think, and he told Richard you can expect to lose at least 15% each year from EDH! So do you let EHD hit, let nature run its course and lose that 15%? Do you tranquilize them one at a time and pump them full of antibiotics and risk the chance of them dying from the stress and doing so in the Oklahoma heat? Do u run them through the shoots and pump them full of antibiotics and risk the chance of major stress (they are having babies or had babies and messing up their milk bags)? If you choose the risk and try to stop EHD, will you be ok with losing those to stress, but saving them from EHD? It's definitely a lose lose situation!

Karen

Fun times with The Reed's

Cody and I had a great weekend! Kevin, Angie and Jackson arrived about 6 ish Thursday night and left today (Sunday). The weekend went by super fast and we can't wait till they get to visit again. After dinner Thursday night we took them to the back of the ranch so they could see the view!

It would have been way better if there weren't clouds everywhere but I think they got the gist of it :) When the sun goes down the weather is sooo nice here! The next day after Cody, with the help of Kevin, finished everything he needed to do, we went to Boiling Springs and went swimming for a few hours. It was super hot and the pool felt awesome. When we got back to the house we relaxed for a bit and took the 4-wheelers out for a quick trip around the ranch. Jackson got to see Fallow bucks, Wildabeast, Oryx, Black bucks, Blesbuck, Addax, Goats, Red Deer, Elk and of course white-tail deer! I think he loved the 4-wheel ride more than the animals :) Jackson did get to play with the little deer runnng around our house! At first they didn't know what to think of him but after a few hours they warmed right up to him. I' am sure Cody's girl was saying, "hmmm your just my size, wanna play?"

We also killed another rattler this weekend :( He was crawling across the road right by our house and Cody ran over him with the truck, stupid rattler!

While the Reed's were here, Angie wanted to get

a pedicure. With warning, HUGE warning I told her how horrible they were and that they would be the worst pedi's she would ever get in her life and that she would not enjoy them at all. Well, who doesn't want a pedicure? There are 3 places in Woodward for pedi's, I have tried all 3 and they all 3 @#%*! Well I decided to take her to the the cleanest one and when we get there they are closed :( So I then head to the second cleanest and they were closed too :( So we venture on over to the the worst of the 3 and they were open! Angie got the little girl I got last time and I warned her again at how bad it will be and apologized up front! Angie's chair was set on a 15 minute massage cycle and that girl was done with her pedi, paint and all before that 15 minutes was up! Mine lasted a little longer than normal and then we were on our way! Chang ching che 23 chollars! These pedi's aren't even worth 3 dollars! At least I forwarned you Angie:(

Later that night, we figured someone around us would be shooting off fireworks so we went to Jeff's house where he has a huge porch and sat there for a bit and caught about an 8 minutes firework show accross the street! It wasn't much, but you can't complain much about a free firework show! All in all it was a great weekend with great company and one great little boy who can brighten anyone's day!

Love, Karen

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Wow! I can't believe your 16! I have only known you since you were 8 and I have many many great memories with you and you have definitely touched my heart! You know how to make people laugh and smile even when they don't feel like it. You have grown up so fast!! If I think it has been super fast I am sure your mom is going crazy at how fast it has been :) You have just the right shyness and just the right CRAZYNESS mixed into this little bity package that is the 'randomness of Hannah!' :) You have the sweetest soul and the heart of gold! Don't change for anyone!

I remember when I first met you ( at Mark and Sheila's rehearsal dinner) and remember our first conversation sometime later that month at Nannie and Dado's. We were sitting on the porch swing and you were just a talking away, 90 to nothin! I don't think I understood half of what you were saying because you were talking so fast :) You wanted to tell me everything and didn't want to leave anything out! You were the cutest thing and you knew how to make me feel like part of the family. You would ask me a question, but so excited you wouldn't wait for me to answer before you started on a different subject! My brain was going 90 to nothing trying to keep up with you...ha!

I am super glad we have gotten closer over the years and happy to call you my cousin! Love you girlie and hope you are having the best birthday ever! Me and Cody sure do wish we could celebrate with you!

P.S. You should start writing down all your thoughts in a journal and when you get older and famous and change the world, you can write a book and the title could be "The Randomness that is Hannah"!

Love you and miss you, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cody and Karen