Happy 60th Birthday

      First I want to say Happy 60th Birthday to Mike today,  I am so blessed to do life with him and am praying for many more birthdays! We can’t believe we are getting this “old” but are looking at it a different way...” we GET to be this old!”  So much has happened in the last month so hopefully I don’t make this too long.  Mike had to go off Retevmo and all additional supplements due to very high liver enzymes and has had repeat blood work several times but they remained high. Finally on Wednesday we went to Mayo again for bloodwork and an ultrasound of all of Mike’s internal organs. Thankfully all his organs look great and his liver enzymes are down enough that he can start back on his medication at half dose. They will check his blood again in a week or two and see if he is tolerating it and hopefully bump it up to regular dose. 🙏🏼

     We went to our place in Arizona with our son Josh and his family and had a great week in the sun but after much thought and prayer we decided to sell our home, so we listed it with our friend and realtor Susan. We rented a U-haul and packed up all our things with Josh’s help and now we are praying for the perfect buyer to come along and love it as much as we did. We managed to keep doing 75Hard the whole week until the last day. It didn’t really feel like our “bitch voices” got the better of us, it just felt way to stressful to continue! We wear Oura rings to track sleep, activity, heart rate, etc... and they were “telling us” that we were not listening to our bodies. So after 34 days completed we decided to pause 75Hard, but we will start back up because we really like the discipline of it. We are not looking at either thing as a defeat but a chance at starting over. 

     We have had so many positive responses to the podcast we were on with Amy Ledin and are so glad that we stepped out on a limb and did it, if it helps even one person with cancer or any other issues they are struggling with! Mike is a natural and God really blessed him with an ability to communicate with people. Thanks to all who took the time to listen, and if you haven’t listened to the podcast and want to, it is called F*it with Amy Ledin and it’s episode #113. 

     We are thankful for another year and want to encourage everyone to look for the blessings in every day because they are there if we pay attention! Right now it’s so easy to see all the bad going on in the world, I know I can get sucked into that rabbit hole more than I want to admit, but I climb my way back out and realize that I need to keep my focus on what I want in life not what I don’t want. Now it’s time for Jack’s Warburg Basketball season to start and we are super excited for that.

     Matthew 24:10-13 And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

     Endure, and be blessed,

     Paula

     

     

     

     

     

 

Quick update

      I just want to write a quick update to let everyone know that Mike is doing well. He is continuing to feel really good most days and the only real concern is that his liver enzymes and his blood calcium levels all elevated and Mayo wasn’t expecting them to elevate so quickly. He will have them drawn again next week to see if they have gone down and if not figure out why they are up and what to do about it. Mike has been doing longer infared sauna sessions and drinking lots more water so we will see if that helps!?!

     We were honored to be on a podcast which came out today which you can find it on Apple Podcast, iTunes, podchaser, etc... it is called F*It with Amy Ledin. Meeting Amy was a total “God thing” because one day I was on IG and I saw somebody put several #’s behind a post (I know...I’m older so this was new to me🥴😂) so I put in #lungcancer and started following a couple people that had lung cancer, one of which was Amy, who has been battling stage 4 lung cancer for 8 years. I loved how open, honest, and inspirational she is and saw that she had a podcast about faith, family, forgiveness, fitness and formula so started listening and enjoyed that so much that I decided to message her. I told Amy about Mike and how he has been battling/thriving thru lung cancer for over 20 years so we messaged back and forth and she read our blog and asked if we would like to be on her podcast.... She made it easy and I think it turned out very well, so give it a listen and share with someone who needs encouragement if you feel inclined. We also had never heard of 75 Hard but saw that Amy and her husband Erik were doing it for the second time so we researched it and read Andy Friscella’s book about it and decided to try it and... we are now on day 20! We both highly recommend the book even if you don’t want to do the program. 

    I just finished the book Win Your War... by Mark and Grace Driscoll and I really learned a lot. I am half way through Chasing Daylight... by Erwin McManus (he also wrote The Last Arrow which is one of our all time favorite books) and I am really enjoying it as well. A line I read today really stuck with me and it is this: Is your goal how long you live or that you live? If you seek Me, you will live, and death will not change that. After all, when we are in Christ, we have already died in Him, and He has already raised us to a new life.🙏🏼❤️🙌🏼 Don’t misunderstand, I want Mike, Amy, anyone dealing with a serious disease to live a LONG life and to ENJOY life, but if we are believers we know that we have already won! 

     One last thing... well two...I encourage everyone to read Matthew 24. It is so applicable to today, it literally explains what we are going through and warns us not to let anyone lead us astray! Also I heard a song the other day that I had never heard and loved it. It is called Scars in Heaven by Casting Crowns and the words are amazing and so true! 

     Be blessed and LIVE,

     Paula

     #lungcancer #stage4lungcancer #beblessed #mikeymo #f*it #amyledin #75hard #andyfriscella #castingcrowns #scarsinheaven #live