November update

Thanks to everyone for checking in. We finally have some new information.
We went to Fran's Dr. here in Rke on Tuesday and he wants Fran to see a pain management Dr. for the shingles pain. So she has an appt. this coming Wed. to check on that. Then we went to Duke this past Thursday for a checkup. This is her 6 month check up following the transplant. The Dr. is very pleased with her blood work which we are thrilled about but we won't know until next week regarding her multiple myeloma blood work. We are to call back Tue or Wed. to find out if she is in remission or partial remission etc. Please pray that everything is good.

More good news:

We just got a sweet note from Kathleen Hall, she was able to raise $3000 for Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. She raised this money in conjunction with the New York City Marathon. She runs tomorrow, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2010. Fran's name will be on Kathleen's jersey as she runs the 26.2 miles. Kathleen wrote "Your strength and positive attitude has inspired me and I know it will help me push to the finish." Fran and I are so grateful and want to wish Kathleen the best of luck as she runs the NYC marathon tomorrow! GO KATHLEEN!!!!!!!

accupuncture today

Yes that is correct, Fran went for an acupuncture treatment today. Genie (Fran's sister in Richmond) has a friend who is going through similar circumstances as Fran and she went to see an accupuncturist? and was helped. sooo, long story shortened, Fran went today and the pain was relieved while there but afterwards not so much, but the person said it will probably take several treatments to get any relief. So she goes back Monday and next Wed. and hopefully she will experience some relief from the severe pain from the shingles.

Thank you all for your prayers,we still have not heard anything from the Dr. although supposedly the Dr. here in Roanoke sent an e-mail last week and we are still waiting for it to arrive.

We love you all and cherish your friendship.
Sincerely,
Charlie and Fran

Sorry for delay

I apologize that I have not updated you on Fran's condition for a while now. We have been waiting (not so patiently) to hear from Duke regarding whether Fran is in remission or exactly what her status is. We still don't know. The correct tests were not ordered and now we are waiting to hear from Fran's Roanoke Dr. Duke did let us know that some of the tests came back and they were within the acceptable parameters. As soon as we know something we will certainly let everyone know.
There doesn't seem to be an urgency anywhere but here.

Fran continues to deal with her shingles. The rash is almost completely gone but not the pain. At times the pain is quite severe but Fran is a trooper and continues to push on during the midst of it as best she can. Please pray that the pain will subside soon!

Natalie and Jordan are in with us this weekend so we are enjoying a house full. Again I apologize for the delay but we don't know anything.

Sincerely, Charlie

Great Vacation

We had a great vacation! We left last Sunday and spent one night at Park Grove Inn in Ashville, and then we headed to Tom and Marie Aker's home in Murrells Inlet where they treated us like royalty. It was so relaxing and enjoyable. Marie and Fran shopped and shopped and Fran bought some beautiful clothes for herself and of course for Natalie, Emily and Ben.
We got back Friday and then Fran cooked a big birthday dinner for 14 for Will's birthday celebration on Sat. night.
Fran is still in a great deal of pain from the shingles, so pray that she will be able to cope with the pain. Naturally she works right through it. It looks ugly and painfull. I don't know how she does it. I would be screaming bloody murder!!!!!!
That's all for now, thanks for checking in.
Love the Krauses

Shingles

Yep, that was what was causing the pain. Fran woke up this morning with a rash on her left side of her stomach. She already had medicine for it so she began taking it immediately after talking with her Dr. So that is where we stand at the moment. She is in pain but the morphine pills are working somewhat. Never a dull moment around here.
Till next time. Charlie

She's home

Fran got home today. Nothing showed up on the MRI so the Dr. seems to think that it was possibly a muscle spasm. Really no other explanation since all the tests showed up nothing out of the ordinary. Fran was able to go on over to Blue Ridge Cancer Care and get her blood work and Zometa drip (for bone desity). The Dr. is a little baffeled that her hemogloben is down but hopefully all the blood work will help explain that as well.
There is still pain but thanks to morphine pills it is manageable. Our next visit to Duke has been changed to the 12 of August. We will be out for a few days next week to celebrate our 35 wedding anniversary, but Robert and Emily and Ben will be here. We will update when something changes. Thanks for checking in on us.
Charlie

no News

Fran did her MRI this afternoon around 4 but naturally no one came by to give us the results. So she is still at Lewis Gale. The pain is better because she has been on morphine all day (they even gave her the pump for it). Hopefully we will know something tomorrow morning. I will keep you posted.
Thanks for praying, Charlie

Back in hospital

It is Sunday night and we have spent all afternoon in the ER at Lewis Gale hospital. Fran has been having pain in her lower left back and for the past three days it has been getting pretty intense. She called her physician this after noon after church and she suggested we go to the ER to rule out some things so we did. After a CT scan, EKG, and blood work nothing showed up which is great but still we don't know what is causing the pain and swelling in her feet and legs. The ER doc decided it would be best to keep her overnight to moniter her and giver her a blood transfusion. And to help with the pain. Hopefully we will have some answers tomorrow. I'll keep everyone posted.
Charlie

Overdue update

Sorry for the delay in getting this out, a lot has happened since the last post. Fran is doing well. She is eating and gaining weight. She still has to stop and rest periodically but that is to be expected. She is retaining fluid in her legs and feet which we are concerned about, but she is on medication and she is elevating her feet (as one Dr. said keep your toes above your nose).

Our other news is that Robert, Emily and Ben are back home! Last week Fran was feeling well enough to spend several days with Natalie and Jordan to help them make curtains for their new home. Then we went up to pick up our African clan last Sunday. They arrived early Monday morning and we brought them home. They are staying with us for the time being until Will can find somewhere to go.

We go back to Duke on August 5th so I will wait to update you then, thanks for checking in.

Charlie and Fran

About the same but OK

At least that is what Duke says, Fran asked if she is supposed to be feeling so poorly and they say YES especially because of #1. the intense chemo she recieved prior to stem cell transplant and #2 the transplant itself. Fran went to her Dr. here in Roanoke this past Tue. and all the numbers are goin UP UP UP. Everyone is please with that obviously. Sorry I haven't blogged recently but there has been nothing to report other than the fact that Fran just feel UCKY. But knowing this is normal hopefully is a little consolation. Duke said it usually take 6 months to a year before feeling somewhat normal again. I felt horrible for a week following my nasal surgury, I can't imagine feeling that way for 6 months!
Maybe the Lord was telling me a little about how Fran is feeling. I sure didn't like it!
Fran has goten out the past two days thanks to Samia and Connie. She goes back to Duke on Monday for a check up and hopefully she will feel like riding along to Lancaster PA on Tue and Wed. to see a play up there. We'll wait and see.
Thanks again for all the prayers.
Love, Charlie and Fran

Feeling like she should

Sorry I haven't had anything new to say over the past several days. Fran has been feeling just YUCK. No appetite, no strength, no energy, no nothing. She did go to the Dr. for her weekly blood letting and she happened to see the Dr. in the hallway. He was pleased with her blood work, and he said that it just takes time to begin feeling better. She has been experiencing some congestion so she got an antibiotic and cough medicine for that. He white blood count was down a little probably due to infection. Other than that everything was fine. So we continue to try to make it through it. Fran's sister Genie is here from Richmond, which is always good. She is a big help and a joy to have around. Fran did feel like (or should I say just went)to Will's Hidden Valley girls soccer game and she saw them win with 30 seconds left in the game so that was good. I go tomorrow morning for my "nose job" to remove nasal polyps. Genie will drive me and bring me home. Fran says she is going to the hospital but I hope she won't. We'll see. Thanks again for the prayers. We just need patience Lord!

Mixed Emotion Day

Fran has had a good day. The kids and grandson left for Africa this afternoon, and yes it was sad but that was expected. It wasn't as bad or as difficult as we had expected. Emily called from Dulles and said Ben had been an angel and had stayed buckled in his seat all the way to Washington. It will be interesting to hear how the 17 hour flight to Jburg went. After seeing them off at the airport Fran and Natalie came home and napped and I worked in the yard. Then the three of us went to Applebees for dinner. Will had a previous school engagement. We are back home and ready for bed. Thanks for all the prayers regarding today. I will post again on Sat. unless something comes up. Thanks for checking in. Charlie

Another busy day

I don't know how Fran is doing it but she spent most of the day at Grandin Court with her girls preparing Wed. night supper. Needless to say it was a big success. Now we just need to get through tomorrow. It will be tough - Natalie is coming in, Will is taking off from school. We're all going to meet at Robert's for breakfast and then take them to the airport. Lots of tears but we will make it.

Till next time. Charlie

Great Dr.'s report

Fran has had a very busy day today. It all started by going to Kroger to finish shopping for the church's Wed. night dinner that her team is fixing. She then went on to church to start cooking. At 1:30 Samia took Fran to see her Roanoke Dr. She had her blood work done and he is thrilled with her numbers. They all are coming up very fast. While this is great news she is still having difficulty eating, as in not being able to eat much at all. The Dr. said all this will wear off and she will start feeling better soon.

Following her Dr. appt. she then went back to church to work some more. She is supposed to go back tomorrow at 11:30 to work some more but we will see how she feels.

On another note, we were hoping to be able to see Ben tomorrow. He has been running a fever for the past several days and we were hoping that it would stop. We had our hopes up this morning because he had not had a fever for 8 hours, but then Robert called again this evening and said it was up again tonight. Needless to say there were more tears, but God knows best, hopefully at least we will be able to see him Thursday when we take them to the airport here in Roanoke.

Thanks again for checking in.

Long, busy day

For Fran it all began at 4:30am. She got up to get ready to go to Charlottesville for Will's graduation. We left at 6 and got there before 8. We took a wheelchair which worked great, we were able to get wonderful seats to see everything. Following that ceremony at 10 we went to the arena for the Curry School of Education ceremony. This one only lasted about one and half hours and we were on the road back to Roanoke by 3. We were able to get home before our guests arrived and thanks to Natalie, Jordan and Robert they had everything just about ready, just a few final touches from Fran before our family arrived. Natalie came in Friday and was such a big help getting things ready for the party. Emily and Ben were not able to come because Ben had a temp of 102. They were missed but we had a great party.
Fran has now crashed in bed. She did great.

This will be another busy week getting Robert, Emily and Ben ready for Africa. Hopefully things will settle down next weekend after all the tears. Thanks for your concern and continued prayers.
Love the Krauses

Exponential Blessings

Fran has had a good day today. All of the children have been home and she and Natalie have cooked and cooked getting ready for our family coming over tomorrow night. We are having two celebrations in one, we are celebrating Will's graduation from UVA with a Masters degree, and (not celebrating) but having a good bye party for Robert, Emily and Ben who are leaving Thursday for Africa. Fran seems to be getting stronger everyday, naturally she still has to stop and lay down for a while but she doesn't stay in the bed like she did earlier.

Even though we are sad and hate to see Robert, Emily and Ben leave, we know they are doing what God wants them to do. We wanted to share something neat with you...

About 5 months ago Fran was lying in bed early in the morning praying as she always does. She prayed for our children and Robert's upcoming adventure that was in the making. It was then that the Lord gave her an incredible thought. He showed her that if each family could give $25 a month, or even quarterly, that would multiply into all they would need. No doubt this economy is tough, and so is raising funds in the midst of it, but He assured her that this was possible. We can't help but recall the story of the feeding of 5000. It was in the boy's small gift of 5 loaves and 2 fishes that showed God's ability to multiply his gift to benefit thousands.

More than this, she began realizing this would only happen because of the love that Christ has multiplied among our friends and family. We are not asking you to do this out of obligation, we just wanted to share it with you and if God moves your heart we would be honored!

You can learn all about what they are doing on their website at www.izwi.org. If you do feel led to donate you can do so on that site or you can make a check payable to IZWI World Outreach and mail the check to:

Izwi World Outreach
108 Walnut Creek Rd.
Locust, NC 28097

Fran still feels like she can make it to UVA tomorrow so we will let you know how it goes. Thanks you again for all the prayers, cards and love you send our way.
Love, the Krause's

Yes we are home

In our haste to get packed I misplaced the logon info for blogspot.I'm sorry I missed yesterday. We got home around 8 last night (Wednesday). Fran felt like stopping by and seeing Robert, Emily and especially Ben. When we got home needless to say she went straight to bed. We were at Duke until around 4 getting more of the iums and then she had the Hickman Port taken out of her chest. She still does not feel like eating much and she has very little energy but she did get out and go to Will's girl's Hidden Valley soccer game. She enjoyed that and Robert, Emily and Ben joined us for a little while there which was fun. And yes they won 6-1 against a rival. This week will be bitter sweet, as you may know one week from today Robert, Emily and Ben will be leaving for Africa. Our hearts are saddened to see them go and yet we are so excited for them in this new ministry that God is leading them to in South Africa. I will say more about that in a later posting.
Back to Fran, please pray that she will begin to feel like eating and drinking (especially since she has 7 pills to take everyday and right now it is a struggle to get them down.) When she got home tonight she went straight to bed after our outing but hopefully she will get stronger every day. The folks at Duke said she has to force herself to eat and get out even when she doesn't feel like it. Also pray for us as we wrap up our time with the grandbaby, I'm sure there well be a lot of tears coming this week. But we are also very excited about Will getting his Masters Degree from UVA this weekend. Fran want's so badly to go see him graduate, so pray for us as we make this decision also.

You all have been so faithful in praying for us and especially Fran this far and we truly give God the credit for all he has done for her. Thank you for your continued prayer support.

PS She goes back to see her Roanoke Dr. this coming Tuesday and for the next four weeks and then we go back to Duke in one month for a follow up visit.

We love you all, Charlie and Fran

We are coming home tomorrow!!!!!

WOW were we surprised this morning when the PA came by and told us we could come home tomorrow (Wednesday). He said Fran's numbers were better than expected (thanks to your prayers). Fran is still extremely tired and hasn't started eating alot yet but the most important thing is that we are coming home even earlier than expected. I'm sure that will make her feel better! We have a 10:30 appointment in the morning with the Dr and they will give us instructions for coming home. She will also have her Hickman port taken out before we leave.

We have some wonderful cleaning angels in our home as we speak to get our Daleville home ready for us. Fran won't be able to get out in the yard quite yet but that will come. He said it would probably be 4-6 weeks before she felt like doing much. The Dr. even said that she should be able to go to Charlottsville on Sunday for Will's graduation, (we will see how she feels). Now we will have a whole week with Robert, Emily and Ben before they head off for Africa on the 27th. Also Natalie is planning on coming in this week end to check on her Mom.


Finally, we can't thank you all enough for your prayers, love and concern for Fran during this difficult time. We have been truly blest by your support and love. I will continue to update the blog for the next few weeks as she progresses.

In Christ's love,
Charlie and Fran

A better day!

It's been another long day at the clinic today, Fran got more antibiotics, and all the iums, potasium, magnesium,etc. She seems to feel better, she didn't sleep at the clinic and she did work on her soduko book (to keep her mind working she said). She said her throat feels better but not great. She ate about 1/2 of a Panera bagel this morning and hopefully some soup tonight for supper. Her counts are going up and they are still tentatively talking Friday for coming home. Just another exciting day in Durham. Thanks for your concern, Charlie

Broken Record

Things are still progressing as they should (at least that is what the Dr. says). The sore throat is getting old, Fran can't drink, or eat, which is not fun. Last night around 8 I took her temp and it was 101 so we had to call the hospital and go in to get checked out. We were there until 1 this morning and they gave her 3 major antibiotics and some fluids. When we went back the clinic this morning they continued more antibiotics and fluids so we were at the clinic until around 4 today. They were not concerned about the temp. and it has since gone back down. The Dr. again said this morning that they are looking at Friday as the day we should be able to go home and they still say as soon as the numbers get higher the sore thoat should get better. That of course is what we are hoping for. That is the way it is down here in hot Durham. We are looking forward to getting back home soon. Thanks for your prayers, Charlie and Fran