MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR

I know that I havent posted in a while so I thought I would give a lil update. It's gonna be short cause I dont have much time today.

First of all woo hoo it's Christmas. I am so glad to be spending it with my family. I cant wait for Christmas morning not because I want gifts but I love giving them and I cant wait to see everyone's faces when they open them up. My biggest Christmas present this year is something for me and Billy that we bought together. Its a Canon 30D camera. I love it. We bought it from our photographer, its the one he used in our wedding. So you can imagine its wonderful. Look out 2009 for pictures from Shannon.

Second, my dad starts Chemo on the 30th of December. Im really glad that I have a week off for Christmas vacation so I can be there with him and help my mom out. She has been a basket case the past two weeks with everything going on plus adding in Christmas...you can only imagine. So 3 months of Chemo is starting. I will keep everyone posted as to what is going on.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and blessed New Year's.

Love,
Shannon Poling

DADDY

So here is an update on my dad. For those of you just now finding out and for those of you who know a little of what is going on we found out that my dad has mesothelioma (cancer). Such a hard thing to hear. The cancer is on his chest wall between his lungs. We found out the day before Thanksgiving what steps he is now gonna have to take.

First off he is gonna have to have Chemo for a period of four months. To try and keep it from spreading anywhere else. This type of cancer spreads fast and wide. So they are hoping to contain it to where it is and possible shrink it. After those 4 months are over, he will have to have a series of tests done to make sure that he is strong enough for this next step.

Second he will have to have surgery. During this they will remove 1-2 ribs from his right side and possibly even his right lung. They wont know for sure until they get in there. They cant take the risk of leaving it in there and not knowing if the cancer cells touched any of it in any way. So they must remove it all in case it did. They said that he will still be ok and will function fine without one of his lungs.

Lastly they will have to do more radiation after the surgery just as back up so to speak. This is probably going to be the hardest step of it all. Cause this will actually be the step that we cause the hair loss, the burning, the sick step is what I call it.

Physically if you look at my dad you would think nothing is wrong. Until you actually start watching him. He has trouble being up on his feet for several hours, he gets shortness of breath, tired very easy, his blood pressure rises and he just stops. Mentally is the hardest part of it all right now. My dad is a wonderful man. He is the strongest man I know and to see the strongest man I know break down...KILLS ME.

The one thing that all this has brought on is it has made our family really close this past couple of weeks. Which is what we all needed. We are all gonna get through this together. He is gonna get through this. And he will be a living testimony for years to come. We kidd him telling him that they are gonna make a Lifetime Movie out of this. That's all I have for now. Thanks for listening.

xoxo

Shannon