Wednesday, January 31, 2007: FOOD!!!

From: Brian & Kristi Rogalske [mailto:bkrogalske@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 12:16 AM

Subject: Kristi Update #8: 1-31-07

Hi all,

Well, mostly a good day today. As you can see from the picture, Kristi started on "real" food today. Well, it was hospital mac and cheese, but close enough to real food.

She also got to wash her hair and shave her legs, so that was a special treat. Kristi actually typed up and e-mail tonight to send out, but then she had a technical difficulty and lost it. She promises to get one out tomorrow.

We met with her doctor this morning and he said she should be able to go home tomorrow. She must pass one more milestone though…literally. She needs to pass a "solid" to make sure everything is working ok and so the nurses can show her how to change her colostomy bag. Still nothing as of yet. So your prayers were answered the other day when I asked you to pray that she passes gas…well, today we need to pray that she passes a "poo" and that it’s uneventful. This is not going to be a very pleasant thing to deal with but we’ll get used to it. We haven’t told the kids about it yet…maybe tomorrow.

Mostly an uneventful day, with the exception of the Oncologist visit. We met with him at 5:00 and he was a downer. He is the "cancer doctor" and went over the results in more detail and her treatment schedule. Apparently he doesn’t know Kristi like the rest of us because he didn’t paint a pretty picture. We had a brief down time after he left, but Kristi bounced back with her fighting attitude. After he visited us we had a constant flow of visitors so that was good to help keep her spirits up. So today I have the following prayer requests:

1) Pray that her bowels get working soon and she can come home Thursday
2) Please pray the Kristi’s body will be able to handle the chemotherapy…it will be very aggressive.
3) Pray that she will have the strength (physical and emotional) to fight this battle for the long haul
4) Please pray for the nurses and doctors that Kristi touched this past week at the hospital. She has been such an inspiration to so many of them…they have told me this. She even got a card from one of the nurses and the nurse wrote a very touching note and quoted Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.". She had 3 nurses stop by and say good bye tonight because they were leaving for the night and not working tomorrow…they just wanted to stop by and say good bye and good luck.
5) The cancer doctor gave us a bleak outlook; please pray that Kristi remains positive and that she remembers to find her strength in the greatest doctor of them all, our Lord Jesus Christ.
6) One more request…please pray for everyone helping us out…our support system. We wouldn’t be able to do this without your prayers and support.

Thank you all and hopefully Kristi will send out tomorrow’s update.

Brian

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."

Tuesday, January 30, 2007: The Wiffer!

Well, Kristi's friends Merry and Sheri visited today. See the pictures. Kristi also broke wind today. Read below...


From: Brian & Kristi Rogalske [mailto:bkrogalske@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 12:35 AM

Subject: Kristi Update #7: 1-30-07

Hello all,

Once again, great progress. Last night/early morning Kristi got her leg circulation wraps off. That was a huge relief. It was like trying to sleep with your legs tied down. Last night they also took off one IV so she was down to one. Her itching has also stopped. Prayers are being answered every day. Please keep praying!! This morning she went to the bathroom on her own and even washed up a bit. Then her friend came and gave her a pedicure. Ahhh.

The biggest news of the day: this afternoon at about 2:15, she passed her first "wiffer"...and Janna was here to experience it. How exciting. All these years I've been the only one around our house that found true joy in passing gas...now she will join me in sharing this joy. You should have seen the look on her face! She was so excited she rang the nurse call button. This was a big step because now she can start a liquid diet. For dinner she had chicken broth and cranberry juice. Yum. She really enjoyed reading all the cards from Ashley's 3rd grade class. Even the nurses got a thrill out of reading them. Nathan's class did the same thing. Thank you Mrs. Vogelzang and Mrs. Dozeman.

Also this afternoon her other IV came out (which included her pain meds). So now she is only on oral pain killers and is IV-free!. These are some huge steps for her. The doctor said she should be able to come home "probably Thursday". Tomorrow, she will start some solid food. The next big step for her will be to not just pass gas, but also pass...well, you know.

Those were the highlights/praises of the day. The not so good moments of the day included another bad "episode" with some needles - that upset her a great deal...lots of pain. Her wrist is pretty swollen and sore from that. So, 2 steps forward, 1 step back. She is also still having uncontrolled convulsions/twitches. This is normal according to the doctor for someone that has been through what she's been through. It's a little tough to watch but they should wear off soon now that she's off the morphine. Also late tonight she had a little melt down. I know she won’t want me to put this in here and worry everyone, but she needs our prayers. I think everything just caught up to her a bit. Also, tomorrow she has to have a shot in her stomach. That is making her very anxious after today’s episode. So she started thinking of everything she has to go through and the effect on the kids and she just lost it. A friend of mine who’s wife recently also went through a cancer battle gave us some needed advice…one step at a time.

Please pray for:
1) The pain/swelling in her wrist to go away
2) Tomorrow she has to get a shot in her stomach...another needle! She is not looking forward to this.
3) That she is able to pass the food without complications.
4) Continued healing
5) The kids are starting to show a little wear at being shuffled around so much. Mommy will be home soon, so please pray that the kids can make it a couple more days.
6) and most importantly, continued good spirits as each day brings new challenges.

Please please please, pray for strength for Kristi. Please make that pager go off 100 times tomorrow. Attached is a picture that I took this morning. She wants everyone to know she is doing well. Tomorrow she will try typing a message to everyone. So that pretty much wraps up today...stay tuned for an update from Kristi tomorrow (God willing).

Brian

Monday, January 29, 2007: Praises

Today was a great day. I'll spare the redundancy, read the e-mail I sent out:

From: Brian & Kristi Rogalske [mailto:bkrogalske@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 12:48 AM

Subject: Kristi Update #6: 1-29-07 - Praises and some requests

Hello again family and friends,

Praise God! Today was the best day so far. She is talking more, took 5 walks, and is taking her pain medicine a little less. The doctor stopped in this morning and said she could be home by Wednesday or Thursday. She is still just on an IV and ice chip diet. Once she passes her first gas she will then start a liquid diet. So, as odd as this sounds, please pray that Kristi breaks wind real fast. Once she does OK with a liquid diet, then she will start real food. Seems like a lot to do in just a couple days, but seeing how far she’s come since yesterday it wouldn’t surprise me. She hasn’t eaten "real" food since last week Monday morning. Can you imagine?! We watched a video tonight on how to change her colostomy bag…that’s going to take some getting used to…not for the faint of heart. She was a little bothered by this. Pray for strength here as it’s not a very pleasant thing to deal with. She’s also getting bed sores real bad…very itchy. She’s pretty uncomfortable. Also, tomorrow the doctor is going to take her off of her continuous morphine supply. She will still be able to give her self a "shot" every 10 minutes, but the continuous supply will be gone. So a couple more obvious prayer requests: 1) for comfort as her bed sores are driving her crazy and 2) that she can tolerate being taken off of her continuous supply of pain killer.

Her mood today was the best…very upbeat. Prayer of thanks! She had a lot of visitors today and that really lifted her spirits. Thank you! She is ready to battle this thing til it’s gone. Please pray for continued healing and that she can return home soon. The kids really miss her. Please pray for the kids as well. Ashley is having the hardest time with this as she misses mom. Kristi knows that the kids are being well taken care of by the neighbors and grandparents (and daddy doesn’t do half bad either), but she still worries about them.

I know I said this before, but how do we even begin to thank everyone…from childcare being coordinated, meals, our house was cleaned today (thanks ladies!!!!!!!), driveway shoveled, people staying with Kristi all night, etc., etc., etc. "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!" Psalm 133:1. Thank you all so much. Kristi even mentioned typing her own e-mail one of these days. I’ll forward it to you when she does.

Thank you, thank you, thank you,
Brian

Sunday, January 28, 2007: Removal of the Tubes!

Today they removed the tube from Kristi’s nose as well as her cathedor. The kids came to visit today which was such a huge lift for Kristi. This was the first time she's seen them since Thursday night. Here are some pictures:

Also, our small group came out and visited. That was very nice. We were very tired but it was nice to see everybody!!

I sent out the following e-mail tonight:

bkrogalske@sbcglobal.net
01/29/2007 12:52 AM

Hello again,
I will make today’s update short because I am tired. Kristi had a great day today. She got the tube in her nose out and her catheter out. That was a huge relief for her. We had a couple pain management episodes that were frustrating, but overall a great day. She got up and walked 4 times today also. Please pray for continued progress. The bright spot of the day was when our small group came by and visited. She really perked up for that. That was good because she got down a couple times today…I could see it in her eyes. Please pray that her spirits stay up. We had some nice quiet time this morning and were able to read some of the Psalms. Psalm 138:1…"I will praise you, O Lord, with all of my heart; before the "gods" I will sing your praise." We talked about how she will have "ups and downs" and that when she has a "down moment" that she is to sing praise. When we are down, this is when the wicked one will try to work his way in. "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good." Please pray that when Kristi starts feeling a little down, that she remembers God is great and that He is the Great Healer.

Thanks again for all you do…we love you all.
Brian

"Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy." Psalm 130: 1-2. Sigh

Saturday January 27, 2007: The Road To Recovery Begins

Today begins the road to recovery. Kristi is very sore, tired, and medicated. She’s still quite “out of it”. She did manage to get out of bed and walked 2 doors down the hallway. Today she just focused on rest and recovery. We had some issues today with pain management that I sum up in our daily update e-mail…

bkrogalske@sbcglobal.net
01/27/2007 11:42 PM

Kristi Update #4: 1-27-07

Hello again,

Today Kristi made great progress. She actually got out of bed and walked twice today…about 20 feet each time. The doctor is very pleased with her progress. Tomorrow she might even get the tube out of her nose…that’s the worst one. She has a tube that runs through her nose down to her stomach. It is very uncomfortable. She is still in an incredible amount of pain. As long as I keep on the drugs she tolerates it. We had one rough spot today where her drugs ran out and we had 3 different alarms going off at the same time for about an hour - on and off. She was in an indescribable amount of pain. But they had a “high maintenance” patient down the hall that wasn’t cooperating so the nurses couldn’t get to Kristi right away. That was the first time (and only) where she got a little frustrated and down. She had to cover her head with her pillow to drown out the alarms. Of course, she apologized later. Tomorrow’s goal: walk 4 times.

It took me until about 5:00 PM to read through all of the e-mails everyone sent. I would read them as she slowly dozed in and out of sleep…so some I had to read 2 or 3 times because she would fall asleep half way through. She really appreciated all the kind words. All of the students in Nathan’s kindergarten class made her ‘get well soon’ cards. She really enjoyed looking at all of those. Reading the e-mails to her was probably the bright spot of the day. Her mom also spent most of the day with us helping with the ice chips and morphine. Aunt Judy is coming again at midnight to stay the night.

For those that showed up and couldn’t see her I apologize. The nurses really didn’t encourage visitors after about 3:00. Kristi was just whipped and they wanted her to rest. The nursing staff at Zeeland Hospital is just wonderful…very protective. I imagine tomorrow will still be a tough day for Kristi, so if you planned on visiting and have to come tomorrow, don’t be surprised if she can’t talk or is even sleeping (if you can wait until Monday or Tuesday that would be great). She loves seeing everyone but she gets tired very easy.

So many people replied to her ‘Hugs’ e-mail I thought I would attach it again because I’ve added many people to the distribution. Kristi sent this out the night (well, early morning) before her surgery – 12:58AM. In typical Kristi fashion, she was concerned for everyone else. So here it is again…

Hello all, it’s me, Kristi. The house is quiet and dark and so peaceful. I can hear Brian snoring away upstairs which is music to my ears! I am so happy to say I saw peace in him tonight as he drifted into sleep. I wish I could individually e-mail all of you. This is hard for me to do as a group thing because so many of you have send individual e-mails and calls and please know they are appreciated and I wish I could talk to you all. I’m understanding my limitations and have figured out when to say I can’t do anymore when which is not an easy thing. I have missed a few visits with people because of the joy of colon cleansing which takes it out of me (literally!). One of the people I missed was Don Bronkema but Brian shared his words with me and he is now one of my many guardian angels. I didn’t realize that Don has fought cancer and one it many times. He explained the peace to Brian that he felt that only the person dealing with this can understand. It is so amazing. The devil does come in and try to take that but you just claim God as your strength and you’re back in the peace again. That’s exactly where I am at. I have only had a few short moments of fear which as I uttered the words “God don’t leave me” I had a huge peace and even drifted off to sleep. Unexplainable. My hope is that some day I can share that with someone else going through what I am. I have already told one friend, but I’ll tell you all. Put on your sun glasses because God is going to shine brightly through me! Thank you for all the God stories you have shared. This is an incredible journey. I know I have a difficult journey ahead but with God by my side what can I fear? I have a lot of time on my hands lately and find myself praying for my friends and family that you will feel my peace. Please keep everyone in your prayers – all family and friends – we all need each other. Thank you so much, I can’t even begin to say thank you enough. The prayers, meals, offers for everything under the sun is so great. You know, I wasn’t really living until now. I was gliding through life. Look out world cuz here I come!!!

With much love,
Kristi

That gives me goose bumps. Thanks again for showering us with prayers and support (the prayer pager just went off again – and it’s 11:30!). The support has been overwhelming. God Bless!

Brian

Friday, January 26, 2007: Surgery Day

We arrived at Zeeland Hospital at 7:00AM. We waited about an hour before we met with Dr. Fletter. They got the pathology report back and it showed that the tumors were also in the colon. They were a little confused whether or not it was colon cancer or ovarian cancer. After the anesthesiologist gave Kristi her “I don’t care” medicine, they wheeled her away. Time: 9:00AM. I went out to the waiting room where Kristi’s mom and dad and Rich Elling were. I was crying because I just got the news about the colon cancer. Not sure why I was crying, but I was. My mom and dad showed up about 10:00AM. We hung out for about 2 hours until we were informed we could go up to the room where she would be recovering. Before going up to the room I met with the doctors who gave me a download on how things went. Everything went well with the exception they had to do a colectomy. Because they had to remove 12” of her colon, she will have to use a colostomy bag until they can reattach her colon (post chemo). She got to the room about 1:00PM. What a wreck!! She had tubes coming out of everywhere! She looked so bad. Denny came during his lunch break and brought McDonalds. Kristi vaguely remembers him coming. The rest of Friday was spent resting for Kristi. Other than our parents, we didn’t have too many visitors Friday. I sent out the following e-mail Friday night:

bkrogalske@sbcglobal.net
01/27/2007 01:19 AM

Kristi Update #3: 1-26-07

Hello family and friends.

First, I must apologize to my mom…I said I would go to bed soon. Sorry, mom, I lied. Second, I must apologize to Ashley and Nathan’s teachers…so far this week I forgot Nathan’s snow pants, lunch money, and a library book. Today I sent them out without brushing their teeth. Ew. Sorry, but I’m still in training. I’ll get the hang of it soon. At least they’ve been dressed!

OK, now for Kristi’s update. I’m sure you’ve all read her e-mail by now (‘Hugs To Everyone’). What an amazing woman. I didn’t realize she sent that until I got all the replies back and was reading them. Then I realized she sent it at like 1:00 in the morning. I have printed all your replies out and will bring them to her tomorrow. I second Kristi’s “thank you’s”. If you send an e-mail and I don’t reply, please don’t be offended. I’m trying to keep up. They all get read and shared with Kristi. Thank you x 1000. …and for the record, I don’t snore. I don’t know what she was talking about in that e-mail.

OK, now for Kristi’s update, really. We had mostly good news today. The surgery was about 2 hours from start to finish. We met with the surgeon about 10:00 tonight (yes, he was still there!). I’ll start with the bad news so I can end on a good note: There was more cancer than he expected, especially around her pelvic area. There was also a large mass on her colon. The mass was so large it fused together her left ovary and her colon. So they had to remove about 12” of her colon, along with all the other stuff I mentioned in my last e-mail. Because they had to remove such a large piece of her colon, they couldn’t reconnect it before chemotherapy without risking it breaking and leaking and causing infection. So they had to close her colon off for now. They will reconnect her colon after chemotherapy. This procedure is called a colectapy (I haven’t a clue how to say it or spell it). I’ll put it bluntly: she won’t be able to go “poo” like the rest of us until after her chemotherapy. So for the next 7 months or so, she will have a sack hanging out of her side. Yes, this sounds disgusting, but in reality it’s only an inconvenience in the grand scheme of curing the cancer. And yes, Kristi said it was OK for me to share this info. It’s a part of her healing process. So that was the bad news for the day.

Overall, the doctors were very encouraged. Even though there was more cancer than they were expecting, it came off and her organs came out easier than expected. Praise God! Another positive note was that none of the tumors on her intestines actually penetrated the wall as they thought…so, they did NOT have to remove any of her intestines. Praise God for that too. Because they were able to remove all of the visible tumors, Dr. Taylor gives her a 50% chance of beating the cancer. The average for ovarian cancer is 30%. Another note of praise is Kristi’s attitude. Amen. Even after the doctor shared her 50% odds, her response (without hesitation) was “that means I have a 50% chance of beating this”. I have to admit…that wasn’t my first reaction. What an amazing woman. I love her so much.

She is obviously very sore and tired. She is on a continuous feed of morphine for the pain along with me sitting next to the bed giving her additional doses when she asks for them. My job is simple…feed her ice chips and give her more morphine. Thankfully, Aunt Judy came to work 3rd shift and is there now feeding her ice chips and giving her morphine. Thank you Aunt Judy! Because they had to remove a piece of her colon, she will have to spend an additional 2 days in the hospital.

The prayer pager has been going off continuously. Thank you. Please continue to pray for healing, comfort, patience, and calmness for Kristi. The kids are doing well. They ask about her and miss her, but understand that she is getting “fixed”.

Thank you all!

God Bless each one of you
Brian

“For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” Ephesians 1: 15-16 Amen.

Thursday, January 25, 2007: Time Of Prayer

Dear Prayer Team,

Tomorrow at 9am there will be persons meeting in the cafe area of Calvary church to pray for Kristi while she is in surgery. All our welcome to come and go as you must. If you know someone who would like to pray also that does not receive this prayer update, please invite them. Thanks for your prayers of support and love and healing for Kristi.

Just a reminder, Rogalske's now have the prayer pager at their home. The number is 772.0110. Please call, you will talk with no one, it will thank you for your page and hang up. Hope to see many of you tomorrow morning at 9am at Calvary church.

Norma

Wednesday – Thursday January 24 & 25, 2007: The “In-between” Days

These 2 days were a blur.

On Wednesday Ashley and Nathan had school. I can’t honestly remember what we did with Emily. The news traveled fast. The phone rang off the hook all day Wednesday along with frequent visitors. We decided to wait to tell the kids until they got home from school. It was hard because we had a constant flow of visitors. We didn’t have much time to process what was going on because of the constant doorbell ringing and phone calls. Kristi’s sister visited for a while Wednesday afternoon. I remember her crying. Kristi just laid in bed very “at peace”. I remember her yelling at her sister not to cry. She affirmed us that she was at peace with the cancer. She was either in denial or a true angel. I think an angel – my angel. Because we had so many visitors, me and Kristi really didn’t have a lot of time to discuss “how” we were going to tell the kids. When the kids got home from school, there were some “crossed signals” at first on how we were sharing the news, but we eventually got around to telling the kids, “mommy has cancer in her belly”. Of course Ashley took it hard but recovered fast. We were afraid she would relate this to Kristin, who was in the final stages and dying of cervical cancer…but to a 9 year old, cancer is cancer. Nathan didn’t (and still doesn’t) seem to grasp what was gong on.

The response was quite overwhelming. Wednesday night Kristi and I sat down and sent out the first of a chain of e-mails:

bkrogalske@sbcglobal.net
01/24/2007 10:28 PM

To:
duister@chartermi.net, ra4folk@tm.net, ann.eldred@cqlcorp.net, bdantuma@yahoo.com, Brian.J.Rogalske@jci.com, kammeraadphoto@chartermi.net, FRMA5731@comcast.net, Dennis.E.Rietman@jci.com, ginger@aileslaw.com, specialtycadwork@chartermi.net, mjboysen@sbcglobal.net, jrrogal@hotmail.com, kstrikwerda@hollandchristian.org, bolparkes@hotmail.com, kevin@tomatocollection.com, khboeve@tds.net, kristi@resyuh.com, lorifox@sbcglobal.net, smileslek@yahoo.com, snterp@gmail.com, bbwassink@hotmail.com, jgehrke@chartermi.net, sherylboes@gmail.com, SMBRUINSMA@aol.com, stephanie@tomatocollection.com, lisavz@juno.com, sydneyve@charter.net, tdykstra@alaska.net, tstrikwerda@hollandchristian.org, walleye12@sbcglobal.net


Subject: Update # 1 on Kristi Rogalske 1-24-07

Hello friends and family,

Wow, we’re still in shock - it doesn’t seem real. Talk about coming out of nowhere. If I could, I would hit the rewind button and go back to Thursday night...but I can’t, so we must now face reality. We’re not used to being on this end of the prayer chain. The support has been overwhelming/humbling. Thank you all so much!!! We just can’t express how much all of your calls, visits, text messages, and e-mails mean to us. As we start this new chapter in our lives, we will try to give regular updates so everyone stays up to date with Kristi’s progress. Here’s what we know so far:

- For the past 6 months, Kristi has been experiencing a pain in her stomach. Initially, it only hurt when she pushed on it. She had a CT scan in October that didn’t show anything alarming to her doctor.
- The pain became more frequent to the point where it would buckle her over. She still wasn’t sure what was going on and neither was her doctor. Her doctor sent her to a specialist, who ordered another CT scan (about 2 weeks ago).
- The 2nd CT scan showed something ‘irregular’ to the specialist. He referred us to the surgeon, who wanted to do the exploratory surgery
- The exploratory surgery was this past Tuesday. We were hoping for some sort of muscle inflammation or a simple cyst. Unfortunately, that’s not what they found.
- What they did find were multiple tumors in her ovaries and her intestines and elsewhere. The doctor indicated stage 3 or 4 ovarian cancer. He won’t know the full extent until after the surgery Friday.
- Friday at 9:30 the doctors will give her a complete hysterectomy; remove her appendix, some other organs I never heard of, remove part of her intestines that the cancer has spread to, and basically scrub everything they can to completely remove all the tumors. Depending on what they find, the surgery will last 2 – 4 hours.
- She will be in the hospital 4 – 5 days.
- Recovery time for this surgery will be 6 – 8 weeks.
- Starting in 3 – 4 weeks, she will begin chemotherapy. She will go once every 3 weeks for 6 months.
- In preparation for chemotherapy, she will be getting her hair cut tomorrow…so she will look quite different the next time you see her. But, she wanted it cut short for her hospital stay (she didn’t want “bed hair”) and so it will be less drastic as it falls out.
- Tonight we told Ashley that “mommy has cancer in her belly”. She took it quite hard at first but seems ok now.
- We will be telling Nathan tomorrow.

Please pray that God’s hands will be at work on Friday and that the doctors find and remove all of the cancer. Pray for a quick and as pain-free as possible recovery for Kristi. Pray that the kids will handle the changes in their mommy ok (as her hair will fall out and she will be very tired during the chemo treatments). Please pray that the kids have patience as their daddy will be handling most of the chores…and he does them differently than mommy! Pray that Kristi’s attitude stays positive even in the most difficult times. It’s going to be a very long road ahead, but with God’s help and your prayers we are ready for this journey.

Thank you all and God bless each one of you!

Love,
Brian and Kristi

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble." Psalm 46:1

Kristi with her friend Heidi...

And her friend Merry getting her hair ready for the long hospital stay...

Thursday was more of the same…lots of calls, e-mails, text messages, and visitors. We had an uneventful pre-op visit at Zeeland Hospital. Today Pastor Frank came and visited and prayed for us. Later that day, Don Bronkema also visited us. Unfortunately, in preparation for tomorrow’s surgery, Kristi had to do another bowel prep. Because of this, she missed his visit. Don is also a cancer survivor. Me and Don had a nice visit. He actually comforted me more that I was expecting. One of the things he mentioned was that he was very at peace with his cancer. The people around him were more upset than he was. Hmmm, sound familiar?! I told Kristi what Don had said and she now calls him her guardian angel. Thanks Don! She was very peaceful Thursday night as we went to sleep. Oh, but wait, I thought “we” went to sleep. Kristi, being concerned for everyone else, sent out the following e-mail at 12:58AM!!!

bkrogalske@sbcglobal.net
01/26/2007 12:58 AM

Subject: hugs to everyone

Hello all, it’s me, Kristi. The house is quiet and dark and so peaceful. I can hear Brian snoring away upstairs which is music to my ears! I am so happy to say I saw peace in him tonight as he drifted into sleep. I wish I could individually e-mail all of you. This is hard for me to do as a group thing because so many of you have sent individual e-mails and calls and please know they are appreciated and I wish I could talk to you all. I’m understanding my limitations and have figured out when to say I can’t do anymore when which is not an easy thing. I have missed a few visits with people because of the joy of colon cleansing which takes it out of me (literally!). One of the people I missed was Don Bronkema but Brian shared his words with me and he is now one of my many guardian angels. I didn’t realize that Don has fought cancer and one it many times. He explained the peace to Brian that he felt that only the person dealing with this can understand. It is so amazing. The devil does come in and try to take that but you just claim God as your strength and you’re back in the peace again. That’s exactly where I am at. I have only had a few short moments of fear which as I uttered the words “God don’t leave me” I had a huge peace and even drifted off to sleep. Unexplainable. My hope is that some day I can share that with someone else going through what I am. I have already told one friend, but I’ll tell you all. Put on your sun glasses because God is going to shine brightly through me! Thank you for all the God stories you have shared. This is an incredible journey. I know I have a difficult journey ahead but with God by my side what can I fear? I have a lot of time on my hands lately and find myself praying for my friends and family that you will feel my peace. Please keep everyone in your prayers – all family and friends – we all need each other. Thank you so much, I can’t even begin to say thank you enough. The prayers, meals, offers for everything under the sun is so great. You know, I wasn’t really living until now. I was gliding through life. Look out world cuz here I come!!!

With much love,
Kristi

Amazing!! This e-mail was so comforting to so many people. We received nearly 40 replies to this e-mail.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007: First E-Mails

Dear Prayer Team,
We have received this prayer request from Dennis Rietman, on behalf of Brian and Kristi Rogalske.

Friends and Family.
I am afraid that the news about Kristi Rogalske is not what we were hoping or praying for. According to the doctors, she has stage 4 ovarian cancer. As you can imagine this was a huge blow to Kristi, Brian and their parents. The kids are not aware yet and will not find out until after school today. At the end of the evening, Kristi said she was at peace with it.... Sorry, but I am at a loss for words....
Please don't go on-line to see the survival rate or the risks, as these are just the earthly limitations we live in, but God does not.
Instead pray with boldness that God would stop this disease in its tracks. I have listed some of the things that will be occurring over the next couple months. Please pray for each item specifically.

Brian and Kristi send their thanks for the support to date. I know more will be needed.

Pray for:
*The Holy Spirit in their home and around the kids especially.
*Continually, but especially today after school Understanding at the doctors appointment to review next steps. 1/24/07 @ 9am.
*That the cancer would shrink between now and the surgery.
*Blessed surgery on Friday to remove all the cancer. 1/26/07 (TBD) A sense of peace in a time of pain and fear. Months and years to come.

"I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10b

"God is our refuge and strength, An ever present help in trouble." Psalm 46:1

More to come.

Thanks and God Bless
-Dennis
Dennis Rietman

Tuesday January 23, 2007: Exploratory surgery day

My parents showed up about 10:45AM to watch the kids. We told them “we’ll be home about 5 or 6”. Ha! I remember joking on the way to the hospital 'our lives could be changed forever in a couple hours'!! Wow. We checked into Holland Hospital about 11:30 AM for the 1:30 PM surgery. We hung around for a couple hours just hanging out in the “holding area”. Well, 1:30 rolled around and we were informed that Dr. Fletter was running behind, about 2 hours behind! Kristi still hadn’t eaten since Monday night. She was getting tired and frustrated. We were still not thinking of anything other than “inflamed muscle tissue” or I was even thinking they would come back and say “everything looks normal”. Other than being tired and hungry and wanting to go home (sick of waiting around), we were still pretty “loose” and not thinking anything was “wrong”. About 3:30 I called both sets of parents just to let them know we were running behind. Denny also texted asking what was going on. "Still waiting" I replied. Kristi was finally wheeled back around 3:45PM...final kisses and “good bye”. The nurse told me that when Kristi comes out of surgery, someone will come get me and bring me back to her in the recovery area. Well, about 4:30 the receptionist brought me back, but rather than going through the double doors to go back to the recovery area, she brought me to a consultation room. This was the first time I suspected something might be wrong. “Why am I here?! This isn’t where they said they were going to bring me”. I sat in there for about 5 minutes before Dr. Fletter and Dr. Taylor came in. They both looked very serious. Gulp.

Dr. Fletter started by saying the procedure itself went good…however, “we didn’t like what we saw”. So, when he started out saying the procedure went good, there was a brief moment of relief. But that was quickly replaced with confusion when he said “we didn’t like what we saw”. I was still a little confused at that point, not sure where he was going. He was talking about “spots all over”. That’s when Dr. Taylor chimed in and said “it looks like ovarian cancer”. I think I went into shock. I remember being warm all over and everything seemed in slow motion. It was a weird feeling. The two doctors were talking but I can’t remember what they were saying. I can’t explain it. Then it hit me…Kristi has cancer. I remember just falling apart after a few minutes. Both doctors stopped talking at that point and let me unload for a minute. They just let me cry for a while. When I got my bearings back, they continued to explain what they saw. She had spots on her intestines, ovaries, maybe on her colon, appendix, and all over the abdominal area. He indicated stage 3 or 4 ovarian cancer. I remember asking “what are 'spots'?” Tumors. I asked all the obvious questions…how? why? I was thinking, but afraid to ask…”what is the prognosis?” But I asked. Dr. Taylor went briefly into the statistics…average 30% survival rate past 5 years. This means she has a 30% chance of living longer than 5 years. Ouch. I cried some more. He also went briefly into the typical treatment plan. He talked about the IV port and the IP port (intra-peritoneal). Both doctors had to leave and left me in the room to “freshen up”. They said I could go back whenever I was ready. I sat there in shock for a long time. Dr. Taylor came back after about 15 minutes because he felt bad for leaving me like that. He was changed into jeans, a sweatshirt, and baseball cap. Then we just chatted some more about ovarian cancer. He reassured me that his success rate is closer to 50%.

Before going back, I called Kristi’s parents. Her Dad answered. I was a wreck. I couldn’t talk. I just remember saying “you need to get to the hospital”. I can’t remember much of anything I said. I waited for them to get to the hospital…only about 15 minutes but it seemed like forever. When her parents got there her Mom was already crying so we all hugged and cried some more in the room. Then her Mom tried to pray but we were all too upset. I told her Mom (for some reason) about the “30% cure rate”. Why did I do that?! I think I was still in shock and processing everything. So we all cried some more. Ahhhh.

Unfortunately, because both doctors had to leave right after surgery, no one told Kristi the news...so she was still unaware. I remember telling her parents “I have to go tell your daughter she has cancer now”. Then more tears, then we left for the recovery room.

So we walked into the recovery room just as she was waking up. She was really drowsy. She looked at me, looked at her Mom, looked back at me, then asked “what’s wrong? Am I OK?” I guess we looked kind of bad – Kristi could tell we were upset. I told her she had cancer and as her eyes welled up we hugged and cried. She quickly recovered and started asking questions. She was very positive from the first seconds. One of her first thoughts was “we need to get an e-mail to Norma” (the church e-mail prayer coordinator). Right from the onset, she thought of prayer. I have to admit, I didn’t. I was in shock. I didn’t bother telling her about the cure rate at this point. We just hung out for a while with her parents processing the information…and answering Kristi’s questions…3,4, and 5 times! She has a slow time coming out of the anesthesia drugs!! I stepped out and called Denny, Janna, Sheryl Boes, and Heidi. I was a wreck for all of them. I started with Denny, balling and sobbing. Then I called Janna; I was a little better for Janna, then Sheryl, and lastly I called Heidi. [I remember Brian telling me later that after I called them that he was too upset to eat his dinner. Sorry Brian. But it’s good to know that we have people that love us that much. We love them too.]

After I called our close friends, I called my Mom (who was at our house watching our kids). I did not tell her any news…I didn’t want her to get upset in front of the kids. It was about 5:45PM at this point. My Mom was asking “well, aren’t they telling you anything?!” I was trying my best not to get mad. I just told her that the surgery was done and that we were running behind. But my Mom was persistent…”well, aren’t they telling you anything?!” Then I think she got the hint because I think she knew I was getting upset and she just said “oh, OK”. We hung up…whew. So I went back to the room. Dr. Taylor came back about 6:30 to talk to us some more. He stayed around for about a half hour and answered our questions. We checked out about 7:30PM. I called home and asked my Mom to make sure the kids were in bed. I think she now realized something was wrong because she didn’t ask any questions and just said “OK”.

Kristi’s parents went home and I believe Kristi’s mom contacted church. I believe Norma sent out an e-mail already Tuesday evening.

When we got home Kristi went right to bed. I went back down to talk to my parents. Of course they were upset by the news, but overall they took it as well as could be expected. I was surprised I didn’t cry. I was just in shock I think. After they left, I called Dave Ozios who called while I was putting Kristi to bed. Of course he was also shocked. He prayed for us on the phone. That was awesome! Denny came over about 10:00 PM and spent some time with me. Of course I cried all over his shoulder. Then cried some more. Then some more. I needed that. We talked for a long time and then he prayed for us. Wow, what a friend! He left about midnight...sorry Denny! I went to bed shortly after midnight and surprisingly I slept.

Monday January 22, 2007: Consult with Dr. Fletter

We met with Dr. Fletter today to review what he wanted to do. He indicated he wanted to do exploratory surgery to find out what this pocket of fluid was. He said he was going to try for Tuesday. Wow. What’s going on?! We still had no idea. Dr. Fletter mentioned maybe an ovarian cyst, or some inflamed muscle tissue, but "cancer" was never mentioned. Oh yeah, then Monday night…bowel prep!! Ewwww.

Friday January 19, 2007: The First Hint

Dr. Surdaley called at about 5:00 PM and told us that Dr. Fletter wanted to meet with us Monday morning. He indicated the CT scan showed an “irregularity” and he wanted to check it out. Hmmm. We had no idea what this meant. I remember texting Denny Sunday night that I wouldn’t be at work in the morning because we were meeting with the doctor to discuss exploratory surgery. I remember him texting back “was this expected or something new?” I remember texting back “something new, not quite sure what’s going on”. We still didn't give it much thought.

Thursday January 18, 2007: CT Scan

Kristi has CT scan. Uneventful as far as we knew.

Monday January 15, 2007: Dr. Serdahely

Kristi meets with Dr. Serdahely to discuss abdominal cramping. He didn't find anything during a physical exam, however, he did send her for a cat scan.