First, I just want to say that I am touched and overwhelmed knowing that Matt's army of supporters are traveling to Michigan for this weekend.
For those of you who have children you will be bringing this weekend: There will be 3 adults watching kids in the lounge/kitchen area downstairs at the funeral home from 3 p.m. - 7 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, there will be nursery attendants at the church from 11 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Also, if you saw Nick Hura's comment on my last blog entry, I encourage you to start jotting some memories or stories about Matt down. We are going to ask everyone at the memorial service to share their memories and photos to be compiled into a book for Ethan.
To Rudy, Mark & Sammy: I wish I had known what was in the box you sent, I would've recorded Ethan's reaction for you! Ethan had the biggest smile on his face & he let out a little giggle...and immediately emptied the box. Will you please email me your addresses? meganuday@gmail.com
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Thank you, Kristen!
Please check out this column written by Kristen Shamus in today's Free Press. Kristen, thank you so much. We have been touched by your columns about us.
http://www.freep.com/article/20091215/COL26/912150370/1234/Cancer-took-his-life-but-not-his-spirit
http://www.freep.com/article/20091215/COL26/912150370/1234/Cancer-took-his-life-but-not-his-spirit
Monday, December 14, 2009
Memorial Service
A viewing will be held Friday, December 18th, from 3 p.m. - 9 p.m. at Martenson Funeral Home in Trenton.
The memorial service for Matt will take place on Saturday, December 19th at noon at Grosse Ile Presbyterian Church. Child care will be provided in the church nursery. Please join us for a luncheon following the service.
This link will provide the times and maps as well:
http://www.funeralquestions.com/obits/martenson/memorial.asp?listing_id=145619
The memorial service for Matt will take place on Saturday, December 19th at noon at Grosse Ile Presbyterian Church. Child care will be provided in the church nursery. Please join us for a luncheon following the service.
This link will provide the times and maps as well:
http://www.funeralquestions.com/obits/martenson/memorial.asp?listing_id=145619
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Home Again
I am home, and feeling quite well. The scope and cryoablation went well yesterday. They were able to freeze everything and the bleeding has stopped again. They also gave me 2 more units of blood, so I have even more energy. Megan brought Ethan to pick me up at the hospital this morning and he was flirting with all of the nurses and was a popular little man. We had a nice lunch at Angelo's on the way home, and enjoyed dinner at my parents with my sister and nephew. It is fun to see the boys together.
That is all for now, I just wanted to let you all know that I am home and the procedure went well. I am ready to call it a night and enjoy a night back in my own bed. We have a busy weekend coming up. My sister is lecturing at a dental conference in Detroit tomorrow, so I will be there to heckle, I mean support, her. Of course this weekend is the UM/OSU game. Megan and I will be going to the game and tailgating. We have many friends coming in town and we look forward to seeing many of you.
Go Blue!
That is all for now, I just wanted to let you all know that I am home and the procedure went well. I am ready to call it a night and enjoy a night back in my own bed. We have a busy weekend coming up. My sister is lecturing at a dental conference in Detroit tomorrow, so I will be there to heckle, I mean support, her. Of course this weekend is the UM/OSU game. Megan and I will be going to the game and tailgating. We have many friends coming in town and we look forward to seeing many of you.
Go Blue!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
The Roller Coaster Continues
It has been yet another week of ups and downs. At the end of last week and through the weekend I was experiencing the worst fatigue I have known since Indy, but that was corrected yesterday with a blood transfusion. My heart rate was continuing to race due to the HCG induced hyperthyroidism, but the medications now seem to have that under control. I learned on Sunday that my HCG had gone up tremendously, only to see it plummet back down with another blood draw yesterday. Today I have my energy back, but I have begun to cough up blood again. Tomorrow I am headed back into the hospital for a repeat of the cryogenic procedure to stop the bleeding. That is everything in a nutshell, below you will find more of the details.
Last week I was overwhelmingly fatigued. I had very little energy to do very much other than sleep and nap. Yesterday (Monday) I had an appointment with my oncologist to discuss progress at the end of the first round of oral Etoposide, and we discovered that my hemoglobin was down to 7.7. Normal is at least 14.0! I was quite anemic, which explains why I was so tired. I ended up spending the day at the hospital and received a transfusion of 2 units of blood. I immediately felt better and had more energy. Driving home I felt like myself again and I have felt great today. Hemoglobin is what carries the oxygen in your blood, and it is amazing what a little more oxygen can do to make you feel better!
Last Thursday I saw the endocrinologist and he put me back on some medications to slow my thyroid and to slow my heart. My heart was racing at 120 to 140 beats per minute at times last week. That was mainly due to the elevated HCG triggering my thyroid, but the low hemoglobin may have contributed to it as well. My heart rate is now back down in the 80's, which is still slightly high for me but much healthier than it was last week. I will stay on these medications until we can get my HCG back down again.
Speaking of my HCG, I had it checked on Thursday as well. My oncologist called me on Sunday with the results, and they were quite concerning. When I began this round of chemo my HCG had gone up to nearly 58,000. Last Thursday it was more than double that at 120,968. My doctor was very concerned, as were we. At the appointment we discussed the possibilities that this chemo is not working, and that we need to find another clinical trial; hopefully the new one in NY will open soon. However, after the appointment I received a text message from my doctor with the results of my HCG from Monday morning, and it was down to 87,000! This is certainly much more encouraging. As we have seen, this may mean nothing if it just shoots back up, but if it stays at that level or continues to drop lower, it would be an indication that the Etoposide is starting to work. We certainly are not celebrating yet, but we hope this is the start of a downward trend for my tumor marker.
Even though I have felt great since receiving the blood transfusion, I have begun to cough up blood again. It is much less than before, but certainly any bleeding in my trachea or lungs is not a good thing. My doctors today decided that I should have another bronchoscope and hopefully they can freeze the site with a croyogenic mist once again. When I had that done 2 weeks ago the doctor said he may have to repeat the procedure a couple times before it permanently stops the bleeding. So tomorrow morning it is back to Ann Arbor for another day at the hospital. It is a relatively quick and painless procedure, but nonetheless I can think of many other ways I would rather spend the day. On the other hand, continuing to cough up blood is not one of them.
There is not much else to report since I have spent much of the last week sleeping. Megan is now exhausted since I have not been able to help much around the house or with Ethan. She is a trouper though, and she continues to be my rock. Please do include prayers of strength for her as you pray for me. Our families continue to be great sources of support, and we certainly would not be able to deal with all of this without their babysitting and their love. Thank you all! This has been a trying couple of weeks for us, particularly when we thought this round of chemo was going to be smooth sailing. This is what it is like to be living with cancer, and I continue to be grateful that I am living with cancer. You have to roll with the punches, take each day one at a time, and continue to be grateful that God is with us, as are so many of you that care about us and keep us in your prayers and close to your heart.
Thank you! God Bless! Livestrong!
Last week I was overwhelmingly fatigued. I had very little energy to do very much other than sleep and nap. Yesterday (Monday) I had an appointment with my oncologist to discuss progress at the end of the first round of oral Etoposide, and we discovered that my hemoglobin was down to 7.7. Normal is at least 14.0! I was quite anemic, which explains why I was so tired. I ended up spending the day at the hospital and received a transfusion of 2 units of blood. I immediately felt better and had more energy. Driving home I felt like myself again and I have felt great today. Hemoglobin is what carries the oxygen in your blood, and it is amazing what a little more oxygen can do to make you feel better!
Last Thursday I saw the endocrinologist and he put me back on some medications to slow my thyroid and to slow my heart. My heart was racing at 120 to 140 beats per minute at times last week. That was mainly due to the elevated HCG triggering my thyroid, but the low hemoglobin may have contributed to it as well. My heart rate is now back down in the 80's, which is still slightly high for me but much healthier than it was last week. I will stay on these medications until we can get my HCG back down again.
Speaking of my HCG, I had it checked on Thursday as well. My oncologist called me on Sunday with the results, and they were quite concerning. When I began this round of chemo my HCG had gone up to nearly 58,000. Last Thursday it was more than double that at 120,968. My doctor was very concerned, as were we. At the appointment we discussed the possibilities that this chemo is not working, and that we need to find another clinical trial; hopefully the new one in NY will open soon. However, after the appointment I received a text message from my doctor with the results of my HCG from Monday morning, and it was down to 87,000! This is certainly much more encouraging. As we have seen, this may mean nothing if it just shoots back up, but if it stays at that level or continues to drop lower, it would be an indication that the Etoposide is starting to work. We certainly are not celebrating yet, but we hope this is the start of a downward trend for my tumor marker.
Even though I have felt great since receiving the blood transfusion, I have begun to cough up blood again. It is much less than before, but certainly any bleeding in my trachea or lungs is not a good thing. My doctors today decided that I should have another bronchoscope and hopefully they can freeze the site with a croyogenic mist once again. When I had that done 2 weeks ago the doctor said he may have to repeat the procedure a couple times before it permanently stops the bleeding. So tomorrow morning it is back to Ann Arbor for another day at the hospital. It is a relatively quick and painless procedure, but nonetheless I can think of many other ways I would rather spend the day. On the other hand, continuing to cough up blood is not one of them.
There is not much else to report since I have spent much of the last week sleeping. Megan is now exhausted since I have not been able to help much around the house or with Ethan. She is a trouper though, and she continues to be my rock. Please do include prayers of strength for her as you pray for me. Our families continue to be great sources of support, and we certainly would not be able to deal with all of this without their babysitting and their love. Thank you all! This has been a trying couple of weeks for us, particularly when we thought this round of chemo was going to be smooth sailing. This is what it is like to be living with cancer, and I continue to be grateful that I am living with cancer. You have to roll with the punches, take each day one at a time, and continue to be grateful that God is with us, as are so many of you that care about us and keep us in your prayers and close to your heart.
Thank you! God Bless! Livestrong!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Photos and a Progress Report
We hope you enjoy these photos from the last couple of weeks!
Ethan loves Pumpkins!
Our 100 pounds of pumpkins carved and lit up for Halloween.
Our view of the MMB from our seats in the Pressbox this past Saturday.
We had an ubelievable view of the field and thought we would share some photos with you. 
Ethan checking out the pumpkins at the pumpkin patch.
Ethan found a pumpkin just the right size for him to carry.
Ethan loves Pumpkins!
Ethan is more interested in crushing the mums than the carved pumpkins.
Ethan dressed up for halloween in his cowboy costume.
Our 100 pounds of pumpkins carved and lit up for Halloween.
Our view of the MMB from our seats in the Pressbox this past Saturday.
We had an ubelievable view of the field and thought we would share some photos with you.
We hope you enjoyed some of our photos. We have had a lot of fun with Ethan this fall, because he really does love pumpkins. The photo of him in his costume was taken at the Toledo Zoo for Little Boo at the Zoo. He didn't quite understand the concept of Trick-or-Treating, but he looked cute in his costume.
We had a great opportunity this past Saturday to sit in the Pressbox at Michigan Stadium. Thank you to some good friends (you know who you are) for pulling some strings to give us this experience. The view from the box is incredible. You can really see the whole game much clearer. Unfortunately, what we clearly saw was Michigan letting another game slip away, but we still had a lot of fun. Two interesting aspects of sitting in the pressbox is that you cannot cheer, and the concession stand is free. Most of the people there are press, and they are working, so you are not allowed to cheer. It was difficult to do at times, and was a little strange. They also had a full concession stand, and it was all free. I think I may have made Megan a little sick with all of the popcorn and hotdogs I ate, but it was fun. It was a great experience that we will long remember.
Thankfully Saturday I was feeling pretty well and was able to enjoy the game and the pressbox. Most of the days since my last post have been up and down. I have been quite fatigued since returning home last week, but that is to be expected after going under general anesthesia and having two minor surgeries. What has been harder to deal with is that I have had to watch my temperature, as I have had many fevers since I have been home. They have come every evening and have varied from very mild to 101 degrees. They last a few hours and then I feel fine until the next night. The doctor feels it could be a result of the procedures that I went through last week, or it could be caused by the cancer. Either way it seems less severe each day.
I also still have a cough and an elevated heart rate. Thankfully I am not coughing up any more blood. My heart rate appears to be a result of the tumor marker HCG. When I was first diagnosed they found that my heart rate was high and it was due to hyperthyroidism caused by the elevated HCG. It appears that it is happening again, so I am going back on some meds I took last fall and am seeing an endocrinologist on Thursday. The cancer seems to be taking a bigger toll on me these days, but I am starting to feel a little less fatigued and better the last few days. Whatever the cancer throws at me I just need to keep punching back.
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