The Moment is Yours--Define It. I keep this phrase in front of me all the time. This moment is what we have--we can make it count or we can let it slip away. All it takes is one small pebble tossed into the water to create ripples that expand across a waterway. Please, let's take this moment and turn ripples into tidal waves. As a community there are too many of us touched by cancer. I wish I had the magic wand to make it all go away. I know there are answers--I know we are on the edge of winning many of the battles. The war against cancer, to end it, to make it less than nothing, may take some time. What we can do is make it better for those who do have cancer and for those who take care of and love those cancer patients.
We must make the idea of an Urgent Care Cancer Clinic a reality. We need to care for those we love and cherish with the skill and knowledge of the large cancer clinics that dot the world. It is possible to make things better, more comfortable, more efficient, more kind right here in Springfield.
We need this clinic. It makes sense. It is the right thing to do. It will provide a place for urgent care needs of cancer patients; it will provide a place to meditate, pray or just regain focus for patients and caregivers; it will provide a research base that helps cancer patients find clinical trials. When Jeff was diagnosed he and I pored through websites trying to find protocols that would help. We had to go to page after page of websites and then we were stumped by the application process and the medical terminology. Did he qualify or not? This clinic and others like it can provide information that presents all the clinical trials available for a specific cancer diagnosis. This system should allow for information to be taken once and disseminated to every trial that is available. Time is a precious thing when one is trying to find a way through the maze of treatment options. If a single application could be used as the resource for all clinical trial program it would be possible for a patient to qualify for treatments and then decide with his or her oncologist which one makes sense for them. We had great opportunities at MD Anderson, but I was always searching for other break throughs at other clinics. Even when I found things that looked promising there was the paperwork nightmare to be addressed. Getting labs and MRI's in the right hands to see what the options were. Why can't we warehouse this basic information in a database. Jeff had more MRI's in six months than most households have in a lifetime.
Another goal of the foundation is to provide a mobile cancer clinic. It is a necessary treatment option. If hospice can provide end of life services in such a gracious, loving and complete manner, why can't we provide something similar for those who are fighting for their lives? Why shouldn't a clinic be available that can visit the patients who are too sick to get out of bed and wait at the doctor's office just to check oxygen levels or have blood drawn or to pick up prescriptions? When Jeff finished biochemo he was so nauseated that movement sent him into spirals of dizziness and vomiting that would bring a 49er's Linebacker to his knees and in tears. But he was expected to get up, get dressed and go to the doctor's office and wait endlessly so they could check how nauseated he was, what his blood counts were and how well he could breathe.
These ideas just touch the surface of what we could do as a community. Let's take the challenge--let's make it better--let's set the bar. We can show the rest of the country that this can be done. The only urgent care cancer clinics should not just be at an MD Anderson or John Wayne Cancer Clinic or the Mayo Clinic. It should be in our backyard.
Join Jeff's Hope. Help those with cancer focus on becoming well and whole. Help them keep their vision of health. The Urgent Care Cancer Clinic can be a reality. It is within reach--all you have to do is reach a little further, try a little harder, focus more clearly and you will see it too.
Email me at jeffshope2008@gmail.com . Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Never Gonna Break My Faith is a song from the movie, "Bobby", about Robert Kennedy's life and assassination. The song title represented the way Jeff approached what would be the final months of his life... Louis L'Amour, one of my Dad's favorite authors, has said, "There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. Yet that will be the beginning." This is how I am now trying to approach my life without Jeff...
The Melton Family
Forever in our hearts...
My husband is Jeff Melton--he is my hero. This blog is dedicated to him, the man he is and his fight to beat Melanoma Cancer--February 2008.
January 2009--Jeff will always be my hero--always. I have decided that this website needs to be dedicated to the works, goals and progress of The Jeffrey A. Melton Urgent Care Cancer Foundation (Jeff's Hope). Today I started Holly's Heart--a place that I can go and write about this new life that I am trying to get used to living. It is where I can express the joys, sorrows, hopes and fears of this new world without Jeff. It is a place for me to write and in the process, heal. The link is below--just click away...
January 2009--Jeff will always be my hero--always. I have decided that this website needs to be dedicated to the works, goals and progress of The Jeffrey A. Melton Urgent Care Cancer Foundation (Jeff's Hope). Today I started Holly's Heart--a place that I can go and write about this new life that I am trying to get used to living. It is where I can express the joys, sorrows, hopes and fears of this new world without Jeff. It is a place for me to write and in the process, heal. The link is below--just click away...
Blog Archive
Fight Melanoma Cancer
Please join us in the fight against Melanoma Cancer. Prevention is so important--use sunscreen, wear hats--they're cool--DON'T use tanning beds. It's just not worth it. See your dermatologist and make sure they have results read by someone reliable. Melanoma Cancer isn't "just some skin that needs to be removed," it's deadly.
Sources of Strength
Romans 8:24
For we are saved by hope:
Romans 8:28, 37-39
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to (his) purpose.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, not depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For we are saved by hope:
Romans 8:28, 37-39
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to (his) purpose.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, not depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
New Life Resolutions--for my husband, Jeff, December 29, 2007
In the blink of an eye life changes. It's true. I always thought that was an overused statement, but it's true. One minute I was helping out with the fall festival at my child's school--watching children in a bounce house. The next minute I was shaking at the prospect of what my husband's doctor had just told him. A CT scan showed "nodules on his lungs, lesions on his liver and there is something in the lymph nodes". Melanoma cancer.My husband and I have been through more than most marriages in our 11 1/2 years together. We are so much stronger for it all. We will get through this cancer diagnosis. It means many trips to Houston, Texas, to a world-class melanoma clinic. It means weeks away from our young children--weeks away from each other. It means pumping my husband's body full of biochemotherapy for five straight days and nights. A treatment so rough it is reserved only for the very strongest and "healthiest" melanoma patients. It means an uncertain financial future because we are self employed--there is no vacation time or sick leave. Most of all it means the life we had planned for ourselves no longer exists. While undergoing the biochemo my husband looked at me and whispered "nothing will ever be the same." No it won't, but that doesn't mean it won't be filled with goodness and love and grace and peace. My husband is the epitome of grace. He is teaching me about love and forgiveness, grace and self-sacrifice. I describe bravery in whole new terms. I imagine any family that is or has gone through a crisis can identify with my comments about his or her loved one. I want to appeal to those of us getting ready to make our New Years Resolutions. Instead I challenge you to make a New Life Resolution. Life isn't about competition--who has the bigger house, the automobile with the most gadgets, the newest tech item, the best physique. All those things count for nothing when you are truly challenged in life. Resolve to create a life of love and grace. Build a home of peace--drive to be kind--those random acts of kindness really count for so much more than the balance in your bank account. We have been blessed in all this. Our families, our friends, our church, my husband's clients, my children's schools, our neighbors, perfect strangers at the airports have reached out with prayer and kindness and love and support that goes beyond comprehension. Thank you seems such a trite phrase. This is a good world with good people. Remember to make Gratitude number one on your New Life Resolution. Even in the darkest of times be grateful. Pray, too. Pray and truly believe with your whole heart in whatever Higher Power you worship. Make sure it is a Divine Power--not a power of greed or fear or anger. Add Forgiveness to your list, too. It is a release--it is what allows us--propels us forward. Look Forward--not back--there is nothing in our past that we can change. Our future is in the next minute, the next hour.
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