Sarah Macey's Surgery...INCREDIBLE

From: st macy
Date: Sat, 17 May 2008 04:32:19 +0000


Please forward to anyone you think might be interested.

First and foremost, we are completely overwhelmed by everyone's generosity and response to the messages about Sarah. This morning we were checking e-mail and had prayer after prayer after prayer being offered for her and our family. You are an incredible support to our family and a beautiful testiment to the power of prayer and faith in God!

A special thank you to all from the St. Joseph community. WOW! What a blessing to have you in our lives. Messages from staff, students stopping every hour to pray, classes saying the Rosary, cards and pictures being sent, and the list goes on. We will never be able to thank you enough for what you did and continue to do for us. The Parish, School, and EEC were absolutely incredible with their response of hope and faith for us. That was a true beacon for us.

Sarah went into surgery this afternoon. What had promised to be a "flipping intense surgery" (the surgeon's words this morning - ha) with a lot of potential complications was successfully completed earlier than expected. The surgery had been predicted to be 5-6 hours if things went smoothly, longer if complications. It was about 4 hours. According to the CT scan, the tumor had spread throughout viens and lungs and could potentially be difficult to extract. The surgeon was able to remove all the visible tumors (the lungs will still needed to be treated via chemotherapy). It will probably be Tuesday before she is considered "fully recovered". Chemotherapy will start shortly after that. They inserted a port for the chemo which will reduce the number of times she needs to be stuck with a needle. As pathology reports come in, we will work with the oncology group to develop a treatment plan. We will keep everyone posted on the developments.

Although we still have a long road ahead of us as we wait for pathology reports and develop a game plan of how we will continue to treat Sarah, this is definitely a wonderful surprise compared to what we thought we would be facing based on the scan reports from yesterday. I truly believe that the power of prayer had a lot to do with today's positive outcome. So many people forwarded the message to others that we had prayers being offered by multiple denominations throughout the US, Masses being offered for Sarah, Rosaries being said, etc. Because of your incredible devotions and prayers, Sarah's surgery was smooth and we are looking a a less intense recovery from it.

Thank you!

May God bless you and your families!!

The Macy Family - Steve, Joan, Catherine, Isabelle, and Sarah

Sarah Macey (3yr old) Needs Your Prayers

We wanted to update everyone with Sarah's condition.

Our escapade with Sarah, our 3-year old, started on Tuesday night when we found a bump on her abdomen. After talking with our doctor's office, we thought she might be a little "backed up" since her play had increased with the nice weather but her fluid intake had not. With complaints of a tummy-ache throughout the night, we decided to take her into the doctor's office on Wednesday.

Our theory of constipation changed to one of a possible hernia and a referral for an ultrasound. While at the imaging center, we received word that the swollen abdomen was due to a Wilm's tumor. With films in hand and a lot of questions in our heads, we headed for Children's Mercy - Downtown for admittance. This is what has developed over the past 24 hours:

She has a Wilm's tumor which is a cancerous growth on a kidney. It occurs in children typically between 3-8 years old. The CT scan shows that it has spread into the major viens/arteries to the heart and leg and into her lungs.

On Friday she will under surgery to remove her kidney with the Wilm's tumor and "clean" the veins/arteries. They will also explore to see if there is further spread not seen on the CT scan. She will then undergo chemotherapy to attack the growths in her lungs and potential other sites. A port will be implanted during surgery through which her future labs and meds will be drawn/delivered. We don't have a definite treatment plan until surgery and pathology reports are complete, but the doctor said to expect it to be a year or two for treatment.

We have been humbled by the extraordinary outpouring of support from family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. It is times like this we realize how blessed we are with such wonderful people in our lives. You may not realize how reassuring your words and actions of support and encouragement are to us. We will never be able to thank you enough. We will keep you posted as to the developments in Sarah's condition. Thank you & may God continue to bless you all!!!

The Macy Family - Steve, Joan, Catherine, Isabelle, & Sarah

All You Need is...Love. Who is Love?

When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you need.

Father, God bless all my friends and loved ones in whatever it is that You know they may be needing this day! And may their life be full of your peace, prosperity and power as he/she seeks to have a closer relationship with you. Amen.

Paul Harvey's Prayer for all of us(a)

'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!'

A Psalm - A Cruel Disease, by Deacon Tom

A Psalm
Cruel Disease

Lord; fate has loaded us with so many disasters
and we try to overcome them but we have little
confidence in our ability.
We struggle to make sense out of the turmoil
that infects us when illness and death
seem to hover closely by us.

We must watch our loved ones suffer
with illness in that even a wise person
can not understand and we feel that we are
without resources.
We writhe in the agony of not knowing why
this illness is so cruel.

Lord our God you know what we have to
contend with.
You know what it is like to see you’re loved
one suffer under the cruel
bludgeoning of senseless pain.
You understand our suffering as friends,
siblings and lovers of the victims.

You made your children, the Hebrews,
emerge from the cruelty of slavery in
Egypt and become a nation.
You saw your son Jesus Christ die
a bitter foolish death on the cross
and through your wondrous grace
rise again to glory.
In all of the dark days of our world
you always have blessed us with
your love. Now we pray for
your children who are terribly ill and
without resources and we ask you to
touch their life with your warmth and
healing presence.

We know Lord that we don't always
see your healing and love as we face
the darkest moments of life, but it is
there.
It is not just healing that we need.
We need to find ways to deal with our
sorrows and live with our cross.
Show us the way out of this senselessness.
Lord you are the divine healer, the
master physician we are you loving children
bless and grace us as you see fit.

Deacon Tom Coffey
Spring 2008

Fake Friends / Real Friends tutorial

FAKE FRIENDS: Never ask for food.
REAL FRIENDS: Is the reason you have no food.

FAKE FRIENDS: Call your parents Mr. / Mrs.
REAL FRIENDS: Call your parents DAD/MOM

FAKE FRIENDS: Never seen you cry
REAL FRIENDS: Cry with you

FAKE FRIENDS: Borrow your stuff for a few days then give it back
REAL FRIENDS: Keep your stuff so long they forget it's yours

FAKE FRIENDS: Know a few things about you
REAL FRIENDS: Could write a book about you with direct quotes from you

FAKE FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that is what the crowd is doing
REAL FRIENDS: Will kick the whole crowds butt that left you

FAKE FRIENDS: Would knock on your front door
REAL FRIENDS: Walk right in and say 'I'M HOME!'

FAKE FRIENDS: Are for awhile
REAL FRIENDS: Are for life

FAKE FRIENDS: Will talk bad to the person who talks bad about you.
REAL FRIENDS: Will knock the person out that talked bad about you

FAKE FRIENDS: Would ignore this
REAL FRIENDS: Will send this to all their real friends and hope to get it back!

If you were killed today, I'm sorry I wouldn't be able to come to your funeral, because I'd be in jail for killing the person who did it.

The Cup of Hot Chocolate

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups-porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite -- telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said:
'Notice that all the nice looking; expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each others cups.

Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate we have.

The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything that they have.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Thank the Lord for your blessings in 2008. And enjoy your hot chocolate!