yahoo

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Some more AVM News...

Young motorcyclist holds her line with a caring heart

Photos here... (Full story too...)

Haley Rogers, a 15-year-old Diamond Bar resident, is relatively new to the sport of motocross.

With only 20 races under her boots in a male-dominated Moto X Kidz race series she has finally captured her first win on her #124 Suzuki 125cc in the 250cc starter class at Lake Elsinore MX Park.

So, what’s the big deal, you ask? Young women racing MX have been on the starting gate with young men since the first woman signed up.

Well, what separates Haley from the rest of her field (in this case) is that she wants to dedicate her next race on Sunday, Aug. 17, to a friend of her family: 13-year-old Kassidy Brewer of Murrieta.

Kassidy recently suffered a massive brain aneurysm at the base of her skull identified as arteriovenous malformation (AVM), a very rare and congenital disorder. Kassidy is in a coma being stabilized from severe swelling of the brain at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego.

According to a statement made by her family on a Web site, Kassidy was on her way to the emergency room complaining of head pain when she passed out. At the hospital she was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm attributed to the AVM.

Rady Children’s Hospital is the closest facility to the Inland Empire that specializes in pediatric traumas of this nature.

An AVM, as defined by the

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, is a defect of the circulatory system described as “snarled tangles of arteries and veins believed to form prior to or soon after birth.”

Haley’s plan

“I would like to do a “pass the boot” fundraiser for Kassidy after my moto with everyone in my race class helping out,” Haley said recently. “I’ll bring extra boots. And, I’d like this race to have the first all-women’s moto class in this series. I need four more women to sign up with me to have that.”

The Diamond Bar-Murrieta connection

“My brother, sister, mom and step-dad all live in Temecula and I’m a member of a sober Christian-based motorcycle club, the Last Disciples,” said Haley’s dad, Dave Rogers. “Kassidy’s father, Kevin Brewer, is a very active and honored member of our club and the community.

“[The Last Disciples] come from a variety of backgrounds and have experienced the hard realities of life and death in the real world. We no longer live just for ourselves. We are now with Jesus.

“Our club is our ministry, a way of life, serving the Lord through loving and serving our communities and those in need of help.

“The Brewers are such an awesome family. As a matter of fact, the entire family is well known for being called the Brew Crew. They’ve helped Haley many times with MX gear and safety equipment, since they co-own two Vespa dealerships in San Diego County, and their oldest daughter, Danielle Brewer, runs one of them.”

For more information on the Last Disciples, visit www.lastdisciples.org.

The Brew Crew

“Kassidy is quite a little girl,” Kevin Brewer shared with me during a telephone interview. “She has her black belt in Tae Kwon Do and she works and teaches martial arts at Robles Studio in Temecula. She even does light bookkeeping at 13 years of age. That’s quite impressive, if I do say so myself.”

Brewer then became apologetic. “You’ll have to forgive me if I seem to be choking up, ’cause I am. Kassidy was getting ready to try out for her second-degree black belt. She is very, very virtuous and mature for her age. She has always worked well with me on being disciplined.”

The Brewers run a commercial printing business based in the San Gabriel Valley.

“Some of our customers are Pechanga Hotel & Casino, the X Games, and we’re a title sponsor of the Temecula Balloon and Wine Festival,” said Brewer. “The round trip between my daughter and work is well over 200 miles. It’s very hard to sit that long between work and being at her side.

“My eldest daughter, Danielle, worked for the Metal Mulisha for a period of three years and we still regularly attend church with some of the guys at Revival Christian Fellowship in Menifee. Our family are huge fans of supercross and freestyle. We still get out and ride.”

Middle daughter Lexi Brewer, 17, is starting school a week late so she can be near her sister.

The motorcycle roots run deep

“I used to manage large events for California Speedway,” Brewer said. “If you need any help with events like the Lake Elsinore Grand Prix, I know all the tricks of the trade. No problem; I’ll help. I’ve raced that race.

“I used to race motocross. As a matter of fact, I won my division at Mammoth in 1990. I think it’s wonderful that Haley wants to help Kassidy at her race series. She gets it.”

Haley’s moto heart

“The heroes who influence my motos and active lifestyle are Ricky Carmichael and Ashley Fiolek,” Haley said. “I read Ashley’s monthly column all the time in Transworld magazine. I like to follow her profile and model.

“It would be so cool if the local race women could come out Sunday and help me with this fundraiser and race with me. That would be awesome for sure.”

Commenting on his daughter, Dave Rogers finished, “Haley is our youngest daughter of four. Riding dirt bikes really stuck with her. She says to me all the time, ‘Dad, I want to go riding – now.’

It’s a lot of work hauling her around to all the MX parks in the Inland Empire. I say to her, ‘Now?’ But when she sticks her lower lip out and begs, I give in. I’m a man. What am I supposed to do? Lovingly, she’s our little family brat. I used to race at Ascot, so I get it too.”

To visit Kassidy Brewer’s family outreach site, visit www.caringbridge.org/visit/kassidybrewer.



I recommend this for you who wish to know how it feels.

What have I been up to? Mostly working on the few web sites I have... so really I can say "Not much."

Whatta say... we youtube you all.... YES?

Mental As Anything - Rock 'n' Roll Music


Funny! Are You Ready For Freddy music video by the Fat Boys.

Thats enough... okay.

Friday, August 15, 2008

A little AVM news!

I got this..
Hope you enjoy...


By Renee Worthing

Staff Writer

When the community learned about Sanford resident Ricky Arsenault’s struggle with a painful birthmark, called an arterio-venous malformation (AVM) and his desire to have surgery to remove it, they rallied behind him, raising about $40,000 with a pancake breakfast, a dance and a raffle.

The first surgery to remove the AVM is scheduled for Aug. 28 and includes an angiogram and emobilization, a process in which blockages are placed in the arteries to restrict and redirect the flow of blood to the site.

Arsenault hopes it will relieve him of the pain that has been part of his life for so long, but he said his energy level is low and he wonders how quickly he will heal following the surgery. He said the birthmark is bleeding “a lot,” leaving him “feeling like a zombie.”

He said he wants to prepare for the upcoming surgery by readying his body with a bowel cleansing followed by a nourishing product called MaxGXL.

“I would like some honest input from the group. I have been pondering what I can do to prepare for my upcoming surgeries that will start later this month. In the past year, I have lost over 30 pounds. My thoughts are that I will recover more quickly if my physical body is in better shape. I would like to do some cleansing and nourishing, but due to the slow economic conditions, my construction company has not been very profitable. How do you all feel about my using some of the AVM fund for this purpose? Please let me know ASAP if you have an opinion,” he asked in an email to the group, dated Aug. 1

Arsenault is self-employed and must carry his own health insurance for $600 a month in addition to a yearly $5,000 deductible, but because his insurance does not cover the bowel cleansing or supplement, he hopes to use some of the funds raised on his behalf, but said he does not want to misuse the money.

“I just think if my energy level was up, I’d recover quicker,” Arsenault said.

Arsenault said he has always been interested in nutrition, particularly when he was younger.

“Food at the supermarket these days just doesn’t provide the nutrients you need,” he said. “Supplementation is almost a necessity.”

He said in order to supplement his diet with a nutritional product, he would like to cleanse his bowels first to allow the nutrients to absorb into his system.

“The whole idea is to cleanse and then nourish,” he said.

He said the nutritional supplement would probably cost about $30 a month, but he said he hasn’t delved that far into the program yet.

He said he used bowel-cleansing products for the first time about 12 years ago at a cost of about $100 total.

At the beginning of August, Arsenault sent a letter to the small group of people who organized the fund raising events, seeking permission to use some of the surgery money for the supplement.

Debbie Beal, a representative of TDBanknorth in Sanford where an account was set up for Arsenault, said there are no restrictions on how the funds could be used.

As of press time, Arsenault has not received any response.

---
Thought you mite enjoy this.

Damn...

So other that nothing I ain't doing a thing. I really want a nap... Lets do a little youtube... yes.



1960's music...and How It Impacted Society
Nice... eh?
one more...


Major Tom (Coming Home)

gotta go...
Have a great one....



Thursday, August 14, 2008

Oh boy...

No AVM news today.
I have a bugg, in my computer... I hope I can get it out.

My wife and I are kinda fighting...The funny thing is I don't know why. Oh well...

I want to pass this on to you...

I think it is cool.

Good bye...

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

hey guys...

How you doing...
me?

actually today i feel pretty good.
can spell worth a banana... but hey what da ya want.

feel like a little youtube...

I Do.

I was only 19...


Naked Eyes - "Promises Promises"

and...

Madonna - Physical Attraction

I just love the 80's...
can't tell... can ya.

I have been suffering the ol' Duke Lacrosse vibe. I may start putting some up... but it will not be in blog.
I'll let you know.
You tell me if you want it.

by the way... good bye.

AVM post....

Thank you for taking the time to stop by Andrea's PrayerSpot. We hope you are blessed and encouraged!
____________

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for your constant and specific prayers. We have some more information after the angiogram yesterday at UCLA. First, the angiogram went well with no complications and Andrea's stay in pre and post operative was really great (thanks to Lee McAllister :))!!.

We are blessed that the AVM is still relatively shallow and "most" of the vessels terminate within the AVM. Dr. Gonzalez reported that he feels the vessels are strong and don't pose a high risk for a bleed. We are also blessed that Andrea has some treatment options before her.

So far, it doesn't look like Andrea will be a candidate to have the AVM surgically removed. There is one artery that carries blood to the portion of Andrea's brain that controls her vision. Dr. Gonzalez has preliminarily suggested that we do not operate but rather do a combination of interventions through embolization and radiation.

Embolization is the process by which the doctors put a type of "sticky glue" into some/most of the vessels within the AVM. They do this through a catheter and not open brain surgery. The radiation is also a specialized treatment, but the results and knowledge if the radiation worked will take approximately 2 years.

We will be meeting with Dr. Gonzalez again this week as well also another vascular neurosurgeon, Dr. Martin (chief of neurosurgery at UCLA), for a consult and 2nd opinion before we proceed with any interventions.

In the meantime, we appreciate your prayers for the following:

1. That we can feel confident and peace in whatever treatment option we decide.

2. Both procedures (embolization and radiation) bring about an element of risk. Please pray now that these procedures will not contribute to any damage in Andrea's mind or body.

3. This is good news for us- but also hard news to have to live with the idea that the malformation might be forever with Andrea, instead of removing it offering a complete cure. Please pray that we as a family, especially Andrea, can give God complete control and find His gift of perfect peace that passes all understanding.

We will keep you posted as intervention procedures are scheduled. Thank you so much for your your phone calls, emails, meals, all of your offerings for help and especially your prayers....

With Love,
Andrea and Jason

Proverbs 3:5-6

P.S. If you would like to contact us, please email jason at jason.petsche@cigna.com or andrea at andreapetsche@gmail.com or andrea@belairpres.org


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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

How to Create a Successful Web Site- I found this... I hope I can get what I need...


Here it is...

How to Create a Successful Web Site
For Nothing (or Almost Nothing)

By VAUHINI VARA

Have you got eight hours and $10? Then you can build a Web site for your business.

Thanks to competition among Web-hosting providers, and the falling costs of Web storage, it's never been easier to get a Web site up and running -- from buying the domain name to building a site to setting up a payment system to tracking traffic.

But many small businesses still seem intimidated by the job. In a survey published last year, JupiterResearch LLC found that just 36% of online small businesses -- that is, businesses with fewer than 100 employees, where managers access the Web at least once a month -- have Web sites.

So, here's a guide for owners looking to make the leap online. We'll lay out all the steps you need to take to build your site, and present some expert opinion about getting it noticed and keeping track of customers -- all with no technical background required.

1. BUY A WEB ADDRESS

First, you have to buy a domain name -- e.g., YourCompany.com -- for about $10 a year. As an example, we'll show how to buy a domain using the registrar Go Daddy Group Inc., but you can shop around at others, such as Tucows Inc. and Register.com Inc.

Type the domain name you want in the search box at GoDaddy.com. If it's taken, try another. When you've settled on one, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Proceed to Checkout." Ignore the offers for additional products and services, continue to the checkout page, enter your payment information and hit "Checkout Now."

You're now the owner of a Web address.

2. FIND A HOME

For years, companies have charged small businesses a fee to "host" sites -- store the sites' content on their computers. According to a recent survey from Jupiter, about a third of small-business executives say they pay up to $1,000 a year for Web hosting, and about another third pay more than $1,000.


Fortunately, in the past year, a number of companies have begun providing hosting services free of charge. They often make money by charging for premium services or running ads on your Web pages.

All you need to do is visit the Web site for one of these hosting services -- such as Microsoft Corp.'s Office Live Small Business, Weebly Inc. or SynthaSite Inc. -- and enter a user name, a password and some other details. Then visit your domain-name registrar and tweak your settings so that your Web address points to the service you've chosen. The hosting service will give you instructions on how to do this.

3. BUILD YOUR SITE

Once you've got a host, you'll want to design your site. The good news: Most of the free hosting services provide tools that let you build a site quickly, without lots of technical know-how.

Among the things you'll need: a welcoming home page; an "About" page that describes you and your business; and a "Contact" page that tells people where you're located and how to reach you. The rest depends on your business. If you own a restaurant, you might include a "Menu" page. If you're selling a product, you might include a "Store" page where people can buy your wares.

Adding those things can be simple. In Weebly, for instance, click on the "Pages" tab, then choose "New Page." In Office Live, click "Web pages" in the top left-hand corner of the editor and choose "New page." In SynthaSite, click "New Page" at the top of the editor.

In each case, doing so calls up a blank page template, like opening a new document in Microsoft Word. Once you've created a page, you usually can add content simply by typing the text you want into the template and dragging and dropping graphics.

There are some downsides to these free hosting services. Each offers several dozen design templates, but you could still end up with a site that looks pretty generic, unless you have Web-design skills or hire someone who does. What's more, most of these services don't offer an easy, one-click way to add flourishes such as shopping carts or more than two columns on a page; that, too, takes some know-how. Mostly, you just arrange pictures, text and other elements, and that's it. And, sometimes, even doing that can be tricky for nontechies.

There's one more free and easy way to improve the design of your site -- using HTML programming code. Fortunately, you don't need to have programming skills to use HTML. All you need to know is that a block of HTML -- essentially, a bunch of gobbledygook words and symbols -- can add extra features to your site. And numerous third-party sites offer handy HTML blocks you can plug into your site, as easily as copying and pasting text in Microsoft Word.

Ali Shapiro, a health counselor in Philadelphia, recently found one such program -- an appointments calendar -- at Scheduly Ltd.'s site. She copied a snippet of HTML from Scheduly and pasted it into the "Contact" page at her own site, PyourNutrition.com. The result: Visitors to Ms. Shapiro's site can see a calendar with her free time slots and sign up for appointments over the Web.

4. GET PAID

Probably the easiest way to let customers pay you online is to let somebody else handle the technical work. One popular option is PayPal, from eBay Inc. The service lets people pay you by clicking a button on your Web site, which takes them to a PayPal page where they can enter payment information. You don't have to do any work to process the transaction.

The basic service is free, but you have to pay a fee each time someone pays you: 30 cents, plus 1.9% to 2.9% of the transaction. This basic service isn't fancy -- if you want to build a full-blown retail site, you'll probably want to buy special e-commerce software -- but to offer a basic payment option on your site, it's enough.

To set up an account, click on the "Business" tab at PayPal.com and follow the instructions. Once you've done this, click on the "Merchant Services" tab. Then, choose "Website Payments Standard," from the left-hand column.

You'll see three orange buttons you can place on your site: "Buy Now," "Add to Cart" and "Donate." If your customers are likely to purchase one item at a time -- say, a yoga lesson or a day-care session -- click on the link under the "Buy Now" button, which will send them directly to a page where they can pay for the item. If your customers might want to browse around your site for different types of items before paying, choose the "Add to Cart" button, which lets buyers fill a shopping cart with several items before checking out. The "Donate" option is mostly for people who aren't selling anything, like bloggers soliciting donations.

You can then follow the instructions to create a button for each item you want to sell. PayPal will give you some HTML that you can paste into your Web site to add the buttons. You should put these buttons on your "Store" page, next to a picture and description of each item.

The service has been a boon for Graydon Blair of Syracuse, Utah, who sells biodiesel supplies at UtahBiodieselSupply.com. When he started his company, MGBJ Enterprises LLC, he looked for software to add a shopping cart to his site. "All of them wanted me to pay them lots of money, and I thought their stupid shopping carts didn't look nice," he says. So, "I built my little Web site, and threw some PayPal buttons on there."

Visitors to his Web site can use a "Click here to purchase" button to add an item to their shopping cart and buy it via PayPal. Payments get sent directly to Mr. Graydon's PayPal account, minus the PayPal fee. He says he now does 100 to 150 PayPal transactions a week. He brought in $750,000 in revenue last year and is on track for more than $1 million this year.

5. GET SPONSORS

It's easy to add advertisements to your Web site to make extra cash. Every time someone clicks on an ad on your page, you get paid a small amount, which varies depending on the particulars of the ad.

One of the most popular services is Google Inc.'s AdSense. Advertisers pay Google to place ads on Web sites throughout the Internet; site owners, meanwhile, can sign up at Google.com/adsense to host those ads on their pages.

You've probably seen the ads, which often appear as blocks of text along the right-hand column of a Web site. Google scans the content of participating sites to decide which ads would work best on the pages. For instance, an ad for used cars might appear on a site with car reviews.

But you need to ask: Will ads actually improve your site? Showing the wrong ads -- or, sometimes, any ads at all -- could turn off potential customers. If you run a funeral parlor, for instance, ads could come across as distasteful. Also, you'll probably need a lot of traffic to make significant money from the ads, since you typically get just a few cents when someone clicks.

For Tim Carter, ads made a lot of sense. Mr. Carter, a former carpenter, wrote a home-improvement column running in papers across the U.S. The only problem: Publishers were paying him a pittance.

In 2004, Mr. Carter figured out how to make serious money from his work -- by tapping into AdSense. He had been posting his work on his own site, AskTheBuilder.com, for nearly a decade. Google scans his site -- which has separate pages for topics like cabinets, fences and mold -- and places appropriate ads on each page, such as pitches for kitchen cabinets and mold removal.

He has since branched out by selling other types of ads. Taken together, his ads bring in close to $2,000 a day, based on daily traffic of about 40,000 visitors. He has also branched out by hawking his own products, like a stain-removal bleach. In total, his site brought in more than $1 million in revenue last year.

"I'll tell people in my columns, 'Look, this is what you need to do.' But they're still going to need the products to do it -- and that's what they see in those ads," Mr. Carter says.

6. GET KNOWN

So, you've got your site up and running. Next, you'll want to be sure people can find it.

We asked two experts, Bruce Clay of Bruce Clay Inc. and Alan Rabinowitz of SEO Image Inc., to reveal some tricks about search-engine optimization -- moving your site to the top of search-engine results.

Start with your site itself. You should use language on the site that is associated with the business. Let's say you're a florist. Most likely, you'll show up prominently in search results if people search for the exact name of your business. But the trick is to show up when people search for complicated terms related to your business, like "wedding flower arrangements." That's because you want to attract people who might not know about your business but are looking for something that you provide.

Mr. Clay offers two shorthand ways to do this. First, ask your employees to send you a couple of words or phrases that describe what your company does and incorporate that language into your site. Second, do a Web search for terms related to your business and look at the language used in the top search results. For instance, a search for "cowboy boots" turns up several Web sites that also use the phrase "Western wear." The fact that those sites turn up so high in search results means that they're doing something right. So, if you sell cowboy boots, you should also refer to Western wear on your site to draw additional traffic.

You should also make sure to include those phrases in your page titles -- the headings that appear in the blue bar at the top of a browser window -- since search engines pay particular attention to these. (How do you change the title bar? In Weebly, click the "Settings" tab and type in the "Site Title" field. In Office Live, click the "Page Editor" tab, then click "Page Properties" and type in the "Page title" field for each page. In SynthaSite, click the "Properties" tab and type in the "Window Title" field.)

If you primarily do business locally, there are other ways to get noticed. Start by trying this exercise: Type "Seattle spas" in Google and pay attention to the results. At the top of the page, you'll see several spa listings, with phone numbers, reviews and Web-site links, next to a map showing each spa's location.

Below that, you'll see traditional search results, but many of the links won't send you to a specific spa's Web site. Instead, they'll send you to a news or review site, like Citysearch or Yelp, that talks about area spas.

So, it's important to get into the listings at the top of the page, next to the map, as well as into the news and review sites. To do that, first register your business with Google's Local Business Center (Google.com/local/add). By entering some details, like your business's address and phone number, you can automatically be listed in Google's local results at the top of the page.

Next, the news and review sites. Say you're a spa owner in Seattle: Click on the Citysearch page that comes up in a search for "Seattle spas" and find contact information for a Citysearch editor who might want to include your spa in the site's list.

Also click on the links for review sites like Yelp, which solicit reviews from businesses' customers and often give businesses a way to list themselves. Don't review your own business on these sites (it's usually against the rules), but you can encourage your customers to post reviews, as long as you don't bribe them with freebies (also usually against the rules).

7. TRACK YOUR TRAFFIC

A bunch of companies offer free tools to help you track who visits your Web site, how they find it and what they do once they're there. This can help you tweak your Web site to attract more potential customers.

The best-known provider of tools is Google; you can find its offerings at Google Webmaster Central (Google.com/webmasters). We'll focus on one of the programs: Google Webmaster Tools (Google.com/webmasters/tools).

To set this up, follow Google's instructions for uploading a file to your Web site so that Google can track it. Once you've done this, look at a few areas on the Google Webmaster page.

In the "Statistics" area, click on "Top search queries." This shows you two things: the search queries for which your Web site turned up, and the queries from which people actually visited your Web site. If a search term appears in the first list but not in the second, it means your Web site is showing up in search results for that term, but people aren't clicking on it.

To improve your site's performance for that term, you should tailor the language in your Web site. Say your Web site shows up in searches for "experienced Seattle therapists," but nobody is clicking on it; that suggests that you might want to describe your level of experience on your site to improve your performance.

You can find another handy feature of Webmaster Tools in the "Links" area. Click on "Pages with external links" to see a list of other sites that include links to your site. This can give an insight into how others view your site. For instance, if you run a bar and see that a local hotel links to it from its own Web site, you can guess that the hotel is recommending your bar to its customers. So, you might offer special discounts to that hotel's visitors.



Monday, August 11, 2008

I don't know...


Today = no money.
I can't think of way to make any.

I mean honestly... nothing.

Well I suppose we can go visit Mallkie... that is alway fun.
Malkie...
He ain't home... thats par for the course...

Ok at least i can steel some stuff from him...ahhh better.

Well I don't have anything more... to say.
other than this... that is.

Stevie Ray Vaughan - So Excited

Total Eclipse Of The Heart by Bonnie Tyler
and lastly...

Pseudo Echo - Listening (1983 version)

and now amazon...

Sunday, August 10, 2008

I have been getting rid of spam...


...in the comment area.
What a bunch of crap!

Oh well... it gives me something to do.
and it proves to me that I can read!!!!

I know that comes as a surprise... but it was something that I have wondered.

Lost a picture... of a dog... can't find the post... so I give it to you.

A lot of avm stories. That makes me sad.

Time to gives you some youtube!

and

That was Depeche Mode - 'People Are People'

and...

Iron Maiden - Aces High

And that is that... have a good night.

amazon?

Wow, a busy day...

Here are three stories...

What now....


Linear Accelerometer was applied to my AVM on Thursday, August 7, 2008 - instead of the Gamma Knife; seems they are equivalent.
The procedure is less intrusive than embolization and, from what I heard from all the pre-op docs, side effects will take longer to appear. Any impact could be seen in 6 to 8 weeks- and could be similar to the ones I had with embolization or worse- as the irritation of the brain could be more intense.
Follow up of the AVM will be done every 6 months using MRI scans- but any final determination regarding the status of the AVM will take about 2 years.
Life goes on - I am now focused on Big Bend in November and my appointment with the ENT doctor on Monday, August 11th to see what is the mass they found on my right sinus cavity.
One day at a time....
-----------

Camps and Kaisers

these last two weeks I was blessed to go up to Verdugo Pines Bible Camp and serve on program staff and as a counselor for Jr. High and High School camps. It was ridiculously awesome. The theme was "Man vs. Wild." The speaker, Keith Kaiser, spoke on the Israelites in the wilderness, and our need to deal with sin in our lives. There were 4 workshops dealing with four sins the Israelites struggled with, mentioned in 1Cor. 10:6-14.

I, myself, was challenged with sin in my life and was able to say along with the Paul and the campers, "But thanks be to God! He give us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1Cor. 15:57b

Monday August 11th (yes, that's 2 days from now), I am going in for brain surgery so here are some ways you can be praying:

1) that there would be no emergency surgeries, or really anything else, that would push my surgery later in the day. My mom needs to get sleep for her first day of teaching her new little kiddos the next day.
2) success. in this case, that would mean that the glueish stuff they are putting in my blood vessels would block the blood flow the way it's supposed to, and last until God gives me a new, incorruptible body.
3) no complications. they are fixing both the unburst aneurysm and the burst AVM. if for some reason the fixing of the aneurysm got messed up, they'd stop and have to fix the AVM later, so it'd be great if it all just worked the way it's supposed to.
4) recovery and beyond:
i'll be in the hospital down in Hollywood for two days (give me a call if you want to come see me!).
i'd really like to make it to the next two weddings I've been invited to this month, both are dear friends of mine.
after the hospital there is a month of recovery and then i should be good to go for Canada, Lord willing. so clarity of the Lord's will and good healing in that time would be sweet.

thanks to all of you who are praying for me! I'll try and blog again as soon as I'm home from the Hospital
------------

Girl battles illness

Lemonade stand proceeds to fight genetic disease

Emma Purdy's lemonade stand on Ponderosa Drive in Clyde Township looked pretty standard. Stocked with additional snacks like brownies and M&Ms, Emma, 7, and her brother, Elliot, 3, waited patiently for customers.
he stand was there from 9 to 11 a.m. to raise money and increase awareness for a disease that affects several members of their family.

The children, like many of their family members, have Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia, or HHT. According to the HHT foundation, the genetic disorder causes easily ruptured connections called arterioveneous malformations, or AVMs, to form between veins and arteries. This can result in symptoms ranging from nosebleeds to strokes.

"I've had nosebleeds pretty much my whole life," said Don Purdy, 36, Emma's father. He also has the condition, which the foundation said affects one in 5,000 people. Because the disease isn't well-known, Don said, they've had to seek out specialists for treatment.

Emma's mother, Diana, 34, said the girl learned how expensive medical care can be after the family took a trip to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota -- one of only eight specialty centers in the country -- to repair an AVM in Don's lung.

"(Emma) wanted to raise money, and I said there's pretty much only one way a seven-year-old can raise money, and that's doing something small like this," Diana said.

Emma, who shied from questions, plans to send the money to the foundation, Diana said, because she wants to help her many family members who have the disease. Emma's grandmother, Linda Purdy, and great-aunt, Nancy White, both 59, have the condition, as do two of Nancy's grandchildren.

White said she once had an AVM in her lung so large doctors told her she was "a sneeze away from death." It required surgery to correct, but since the malformations can form in patients without HHT, she wasn't properly diagnosed right away.

Linda Purdy was the first member of the family to be diagnosed. She said she had been treated for anemia due to a large amount of blood lost through her gastrointestincal tract. Doctors found hundreds of bleeding vessels in her stomach. She was diagnosed shortly after that.

Blood tests confirmed that other members of the family had the disease.

"It feels a little helpless," said Diana Purdy. "There's not a lot I can do for (the kids) except make sure they get everything they need done."

Regular bloodwork, MRIs and CAT scans to look for AVMs are part of the routine, she said.

Diana said she believes the family has done a good job of informing others about HHT.

"My whole entire workplace knows about it now; their families know about it," Diana said.

Also, thanks to "generous neighbors," Diana said, the lemonade stand raised $88.

Emma will likely be selling more lemonade -- and educating customers -- at a neighborhood garage sale August 23.

"I think I really want to raise more money for the HHT," Emma said.

Contact Jesse Dunsmore at (810) 989-6276 or jdunsmore@gannett.com.
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All sad...