Doctor Barth

Good Morning.

Yes, it is 1:45 AM. I am just getting home from getting my hair done! My sweet girlfriend Kristin is an amazing hair designer and she works at Salon Sauvage. She stayed super late and she worked around my schedule and I am so thankful. I love my hair and I always love spending time with her! Thank you Kristin!! XOXOXO

I want to talk about Dr. Barth for a minute.

As most of you know Dr. Barth has not always been the easiest person for both Gary and I to communicate with. If you think about the relationship and how we met it is most certainly not under the best of circumstances. Both sides kinda stink. Gary has cancer and Dr. Barth only has patients who have cancer day in and day out - every single day. Gary is suffering and our family is struggling with this cancer and Dr. Barth has the challenge of trying to find things that will work to bring Gary out of his suffering. He is also Chief Of Staff at Hoag and manages patients at 2 different offices each day. We both have so much on our plates.

I respect him a great deal. He is absolutely brilliant and God has given him a great gift. But his intelligence and ability to manage his life is not the greatest gift he has given us. Recently, he has given us the gift of open communication and that means the world to us. He manages to find a way to communicate with us so that we can understand where we are at and what we are looking for. The boys think he is the greatest because he takes such good care of their dad.

Dr. Barth has opened up to us and it has made such an impact and difference in our lives. It would be hard to articulate to all of you how incredible it is. I hope and pray the lines stay open and we continue with this great relationship. He makes Gary's cancer easier to cope with each day.

So, I thank Dr. Barth for caring enough about Gary to do everything in his power to try to heal him. When he comes into our room at Hoag smiling and laughing and talking about creepy crawly maggots and the like we just love that! Gary needs some sensitivity and softness and Dr. Barth has given that to him.

I can't imagine dealing with all that he deals with on a day to day basis. Gary is just one of hundreds of patients. I pray for Dr. Barth every night that his load is not too heavy to bear and that if it seems to be that he will give some of it to God so that He can help him during those times. I hope that you can pray for him for that very thing as well.

We all know that ultimately that saving Gary's life is not in Dr. Barth's hands. Gary's fate has already been determined by the Lord and we wait patiently to see how our story will unfold. We hope and pray that God does not need Gary in the heavens but that he has lots more work to do here on earth.

Tomorrow at 9 AM Gary will begin bio debreedment therapy (a nice way of telling you that they are going to fill his wound with maggots)!

I will keep you all updated. BTW - Gary's white count CATAPULTED from 900 to 6000 overnight! He is so incredibly strong and such a warrior!

Have a great Thursday and please remember to pray for Dr. Barth. Pray for all of the people who struggle with cancer day in and day out. They are all so brave and they deserve our respect and they need our prayers!

Love to all,
Lisa