Well, today is the day. Thom goes in for his biopsy today. He told me he is feeling tired, so if everyone could send him a boost of energy to get through today it would be much appreciated. Thank you all. Everyone has been so wonderful as we negotiate this new journey in our lives. I know we are all ready to see that big smile back on his face.

Update on Thom... biopsy went well. We go back on May 19 for results. Thank you everyone for your outpouring of love and energy today and every day. We got this.

April 26, 2021
Just a quick update on Thom Dandridge...the biopsy for the mass on his lymph node has been scheduled for next Monday, May 5. Of course, the result we want is benign. So I am asking everyone who feels called to put that result out there, to please do so. Also, sending a guiding hand to his doctor while he weaves the biopsy needle between Thom’s bowel and main artery would be much appreciated. Overall he is doing okay, having trouble sleeping because of his medications, so sleeps when he can (which means I sleep when he does ...lol). For a man who can normally sleep through explosions and tornadoes, this has been a real challenge. We are staying positive and want to thank everyone for the calls, emails, prayers, good juju, positive healing vibes, and texts. We are blessed beyond description with the friends and family in our lives.

April 21, 2021
An update on Thom: It has been an interesting 10 days here on the Pathdrummer Homestead. Thom has been doing really well and his attitude has been pretty good. As many of you know, his bladder was enlarged and he has been keeping it drained via catheter since last Monday (April 12). Because of this, he has had to curb his instinct to jump and dance around. Of course, the knee being tweaked hasn't helped. So all in all, he has had a pretty good attitude about his inability to do anything except listen to books, watch movies on the travel dvd player and take short walks around the property. Infection is our biggest worry at this point in time and on Sunday night about midnight he was nauseous and had a headache and no fever. Luckily he only threw up a couple of times in a 15 minute period. However the headache stayed and we spent most of Sunday night making sure he was comfortable. Finally, after a couple of Tylenol, he drifted off to sleep about 4:00 AM and was well rested when he woke up. By noon on Monday he was feeling great again, so he played his hand drum and was able to take his wandering walk. At 5:00, he spiked a fever and we headed to the ER to see what was going on because infection is not his friend. During the time we were there waiting for his test results to come back and speaking with the nurse, all hell broke loose in the "room" next to us! 1 man in handcuffs had 3 police officers, 4 EMT's, and I'm not really sure how many nurses trying to calm him down. There was agonizing screams from him when they were trying get his IV in. I heard someone tell him to quit "acting the fool" so they could get him the treatment he needed. At one point he was screaming that his rights were being violated and that they weren't "doing it right". (I assume he was screaming about the IV, could have been anything, I don't really know). I can honestly say, I have never heard such whining and crying in my life as this guy was putting on! Then, we hear one officer say that he has to go NOW because of shots fired. At this point, I looked at Thom and told him if shots started happening in that hospital, I was going to jerk all those tubes out of him, throw him over my shoulder in a fireman's carry and get the hell out of dodge. Jeez! At any rate, they got him calmed down after a while and we found out that Thom has a UTI from the catheter being in for a week and they changed it out for him....what fun for him! :X So he is on antibiotics and resting well and doing fine. This was just a slight bump in the road. Today we had a consultation with the Intervention doctor to set up his biopsy for the mass on his lymph node. Because of the location of the mass, they will have to anesthetize him so that they can move him around as needed to get the needle threaded into the right area. The needle will have to thread between a major artery and his bowel and they will now use the catheter to inflate his bladder to help move the bowel out of the way. We really liked Dr. Montgomery. He looked at us and told us "I'm not a quitter". Well, we aren't quitters either. There has been a lot of laughter and a few tears, and we still believe that all will be well in the long run. Thank you to everyone who has sent emails, messages, texts, and phone calls. We really appreciate it and we love our friends and family.
 
 

We have been overwhelmed at the response from our beautiful Family and Friends concerning Thom's diagnosis. You all have no idea how this helps keep his spirits up (and mine too) and for that, we thank you all. So a short update...he is on a medication to help "unenlarge" his bladder and we are keeping it drained so that the next doc can hopefully see what is going on with the lymph node. That appointment is on April 21, so we will keep him quiet (NOT an easy task...LOL) until then. Then we will see where we go from there. As a side note, on top of all of this, he twisted his knee last Monday and is now hobbling around with a cane. Bless his heart, he has had a rough couple of months. (I told him he looked like Ghandi hobbling around the Pathdrummer Homestead - a little skinny man in a sarong leaning on a cane). Once again, thank you all for wrapping him in love, light, energy, drumming, positivity, reiki and more. He has an awesome team of doctors and we are absolutely certain he's got this!

Thom has had some recent health issues over the last couple of months. Now that we have some answers, I can share what is happening. Thom was diagnosed with prostate cancer in March. Since that time there have been numerous doctor visits and he has undergone CT and bone scans to determine if the cancer was located in any other areas of his body. Today we got the results from those scans we are hoping the cancer is all still contained in the prostate. That being said, he also has what appears to be a diverticula that is attached to a lymph node on his right side near his hip. His bladder is also enlarged so they couldn’t get a good picture that was clear enough to determine what this “something” is, so he has been referred to a Radiation Intervention physician. After that doc determines what needs to be done; biopsied, removed, benign, whatever...then we can work with his team to move forward with his cancer treatment plan. Although serious, we feel that this is not catastrophic and we are positive that all will be well in the long run. Soooooo, if I could ask that some of you send Thom some good positive, healing energy and prayers we would really appreciate it. We know from experience that good things can happen and we know that we have some powerful people in our Tribe and our Family. Thank you all so very much. We love you all.
 

We have traveled in many parts of New Mexico, however Roswell was not one of the areas that we had seen, so this is where we headed. After arriving in Roswell, we headed to a Mexican restaurant we had read about, called Martins Capitol Cafe. It was truly great food. Even though there was a line out the door, we were seated in less than five minutes and served very quickly. If you are ever in this area, you should check this restaurant out.

martinscapitolcafe.com/

After eating lunch, we headed over to the Roswell UFO Museum. We had a great time wandering around the museum, looking at the exhibits, and talking with people who were visiting there. This area is definitely a place for us to return and explore further. There are many different things to see and experience here.

www.roswellufomuseum.com/

On Friday, we traveled from the Pathdrummer Homestead to Lake Jackson, TX where we were able to spend some time with some our favorite members of our family. We relaxed and hung out, chatted about nothing and everything and generally lazed around for 2 whole days. It felt pretty darn good! 

Today we traveled from Lake Jackson to Midland, TX. We went on a road called the Devil's Backbone. It was a gorgeous ride up in the clouds overlooking beautiful valleys on both sides of the road. We pulled into the overlook area and saw this beautiful tree that stood in front of a fence that had crosses hanging all over it. We stopped and took one photo and then went on because there was a family there scattering ashes of a loved one and we didn't want to intrude on them.  After leaving the picnic area, I looked up information on this beautiful road and found this awesome article on the ghosts of the Devil's Backbone.   reportingtexas.com/devils-backbone-ghosts-hunting/  

Continuing on, we realized that we would be passing by Luckenbach, texas. We hadn't been here in a few years so thought we would take a little time to stretch our legs and see if anything had changed. We drove up in the heat of the day and wandered around a bit, through the old post office that is now a store, into the courtyard where there was a gentleman singing and playing a guitar, and listened to the roosters crowing. It was pretty much the same as when we were there on our last visit and the visit before that, however we enjoyed ourselves for a little while and then headed on out toward Midland.

For the rest of the day, we wandered the small towns and back roads of Texas and enjoyed seeing only a car or two every few hours. It was a relaxing ride through the Texas Hill Country. We always enjoy visiting here. :) One of the best parts of the whole day was visiting Reagan County, Texas. It was a little strange to see my last name plastered everywhere.