(part-3)

Before i go any further with this long story, I have to tell you how amazing my oldest sister Amara, her husband Buddy, and son Aiden are for making us feel so perfectly welcome the entire 2 1/2 weeks we invaded their home!! We enjoyed their company and endless support so much! And they never complained about us being in the way or making their house messy.  Must have been all of theose home cooked meals the ward was bringing in. ;)

Being so far from their son during a crucial time in Caseys life, Caseys parents began the drive to CA on Christmas day to be with him.  It help them to rest easier to be by his side, and it also helped Angie to be able to spend more time with the kids and even have a few nights of good rest back at the house. We all love them dearly!

After so much heart ache and frustration with the insurance company, and the run around with donation service companies, Angie finally decided to just pay the amount to get Casey back home to his wonderful doctors and awaiting family. Around 11:30pm on Monday December 30th, Casey and Angie were taking from the hospital to the airbase via ambulance. From there they loaded a plane and were taken to Salt Lake City. Once in Utah they were taken by ambulance to the U of U hospital by about 3am. Once a room opened up on the oncology floor they transferred him from U of U to the Hunstman Cancer Institute.  Casey has such a fantastic view the few days he was there and he enjoyed the nice light coming in through the windows.

Caseys parents, Robyn and Steve, traveled back to Utah early Tuesday morning so they could be there with him again asap. Tenley, Max, and I, waited to come back that Thursday so we could following the fabulous Cheney family back to Syracuse.

Once he was at the hospital they began running many series of tests. After about a day and a half the results came in and things were not good. We were all very upset when we leaned that the tiny spot above his brain stem, thought to be radiation in a previous mri in November, was not.  It was a tumor and it, along with the other small tumors on the left side of the brain, we're very aggressive and growing rapidly.  The size they had become in the last month or so was impressive, and very heart breaking. (For those who dont know, the tumor began on the ride side of the brain 2 1/2 years ago and has had 2 operarions removing large peices. Earlier this year the tumor jumped to the left side of the brain and then eventually began scattering on the left side. With this new mri, it showed that the left side tumor had jumped down to the brain stem creating yet another tumor there.) The only possibly was radiation. Even with radiation treatment the chances of it helping now were pretty slim, and the possibility of Caseys fragile body holding up was pretty non existent. Besides, Casey had decided to not do any more radiation.  Knowing all of this Angie was left with 2 options.  Keep him comfortable at the hospital, or keep him comfortable at home on hospice. As you all know, she chose the later and it has been such a good decision!!!