YouTube of Tom's funeral

Several have asked for a copy of Tom's service. Thanks to my nephew Beau - I have one. Tom was the "techy" person in our family - this kind of stuff is not intuitive to me. So - Cindi ( our daughter) is going to post the link to the service in a comment / response to this post!

If you are able to watch the service - I hope you will feel a sense of celebrating Tom's arrival in his heavenly home.

I am still somewhat in a state of shock with all that as occurred, but my children, church, family , and friends have been so supportive. I will be fine and someday will claim victory over this hurt in my heart. God is faithful to his children!

Debbie

Funeral Arrangements

Visitation will be Thursday Jan 17 fro 4- 8 pm at Westside Church of the Nazarene, Indianapolis In
Funeral - Friday, Jan 18 at 10:30 - Westside church of the Nazarene

memorials made be made to Westside Church of the Nazarene Children's and Youth ministry

Tom loved his church and was very active on several ministries at the church.

Tuesday, January 14

As many of you may know by now, Tom went to be with Jesus yesterday afternoon at 4 pm. His short battle with cancer was fought hard. Many many people were praying for a miracle and that Tom's life would be spared. Although we did not get the miracle we expected ; I believe God did give us miracle, it was the miracle of Tom's life. Although not a perfect man , he was one the best men I have ever k own.

He loved all of you - his friends, family , and coworkers. His desire today would be that you celebrate with him his home going to be with Jesus who he loved so very much.

James, Cindi, Brad,Tonya and II can not express enough our thanks to all of you for your love and support during these past 8 weeks. Although there are some tough days ahead we we will be fine because we have each other, we have you , and we have the strength and grace from The Lord.

Sunday , January 13

Today has been another challenging day for everybody, but things appear relatively stable right now. His white blood cell count is very high, but doctors have not been able to pinpoint the cause yet. How serious this is depends on the cause and we hope to either see improvement in that area or pinpoint the cause soon. His dialysis seems to be doing its job and other vitals are pretty steady. Another critical 24-48 hours lie ahead of us, there appears to be at least a couple of small encouraging signs emerging to counter the more discouraging signs. Thanks again to everybody for your continued support, it means a lot to the entire family.

P.S. we just got the latest WBC count and it has come down some. We want to do a happy dance!

Jan 12 PM

It has been a long day for everyone. We couldn't see my dad from about 9:00 this morning till 4:30 this afternoon. That was hard but it forced us to go outside and enjoy a nice walk to lunch in 60 degree weather. Thanks for the little things Jesus. Dialysis finally began around five. They will do labs every six hours to check that. Two major concerns tonight: his white cell counts are REALLY high. Possibly inflammation related not infection. Pray it is not an infection. Also, he really needs to maintain his BP on his own. This is the real biggie right now. Hopefully dialysis will help with that.
We are praising The Lord for a good ultrasound of the heart. Doc said his heart looks great. We continue to be amazed by everyone's support. My mom's college roommate drove almost eight hours round trip to visit my mom today. Tomorrow Drake family will trade off with the Coppenger family. We are so blessed with wonderful family all around. Speaking of family, Grandpa Drake spent his 85th birthday today with us. :)

Prayer request

They are starting dialysis now. We really need for this to work. Next 24 hours are very critical. Please pray for this specific request.

Friday, January 11

Tom has made it through the crucial first 24 hours after surgery and he is holding his own. He lost a lot of blood during surgery and it has been hard for his body to adjust to that loss . He will remain in ICU for the next several days. He remains in critical condition but there are some positive signs. He is no longer bleeding and that is huge.

If you would like specific things to pray for - we have two immediate needs : pray that Tom can maintain his B/P on his own and pray that his left kidney will start to function. Last night we prayed the bleeding would stop and it has!

Toms sisters, James, Cindi , brad, Tonya, and I are rotating time with Tom so someone is always with him. We have had lots of support and is its from friends. One especially surprise visitor was from one of Toms college friends - Randy James and wife.

We are tired but hanging in there!

Debbie