Merry Christmas Everyone!

We have so much to be thankful for this holiday season. Mom is doing great........enjoying every minute of being home! Thank you for all your continued prayers! God is so good...........


God has proven himself as a faithful father. Now it falls to us to be trusting children. Let God give you what your family doesn't. Let him fill the void others have left. Rely upon him for your affirmation and encouragement. Look at Paul's words: "you are God's child, and God will give you the blessing he promised, because you are his child" (Gal. 4:7)


Have a wonderful Christmas All......

With Love,
Greg and Mary, Amy and Brian, Adam and Bre, Julie and Evan, Suzanne and Cory, David, and all the grandkids........

Home for the holiday's

Just wanted to let everyone know.........my mom made it home last night. December 19th!

God is amazing.......we are celebrating every minute!

Friday & Saturday

We're in the final days of mom's stay at Northwestern. Yesterday her counts went up and were at levels good enough to go home. They plan on her leaving today or tomorrow! Unfortunately she had a slight fever through the night last night, so they are currently doing another blood test to determine if she can leave today or if they want to keep her there one more night and have her go home tomorrow. Our mom and dad are both at the hospital waiting around for the doctors to make their decision.

Either way, she's really doing great. Her throat has healed for the most part and her voice sounds much better. She's still getting used to taking the medications in pill form (rather than through her picc line) so that's giving her an upset stomach. But all in all she's doing well. We'll let you all know when we get any new info!

Wednesday & Thursday

The days are getting better as we all wait patiently. Mom's throat continues to improve a little everyday. She hasn't had fevers yesterday or today, and her counts are still slowly coming up. We saw a good jump in the numbers yesterday and today they are the same. The doctors told us they will fluctuate some, but they're hopeful she'll be going home within the week.

I enjoyed my day with mom yesterday. She's still sleeping throughout the day off and on because of the medications, but she's much more awake than she was a week ago because they're removing more meds everyday. Yesterday we also took walks and went to a class they had on nutrition for those with stem cell transplants. Mom is supposed to go to 4 classes before she leaves, her last one will be tomorrow.

Sue's there with her today and I just received her text update. She said "Good morning! The team of doctors were just in (like every morning). Mary's numbers are about the same as yesterday but the doctor could hear her voice and throat are better, which is a good indicator. All going well. Doctor is calling Walgreens to prepare for going home meds!"

We're encouraged everyday by mom's strength. We really hope she'll be able to be home for her birthday on Sunday, but we also know the most important thing is that she's healthy first! God's timing is perfect and we'll continue to trust Him for that.

Sue also added: ~Phil 4:6
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

We hope you're all having a blessed holiday season and remembering to love those around you most of all, which God said is loving Him.

Tuesday Update

Hi there, I just arrived here to be with my mom a couple hours ago and she's doing just fine. Her throat is still sore and she's still battling some fevers here and there, but nothing she can't handle! She's really doing great through all this.

Also, I am 9 weeks pregnant and had my first ultrasound today, so I was able to bring pictures to share with my mom...that was fun!

We thank God for all He has done in my mom and all that He is going to do. As always, please continue to pray for her health to improve and for her counts to start going up.

Monday Day 13

Mom is doing fair today. Mouth is still sore...........explains it (like) strep throat. Medicine helps, and she is still trying to eat. Most of the food she is eating is soft and cold.

Dr.'s came in this morning and said that they think her counts are starting to come back up. Her WBC count has been at .4 for days, today she is at .5. Her platelets went from 7 to 34. So things might be going in the right direction. She had a slight fever today 100.4, which means they had to run a few tests to see if any infections are causing these fevers. She had blood drawn and a chest x-ray.......all came back good. Praise God

We attended a class at 1:00 today: Activities and Care Following Discharge. She is required to attend 4 classes before going home. The Dr. that did the class said that her fever today could be from engraftment of the stem cells.............
Spirits are good!

God, please help mom to get home by her birthday.......December 20th!

Friday

Hi everyone, quiet day/night here at the hospital. Mom is still doing fine although she's battling a sore throat and fevers. These are the 2 symptoms they told us she'll have for sure. All in all she's doing much better than we expected and we are thanking God for seeing her through this week.

Her doctor was in this afternoon and agreed that she's doing well. She said we can expect mom to have a few more days feeling like this. Once we get through Monday they expect that she'll start feeling better and her counts will be going up. We won't know when she'll be heading home until they start seeing good numbers.

Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement these past few days! We'll write again soon!

Snow and Christmas Trees!

Hi everyone, it's Bre again. We had another quiet day today filled with lots of sleep. Mary is feeling good. She has slight pain in her mouth and throat, but the meds are working. Keep those prayers coming!

It has been very snowy here in Chicago. Patti (mary's sister-in-law) made it up to be with us. She and I ventured outside for a moment. It was WAY to cold for this girl, but I made it. While we walked back to the hospital, I couldn't help but think how beautiful the snow looked falling all around in giant flakes. Christmas is near. You can feel it in the air. You see the lights, you feel the cold, and see people walking the streets with shopping bags. This year has a different ring for me and I am sure the rest of the Provance family.

As I was packing to come here, I couldn't help but want to bring a little Christmas to Mary. For the past three weeks or so my family has been decorating the outside and inside of our house with lights. Lane is filled with pure joy and excitement at the thought of Santa coming. Graysen just loves all of the lights and Christmas music (any chance to shake her booty). I have also been blessed to be part of Lane's sunday school class for the last few weeks and have been teaching about the birth of Jesus and his birthday celebration, Christmas. However, even with all of that pure innocent joy, it isn't far from my mind that Mary is here fighting for her life. So, I decided last week that I wanted to bring her a special present in my suitcase, a small Christmas tree to brighten her room. I also found a few ornaments, one says Hope and one Grace. I couldn't seem to find "Do Work" or "Overcome". :)

When I came across Grace I honestly wasn't even thinking about God's grace but instead the Grace that Mary has shown during this journey. To be here with her and watch her just fight the fight is amazing. She has taken her assignment from God and has stood tall and done her duty. She is a servant, a beautiful servant. I struggle at times with how God wants me to serve, but sometimes I think that the way that he wants us to serve or is asking us to serve is not always what we have in mind. What happened if we all opened our hearts, closed our minds, and just served no matter what the request?

We are off to sleep... with the glow of our Christmas tree filling the room. XOXO

Day of Prayer

Hi everyone, it's Bre! I am grateful to be back with Mary again. It is a blessing.

Today has been a fairly uneventful day. When Mary woke up this morning, her mouth was swollen and sore due to a side affect of the chemo called mucositis. The team was quick to get pain mediciation in her PICC line, which gave her immediate relief. They also got a pump installed so that she could push the button to initiate any additional meds herself. Due to the meds, she slept most of the day, the swelling has gone down, and no sores as of yet. Praise God! We were even able to take a walk this afternoon and I am hoping to get her to eat a little here this evening. Please pray as we want to stop the side affects in their tracks. Thank you! Until tomorrow...

Still doing good.......

Besides a little boredom, Mom is doing good! No side effects yet. She is on Day 5.........and the goal is to be going home by Day 14-20. Hopefully only a week and a half to two weeks left.....

Continue to pray for no side effects, and for the stem cells to engraft in the bone marrow without mom's body putting up to much of a fight........

Thanks for the prayers...........love ya all!

Prayer Requests!

Everything is still pretty quiet around the hospital for now. My mom is still feeling okay, taking walks, eating her delicious (okay, maybe not) hospital meals, and enjoying her visitors. Jenni, Mary's niece, stayed with her last night and is there now. Jenni text me saying that they had a good night with the exception of beeping machines. She said this morning mom was chatting with the lady in the next room over who's going through the same thing. The lady is a few days ahead of my mom and is having some really rough days now. The nurse told my mom it'll feel like she was hit by a semi in the next few days.

Jenni asked me to call all of our prayer warriors! Mom needs God's strength to get through the days ahead and to conquer this thing once and for all! Please be praying for my mom over the next week! We'll keep you updated on specific needs as the days go on.

Stem Cell Transplant

Good evening everyone!

The transplant was a success! They started everything at 4 o'clock today and finished a little before 5. Her official "time of birth" (when the stem cells started going into her blood stream) was 4:18. The medicine made mom pretty sleepy, so she rested for a while after it was done. I just called and talked with her and she sounds like she's doing well. She feels the same as she did before the transplant, just has some nausea, but fine otherwise. She said she just ate a sandwich for dinner and is talking with her visitors. David (Mary's son) stayed the night last night and was there all day today through the transplant. Our dad was also there for everything along with Sue (Mary's sister), Joe (Mary's brother/the donor), and Eddie (Mary's brother).

Mom said the phones have been ringing all evening. This is obviously a huge day for mom and all of us who love her! We've come so far since the beginning of this journey!

I'd love to say we're all done, but we still have the recovery to go. Mom will probably be in the hospital for a couple more weeks. The nurse told her today that the next 5 days should be pretty normal for her, then the 5 days after that will get a bit harder. This is when she'll feel the affects of everything that's going on inside of her.

We're in the home stretch! Please continue your encouraging words and prayers. We love you all!