Happy Birthday to Mary

It's Mom's birthday today!  What great news she received yesterday to set her up for a great birthday and a wonderful Christmas.  Mom has to stay in the hospital until her counts go up more, but Adam, Amy, and their families will be visiting her today.  My Dad and Sue will also be there with her, and I'm trading my daughter for one of Amy's daughters, and I'm staying back with a couple runny noses.  I haven't heard for sure but I bet Julie and Evan will be joining the party too.

Mom's counts didn't change today, so we're still unsure of when she'll be able to head home.  Adam told her that after she sees everyone today her numbers are going to shoot straight up! :)

Mom's main doctor, Jessica, called last night to talk more about the biopsy.  She was thrilled when she looked at Mom's slides with the head pathologist.  She said her cells look very healthy and that this new (clinical trial) drug/chemo seems to be working wonderfully for Mom.  Jessica has some things in mind for chemo in the near future to try to make the cancer stay away for good.  Mom will be heading back in after the new year to talk with Jessica about a plan.

For now we wait on Mom's counts and thank God for her health.  Hope you're all feeling just as blessed this Christmas season.

Good News

Preliminary results show that there is no cancer!!!!  We are thrilled to hear this!  The team of doctors came in this morning saying that what the slides show so far is good.  They still have to confirm what they see, but the initial results look positive.  They were even talking about Mom coming home this weekend.  Her counts even came up a bit from yesterday.

We believe the doctors wouldn't tell us good news if they weren't confident enough.  They talked about doing more chemo in the near future to make sure the cancer doesn't come back, but we are just thrilled she can come home for Christmas!

Thanks for all your love and support!   Praise God!

Still No News

We still haven't heard from the doctors yet.  We thought it would be by tonight but obviously they're keeping us in suspense til the morning.  Thank you for all your prayers today.  Mom is doing well and has felt a lot of peace in this waiting period.  Her bone marrow biopsy procedure yesterday went as well as it could've gone.  She said it may be the least painful one she's ever had.  I will update the blog tomorrow when we hear more.

Love you all.

Biopsy Tomorrow

Hi...I hope you're all doing well this Sunday night.  Mom is feeling well.  She hasn't had a fever in a couple days.  We are hopeful that her counts are on the rise because her white count went up a couple points today.  Her counts need to go up before she can go home so that she has the ability to fight off germs and other things that could cause sickness.  We're definitely happy to see the numbers begin to move!

Tomorrow around 9 or 10 am they will do a bone marrow biopsy.  This is similar to a blood draw where they evaluate her numbers but it is looking in the place where blood is actually developed.  This gives them the best look to know whether she is in remission or if they still see cancer cells being formed.  We are praying so hard, and ask for prayer from you all, that Mom is cancer FREE!  We should hear from the doctor by Tuesday evening or Wednesday.

It's obviously a more stressful time for Mom and all of us.  These are the days that she feels fine and is feeling ready to get out of here and go home for Christmas, but she has to wait on the results of the test this week.

WE WILL BE DOING ANOTHER FAST DAY ON TUESDAY.  We are so thankful for all our family and friends who joined us last week as we prayed for Mom's health to improve.  This week we ask for prayer that she is in remission and that her counts continue to go up.  She also needs prayer for peace.  I said something about this when she first got in the hospital a few weeks ago, but we are trying to focus on counting our blessings and praise God for all He has done for us, rather than letting the fear of the unknown take over.  We are so blessed.

Much love to you all.

Another Prayer Request

Mom is doing fine today.  She is asking for prayers because her team of doctors came in this morning and said they think there is still a bacteria in her that they have yet to take care of.  Over the last 24 hours, she still has had fevers that they are concerned about, although they're not nearly as high as the beginning of the week.  Mom said that she is feeling fine today and doesn't really notice the fevers, but it's not good on her body to continue to have them.  They are adding another antibiotic and are going to see if that takes away the fevers.  If she still has fevers, then they will do a MRI tomorrow to try to locate the source of infection.

Mom asks for prayers that the fevers disappear and the infections in her body are gone.  Thanks for your prayers.

Update

I just wanted to share that Mom is feeling better today than she has felt in the past 3 days.  Her very high fevers have subsided.  She will still battle some fevers over the next day or so, but thankfully not as high.  They have pinpointed the bacteria and are giving her the antibiotic she needs.  They are going to continue this antibiotic until her counts come back up in the next couple weeks.  Mom is feeling well enough to go on short walks, eat her meals, and talk with her visitors (thanks for staying last night, Patti!).  She's still been sleepy today since they have lots of medicine in her, and probably will continue to feel this way for some time.

Thank you for all your prayers and support throughout the hard days we've just seen.  I've heard from a handful of people about their day of fasting and it seems to have brought us all a bit closer to God as we talk to Him throughout our day.  Mom absolutely feels God's presence and love and it is carrying her through.  Please continue to pray for Mom, as she still needs strength for now and a healing from the cancer forever.  We praise God for His blessings.

Julie also just shared a post today, so please read below...

A friend of mine shared this with me this morning and I wanted to share it with everyone reading this blog :) It's called "Take Heart" by Hillsong United..

All our troubles
And all our tears
God our Hope
He has overcome

All our failures
And all our fear
God our love 
He has overcome
All our heartache
And all our pain
God our Healer
He has overcome

All our burdens
And all our shame
God our Freedom
He has overcome

All our troubles
And all our tears
God our Hope
He has OVERCOME

God our justice
God our grace
God our freedom
He has OVERCOME

God our refuge
God our strength
God is with us
He has OVERCOME