Last Chemo! Hoorah!

Today was it. The last chemo treatment, God willing. Six months, and yet it seems a lot longer.

What a good feeling today was. Overall, her treatment went well. She didn't see the doctor today as he was on vacation, but she will see him on the first...which will officially end the cycle. Tomorrow she gets the Neulasta shot for her white blood cells. She also got a red blood cell shot today. She'll have to keep going back every week to make sure her blood cells are at the right levels and will have to keep getting shots until they are. Hopefully that won't take too long.

The nurses we really great today. They congratulated her and gave her a graduation certificate signed with all there names... now that she has graduated from chemotherapy. There were some really special people there. We are so thankful this day has come, and at the same time, thought it never would.

Now we all wonder...How long will it take for her hair to grow back and is to going to be curly or straight??? Thick or thin... Right now its black and baby soft.

Psalm 100 - Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God...For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

11 down - 1 to go!

Melanie has finished 11 chemo treatments and 10.5 cycles - each cycle is 2 weeks - so that means...come Wednesday (3/18) she will have her LAST chemo treatment and will start the LAST cycle. Aaaaahhhhh! Huge sigh of relief! The chemo is making her sicker now, so the treatments are actually getting worse, but only 1 more left. I know she can do it! She has done really well and we are all so proud of her.

Now she can look forward to:
- her hair growing back - it actually already has started to - but she wont let us take pictures!
- strength to perform everyday activities and play with the kids.
- no more being tired ALL the time...but then again with 3 kids, maybe this isn't true. :-)
- no more wondering if her port is going to work or not - we've prayed several times in the last last that it keeps on working!
- no more pain from the Neulasta (white blood) shots - this one is the best of ALL!

Romans 8:28 - And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Your prayers and strength have helped her (and us) through these past 5 and half months. Thank you!

Philippians 1:3 - I thank my God every time I remember you.

And Then There Were Two

That's right! Only 2 treatments are left. We waited over an hour to see the doctor, but somehow you don't mind waiting to see the oncologist. He is so pleased with Melanie's progress. He asks about her husband and kids and especially Tyler. This time next month will be the last chemo treatment, but the cycle won't end for another 2 weeks. She will still have blood work and the Neulasta shot to get.

Melanie and I were talking at her chemo treatment yesterday about how with some things time goes by REALLY SLOW and with other things, it goes by REALLY fast. For instance, she has being doing cancer treatments now since October 1oth - that's 4 and a half months. Tyler was born September 29th - he's almost 5 months. And Yet, chemo treatments SEEM like they have been around for SO much longer than Tyler! We are anxiously anticipating the end of the treatments next month. By April 1, we think she will be done with oncology appointments for at least 3 months. Tyler is growing, eating baby food, and sleeping through most nights. He's such a joy and his smile lights up the whole room! Looking back, Tyler is certainly one of the best things that came out of this chaos. It's been speculated that Melanie being pregnant when she was diagnosed, helped with making an early diagnoses. The early diagnoses led to early remission, which leads to a higher success rate of NO recurrence.

When this all started, I thought how am I supposed to handle this? Well, I wasn't supposed to handle it - God was, and after much struggling, I let go. He brought us through this dark hour and has not only healed Melanie, but has healed our spirits. We won't always understand the WHY, but when we put our trust in God - he comes though like a night in shinning armor - saving the day! We know we are LOVED.

1 John 9-11 - This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Not only have we felt God's love, but we have also felt yours. Words can not accurately express our sincere thanks in all that was done for us (meals, prayers, babysitting and more), but Thank You! And know that you are loved too!

Just 3 more to go!

I went with Melanie to her chemo on Wednesday. We got off to a late start; Tyler was sleeping in the back seat and we forgot to drop him off, so we had to go back.

She had her labs; they showed a low white blood cell count, so she will have to have a shot tomorrow. Her pre-meds started at 9:30, then the first chemo medicine. She got the red devil booster after the first bag, around 11. There was a problem with the 3^rd bag. It leaked chemo meds all over the monitor and floor when the nurse tried to hook it up, so she had to get a new IV pole, regulator, and bag of chemo drugs. Got that last bag going, finally, about 12:30. I managed to stay out of the way of all that; chemo drugs will burn the skin if it gets on it.

Mel had befriended one of the patients there; she was getting her chemo next to us. She and Mel were having a nice chat, a real nice lady. After she left, Mel told me that this lady has terminal colon cancer. She’s opted to continue the chemo treatments anyway; very sad. Like before, I brought along my sketchbook to sketch out some ideas for a small project I want to do. Like before, I was unable to focus enough to do anything at all. Wearing an immobilizer on my right arm and shoulder doesn’t help either, but it wasn’t that.

The chemo finished about 2:30, seemed to go much faster than the last time I went in spite of the late start. Melanie has just 3 more to go. She would like nothing better than to not have to do even one of them, but Dr. K is adamant about having them. Each chemo adds another safeguard to remission, and Melanie is aware of that. But like before, the chemo combined with the white cell shot has made her sick and hurting the rest of the week. We always say a prayer that each treatment won’t have these bad side effects that she’s been suffering with.

We continue to be thankful that she is in remission, that in spite of the pain and sickness, a happy ending is in sight. It has been a long, rough road; there are still a few bumps ahead, but we take comfort knowing that everything will be good soon.

REMISSION

Melanie had her 7th chemo treatment yesterday. As always, she sees the doctor first, then goes to the chemo room. We were anxiously waiting for the doctor to give us the results of her PET scan. He comes in and sits down and starts talking about how nice it was to meet Aaron, how was the holidays, how's everything going, etc. Melanie tells him about her itchy palms and feet...a side effect to one of the chemo drugs....she can try an antihistamine. She tells him about how it feels like she can't take a deep breath...another side effect to one of the chemo drugs...he wants her to do a pulmonary test to see if there is a decrease in her lung capacity. He also said its time to get another ECHO done...one of the chemo drugs can cause heart problems. Then he tells her to sit on the table so he can examine her. I finally ask "do you have the results of Melanie's PET scan?" He said, he didn't know, they usually put that in the folder, and he didn't see it... so he'd have to go check. He checked the chart one more time, and found the report...

Finally after waiting the whole doctor's visit...we hear the news our hearts have been waiting to hear (already believing it to be so)...Melanie's in remission. He said this was very good news. The earlier you go into remission, the greater the chance of the cancer NOT reoccurring. What joy! She still has to finish her chemo treatments, but she only has to have a total of 12 treatments instead of 16...so she has 5 left.

The actual chemo treatment went well, we were out in about 3 hours, which I think is a record. It was also very crowed in there...I finally saw another young person getting chemo. Usually the patients are 30-40 years older than Melanie. It's really sad to see a room that holds about 50 "recliners" filled with cancer patients, with their loved one sitting next to them.

I am very thankful that Melanie is in remission...although I was beginning to think it was bad news when the doctor started talking about everything else but her results.

Our God is an AWESOME God!

Update: Jennifer is finally home after spending about 2 1/2 months in the hospital. She has a lot of rehab to do, but everything has pretty much healed....she just has to get it back in working order.

Prayer needed: As most of you know, almost 2 weeks ago, Jim fell while jogging and fractured his right shoulder in 2 places, which also tore his rotator cuff and another muscle. He had to have surgery. He's in pain, can't go to work, can't drive, hates being in the house all day, and has to be in an sling that pretty much keeps his arm in one place. He starts physical therapy in about 2 weeks, while it will be a good thing, it will also be a painful. To answer the number one question on how it happened... No, he did not have a seizure. He has not had any signs of symptoms of a seizure since before the (brain) surgery...and may begin the process of reducing those meds as soon as next week.