March 30, 2010

Please forgive me for taking so long to post an update- our lives have been 90 to nothing lately. So, here goes...
Mom's birthday was last Thursday. We had her and Ken over for dinner. It was so fun and Haidyn Rae officially likes birthday cake and icing:) Friday morning I left work to meet mom and Ken at West for her visit with Dr. B. It was Dr. B's birthday too so mom gave her a card and a braclet for lung cancer research and awareness. She put it right on. We love her.
So the chemo is over. Mom calls it her "no month chemo party" these days. The fluid is still gone, the nodules- gone, the two tumors they are monitoring are 38% smaller than diagnosis. Amazing results! God has been so good. She will continue on the clinical trial drug as "maintenance" as they call it. They will increase her dosage slightly since she no longer has the chemo and she will only go for treatments every other week. The Erbitux will continue to starve the cancer cells thus shrinking them, at a much slower pace, but most importantly prohibit them from recruiting healthy cells to becoming cancer cells.
We asked about the disease in the rib bone. She said all she can tell us for sure is that it is not progressing. Bone disease is like any other bone injury. Like my broken ribs will always appear broken but I am healed. Mom said some days they feel numb and others they feel itchy. Either way Dr. B is confident they are not worse but is unable to give any diagnosis of real healing. At this time, future chemo is off the table. No conversation for radiation or surgery either.
Mom wanted to know what she can do to regain her energy. The answer for that was quick and simple- nothing. Only time will help the effects of the chemo, poison, in her body wear off. Then she will begin to regain her energy. Please pray for her patience with herself as she allows God and time to do their healing. Ken and mom are anxious to travel so I know mom's energy will become more and more important as they look to schedule some much needed vacation time.
Mom's friend Kathy from college came and spent a few nights at their house over the weekend. Mom was so excited leading up to the weekend and enjoyed every minute. She said they just sat and talked and laughed for hours. They even when through their lists of boyfriends from college days. Kathy's visit was so theraputic for her. I got the honor of meeting her and spending some time getting to know her, you will never meet a sweeter soul. Thank you Lord for so many sweet friends who have encouraged, prayed for us and loved us through the last 6 months. He has been so good. We are looking forward to clebrating our first Easter with the baby girl. I am sure there will be some silly pictures we can post after the weekend. Unfortunately I don't think Haidyn will be able to fit into her first Easter dress that Aunt Erica got her. Even though it is a 6 month dress and she is officially 7 months old- at less than 13 pounds she is wearing size 3 month dresses. Todd calls his baby girl "travel size"- LOL. What a huge blessing in such a little body!
Thank you so much for your prayers. Please continue to pray for the cancer free miracle- we refuse to give up. With CT scans every 8 weeks we will be able to know exactly mom's progress and give God specific glory for the healing she will be continuing to do on the maintenance program. God is good always!!!