Round 2... Week 1.. .DONE!

Mom has successfully finished round 2... week 1! Every three weeks she completes a round, so if you are counting weeks and not rounds it would be completion of week 4. Only 14 weeks to go! (or 4 rounds and 2 weeks... confused yet?)

The great thing about completing this week is that they have successfully put all the drugs they will be using on board. We had to wait until the start of Round 2 for them to add the final drug. Very excited to see how this all turns out, how she handles all the medicines being on board.

In other news, her blood levels were good this week, and she is still feeling pretty well. Thursdays are pretty much her rough days, but considering all she is going through, that is amazing!!

We are continually blessed by everyone's prayers, those bringing meals, and in general just helping my family out in any way possible. Words cannot describe how thankful we are. It's hard for me to be up here, and not be helping, but I am at peace by the amount of people who are willing to be there and help my family out. So thank you.

And since I was a slacker on updating this blog in the past two weeks... I will attach some photos of my trip to Houston to see Mom.

(Oh and for those of you wondering... she still has her hair!)

Still Going Strong...

Well Mom has completed round 2 of chemo and is doing well!!

She seems to be handling all the medications well, the biggest trouble being sleep. But even that seems to get much better after the first night.

We are so blessed to see her doing so well. Other than a lot of weight loss, she really seems like her old self again!

I am excited that I will be heading to Houston tomorrow night. Excited to hang out with Mom, Dad, the boys, Emmie, Andy, Grandma, Uncle Chris, Miah, Lindsay and Baby NOAH!

Hopefully having all of her kids under one roof will be great encouragement to her as she moves into round 3 of chemo.

2 down, 16 to go!

Thanks for your prayers.

A Few Days In

Well Mom is a few days into this first round of chemo. She got the dose Monday, and didn't get home until very late Monday night/Tuesday morning.

From now on it looks like she will go in on Sundays to get her blood drawn so she won't have to wait around so long on Mondays for Chemo to start. That will be nice.

She seems to be handling this first dose pretty well. The only side effect she seems to be suffering from is not being able to see at night, and the day after she had some numbness in her limbs. Praise God that it all seems manageable at this point.

She was even able to go to her last CBS (community bible study) meeting of the year today! It is always good to be surrounded by a fellowship of people who love you, and Love the Lord.

The only other news to report is that she got the results of her genetic tests back this week... but no really good way to explain them yet. Her BRCA1 test came back positive... meaning that there is a flaw in the DNA on that gene. The weird part is... it is not one that have ever seen before. (You know us Frances... might as well Go Big or Go Home... is anyone really surprised that we would find a new deformity to this gene?)

We aren't sure exactly what it means yet, other than they have never dealt with it before. For sure it does mean that my siblings will all need to get tested to see if we also carry this gene. From there, well we will have to see what the doctors think.

It is so interesting to see how our bodies work... or don't work. To see that no matter how many doctors you meet, and no matter how many people are the best in their field of work... they still don't know everything. They still don't know everything about the human body, or why it does what it does. These perfect bodies that the Lord made are so riddled with the effects of this sinful world. Only He, God knows our bodies. Thank goodness for our faith in Him, our love for Him, and mostly, His love for us.

Once again I want to thank all of you who have been helping out with my family down in Houston, through meals, visits, prayers, all of it! Your generosity and love for them has been an amazing testament to the power of God's people, to loving people, to selfless people.

Prayers for chemo next week, that we will be able to continue to go through with minimal side effects.

Sorry for the long posts, thanks for your prayers!

Finally Cleared for Chemo

Well Mom finally got cleared for Chemo. She should start it in the next couple of hours. Please keep her in your prayers as she starts this stage of the Journey! We pray she won't feel too sick from it, and that it would not be painful.

I will update everyone when I know more.

Recovering Well, Chemo on Monday

Although none of you will probably believe me at this point, Mom is supposed to start Chemo on Monday. No really, for real, she should start. :)

She is recovering well from her minor surgery. Very sore, but doing well.

We are looking forward to moving this show on the road, getting to the next stage of this treatment.

We continue to prayer for her recovery, for the Chemo and it's effects on her body.

Thanks for all at you are doing for her!

No Chemo Again...

Quick Update:
No Chemo again today. They did a CT scan on Friday as a prerequisite to her starting this new type of chemo. When they did the CT Scan on Friday they found a small issue with her port, so they need to do a minor surgery today to fix that issue. Hopefully it will all be very minor and she will start Chemo next week. She should be in the hospital overnight.

Prayers that this surgery is very minor, easy, and that she will recover well. Prayers that we start chemo next Monday, I know that they are all anxious to get on the schedule.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers for Mom.

New Information and Change of Plans!

Once again I apologize for my delinquency. I am trying to figure out a good schedule to update this, and when I feel like I have enough information to update this.

So last week they were unable to start the chemo because of Mom's white blood cell counts. Later in the week they gave her a call and asked her if she would be interested in doing a trail Chemo therapy that they are just starting to use on Ovarian Cancer patients. (There are going to be a lot of facts I am missing on what this means, but I will do my best). After they talked with the doctors about it, Mom and Dad decided that this new routine, with the new drug is the way they wanted to go with her treatment. What this means is instead of being on two different Chemo drugs, she will be on three. Sadly they will not be using her port for any of these drugs though. The other big change by going this way is that she will get Chemo EVERY Monday for the 18 weeks of treatment. They are not going to do anything with the port, but if they get into this treatment plan and decide it's not working, or they don't like how it is working, then we will revert back to our original plan and do IV and port. For now all her drugs will come through IV.

I don't know too much about each specific drug that she will be one. I know one of the original two is one that kills fast growing cells (i.e. why you lose hair, it's one of the fastest growing cells in our body). I am not exactly sure what the other original drug does. But I know this new study drug is supposed to stop blood flow to the cancer cells. It blocks new vascular blood supply from being created. The thing with cancer is... it needs lots of blood, lots of energy to grow. So if we can stop it from getting blood supply... then it can't grow. The hope with this new drug is that it actually keeps the Cancer in remission, eliminates the ability for it to reproduce more tumors. (I hope that kind of made sense)

To take place in this study they needed to do a few more tests before they start her Chemo, so they again will NOT be starting today (Monday, April 19th) but instead next Monday April 26th.

When we look at these circumstances, it is so interesting to see God's work in play. If Mom had started her Chemo last week, she would have been ineligible for this Study. So... in a way we can be thankful for the tests being off. I am also excited to see how this all plays out, and proud to know that my Mom is advancing the study and treatment of this type of Cancer.

Another great thing is... because she didn't start Chemo last week, and then had to delay the start of the chemo again this week... She was able to fly out and meet her new Grandbaby!! God really does work in mysteriously awesome ways. Miah and Lindsay were admitted to the hospital on Thursday (Tax Day) and they gave birth to a healthy, chubby baby boy on April 16th! (Noah Stephen France, 9lbs, 21 inches). On Friday Dad talked Mom into flying out there to meet him, since this will be the last time she could travel because of Chemo. Although she is still recovering from surgery and is still very tired, she decided to go. What a great thing!! I was so excited for her.




Dad with Noah... still wait for pics of Mom with him.

Anyway, there is your updated. Please let me know if you have any questions, and I will do my best to answer them. Or leave a special note for Grandma Kim! :)

Reminder: Chemo start date: April 26th.