He is our strength

Psalm 28:7

"The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him." (ESV)

It's Working!

We had an appointment with the oncologist today. My liver enzymes are down considerably, which means that the chemo is working and my liver is functioning much better than it was a week ago. My complete pathology report isn't back yet, so we'll meet with him again next Friday to discuss those details. I had the second round of chemo, and tonight I'm feeling really well, but tired. Your cards, phone calls, comments here and prayers are such an encouragement to all of us. Thank you...

We are humbled and blessed!

We are amazed at the amount of support that all of you are giving to us! And we are thankful for the prayers with which you are petitioning our Heavenly Father. We are humbled by your display of support. We are thanking God for the way he provides and for his faithfulness to us.

This is the view we get to see each time we are in the kitchen, and we are reminded of our wonderful friends and family!

We are off to an appointment with the oncologist and Donna's 2nd chemo treatment in a few minutes. We will update you when we get back...

In Christ,

Visit to the Lung Specialist

We were sent to see a lung specialist because of some things that showed up on my CT-scan and because of the cough I've had for a month now. She feels that the cough is likely caused by allergies or sinus drainage, so she gave me a nasal spray that should help. She also looked at the CT-scan with a radiologist and believes that the areas of concern are inflammatory, most likely pneumonia, so she's prescribing an antibiotic. There is one very small spot in my left lung that could be a nodule (cancer), but may also be inflammation from the pneumonia. So, since I'm already getting the chemo to kill the cancer, she will likely wait to see if there's any change in that spot on the next CT-scan near the end of October. We are thankful that these issues appear to be minor and treatable, and I'm looking forward to getting rid of the cough.

Once upon a time... My Story

Psalm 139:13-16

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.

In July of 2000, I was in the shower and found a very small lump near my armpit. I wasn’t really alarmed because I had just stopped nursing our younger daughter, but decided to point it out to my doctor. On August 21, a week before I turned 34, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. We had found it early, and it appeared that it had not spread. That fall I had a mastectomy and reconstruction, along with 4 rounds of chemotherapy. Our family and friends provided incredible support, along with a million meals and countless days of childcare for our two toddlers. Although it was a frightening and difficult time, God used it to clarify my view of life, myself, and my purpose. As I learned to be grateful for every single day, He showed me that my ministry is to my family, and that it is for His glory. If given a choice, I wouldn’t change a thing about that time!

In June of 2005, as I was looking forward to celebrating my fifth anniversary of being cancer-free, we found out that my cancer had recurred. Once again, it appeared that it hadn’t spread to any lymph nodes. In the year following, I had seven surgeries, twelve rounds of chemotherapy and thirty seven radiation treatments. Whew! Once again, we were carried through the fire with the help of our family, church family and friends, and we were grateful when it was over.

This summer, 2008, I visited my oncologists in June and August, and my exams and blood work appeared normal. Then, on September 8, I visited the doctor to follow up on a cough that had been bothering me for two weeks. The doctor assured me that it was probably just allergies, but I insisted upon a chest x-ray because I knew that something just wasn’t right. The x-ray was normal, but my doctor could see that I was still very concerned. When he heard that I was scheduled for a CT-scan in two weeks, he volunteered to have it rescheduled for the next day. Within moments of leaving the radiologist, Scott called and told me that my scan wasn’t normal and we needed to meet with the doctor right away. The following Monday my liver was biopsied, and I had a bone scan on Tuesday. The next day, Wednesday, September 17, I was diagnosed with breast cancer metastases to my liver and bones. I started chemotherapy, a drug called Abraxane, the following day.

You are invited to join us on this journey because we covet your prayers more than we can say. That is our greatest need! Many of you have offered to help us in many other ways, and we will gratefully accept your offer as we discover those needs. The joy of the Lord is our strength, and my life, however long or short, will be for His glory!

She's doing fine!

Donna had her PowerPort put in today.



All went well. The prep and the recovery each took longer than the actual procedure itself. She's at home now and doing fine.

Thank you for all your prayers. We see the Pulmonary Specialist tomorrow. Please pray for that too.

Prayer Requests

Here is how you can specifically pray for Donna.

• The chemo to work quickly (The cancer worked quickly, so this is a biggie!)
• My surgery on Tuesday to get the port put in (outpatient with sedation)
  
• Our appointment with the lung specialist on Wednesday, that we would get some answers and no more bad news
• That on Friday my pathology report would say that I'm now "Her2neu positive" and can get a drug called Herceptin. This one is complicated, but would give us another great treatment option.
• That I can get a full dose of chemo on Friday... this depends on how much my liver can handle
  
• The pain to ease up for better sleep at night
  

Tomorrow... the PowerPort

Tomorrow, Donna gets her PowerPort put in. This is what will be accessed and used during the remaining chemo treatments.

Here is another site that shows how it is used.

Here is what Wikipedia says about the port.

How this Journal should work

The Purpose
We want to provide the most accurate information about Donna and her progress through her treatment. We know the facts can get turned around when many people are in the information chain, so we thought this would be a good way to keep things straight. This way, people can go back and check things, and print things, and read things again.

The Calendar
I've made up a Google calendar for Donna's appointments. It is all the way to the bottom of the page. You'll be able to see all of her past, present, and future appointments when they become available. I'll do my best to keep up with all of them, as there have been quite a few in the past couple of weeks. This will be good for people to look at and pray for us during these appointments, like on her chemo days, and the days after her chemo days (which are the harder ones), and any upcoming appointments we may have. Thanks in advance for your support and prayers!

You can click between a WEEKLY or MONTHLY view. The default is the monthly, but you will get more detail if you click on the AGENDA tab

The Updates
Normally, Donna will post things about her appointments and any test results or new information. She's the best at it, as she is the smarter of the two. Scott does go to most of the appointments to take notes, but seems to miss some things when they talk about the appointments later. She does the best with what she has to work with :).

Scott will add some posts from time to time, and we'll probably get some input from the girls.

We will start updating soon...

We should be updating soon, we know there are many of you waiting to hear news and hear Donna's story.

Scott will try to create a history up to today - a fast track - then Donna will be able to update more regularly.