Light the Night

The Light the Night walk sponsored by the Leukemia and Lymphoma society was held on October 11th here in Tyler. We have been working with the society for several months since I was diagnosed. Unfortunately, I was in the hospital the night of the walk, so I was unable to attend, but my team went and had a blast from what I was told. Rob was recruited by Tara (who is over the walk from LLS) and spent a lot of the day helping out and setting up. He absolutely loves doing that stuff so he was in a great mood all day. Before the walk, my parents, and some of my friends, the Feazel's and my friend Beth and her son came to the hospital to see me. It was so good to see them. The hospital gets so boring and they all came in from Shreveport so it was great to see them since I don't get to travel much anymore.

Thank you to each of you who supported our team in some way- either by donating or by walking! We had 31 participants sign up on our team which is great!! We had one of the larger teams out there! We are still raising funds through November so if you meant to donate and didn't, you still have time. Our team is half way to it's goal of $10,000 and I really want to meet that goal. It is a HUGE goal for a first year team, but I know it can be done- if not this year, then next year. If you would like to donate by online donation, please go to the right side of our blog and click on the link for the Lymphoblasters. Then click on one of our names to the right on that page and it will take you to the donation site. If you would like to donate by cash or check, please mail it to us made out to the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. We cannot do this without you!

Here's a few pics from the walk. Hope more of you can join us next year!!

The Lymphoblasters (our team) - the red balloons are for supporters, the white balloon was supposed to be mine for survivors (my mom carried it for me and Rob carried my survivor t-shirt) and the gold balloons are to represent the memory of someone who lost the fight. We got two gold balloons-Emilee and Natalie carried them in memory of Ethan Powell and Sully Farrar.

The kids had a blast! Here is Emilee with her balloon hat!

And Natalie with hers...

I worked on our banner for three days in the hospital. It kept me busy and was a lot of fun! Our team members signed the bottom to make it complete.

Rob and Natalie hanging out before the walk started

They had dinner catered in from Olive Garden. This is my mom and dad enjoying all the great food!

This is my other family- the Feazel clan. They moved in next door to us when I was six years old. Ashley and I (the one in the brown shirt) became best friends and soon sisters by choice. We are all still very close and I consider them an extra set of parents and now I even have two more nephews. Evan is in the stroller and Eli stayed at home since he is only 6 or so weeks old. Thank you to each of you for driving all this way to walk with our team for the society and for me! I love you guys!

This is one of my other friends Beth and her oldest son Lane. We have been friends for about 7 years and I can't imagine going through life without a friend like her. She has been there for me through thick and thin (so have a lot of my other friends!!). I love her bunches and her three sons! Thanks for coming out guys...can't wait until I feel better and we can scrapbook again!

The SCOOP...

Okay, so I know I said I would try and update on a more regular basis, but...well, I'm a procrastinator, so here's the update. While in the hospital, my kidneys started to malfunction. My doctor actually went on vacation so I had another one of the partners treating me. My creatnine level is supposed to be around 0.7 and it was around 3.0. He took me off all my antibiotics and lowered my pain meds to help try and get it back to normal. I was drinking water like it was the last water in the world. I drank around 5 pitchers of water. For those of you who know me, know that this is A LOT for me. I normally will drink around 1- 1 1/2 bottles of water a day. One pitcher is more than that! I also ate two rolls of life savers just to keep my mouth wet. It was quite an interesting few days. I ended up staying in the hospital for 12 days. I missed the Light the Night walk because I was still in the hospital. I was very upset because it is something that Rob and I have worked so hard on and believe so much in. Anyways, back to my kidneys. By the time I left the hospital, my creatnine level had only gone down to 2.3. It was moving so slow. The last round of chemo I had is very hard on the liver and kidneys. Dr. Martins (the partner that treated me) said it would be a difficult decision for Dr. Lee (my doctor) to decide if I should even have my eighth round of chemo because it is the same type of chemo that affects the kidneys. I have now been out of the hospital for almost two weeks and my creatnine level is only down to 1.1. All of my counts are in good range. I am going back into the hospital on Saturday to begin my seventh round of chemo. They are going to decrease it even more and watch my kidneys very closely. Dr. Lee said she is going to have to talk to Dr. Burger down at MD Anderson and figure out about the last round. She doesn't want to do it, but if it is really going to make that much more of a difference in my chance of relapse, then we need to do it. I have put it in God's hands that He will tell Dr. Lee what needs to be done. I don't want to do the last round, seriously, who would? BUT, if it really will help where I won't relapse, then I will go through it. I just want to be done with all of this before all the holidays hit because I want to enjoy something this year. I know there are only two more rounds, and I can see the end of the road, but it still seems so far away. A lot of it has to do with the fact that the time between my rounds is getting longer and longer because it is taking longer for my bone marrow and everything else in my body to rebuild itself. Chemo is absolutely horrible. Oh, and another side effect...my fingernails starting falling out last week...I know...GROSS!! It really is, but it is also the wierdest feeling. I can feel the top of my thumb, because there isn't a nail there. I have also had several days of major headaches. Rob thinks they are all sinus related, but I know that I took pain meds for four days straight and lived in the fog because I was in so much pain. They seem to have left me for now so hopefully it will stay that way.

Okay, well it seems that I have rambled on for quite some time now. Hopefully I gave you all the information. I will try to get better about posting, but I can't promise anything. Thank you all for all your prayers...even still. I still need them just to get through all of the rest of this. Please pray that this next round will not be as bad so I can have a good Thanksgiving with my family. Please pray for wisdom for Dr. Lee and Dr. Burger as they decide about my eighth round. God is so good and I can't wait to see what He has planned for me next!

With God, WE WILL BEAT THIS!!!

Back in the Hospital AGAIN!

Hey everyone! Well, I thought this last round wouldn't knock me out as bad because they decreased it by 20%, but here I am back in the hospital. I was feeling pretty good at home, but starting on Sunday, I was getting weaker and weaker. By Tuesday, I couldn't do anything I was so weak. We went to the doctor and my counts were not low enough for any transfusions, but she said it looked like I was trying to get sick, so she sent me to the hospital and has been pumping antibiotics in me to try and catch this thing- whatever it may be- before it hits me. The nurse today gave me my blood counts and they are dropping pretty rapidly except my white blood count. Yesterday: WBC- 0.1, Hemoglobin- 12, and Platelets- 29. Today: WBC- 0.3, Hemoglobin-5, and Platelets- 16. It looks like I will probably need a transfusion tomorrow.

Prayer requests:

Please pray that God would heal me from whatever is knocking me down so I can go home either Thursday or Friday.

Please pray for Christian Leone. I heard this story second hand so if I don't get it all right, I'm sorry. Christian is in high school and sustained an injury during a football game. He went into the surgical center and when they gave him a shot, it went into a vein instead of muscle. It caused his veins to collapse and him to go blind. Last I heard, he has some of his eyesight back, but it is blurry. Please pray for a quick and complete recovery for him. He is the nephew of some of mine and my brother's friends.

Please pray for a lady named SueSue. I met her today in the hospital. She was diagnosed in August with AML Leukemia. She has a good attitude, but she told me she doesn't have any insurance. I told her about the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's program that can help. Hopefully they will be able to help her. The type of Leukemia she has apparently doesn't have a very good success rate, so please pray for her to recover from this terrible illness and that her medical bills will be within reason or she receives help.

Thank you all for praying for not only me and my family, but also for these other people. I believe in the power of prayer! It has been proven through me already!

With God, WE WILL BEAT THIS!!!

A Hodge-Podge Post

Hey everyone! Again, sorry for the delay in posts. I promise I will try and get better and try to keep you all informed a little closer together. A lot has happened since my last blog so I'm just going to bunch it all into this one.

I started chemo back on Tuesday, September 2nd. After my five days of chemo, my blood pressure spiked and I ended up having to stay in the hospital a few more days. They have no idea what made it spike, but it was 200 something over 100 something. It was really high. They checked it every 30 minutes during the night so needless to say, I didn't get any sleep that night. I went home on Tuesday, September 9th. I was very weak and never felt quite right. On Thursday, the 11th, I went into the doctor and back to the hospital. I had developed an infection in my gastrointestinal system. It was miserable. I spent another seven days in the hospital getting antibiotics. It was extremely scary because the last time I went into the hospital with a fever, I ended up in ICU. I also had mouth sores (another unpleasant side effect of chemo), so I couldn't eat or talk for five of those wonderful days in the hospital. I did get to watch the Hurricane Ike storm from the top floor of the hospital. It was really a sight to see. Because of these lovely hurricanes we have been having, Rob was sent to do disaster relief with his company. He spent one week in the New Orleans area and three in the Houston area. Thanks so much to my mom for staying for the two weeks I was in the hospital taking care of the girls, and thanks to my mother-in-law for helping out last week. I was supposed to start chemo on the 22nd, but I was still too weak and my counts were not high enough so we delayed it a week. Apparently, my bone marrow is tired of rebuilding itself. Not that I blame it at all, I'm tired of this too, but I just keep telling myself only three more to go.

Well, I started this round of chemo on Monday, September 29th and it hasn't been too bad. They put me in a double room but blocked it off so I wouldn't get a roommate. It is a pretty big room for one person so that is nice. My doctor reduced my chemo by 20% so hopefully that will keep me feeling a little better this time. I have had very bad headaches and my blood pressure has gone up, but not as bad as the last round. Rob came home from Houston on Friday night so that was really nice. My parents came in on Wednesday and are helping out with the girls since Rob has to work late sometimes. As long as my blood pressure stays close to normal, I will get to go home tomorrow afternoon. Please pray for my blood pressure to stay down, my headaches to go away, and for me to feel good when I go home. I do not want to have to come back into the hospital with an infection or anything this week. I don't want to have to delay any more rounds either. Two more to go...

Thank you for all your prayers. Please keep them coming. I can feel each one of them!

With God, WE WILL BEAT THIS!!!