Blood Cancer Awareness Month

September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month! I know, I am a little late in the month, but better late than never! As many of you know, Rob and I are very involved with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Light the Night walk. We are coming up on the East Texas walk and I hope that everyone will participate in one way or another. Remember, donations are tax deductible! Here's some information about it...

It will be held October 17, 2009 at Bergfeld Park from 5-8pm. Dinner is served, so if you plan on attending, please register to walk. This is how they calculate how much food to get. This is also a family event, so please feel free to bring the children and get them involved. Our team goal this year is to raise $15,000.00, so we need all the help we can get!

There are three ways to participate:

1. Register to walk and help raise money. Go to our team's website http://pages.lightthenight.org/ntx/EastTX09/Lymphoblasters and scroll to the bottom. Click the "join" button and fill out the form. This will give you a personal website page that people can donate through using a credit card, or they can donate through the team page. After registering, go raise money! There is a $100 minimum to receive the t-shirt and lighted balloon that you carry during the walk. We are hoping to have a booth set up at the Fireman's Challenge Sept 25-26 alongside Carter blood care. We did this last year and raised quite a bit of money. I can also get you Light the Night items to sell like bracelets, teddy bears and t-shirts. Let us know if you have an idea for an event and we can help you pull it off. Last year, we did a golf tournament that raised over $1000. People can also donate through checks made out to Leukemia and Lymphoma Society or cash. Contact me and I'll let you know how to turn that money in!

2. If you are unable to walk, help us raise money! Even if you are unable to attend the walk, you can help us raise money! Just send everyone you know to our team's website. They can donate strictly to the team's total or they can click on a team member and add it to their total. Either way, the team gets credit and more money gets raised!

3. Donate. Donations are always accepted, no matter how big or small! Donations can be made through the website above using a credit card. If you would like to write a check, please make it out to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and get it to me or Rob. We will then turn it in to the society and the team will get credit that way. Please feel free to ask any of your friends and family to join us! If they do not want to join our team, they can make their own. Just go to www.lightthenight.org and have them sign up a new team. Ask your employers for donations or if they will match our teams funds! We do have corporate sponsorship packets if you have any businesses that would like to do that. Minimum corporate sponsorship is $1000. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me anytime (wewillbeatthis@gmail.com)! Thanks for joining us! Let's make the 2009 walk the best East Texas has ever seen!

With God, WE WILL BEAT THIS!!!

Facing the Unknown

I've been staring at the screen for two days now trying to put into words what I feel with the news that was given to me this week. So many questions answered and so many still hanging. I didn't have a PET scan thanks to our insurance company, so we had to settle for a CT scan instead. The CT scan showed the mass has grown 1/2 cm since the end of July, which isn't great, but the good news is there are no other lymphnodes or masses that are suspicious. My blood work also continues to be in "normal" range. My doctor here in Tyler and my doctor at Baylor have discussed my scans and have consulted with radiologist and surgeons. They feel the only way to biopsy it will be to break through my sternum after all. With this news, they also feel that the mass is NOT a recurrence of my lypmhoma. They think it is just my thymus gland growing abnormally. It is fairly common in children and adults who have undergone a large amount of chemo. They gave me two choices: A) Do nothing and watch it for awhile doing CT scans about once a month and then PET scans every 3 months. OR B) Go ahead with the biopsy and find out for sure. We have gone with option A. BUT, we are not sitting around doing NOTHING. We are still praying. Praying that the mass will go away. They are continuing the search for a bone marrow match for me so they can have one ready to go if the need arises. If the mass starts growing rapidly, then we will have to do the biopsy.

This may sound crazy to some, the whole "not knowing" thing. But, I really do have a peace about it and my doctor did as well. The first time I was diagnosed, I had a "gut" feeling that I had cancer. When she told me about this mass, I had a "gut" feeling that it wasn't cancer, but another type of mass. I'm trusting my gut, my doctor, and most of all, God. In the mean time, I am continuing to LIVE! I am actually making plans and it feels great! We have been so careful this year to only plan what we had to and then the rest at the last minute. I never thought making plans would make me nearly as happy as it does!

Please keep my mass in your prayers. Also, if you could remember my friend Stuart. I have mentioned him in prior blogs. He has finished his treatment and is in full remission, but his white counts have gone down again. Please pray that they come back up and his body can fight off whatever it is that is causing this.

Thank you all again for your prayers, friendship, support, meals, gifts, and everything else you have blessed me and my family with in the past year and a half. You have all touched my heart and are very special to me!

With God, WE WILL BEAT THIS!!!

Confusion, Results, and Life Continues...

Why do doctors feel that they can tell you two things that contradict each other and they think you won't notice? I have found this to be the case more times than not. My thought is they do it to cover all their bases so they won't be sued. All I know is, it is AGGRAVATING! I went back to Baylor for my bone marrow aspiration this past week. As we (me and my mom) are waiting, the doctor comes in and begins to talk about the mass under my sternum. From what I heard from my doctor and from him the first time I spoke to him, this is a very common place for recurrence. Well, this time, he said it was a very unusual metastasization. And, the first time I saw him, he said I needed a bone marrow transplant no matter if it was cancer or not, and this time, he said I might not need one. I just wish he would make up his mind. This is my life he's messing with!

I actually spoke to my doctor today- yes, the actual doctor called me! He called to let me know that the results from my bone marrow aspiration came back clean! This is such good news! It means that if the cancer is back, it has not spread to my marrow. I cannot have a transplant with cancer cells in my marrow, so this is good. We caught it early...whatever it may be. The next step is to do another PET scan to see what is going on with the mass. On the upside, my throat has not hurt in almost 3 weeks now! Prayer is working (not that I ever doubted it!)!!! I also spoke to the marrow registry person at Baylor. My brother was not a match for me, so I went into the national registry. From the initial search, there were 177 possible matches for me in the registry. They said this was a great response! From those 177, they chose 8 to start with more specific testing. I should have some results from those by the end of next week. It still just touches my heart that there is someone out there who is willing to donate bone marrow to save my life- and they have never met me nor do they know anything about me. Again, I encourage each and every one of you that is able to get put on the national registry. You never know who's life you could save! Just go to http://www.marrow.org/ for more information.

In the meantime, since I am taking a semester off from school, I have been able to get back to my recreational reading. Last December, I spent 3 weeks of it in the hospital. The women's ministry at our church gave me a gift bag. Inside was a book called She's All That. I had never heard of this author or this series. Since then, I have fell in love with her books! I have finished 2 of the 3 books in the Spa girls series. Girls, if you are looking for something to read, this is a must! They are christian chick-lit. By the end of the book, you feel as though you are one of the spa girls. They are by Kristin Billerbeck and I am a new fan! She has several other series out, so I'm sure they would all be good.

Hope you are all having a good week! Thanks for all the prayers and support! (I just realized I use exclamation points a lot!!! HAHA) I'll keep you updated as we find out more...

With God, WE WILL BEAT THIS!!!