MD Anderson and the "R" Word

We went down to MD Anderson about two weeks ago for a checkup. Our morning started out early as my lab appointment was at 7:45am. I went in and they started to pull blood from my PICC line. Before she drew the blood, she stopped and asked if my PICC was put in at MD Anderson. When I told her it was put in at ETMC, she stopped and told me she couldn't touch it unless it had been x-rayed and ok'd by the doctor at MD Anderson, so she had to stick me. Well, my veins are tiny to begin with, but chemo shrinks them too, so they are super tiny. There is only one vein on my right hand that can still work, so she stuck it and got the blood she needed. After lab, it was time for us to WAIT (MD Anderson's favorite thing to make patients do). Finally, we were called back. We spoke to the nurse, then the nurse practitioner, and then about an hour later Dr. Burger came in. He went through his check-up questions and then he said the "R" word- REMISSION. Rob and I looked at each other like we had heard him wrong. He said that I was in remission, but that he wanted to do another bone marrow biopsy to be absolutely sure. I was less than thrilled to hear that part. He said there was a test they could do that ETMC couldn't do that can take a closer look at the cells. It was a week until I got the results, but they came back absolutely clear. I am truly in REMISSION!!! I am so excited. I still have to finish out my treatments, but I know that I am cancer free. Finishing out my treatment will increase the chances that the cancer will not return. It is going to be a rough road again, but I know that I have my prayer warriors behind me and God helping me through this.

Thank you to each of you who have lifted my name up in prayer. I can never express my full appreciation to you.

With God, WE WILL BEAT THIS!!!

Chillin' at Home

Hey everyone! It's me again. I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in awhile, but the neuropathy has hindered me from doing several everyday things. I'm now on a medication to help with it. The pain has lessened, but my hands are still completely numb. I'm sure you can imagine how some everyday things could become difficult when you can't feel your hands. My handwriting is absolutely horrible now! Anyways, back to the important stuff. I have been home for a few days now. I want to thank everyone who called, emailed, and came to visit while I was in ICU. Unfortunately/Fortunately, I'm not sure which one, I don't remember majority of my time there. I remember the first 2 days, and not much more. Rob and my mom have tried to fill me in on everyone and I am completely blown away by the amount of people who came and called. I am so touched!! Rob did a good job of keeping everyone informed of what was going on so I won't go through all the details again. I did go to the doctor on Tuesday of this week and my counts were pretty good. My WBC was 14 which is good. It is still a little above normal so I'm glad it's up. My platelets are at 84. They need to get to at least 100 before I can start chemo again, but they have a few weeks to get there. I think they are waiting until around the first week in September to start my chemo again. They want to make sure I am completely recovered before they knock me down again. We are also going to MD Anderson next week for a check up appointment. The doctor there is the one who has been working with my doctor on my chemo regiment. They are already taking away one of the medications from my next round, but he might take away more so that would be great!! Putting off my chemo pushes me to finishing in November instead of October, but to keep my health and have a couple of "good" weeks, I'll take it. Again, I just want to thank each of you who have prayed for me and my family through all of this. I really don't think we could get through all of this without you!

On another note, I have asked you to pray for little Sully Farrar in the past. Sully lost his fight with leukemia last week and went home to be with the Lord. Please remember his family as they go through this rough time.

With God, WE WILL BEAT THIS!!!

We Need Your Help and Participation

Vanessa and I have become very active with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We have signed up to walk during the Light The Night Walk on October 11, 2008. The event is going to be held here in Tyler from 6-8pm. We are looking for team mates, sponsors as well as donations. We have set a team goal of $10,000. We are thinking that if we can get at least ten of our friends to walk with us and each of us raise $1,000, that it is very possible to reach our goal. Vanessa and I will also be guest speakers at the Light the Night kick-off party on August 26th.

There are 3 ways that you can donate. You can mail us cash or check made out to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. You can also go to our team site, Lympho Blasters and click on a team mates name on the right hand side. From that page you can click on a specified amount or select other.

To join our team, you can also click here and click join at the bottom of the page next to our team name. We would love to have each of you here with us that evening. We really NEED your help in making this a successful walk not only for Vanessa and I, but for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. They have been a great support channel for us while Vanessa battles this cancer.

For everyone that has asked us how you can help us, well this is a great way to do that. We want to thank you in advance for your contributions as well as those that are walking with us, it is going to be fun. To learn more about the Light the Night Walk, you can click here



The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Light The Night Walk is an annual event to raise funds for cures. It's the nation's night to pay tribute and bring hope to thousands of patients and their families.Funds raised through Light The Night Walk support the work of hundreds of the world's best and brightest researchers in their search for better therapies and cures for leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.Anyone can take part—children, adults and seniors are all welcome. This is a casual Walk with no fitness requirements.

Now in it's 10th year, Light The Night is celebrating a Decade of Difference. During this time:Nearly half a million patients and their caretakers have called the LLS Information Resource Center and received critical information about blood cancers, therapy options and issues surrounding treatment and survival. Nearly $40 million was disbursed to patients through the LLS Patient Assistance program to help them get the treatment they needed to fight their cancer. Over 100,000 patients and family members found comfort and hope through LLS First Connection and Family Support Groups.

LLS granted $425 million to more than 400 scientists searching for cures and improved treatments for patients. LLS funding contributed to the development of a host of new drugs that are affecting patient survival and quality of life. LLS-funded researchers began working in novel areas that hold great promise for finding cures and better treatments including new, less toxic stem cell transplants, immunotherapies and other targeted therapies. Our Advocacy Network has successfully supported pro-patient legislation that will: Help advance blood cancer research Extend Medicare coverage to include oral anti-cancer drugs Help fund efforts to reach underserved blood cancer patients

Please bring help and hope to thousands of people battling cancer.

Click here to learn more about the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

With God, We Will Beat This!!

A NEW ROOM!!!

Vanessa has now been in her "new" room for about 23 hours. This morning they removed her catheter and her IV. They are wanting her to move around a little bit at a time. Her physical therapist arrived this morning and took Vanessa down the hall slowly walking. She gave her some exercises to do to help build strength up. She is very alert, talking laughing and being herself, "smart elic"...lol

She wants me to express her sincere thanks to each and every single one of you that prayed for her, visited her from many different states, and reached out to myself and her family with all types of assistance. There was overwhelming love, prayer and support for us during this trying moment. We are forever grateful to each and every single one of you.

She has approximately 2 weeks to recoup and get her immune system back up before her fifth round of chemo starts. Let's pray that she has a great 2 weeks and recovers well for a fresh start. We love you all and God Bless you.

With God, We Will Beat This!!

ICU Update 7/30/2008

Well Vanessa was not able to move up to the 6th floor today. Not because she wasnt physically able to but because logistically she wasn't. Unfortunately, all of the rooms on the 6th floor were full. She gets to sepnd another night in ICU. I have requested that they begin to work with her and get her up and walking some. She needs to start building her strength back up. She got fiesty with me when I told her, but I told her its for her own good - she needs to get tough with it.

I spoke to Dr. Lee tonight and she informed me that it was indeed pneumonia in her right lung. It appears that the antibiotics and antifungal meds are working. She will not be getting chemo next week. The next chemo has been delayed atleast 2 weeks. We were hoping we could avoid that, but we also know we need her to recover from this last incident and allow her blood counts to get wehre they need to be.

Please continue, as you all have been diligently, praying for Vanessa. We need her strength to come back, blood counts, neuropathy to go away and continued healing from the pneumonia. I also received an email from Tracy Herrin. She has requested that we add a friend's sister to our prayer list and I have pasted her email below.

"Please add Carolyn Graham to your Prayer Warrior List. She is the sister of a co worker of mine. They found out today, that her whole body is eaten up with cancer. Things do not look good. But we know how the power of prayer can work! Thank you so much! And Praise God for all that He does!"

It was AWESOME to see our old Sunday School teachers from Summer Grove Baptist Church in Shreveport. Steve and Debbie Wilson are unbelievable teachers, mentors, couple and love God more than anyone I could possibly know. If you have never been to one of their marriage seminars, I highly recommend you do so. Vanessa and I went to one of their marriage retreats before we got married and that seminar helped us lay a foundation for the marriage we had planned few months later. If you want to hear a different perspective on marriage, an eye and heart opening experience, sign up for one when they come to town. AMAZING!!

We love you all and God Bless. He is an Awesome healing God.

With God, We Will Beat This!!

ICU Update 7/28/2008

We received encouraging news today from her pulmonary doctor. He said that the things he has observed encouraged him. He stated she is still not in the clear and has a ways to go but he was encouraged.

Vanessa has not needed to use her pain meds in a few hours as she states her pain is not as bad. She still has a temp over 100. Her oxygen is holding above 95%. Her blood counts are .1 white bloodcells, platelets are 26 and hemoglobin is 12.7.

Preliminary reports are possibly showing early stages of pneumonia. Her pulmonary doctory didn't want to officially claim it because her x-rays weren't conclusive. He stated whether its pneumonia or somethings else, they are treating it with antibiotics.

We are excited to see Gods work with the news we received this morning. Thank you for your love and support. I know the prayers haven't stopped, but keep them coming. She is not out of the clear but we know we serve the great physician.

With God, We Will Beat This!!

Late ICU Update (Email)

We finally got to see Vanessa tonight after many delays. They did not take her away to put in her new PICC line until 5 when we were originally told 1. Those are 2 of our visitation times. Visitation is very limited to us and we lost 2 of them today. However, after 5 sticks, they were able to get a new line in her left arm. We have received preliminary results from her scope that was done lat night. It appears she may have yeast on her lungs. We hope to get the final results when we go and visit her tomorrow morning. We are still waiting results from her old picc line to see if that may have been causing an infection as well.

Her blood counts are beginning to improve. Her hemoglobin was 12.7, which is normal. Her white blood counts are still.1 and her platelet count had gone up to 50. I was told to not concentrate too much on the white blood count until they get this infection resolved. Once we have the infection under control, her white blood counts should begin to go back up. Her temperature before we left the hospital was a 99.6. Praise God. Her temperature finally got below 100 and has so far maintained. We need to get it at normal and keep it normal for 24 hours before she can be released from ICU.

I am not sure if I mentioned her chest x-ray in any earlier emails, but it came back normal.

We had many sweet dear friends come from Shreveport and showed alot of love and care as they sat and spoke to myself and Vanessa's parents. Some went in and visited Vanessa, some just came to support us in the waiting area. We had some from our Sunday School class. This is BEST class. They have supported us,loved on us, provided meals for us, monetary means have been provided and a bunch of small things that has added up to make life a bit easier. We are so excited God brought this Sunday School class to us from Green Acres Baptist Church here in Tyler.

I want to send out a special THANK YOU to Jeff and Suzanne Hogg. We love you guys and appreciate you keeping Emilee for us and getting her to the church this morning at 6:30 am and seeing her off to her first youth group trip to Houston. Your love and kindness has shown God to us through you. You guys help make our Sunday School class what it is.

There has been so much love and outpouring support to us during this trying time. All of you who have emailed, called, text messaged, prayed, cried, laughed, sat, stood and anything else that I haven't mentioned has been an awesome expression of God's love for his children. I cannot say THANK YOU enough.

God Bless and have a great night or an even better week this week and may God be with you all.

With God, We Will Beat This!!