Sweet Leslie.

As some of you may know Leslie went to be with Jesus last night. She will suffer no more. To read the beautiful words of her very wise husband Tyson click on her blog http://www.forleslie.blogspot.com/ . I am completely amazed at his strength and the peace he seems to have. They have been a great testimony for myself and Mike.

I on the other hand am finding myself pretty weak. I don't have a lot of words right now I just know how much I will miss her friendship. I couldn't help but cry all night and all day. I guess for me I really didn't believe this was going to happen. I don't know if I was choosing not to or what.

My heart goes out to Tyson, TJ, and all of their family and friends.

Tyson, Please know I am sending my love to you and TJ right now. I really look forward to the day that I can hug you both. I hope that day will come very soon.
All my love,
Jess

Good Day!

I tend to be a bit superstitious so I'm going with the "Three's a Charm!" My January, April and now my July MRI have all been good. After a long day in Cleveland filled with anxiety and emotions we had very good results. My Doc. said my MRI looked improved in some areas and stable in all other areas! I'm not real sure how to put into words the relief this was/is! I understand why they want me to go for an MRI every 3 months but it's the anticipation of "will this be the time it's back?" that is hard. This was the most optimistic my Doctor has ever been about my situation so that was very encouraging. She was also very upfront about what kind of treatment we would approach next if or when needed. That's a little difficult to think about but like she said it's good to have a plan and it's nice for us to be informed of what may be ahead. Unfortunately brain tumors are pretty unpredictable but she kept reminding us of how pleased she was with my MRI. So for tonight and the next three months we're hanging on to all the good things she had to say to us today. Oh- she also said that as long as things continue to go well I should be able to quit treatment after round #14!!!! That's not too far away considering that I will start round #11 Monday. Hopefully things will continue to go as hoped for and I can be done with this soon!

More good news! My Aunt is also doing well! Thanks for your prayers!

As long as my platelets are up I will start treatment Monday. I had counted the weeks wrong in my apt. book so now I have a bit of rearranging to do with work for the next two weeks. It should work out fine.

Thanks for all of your prayers for today! I really can't say Thank You enough!

Love,

Jess

so for some reason this thing is not letting me separate my paragraphs! Computers!!!! :(

Checking in.

I've been feeling pretty good lately. Right now I feel like I'm learning how to "live" with cancer and not let cancer get the best of me. I'm doing okay with it. It seems like since I was diagnosed cancer is everywhere I turn. I know that is partly because I am more aware of it. It is very frustrating to see it come into people's lives and disrupt their lives, dreams, everything. Leslie's run with cancer has just been horrible. It's simply unfair. I don't get it. Why does it have to be so complicated for them? Why can't they make her well?! I just want her to have this "normalcy" that I have. I do believe it will come but how much longer must they wait?!

We also have an Aunt in our family who was recently diagnosed. Tomorrow she will undergo surgery and I just pray for her to have peace about it. I pray for her entire family to have a peace about it. She's a great lady and I'm so proud to call her my Aunt!

This past weekend we spent at the lake of which my family has had ties to for many years. We were able to spend time there with our family and friends. We had such a great time. I love my family and I'm so proud of this family I come from.

Next Wednesday, July 23rd I go to Cleveland for my regular MRI. I will have an MRI in the mid morning then meet with my oncologist (Dr. Tekautz) in the early afternoon. So I pray and believe that my next post will be with great results from my appointment. This next visit Mike will be going with me and Lisa (my mother-in-law) will be going. Lisa has not yet been able to see the Cleveland Clinic and etc. When I had my surgery she stayed at our house and took care of Luke for us so she's anxious to see the place and meet some of my doctors.

I'll be in touch. In the meantime I hope you can all add my Aunt to your prayers and keep praying for Leslie and her family.

Love,
Jess

ROUND # 10

Monday I started round # 10 of chemo. So far I'm feeling okay. I think I'm getting used to it and now I know that yes I won't feel up to par for a week or so but it will pass and life WILL go on. I have to go to the medical group every other week for my routine blood draw. I always get it done on the Monday that I'm supposed to start treatment. As you may remember my platelet count has been a problem in the past. My platelets have to be over 100,000 to be able to start treatment. Well they had been consistently dropping every month by 20 to 30,000 getting near the 100,000 mark. So I was kind of anticipating that this treatment might get pushed back a few days or maybe even a week. When my platelet count has been too low to start treatment in the past I asked the Doctor if there was anything I could do to bring my count up and she quickly responded with NO. You have no control over your counts. It is a side effect of chemo.
Well, to my very pleasant surprise and with no explanation this Monday when the nurse called me from Cleveland to let me know if I could take my chemo she said that all my counts (white cell and etc.) were all up considerably higher than they have typically been in the past months. To the best of my knowledge that doesn't just happen. That's not typical. That's prayer. Answered prayer. Healing. This may not seem like much to anyone else but to me this was a huge encouragement. It's hard for me to explain how hopeful and encouraged that I was by this! So treatment started on Monday as scheduled and I will be enjoying the fireworks as I take my last chemo meds for this round on Friday!

Luke's Birthday week was awesome. He's great. We had a party for him and his friends on Saturday and it was a blast. It couldn't of went better. We had a great week with him celebrating his Birthday almost all week. It was good for me mentally. I'm feeling very optimistic right now and trying to enjoy everyday.

Have a great July 4Th!

Jess