Just received the PET scan radiologist’s full report. After scanning down through all of the findings, the final impression states that, I’ve had an “excellent response to interval therapy” and that there is “currently no evidence of lymphoma.”

Thank you Jesus. We feel so blessed. Our prayer is: continued recovery and that this disease has been cured. Time will tell. Thank you for your prayers, love, support, and overwhelming number of birthday wishes!

Love, April

We have not yet seen the official results, but we were told by our physician that the scan looks good based on his opinion. That’s not an official reading, but we will take it as good news.

Also, happy birthday to April !! She is a warrior, and we hope to celebrate with a steak within the hour.

These past few months have been very fun. We have visited museums, have done track, gone to a new school, and so much more. Please pray for my mom who has been very brave as she goes through this treatment. She had scans today to see if she has cancer anywhere else in her body and we all hope they are clear. I miss all my friends at home but it’s going to be hard to leave here. I’d like to make a shout out to mom’s cousin Angie for taking care of our cat, Donnie, while we’ve been gone. I hope to update again soon on my mom’s blog.

I can’t believe I’ve been out of the hospital for almost 2 weeks now. Things have been going well, even ahead of schedule. Less than a week into my daily outpatient hospital visits, they allowed me to have the weekend “off”, and currently I only go into the hospital on Mondays and Thursdays for infusions and to check-in with the MD/APN/PharmD to address any concerns. When I don’t go into the hospital, I have my own IV infusions at home. They are nothing like the dreaded backpack I had last summer. Instead, each day I have two inflated balls that I hook myself up to that slowly deflate over 4-5 hours. As, strange as that sounds, it is so much better than going into the hospital daily.

The goal right now, is to balance my medications, watch for graft-versus-host disease, stay hydrated and nourished, track my blood counts, and soon they will test my stem cells to see if the donor’s stem cells are kicking out my old ones and becoming the majority. I will also have a PET scan on Thursday to scan my body for any increased uptake of glucose which could indicate lymphoma growth. We do not have any reason to suspect it is back, it is just time for a new check.

I keep thinking Amber is going to get on here and tell you what’s been going on from the kids’ perspective, but things have been so busy that I guess there hasn’t been time. The girls love school! It has been a HUGE blessing. Right now they are at a Houston Astro’s vs. Oakland A’s baseball game with their school. They are involved in track after school and tomorrow I hope to see them run at a meet. They’ve made friends, had a sleepover, went out for a celebratory dinner for a friend’s First Communion – their classes are very small and they have really felt welcomed and special.  They’ve also enjoyed going to the beach in Galveston (and eating lots of seafood), joining a welcoming local family for their Easter celebration which included a lot of fun for the kids, and the 7 of us took an impromptu overnight trip to the Hill Country last weekend where the kids saw beautiful scenery, wildflowers, alpacas, jackrabbits, antelope, etc – It felt a little like a safari at one point. Once, again our friend’s aunt and uncle opened up their ranch home for us to stay the night. I’m starting to think that this is going to be a highlight of their life instead of “that scary time when Mom was sick and we had to go to Houston.”

That is definitely God’s blessing in this. The kids are so resilient and love the excitement of each day – even Harrison loves trying the new playgrounds around here, eating lunch with my parents, grocery shopping, running as fast as he can through the apartment complex, etc. My body has been stronger than what is typical. Yes, I’m very very fatigued, but I can exercise some, hang out with the family, enjoy good food, and generally stay mentally strong – although it is all overwhelming at times. I really believe the power of prayer is being seen through the day-to-day within our family. This could all be so much harder. Instead, we actually can see the privilege sometimes in going through this experience.

Thank you for your love and support! Please continue your prayers – especially for good results on the upcoming scan.

As of Tuesday afternoon, I am a free woman! I’m so thankful! After 3 weeks in a hospital room, you start to question how well you can hold it together before you completely crack.

While inpatient, I had such a wonderful team of medical professionals. The nurses were the most brilliant and compassionate I’ve ever seen. Of course, Jonathan kept them laughing with his dry-erase board drawings and writings. We also had fun making the bed go as high as it could possibly go – it goes really high. And a bonus that puts a big smile on my face is that I’ve kept my hair!!!

My sister came for a visit (she’s the reason the bed went sky high – she was helping me with some cosmetic eyebrow plucking). The kids also loved visiting the hospital. I ended up with blue exam gloves on my feet, and my 4 year old guest had the best time ordering “room service”. He thought the personal pizza was great (although he dumped a packet of salt on it when I turned my back) and loved the can of soft drink that he drank proudly wearing sunglasses.

I guess I prefer to be less clinical with this update. I’m on track with the engraftment of my donor’s cells, my white blood cells are up to the normal range, and the platelets / red blood cells are trending upward. Currently I have to go into the hospital daily for labs, a fluid/ magnesium infusion and visit with a nurse practitioner or MD. This takes about 3-5 hours per day.

Thank you for your many prayers! Jonathan and I feel that the prayers are what have helped me to progress so quickly – I think I’m a little ahead of the game (and I continue to have lofty goals). I often try to rationalize why I’m coasting through this pretty well, but my gut is that all of your prayers have strengthened my body and have guided my medical team each day.

I hope all of you have a beautiful, blessed Easter. It’s such a wonderful season of renewal! Thanks be to God for His gift of grace for all people everywhere through his Son, Jesus. He is Risen!