UPDATE ON MOM

Good afternoon everyone! Hope you are all having a good day. I haven’t seen mom yet today but I have talked to Royce several times and he says she is doing about the same. Dr Lewis was in and said that we would take it one day at a time and see how she does. He said they will keep her until the issues that are causing her so much pain are taken care of as best as possible without surgery. I’m going up to the hospital right after work and if there are any changes I will update at that time. Please continue to pray for peace and comfort for mom. Thank you for traveling this journey with us. God bless you all.

“God IS bigger than Cancer!”

Love to all, Lee Ann

PRAYERS PLEASE!

Good morning everyone! Just wanted to give you a quick update. Mom was admitted to the hospital last night. After talking with the nurse we called for an ambulance and had her taken in because she was in a lot of pain. I won’t go into detail about all that is going on because mom would be very upset if I did so but I will tell you that she needs major abdominal surgery to fix the problems that she has going on. The doctors have decided that this is not an option for many reasons. First of all, she is so weak that she probably would not survive the surgery and if she did her immune system is so compromised that she probably would not heal from the surgery. Secondly, with her prognosis, they feel that surgery would not change the end result. They are going to keep her for a few days and try some things to correct as much of the problem, non-surgically, as possible to alleviate the pain. Once they get this taken care of they will send her home and call Hospice in. This is breaking my heart but we knew we would be at this point eventually. We were just hopeful that it would be a while. They have her on Dilaudid for pain which is very strong so she is out of it most of the time. I already miss her being coherent and communicating with us, but we are so grateful that she is not in pain. Dr. Lewis thinks that they can take care of some of the issues and maybe she won’t need the strong pain medication so maybe we will still have some quality time. Please pray for peace and comfort for mom and strength for the rest of our family. God bless you all and I hope you have a wonderful day.

“God IS bigger than Cancer!”

Love to all, Lee Ann

Mom is at St Johns in room #7252

UPDATE ON MOM

Good morning everyone! Hope that you are all doing well this morning. I come to you this morning with this update asking for extra prayers. The physical therapist was out yesterday and said that there is no reason for her to come back because mom is getting so weak. Royce & I have noticed her getting weaker this last week but haven’t discussed it. I guess we thought that if we didn’t talk about it then it wasn’t really happening. We spoke with Dr Nathan (the radiation oncologist) late yesterday evening and he increased her steroids. As many of you may remember, all of this started with the left side weakness. Increasing weakness can mean one of two things, either the tumors are growing or the brain is swelling. Unfortunately there isn’t much that can be done about either one except to increase the steroids, which will help some temporarily if it is swelling. Mom has also been having some terrible stomach pain for the last few days but they are not sure what that could be. Please pray that if a miracle is not to be that God doesn’t let her suffer. She was hurting a lot last night but we finally got it under control late last night. She didn’t want to go to the hospital so we just gave her some pain pills. She said this morning that it wasn’t hurting as bad. She has been eating so well that we thought she was going to get stronger but I guess that is not in God’s plan at this point. Royce will be calling Dr Lewis (the medical oncologist) this morning to see what else we can do to make mom more comfortable. She is such a trooper that she hardly ever complains so I know that the pain is almost unbearable if she is complaining. She told Royce last night that she couldn’t take the pain anymore but she didn’t want to go to the hospital. We are so thankful that the pain pills kicked in and finally started working. I will try to update later if we hear anything new from the doctor. Once again, thank you all for traveling this journey with us and please say an extra prayer for mom & our family. God bless you all.

“God IS bigger than Cancer!”

Love to all, Lee Ann :(

NEW PICS OF MISS ALIYAH!

Nana's pretty girl!

Look mommy!

Me & Mommy!

Blowing a kiss to God!!!

UPDATE ON MOM

Good morning everyone! Hope you are all doing great today. Mom seems to be doing better today. We made it over the speed bumps yesterday and all is well. She ate very well this morning but she was too tired to work with the physical therapist. The therapist will continue to come for 2 more weeks and the aide will start coming Monday though Friday for the next 2 weeks since we have some issues right now. Graig and Larry have been working on cleaning up the yard and cutting tree limbs for the last few weeks so we have a good pile of brush to burn. Saturday night we are going to have a weenie and marshmallow roast and we are going to get mom in the wheelchair and try to get her out on the back porch. I think that it will be really good for her since she hasn’t been out of the house since her last radiation treatment. It will be nice for her to have the kids there too. Thank you all for everything and especially for your prayers as they continue to make good things happen for our family. By God’s grace and your prayers we continue to be lifted up even when things seem really bad. Thank for you for traveling this journey with us and I hope that you all have a terrific weekend. Please remember to leave a message for mom as she reads them daily and is so uplifted by your kindness. God bless you all.

“God IS bigger than Cancer!”

Love to all, Lee Ann

UPDATE ON MOM!

Good morning everyone! Hope you are all doing wonderful today. Mom is doing about the same. I think she might be getting a little stronger but not as quickly as we would like. The nurse will come today about 12:30 to check on her and then the aide will come this afternoon. The physical therapist will come on Tuesday and Thursday this week and she will evaluate whether she needs to keep coming. I am hopeful that she will continue to come at least until mom is able to get out of bed. Royce will be going for his flu shot tomorrow (I had mine week before last) as the doctor suggests that anyone who spends a lot of time with mom should have one so that we don’t bring the flu in to her. The good thing about her not being able to get out and about is that she isn’t exposed to anything. Her immune system is so compromised right now that even a cold could be devastating for her. She is once again not really wanting to eat & I know she must be really discouraged. I can’t imagine how she feels. I try so hard to stay positive, but sometimes it is really difficult, as I know it must be for her. I want to share a Bible verse with you that really touched me. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. I really felt that I needed to share that with you all today. I don’t know what God’s plan is for mom, but I have come to realize that I can no longer be selfish. I want her with me for many more years but I want her healthy. I am thankful for al the wonderful memories we have made with mom but I want to make many more. This awful disease has made me take a look at my life & count my blessings everyday. Every day is a blessing, but it is much more so with mom still with us. All of you who are traveling this journey with us are such a blessing to our family. Please pray for strength, understanding, and mostly for peace for mom (& our entire family) & please keep praying for that miracle. Thank you for taking time from your busy lives to travel this journey with us & thanks for helping us fight this fight. We continue to be lifted up & made stronger by God’s grace and your prayers, support, & encouragement. Sometimes we forget that we are not the only ones affected by this awful disease & I would like to ask that you pray for all of those afflicted with cancer and their families. A special thanks again to The First Baptist Church of Strafford for all that you all are doing to help us. I don’t know how we will ever repay you for all of your kindness. God bless you all & I hope that you have a wonderful day. Please keep the messages of encouragement coming as I feel like mom needs then now more than ever.

“God IS bigger than Cancer!”

Love to all, Lee Ann