Another treatment down; we have taken the step into single digits when it comes to number of treatments left... from 10 to 9!!! Wooohooo!!! Every little step is a big blessing!!! Everything went absolutely fine today, no complications or difficulties whatsoever.
We have one main message to send to you all today; we just want to tell you all... YOU ROCK when it comes to prayer!!! All of Michelle's blood counts pretty much remained steady and her hemoglobin actually went up considerably. The ONLY explanation for this is we have a FAITHFUL God Who FAITHFULLY answers the prayers of His FAITHFUL children who are FAITHFULLY praying for us!!! Thank you, Lord for our wonderful brothers and sisters who continue to answer our prayers... "... the prayers of a righteous man (and woman!) avails much!"... more than that, thank You, Lord, for your goodness and graciousness to us as we walk this road with You!!!
We will update you tomorrow but just know that all is well! We love you... - Steve and Michelle -
Monday, April 16, 2007
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Saturday Night
Greetings ya'll -
Just checking in with you all; we trust and pray you are all doing well. Ya know, you all have been so diligent to pray for us as we walk this journey, here's a thought... we would love to be praying for you all too. So, if you have any prayers requests please feel free to forward them to us through the comment section and we will add them to our prayer list! Please, please, please do not hesitate to let us know how we can pray for you...
Michelle seems to be doing very well; I say seems because we obviously can't know what her blood counts are doing... are they staying steady or going down. Apart from that, she is doing fine. The bone pain is gone and she is not fatigued at all. The only thing that is causing her any problems right now is the skin irritation that is occurring around her nose. In fact, it seems to be even affecting her forehead some. We think we have isolated it down to being a side-effect of the steroid she is having to take to protect against an allergic reaction to the Taxol. Hopefully after another couple of weeks if she has no allergic reactions, which she hasn't these first two weeks, they will stop administering the steroid. Pray for that; as well as her blood counts to remain steady.
Okay, that's it for now. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend, especially as you worship the Lord together in your churches tomorrow; isn't the Body of Christ and incredible thing!!! We love you all... - Steve and Michelle -
Just checking in with you all; we trust and pray you are all doing well. Ya know, you all have been so diligent to pray for us as we walk this journey, here's a thought... we would love to be praying for you all too. So, if you have any prayers requests please feel free to forward them to us through the comment section and we will add them to our prayer list! Please, please, please do not hesitate to let us know how we can pray for you...
Michelle seems to be doing very well; I say seems because we obviously can't know what her blood counts are doing... are they staying steady or going down. Apart from that, she is doing fine. The bone pain is gone and she is not fatigued at all. The only thing that is causing her any problems right now is the skin irritation that is occurring around her nose. In fact, it seems to be even affecting her forehead some. We think we have isolated it down to being a side-effect of the steroid she is having to take to protect against an allergic reaction to the Taxol. Hopefully after another couple of weeks if she has no allergic reactions, which she hasn't these first two weeks, they will stop administering the steroid. Pray for that; as well as her blood counts to remain steady.
Okay, that's it for now. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend, especially as you worship the Lord together in your churches tomorrow; isn't the Body of Christ and incredible thing!!! We love you all... - Steve and Michelle -
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Doing Well
I am sooooo sorry I have not posted since Monday evening; it has been a busy week for a lot of different reasons but that is life, isn't it?!
Be encouraged that Michelle continues to do well, though we have experienced the first of the outward side-effects this week. We are not sure if it is the Taxol or the Aranesp (the drug she was given to boost her hemoglobin) but she began to have some bone pain, mostly in her ribs, hips and back. It could be either drug, since both can cause it, but we are leaning toward the Taxol. It hasn't been all that bad, Michelle would say, and it was at it's worst yesterday. Today it is actually much better. The only other thing she is noticing is she has a bit of a rash forming on her cheeks near her nose, as well as on her nose, but that is fairly minimal and you wouldn't notice if you were not looking for it. All in all, we continue to be amazed at how the Lord is answering all your prayers in withholding so many of the other side-effects that many women experience.
A couple of prayer issues: As I think I said in my previous post, we were a little surprised Michelle's blood counts took a hit so quickly. We are somewhat concerned by that since we still have 10 more weeks and have no idea what they will be on Monday following this weeks treatment. Please pray that the Aranesp does it's job and the rest of her counts remain good. The second concern is that the bone pain has also come this quickly. We were really hoping we would get a few more weeks under our belt before that came, especially since chemo is cumulative in it's effect; which means that would only tend to occur more or get worse as we move along. Please pray that the Lord would hold this back from getting worse!
As I read the above, I feel like I am complaining... things could surely be much worse. Please know we know that; the Lord has been SO faithful to us in SO many ways and we are SO grateful!!! We continue to be joyous in the journey, trusting wholly and completely in Jesus. We are confident He will see us ALL the way through!!! Thank you for all your prayers... the Lord hears you and is answering!!! We love you... - Steve and Michelle -
Be encouraged that Michelle continues to do well, though we have experienced the first of the outward side-effects this week. We are not sure if it is the Taxol or the Aranesp (the drug she was given to boost her hemoglobin) but she began to have some bone pain, mostly in her ribs, hips and back. It could be either drug, since both can cause it, but we are leaning toward the Taxol. It hasn't been all that bad, Michelle would say, and it was at it's worst yesterday. Today it is actually much better. The only other thing she is noticing is she has a bit of a rash forming on her cheeks near her nose, as well as on her nose, but that is fairly minimal and you wouldn't notice if you were not looking for it. All in all, we continue to be amazed at how the Lord is answering all your prayers in withholding so many of the other side-effects that many women experience.
A couple of prayer issues: As I think I said in my previous post, we were a little surprised Michelle's blood counts took a hit so quickly. We are somewhat concerned by that since we still have 10 more weeks and have no idea what they will be on Monday following this weeks treatment. Please pray that the Aranesp does it's job and the rest of her counts remain good. The second concern is that the bone pain has also come this quickly. We were really hoping we would get a few more weeks under our belt before that came, especially since chemo is cumulative in it's effect; which means that would only tend to occur more or get worse as we move along. Please pray that the Lord would hold this back from getting worse!
As I read the above, I feel like I am complaining... things could surely be much worse. Please know we know that; the Lord has been SO faithful to us in SO many ways and we are SO grateful!!! We continue to be joyous in the journey, trusting wholly and completely in Jesus. We are confident He will see us ALL the way through!!! Thank you for all your prayers... the Lord hears you and is answering!!! We love you... - Steve and Michelle -
Monday, April 9, 2007
Two Down... Ten To Go
The title says it all; Michelle received her second treatment today and now she ONLY has ten more to receive. Seems like a "forever" kind of thing but by God's grace we will one day in June saying,"Twelve down, no more to go!"
Today's treatment went absolutely wonderfully... none of the "drama" from last week, everything went like clock work, so to speak. They first accessed Michelle's port to draw blood to run her counts with and, thanks to the EMLA cream they prescribed (Lidocain cream), that was not bad at all. The counts all came back fine except for her hemoglobin, which was low... the low end of normal is around 12 and hers was 8.8. To counteract this, they gave her a drug called Aranesp which will boost her ability to produce this more effectively. Apart from that, they did not give her any Benadryl this week due to last weeks difficulties. The Herceptin and Taxol were administered with no problems and, at this point, with no outward side-effects like nausea, allergic reactions, fever or headaches. Praise the Lord!!! Once again, your prayers are being answered... be encouraged by that and also take that as an incentive from the Lord to continue in prayer!!!
As I was making some coffee and just kind of doing some "housekeeping" at the Cancer Clinic at the snack area they have for patients, two ladies came over to make some tea. There was no hot water so I told them I would make some and let them know when it was done. Walking back toward our separate rooms I found out they were there with another woman who was battling breast cancer. I shared some things with them and then, as we were leaving later, Michelle was able to talk with the woman for about 15 minutes and encourage her. Isn't God faithful to use everything in our lives for His glory? It reminded me of 2 Corinthians 1:3-4,
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."
As we drove home both Michelle and I were in tears as we talked about the faithfulness and goodness of God. Many times we find ourselves having to endure hard things in life but God is always right there with us, His grace is always sufficient, and He always strengthens us through His Spirit to endure our trials and difficulties. None of what we go through is ever wasted, He is always looking to use it in our lives to grow, mold and shape us into the image of Christ, as well as using it to open up doors of ministry in the lives of others. Continue to pray for Michelle, that the side-effects would not materialize and that her hemoglobin counts would rise without her other counts going down. Also pray that more opportunities to minister at the Clinic would come about and that we would be faithful to glorify the Lord as we minister in them. We love you all very much... - Steve and Michelle -
Today's treatment went absolutely wonderfully... none of the "drama" from last week, everything went like clock work, so to speak. They first accessed Michelle's port to draw blood to run her counts with and, thanks to the EMLA cream they prescribed (Lidocain cream), that was not bad at all. The counts all came back fine except for her hemoglobin, which was low... the low end of normal is around 12 and hers was 8.8. To counteract this, they gave her a drug called Aranesp which will boost her ability to produce this more effectively. Apart from that, they did not give her any Benadryl this week due to last weeks difficulties. The Herceptin and Taxol were administered with no problems and, at this point, with no outward side-effects like nausea, allergic reactions, fever or headaches. Praise the Lord!!! Once again, your prayers are being answered... be encouraged by that and also take that as an incentive from the Lord to continue in prayer!!!
As I was making some coffee and just kind of doing some "housekeeping" at the Cancer Clinic at the snack area they have for patients, two ladies came over to make some tea. There was no hot water so I told them I would make some and let them know when it was done. Walking back toward our separate rooms I found out they were there with another woman who was battling breast cancer. I shared some things with them and then, as we were leaving later, Michelle was able to talk with the woman for about 15 minutes and encourage her. Isn't God faithful to use everything in our lives for His glory? It reminded me of 2 Corinthians 1:3-4,
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."
As we drove home both Michelle and I were in tears as we talked about the faithfulness and goodness of God. Many times we find ourselves having to endure hard things in life but God is always right there with us, His grace is always sufficient, and He always strengthens us through His Spirit to endure our trials and difficulties. None of what we go through is ever wasted, He is always looking to use it in our lives to grow, mold and shape us into the image of Christ, as well as using it to open up doors of ministry in the lives of others. Continue to pray for Michelle, that the side-effects would not materialize and that her hemoglobin counts would rise without her other counts going down. Also pray that more opportunities to minister at the Clinic would come about and that we would be faithful to glorify the Lord as we minister in them. We love you all very much... - Steve and Michelle -
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