I successfully started a new thing last night following chemo. I didn’t get sick once! Praise God! I like this new tradition and plan to stick with it. Hopefully my body will cooperate. I definitely felt the prayers, thank you. I didn’t sleep great, but part of that is a side-effect of the steroids. I found myself watching Veggie Tales on Netflix at 3 a.m. Pray that tonight I’ll get better sleep or I will probably find myself learning more Silly Songs with Larry.
the game plan
Yesterday I had a great appointment with the oncologist. I asked about exercise and she said I could do whatever I feel up to including running. She said to not expect myself to run 5 miles tomorrow or do anything crazy. She doesn’t know me real well, yet. ha! I didn’t ask her about jumping out of planes. But I am thrilled about running again.
I will have my fourth chemo on May 25 and then the oncologist and I agreed to do a scan after that. Begin praying for this scan. I’m praying for every bit of this cancer to be gone, especially in the bone marrow.
The oncologist continued to emphasize yesterday that she could get me to remission, but didn’t know how long she could keep me there, possibly a couple years or even five to 10 years. But I kept thinking, my God can do whatever He pleases and if He wants this to be completely gone then it can be for His glory.
Even after the scan I will probably go through two more chemos (June 15 and July 6) and then a chemo every three months until I leave for Austria. My non-Hodgkin’s Follicular lymphoma was quite advanced for my age and the oncologist wants to do everything she can to keep me in remission for as long as possible.
how you can pray
The biggest concern right now is my bone marrow. Because this cancer has spread to my bone marrow I may have to have a bone marrow transplant in the future. If I were to do this before heading to Austria it might keep me stateside for quite a while because it includes a long hospital stay and months of recovery. This is something I’m praying about right now. Will you join me in praying about this? Pray for wisdom and for my upcoming scan. My oncologist is fine with me going to Austria at the end of this year or as soon as the rest of my support is raised, but we’re keeping this procedure on our radar.
Here are some praises to end this post:
• I’ve made it through 3 chemo treatments with little side effects
• My oncologist couldn’t find any of the enlarged lymph nodes that used to be palpable and noticeable in my body
• Spleen is back to normal
• My mom and I are going on a mini-vacation at the beginning of June to get away
• I may be able to visit Colorado and the Washington State and Portland, Oregon area in mid-July
• I can start running
• Made it through two days of steroids and only three more to go
• It is a gorgeous day!
There are so many things to be thankful for! I’m especially thankful for you! Have a great day and I’ll post more soon.
