It's All Good

Before I go any further, I feel the need to thank everyone who has posted a comment on any of my blogs. You are participating in my vision of sharing with friends, family, extended family, and new friends...and I hope reading the comments from people you haven't heard from in a while is as fun for you as it is for me! Also, I want to remind you that you are anonymous to me when you post - I cannot respond to you like I can if you e-mail me. However, if your comment gets posted, I have read it and it warmed my heart!

I am delighted by the number of people who have called and asked why I haven't posted yet -someone is actually reading these! I haven't posted my good news yet because I developed some kind of upper respiratory infection and have been feeling just terrible. In fact, I started running a fever Sunday afternoon (isn't that how it always works?) and we were concerned that I would have to go to the hospital. The instructions I got from my Corpus doctor says to go to the nearest emergency room if temp reaches 100.4, but the instructions from Houston say to go if it reaches 101. My temp got up to 100.7, so we decided to quit taking it and go to the doctor as soon as we got up in the morning.

As soon as we got there, they put me in an examination room. They get pretty excited about people with fever in a waiting room of a cancer center! Aside from how I was feeling, the news was great...the prayers are working and the chemo is working. The tumors in my lungs are gone and all of the rest of them are shrinking. My doctor pulled the images up on his computer so he could show us the comparison from when we started. Very cool to see color pictures of your body organs. One of their own people developed the software to see the body scan images on the computer screen. He used the computer's mouse to measure the before and after sizes of my largest tumor to show us how much it had shrunk. I am thinking field trip next time...take some kids who think they might want to be doctors...but I digress...

My doctor was almost giddy, which is a huge change from his demeanor last time. Last time he kept using the term "very bad". The game plan is to keep doing what is working for another 12 weeks and then scan again. He is hopeful that we can get rid of all of them. Faron asked him where he thought we were - if where we started was a ten and no cancer was a zero. He said we were at five! Apparently this is the best result we could have hoped for. On the way home, when I was feeling puny and complaining a little about being sick, Faron reminded me that it was a great day - even if I was hacking up a lung. In his words, "it's ALL good!"

I can't tell you how serious and seriously wide spread my cancer is/was. My mom made the comment last night that she felt like God would heal me because she felt like it was an act of God that the cancer was discovered in the first place...I felt perfectly fine. We all know that it is the prayers of all of you - your going to God on my behalf through his Son Jesus Christ that caused this healing. Thank you, all my prayer worriors! Keep it up! We are half way there! Please send up some praises today!

Much love to you all! God bless you - He is sure blessing me! Kelli

Check back later for a picture of my sister-in-law, Kristi, and I at MD Anderson. She has it on her camera phone and I'll put it up as soon as I get it.

My Inspiration

First of all, you should know that it is not my hair in the picture. The friend of mine who cuts my hair got me the wig and it looks pretty close to the hair I used to have (go down to earlier blog). This picture was taken at Connor's joint birthday party with Jess Markley (who turned 85 when Connor turned 10) on February 4.

Second of all, I am so sorry about the big gap between this blog and the last one. I have been BUSY during the week and TIRED on the weekends.

Third of all, PRAISE THE LORD, my brother is safely back in California. His birthday was Monday and I am such a good sister, I didn't even call him...but I talked to him last week and he knows I love him...

I am due back at MD Anderson in Houston at the end of Feb. for tests to see if the chemo is working, but my blood tests every four weeks (for the tumor markers) have been encouraging...they keep dropping. I can't really taste anything anymore and I am getting tired of myself, but other than that I am doing well. The newest "ailment" is minor pain in my hands and feet and some blurred vision...which I will ask the nurse about tomorrow when I go for my weekly shot.

Finally, I want to share MY inspiration. There are two people whose story I really want to share with you...my cousin Jonetta and my cousin Gina - they are both my paternal grandmother's first cousins. My paternal great-grandmother was the oldest of 7 children spread in age such that Jonetta is about 12 years older than my dad and Gina is about 10 years younger. I remember my great-grandmother taking me to Lindsay, OK, to visit her side of the family... Jonetta would let me bang on the piano (she is a popular piano teacher there to this day) and Gina, along with Jonetta's daughter Jency (they were the same age and good friends) would let me tag along with them...it is always a big deal when the "big girls" let the "little girls" tag long.

Jonetta's husband, Jerry, died from cancer in 1992 - he died 8 weeks after his diagnosis. Soon after his death, their daughter Jency was diagnosed with a cancer that cannot be treated with chemo or radiation. The surgeon thought he got it all, but nine months later they found that it had spread. When Jency went in to talk to the doctor about the recurrence, before he could say anything, she told him, "I don't know what your beliefs are, but I want to share mine. The Lord has put it on my heart that this is not immediately life threatening..." and she told him not to tell her how long he thought she had to live because "God has his own time table."

My favorite story is about Jency preparing a handout for the doctors. She was being treated at a teaching hospital, which means twenty million doctors come in and ask the exact same questions over and over. She became frustrated and would ask them to read her file - she gave the same answers every time. One day she had had enough - when she went in and the first person started asking her questions, she gave them the handout and told them to read it first!

Around Halloween, after Jency's hair had fallen out, she went to see her doctor with a witch's wig on. When the doctors stepped outside the room, they began talking about how Jency was a classic case of denial and they needed to confront her and tell her how sick she was. Luckily, her mother Jonetta overheard their conversation and convinced the doctors to leave Jency alone. After Jency died in 1996, the same doctor shared with Jonetta that they had given her no more than a year to live; she lived three years past her second diagnosis and her quality of life was good until her last three months.

A few years after Jency died, Jonetta' s mother died. I remember hearing the news and wondering how much more someone could take - her entire immediate family (mom, dad, husband, and daughter) were gone. No grandkids. Just extended family, a large church family, and a solid faith. Her infectious laugh, bubbling personality and praise of God haven't changed...and she inspires me.

Next time...my trip to Houston and another inspiration. Much love! God BLess! Kelli