last chemo day

Praise The Lord, Today is the last chemo day for this round. They just started the Mylotarg a few minutes ago. They had to premedicate her for this drug which worried her a bit. This drug is supposed to be a smart bomb. It only goes after the leukemia. Please pray for it to work well. After this we just wait for her counts to recover a bit so we can go home before the transplant. Erin slept well last night. They actually wrote an order for her not to be disturbed from 12-6. Why didn't we think of that before? Erin did her 21 laps yesterday with some crazy steps from Laura. Lunges, high marching steps, booty crunches etc. It was funny to see Bill doing the bunny hop. Laura entertained Erin yesterday with some Fourth of July toenail paint. Very stinky stuff but cute flags and fireworks. All in all, a good day. Thanks for the prayers, God is faithful in the details!!

"Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Prase the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed." Psalm 103: 1-6

Thanks a million for all the prayers!! We have the best prayer team around!!
Go team!! hugs, janet

Feeling Better!

Hey Ya'll..... Bill here,

After 4 pretty rough days, the doctor prescibed a dose of steroids yesterday and shortly afterward, Erin was up and eating breakfast! She walked her mile yesterday, played games with the family and visited with friends. Erin rediscovered her taste for fruit smoothies and Grandmommy and Aunty Jo had the great idea to get a single serving smoothie maker so that Erin can have a smoothie whenever she wants and I don't have to run all over the place trying to find one! After crossing the line with the fridge in the room, what's one more illegal device, right?? Yesterday evening, Jo brought a great meal and we had eight of us in this tiny little room all enjoying the great food. This morning Erin had a bagel and smoothie for breakfast followed by leftovers from yesterday's dinner. She definitely got her appetite back and we are thankful for answered prayers!!

Last night was my second stay with Erin and I thought I had done my job well and that we had a quiet evening.....evidently, I had a quiet evening but Erin did not. While she was feeling better, there were constant hourly interruptions and she did not get much rest. In addition, she said I was snoring and unresponsive when she tried to wake me....I think she is putting me on double secret probation and that I better shape up or she is going to bench me. I figured I better share this with you lest you hear it from someone else:))

"So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer." - Ezra 8:23

Thank you all for your continued prayer support! Our prayer request is that Erin will continue to feel better, for the perfect bone marrow donor match for Erin, and for a miracle of healing for her.

Blessings..... - Bill

Sunday

Hello Prayer Warriors,
Thanks for your prayers for healing miracles. Erin is feeling nauseous again today. This is her 4th day of extreme nausea. The med combinations don't seem to work for her. Please pray for her nausea to ease up. She hardly eats, can't walk more than 2 laps at a time, and is basically miserable. On the bright side, we are thankful that is the only side effect so far.
Laura spent the night with Erin last night and they tried to watch movies, eyelids got in the way though. Hopefully she will be more awake today. I think if Erin had her way, she would sleep for the next few weeks and wake up when she feels better. I don't blame her!

"Hear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am devoted to you. You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long. Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul." Psalm 86:1-4

Blessings on your Sabbath!! love, janet

Sleepy saturday

Thank you for your continued prayers. Erin had a very nauseous day yesterday and so she stayed medicated all day and slept. The Emend they started for nausea seemed to help by bedtime and she slept uninterrupted all night. That's a huge praise. Amanda stayed with her last night and at first I though she probably just slept through whatever Erin was doing, but they actually did get a good rest. Erin felt good enough to take a shower today and then got nauseous and is now sleeping again. Her survivor friends, Kristen and Ellen, came to visit and brought a huge poster of Psalm 91. Awesome! Below are 2 different versions of part of Psalm 91, I think it is so cool.

"Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation." Psalm 91:14-16 NIV

""If you'll hold on to me for dear life," says God, " I'll get you out of any trouble. I'll give you the best of care if you'll only get to know me. Call me and I'll answer, be at your side in bad times; I'll rescue you , then throw you a party! I'll give you a long life, give you a long drink of salvation!" Psalm 91:14-16 The Message

God always tells us exactly what we need to here!! Blessings, janet

Pretty Good Night

Hi Guys.....Bill here,


Just getting back into the rotation, so last night was my turn to stay and hang out with Erin. All in all, I think it was a better night than the previous one. Erin was pretty zonked most of yesterday afternoon. She did manage to eat a few bites of dinner but then had a couple bouts with nausea. Everything seemed to settle down after getting a new nausea med (Emend) plus the standard Ativan and Zofran. The 4 hour AriC chemo treatment at 11:00 pm, which seemed to cause problems Wednesday night, went smoothly. So, Emend may become a new friend in the fight:)) The rest of the night was quiet except for the regular interruptions to check vitals, blood draw for labs, hang IV bags, do eye drops, etc. I know its been said before, but it is hard to get a good night's sleep in a hospital. Right now, Erin is still very sleepy but otherwise doing okay. So that is a huge praise!

We are ever mindful of God's blessings and thankful for all of you who are lifting us up in prayer!

Blessings....Bill



In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. - Psalms 5:3
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. - Psalms 27:14

Room with a view

Well, As if we don't cause enough trouble around here. Today we switched rooms. One of our nurse friends told us a room opened up that has a view of Candler School of Theology. Yesterday Davis had seemed disappointed that we didn't have a view of his favorite school, so we moved rooms. Now if you know us, that meant cleaning a whole new room. So Jo and I grabbed the wipes and went to town on the new room while Erin did her laps. And instead of making a new bed , we exchanged them...and all the furniture in the room. It was moving day. What a hoot. We have a contraband frig that we snuck in yesterday and had to move it also. Crazy. So now we are in E610. Do you think they have upside-down triangles on our chart?? love, janet

Yucky Chemo

Hello Prayer Warriors,
They started Erin's chemo last evening around 7 and premedicated her with one of the few antiemetics she isn't yet allergic to. Zofran is wonderful but it is an uphill battle with the kind of nausea chemo produces. She got sick in the middle of the night a couple of times. Compound that with the left over soreness from her bone marrow biopsy (she says that lasts 8 days) and the central line soreness which had turned her into a pretzel and she was pretty pitiful last night. We called Laura because she is studying athletic training and got instructions for taking the kink out of Erin's neck. She tried hard but every few minutes her head would lean over and her shoulder would come up and pretty soon she looked like a pretzel again. Amanda stood in front of her and mirrored her so they could slowing unkink Erin. It was giggle time for sure. Our family's penchant for hysteria in serious situations is the only thing that keeps us sane, Or maybe it is a precursor to insanity.... David Still can testify to my ability to giggle when someone breaks a rib!! Praise God for laughter!!
Please pray for no nausea, an unkinked shoulder, no infections and a healthy donor. Thanks for all the lovely comments. It keeps us going.

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful."
Hebrews 10:23

step one

Well, Erin just got back from having her central line placed. She came through it just great and is sleeping off the "good" drugs now. They plan to start the chemo after lunch. As much as we all dread the chemo for her, the sooner we get started, the sooner we will be done. Hallelujah!

A couple of people have asked about getting on the bone marrow registry. It is free in June and easy to do. Go to marrow.org and they will mail you a swab kit. It is just a swab of the inside of your cheek. Painless. Mail it back and you are in. What a blessing to give that gift!! Thanks to all already on the list and those considering it. Maybe one of you will be the chosen one and you can be "blood brothers" with Erin.

blessings, janet

Waiting

Hello Prayer Warriors, Here we are waiting on the Lord. Waiting on Erin's central line and waiting on chemo. Waiting on more miracles...just trying to be patient. They checked us in yesterday and told us she would get her central line placed and start chemo right away but she didn't get put on the schedule in time so she just got a regular IV and some antibiotics. She should get her line placed this morning and then we will get started. We did get a visit from the transplant Dr last night and she was very informative. She said she hopes to find the right donor soon and then they do more extensive testing on the donor candidate so they are ready when Erin gets back into remission. She thinks the timing would be 4-6 weeks. In the meantime, the chemo she will be on will last 6 days with 3 weeks of recovery. Then if all goes well, she may go home for a few days before they admit her again for the transplant. The recovery for the transplant takes a long time. Please pray for her surgery this morning for the line placement and for the chemo side effects to be minimal. We need lots of prayer! We have a battle ahead of us.

10"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
19Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." Ephesians 6:10-20

Blessings, janet

We're back on 6E

Dear Prayer Warriors, Here we are, back on 6E in room 608. Checked in and waiting to see what time they will take Erin to get her central line. Seeing lots of familiar faces here, which is comforting. Thanking God for our blogger friends!! Your words encourage us and lift our eyes to the Lord! Knowing God is in perfect control and resting in that knowledge. I know the English teachers are all coming unglued at my string of incomplete sentences but that is how my brain is working right now...incompletely. We are all still quite stunned at this turn of events. Last week Erin was water skiing and enjoying her summer and suddenly we are back in this mess. How can that be? I still pray that it is all a nightmare and I will wake up. I prayed for a miracle at the altar on Sunday. You may have seen me, I was the one doing the Big Ugly cry at the altar. So I am patiently waiting for the first lab results to come back totally normal so they can tell us it was all a big mistake. I will climb on the roof and praise God at the top of my lungs!! Hey, don't call the psyche consult yet, I am just a Mom with a mustard seed of faith. And I happen to serve a God of Miracles!! Thanks for checking in, hugs, janet

playing

Erin spent the day playing with all her friends. She spent the whole day at the mall, enjoying her freedom and then we went to the movies again - same movie! I spent the day stressing. We go to Emory at 11 tomorrow to check in and they will put in her central line so they can start chemo right away. I talked to one of the nurses today and she said the soonest she would have the transplant would be 4 weeks, if they find one in the country. If they have to go international it will take longer. That is of course assuming they can get her back into remission quickly. They had a couple of meetings today to plot her course of treatment. Please pray God gives them wisdom to choose the right medicines and the perfect donor. Please also pray for the donor. It is a huge sacrifice to be a donor. We are so thankful in advance for their gift. It is humbling to think of accepting such a gift of love. I think they have rules about when or if you can get your donor's name. I think you have to wait a year. More on that later. Thanks for the prayers. We look forward to your words of encouragement.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart" Ps 37:4

I know the Lord knows the desires of my heart - to heal Erin!!
Praising Him for His promise! Janet

Perplexed

Well, the sermon today was on being angry with God. Surprisingly, we are not angry with God but we are baffled by this new turn of events. I thought we got our miracle 14 1/2 months ago and I can't understand why we have to face this again. Erin is taking it all much better than I am. She is an amazing creation of God. Thankfully she does not feel bad yet. Her counts are low but her spirits are high. She planned a busy weekend of events to keep our minds off of the coming treatment. Yesterday we went to the movies and the bookstore. Then we went out to lunch and then her teacher friends came over to talk shop. Today we went to church and absorbed the love of our church family. We couldn't do this without you all. We already feel the power of your prayers holding us up and it gives us the strength to face this horror again.

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed." 2 Cor: 7-9

Please call all your prayers circles. We need God to hear from us loud and clear!!

Again

Dear Friends and Family, Unfortunately, we are asking for prayer again in a BIG way. The "stinky" leukemia is back. We went for her every 2 month check up on Tues and her numbers were low. So we went back on Fri and they were slightly lower. They rushed a bone marrow biopsy and it was positive for leukemia. They have scheduled her to be readmitted on Tues to start chemo again. The goal is to get her into remission and then do a bone marrow transplant. They will have to find an outside donor because her sisters are not a match. This will be a heavier chemo and longer recovery so we are asking for lots and lots of prayer. We love God and trust Him completely even though we obviously don't understand what is going on. Please help us pray for our sweet girl. More later. janet