Day +34

Dear Prayer Warriors, Thanks for the prayers. Erin is having a much better day. We just got back from the clinic. She had to have labs and visit the PA. All is well. Her platelets were low at 25 but they feel like she can wait til Monday to get more. They took some labs to check her chimera status (?). We looked that up and found out Erin is a mythical creature that breathes fire and has the head of a dragon, the body of a goat and the tail of a serpant. The medical term means someone who has 2 distinct types of DNA in their body which is strangely true right now. Weird huh? She will have to put her photo on the wall in her classroom when she teaches mythology again. Thanks for checking in. As always, we are praising God for family and friends who have seen us through this. You are our angel wings! We love you, janet

"He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." Psalm 91:11

"Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?" Hebrews 1:14

Thurs

Dear Prayer Warriors, Thanks for keeping us in your prayers. Erin had a bout of nausea last night after she took her pills, so I don't think any of them really got absorbed. So unfortunately, she is having a rough morning. Please pray for her pain today. Anytime we have a setback like this with her pills, it takes a while to get caught back up. Amanda's husband Kyle had emergency wisdom teeth removal yesterday and was in bad pain. So they spent the night here and today we have our own little hospital ward. Thankfully Laura had a short day and came home to hang out with Erin. Actually I think she wants Erin to do her homework! Ha! Sisters are always trying to work the system. Our praise for yesterday is that Erin got on the treadmill for 20 minutes. That is great considering she hasn't walked her mile in a few days. It's just ups and downs around here. Thanking God for following every down with an up. Did that make sense? Blessings on your day! janet

Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God." Psalm 90:1-2

Day of rest

Thank you Prayer Warriors for checking in. Erin had a good night and is taking advantage of a day off from the clinic to sleep in. Praising God for rainy sleepy mornings. We start home infusions today but other than that I think Erin has time to rest. Nothing new to report which is also a huge praise. God is taking sweet care of His girl! Blessings on your day, janet

"The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." Matthew 7:25

God is our Rock and Erin is a Rockstar!!

Another long clinic day

Hello Prayer Warriors, Thanks for the prayers. We feel them!! We had another long day at the clinic but today Erin felt better going in so it was manageable. She needed the old antiviral med since she had the reaction to the new one. And she needed platelets, which takes 1.5 hours, so we just got home. Home health will come tomorrow to start the antiviral at home. That will be nice. So we have 2 days off and we go back on friday for labs. We have a big praise. They had told us they wanted to do a bone marrow biopsy on friday to check on her disease, since she had a bit left before the transplant. We questioned them today, as I always do, and asked if it was necessary since it wouldn't change our plan of care and they would definitely do one on day 100. They said o.k., so no biopsy on friday. You can't possibly know how excited Erin was to hear that. Since she has had such stomach pain, she didn't want to lay on her stomach for the procedure and she didn't want a sore backside for the next week either. Thank you Lord, we trust you have this disease wiped out and the Drs can just wait to find out at day 100. So thank you all for your support. We finally got Erin's pain back under control and she is eating a little and we are thrilled. As always, please pray for decreased pain and nausea, increased energy and no GVHD. Blessings on you for being a blessing to us. love, janet

"I will make a covenant of pease with them and rid the land of wild beasts so that they may live in the desert and sleep in the forests in safety. I will bless them ... I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing." Ezekiel 34:25-26

I love a good shower of blessings!! Bring it on Lord!!

Long clinic day

Sorry about the late entry, we had a very long clinic day and just got home. Erin was in so much pain today and so nauseous they had to rush her back to the infusion center to give her some IV dilaudid and ativan. After that she was much better. She was dehydrated from lots of nausea over the weekend so they gave her some fluids. Then she had a reaction to the new antifungal med they tried. They were hoping for us to start that at home. We thank God she was there when she had the reaction so they could give her IV benadryl. All is well now, we just have to stay on top of the pain and nausea to get her transitioned to home life. When you sleep 12 hours at a time, your meds get off their schedule. So now I may be waking her up to push pills. She threatened Bill and I with bodily harm if we woke her up for anything, but now she may have to let us. Anyway, thanks for the continued prayers. We are so hopeful that we can get this all figured out to keep from having to be readmitted. Don't look for early posts this week, we have to go to the clinic 4 days this week and it makes for long days. Blessings on you for fighting the fight with us. we love you, janet

"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." Exodus 14:14

How cool is that?

Day +29

What a Beautiful Morning! Thank you Prayer Warriors for your prayers! We have been blessed with a miracle. Being home is so awesome for all of us. Erin slept 12 hours straight plus the few hours she slept yesterday afternoon. She is so happy to be home. She did manage to stay awake for most of the Ga game and celebrate their win. A wonderful ending to a fabulous day. Again we want to tell you all how much we were blessed by our homecoming reception. We were really blown away! Someone said it was like Extreme Erin Makeover and everyone was chanting, "Move that Van!"
We intend to spend a blissful day away from the hospital, since we will end up spending most of tomorrow at the clinic. We are finally getting to celebrate Laura's birthday. We probably won't hug her though since she was with 30,000 of her closest friends last night at the game. Yikes. Thank you for your continued prayers for Erin. We are praying for decreased stomach pain, decreased nausea, increased energy, a strong immune system and most importantly, very little Graft Vs. Host disease. The Dr told us a little GVH is good, so we know the graft is fighting any remaining Leukemia. But we certainly could do without much of it. Our main goal now is to stay free of germs and infections while her new cells do the hard work.
Wow, sounds like a lot of stuff to ask for doesn't it? But our God is up to the challenge. After all He is the creator and knows exactly what she needs! Praising God for miracles every day!! We love you, janet

Jesus said in John 14:11-14
"Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."

Home Sweet Home!

Wow, What a reception!! We just came home to a huge bunch of people (100+) lining our street with banners and signs and balloons welcoming Erin home. That was so amazing!! A true picture of Heaven on Earth!! Thank you all so much for the fantastic homecoming reception. We cried buckets. You all are too much!! We were truly blessed by your love. I don't even think I can describe that feeling. The funny thing is, our road is being paved today and there are all these huge trucks lining the street too. The foreman had them all line up and honk as we came down the street. It was magic!
This morning Erin had a tearful parting from all the nurses that have taken such good care of her these past weeks. It has been a very emotional day. But now we are home and she is napping in front of the T.V. It's so great to have her home!! Our dogs are home too and it is wonderful.
Bless you all for keeping Erin in your prayers. We have experienced a miracle of God's mercy and we are so humbled by it. What an amazing God we serve. Halleluia! hugs, janet

"You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples." Psalm 77:14

AMEN AMEN AMEN