11-2-10 FINALLY, some GREAT news to share! At Kecia's visit with her primary oncologist she learned that God is still working miracles for her. As you know, she has been doing tests to determine the amount of damage that the chemo is doing on her organs. It's not one big test, but rather a test for the heart one day, the lungs another and so on....Her doctor came in and apologized that he had not reviewed the report on her bones yet as it had been a hectic morning. They looked over it together. He looked shocked and reread it several times before saying "well Kecia...your tests reveal that your bones don't look any different that a normal persons bones" He reminded her that its not really possible to have cancer in your bones and then kill it with 3 times the amount of poison that is given to most people and then have no visible signs of the damage! He can still see the scars from her cancer but even that bone marrow is strong. Kecia thanked him profusely and said that he and God had saved her life. Then, her doctor who is not a professed believer stated "Kecia, you are the poster child for miraculous healing". Even he admitted that science can do amazing things, but that in Kecia's case, medicine could not take the praise for her healing! This certainly does not mean that her battle with cancer is over, but it is one more confirmation that God does want to heal Kecia. How long this road is going to take we can't even begin to guess. But she is NOT going through this alone and I believe God has big plans for Kecia. I can't wait until she's healthy enough to see exactly what that is!

10-26-10 Kecia's visit with the doctor on Thursday went well. He confirmed what the nurse had already said...there are no new tumors and no new growth on the little ones at the base of her brain. Still can't tell for sure if those are dead (and the spots are just the scars) or if they are still very small active cancer spots. The only way to know for sure is to do a biopsy and they wont do that due to its location and the fact that messing with this type of cancer usually makes it spread like crazy. He believes it is just the scar but either way there is no new growth. So praise God for that!! She will have alot of tests run over the next few weeks to test her organs and see how much damage the chemo has done to them. Based on how much poison has been pumped into her body to fight the cancer, it is a miracle that her organs arent shutting down. I have been praying against that almost from the beginning so I am not expecting bad news in this area. It is obvious that God has been protecting her organs because to date she has had zero issues with them being damaged by the chemo. Unbelievable, if you ask me! These tests will be done a little one day and more on another. The first one is testing her heart but I don't know when. Next week I think. Will let you know when I hear something.

Kecia said she just got a call from the nurse letting her know that the scans look good. She doesn't have any details like size or number of tumors but Kecia will get all of that at her meeting with the doctor on Thursday. Thank you all for praying for her!

I forgot to ask this in my last post....How would you all like to hear from Kecia herself? I've been thinking...she isn't working now, and since there are no big activities to update on like surgeries, blood counts, life threatening infections etc. I thought maybe she could update us on the more personal side so that everyone will know better how to pray for her. I haven't mentioned it to her yet, but I've been thinking about it for a long time. Kecia is very lonely and feels completely separated from everyone because she never feels good enough to go out or have visitors. If the majority think it's a good idea, I will present it to her and encourage her to reach out to those who care so much for her, in person.

Kecia is asking for prayer in the way of faith and courage. She was supposed to have a brain scan this week but she was too ill to go. She says that alot of it was that she was just so nervous that they would find her brain covered with cancer that she literally made herself sick with worry. She has rescheduled the scans for the 11th and is asking that we pray from her mental and spiritual strength right now. Of course she is still asking for prayer that the scans will be cancer free too. She desperatly wants to be able to lower her doses of chemo so that she can feel better and start working again. As it is now, she has a very low quality of life and is looking forward to feeling better. Her doctor doesn't want to stop the aggressive treatments until she has gone a year with clear scans so if this one is clear it will be the 2nd of 5 needed to lower her doses!

9-8-10 Kecia has asked me to update everyone and ask for prayer in a specific area. In light of the recent conversation with her doctor, Kecia is feeling very down and discouraged. The thought of going on in this same miserable manner that she has been for the last year is overwhelming her. She wrestles with the idea of just stopping meds and going out gracefully. She doesn't have peace about that though and so would find it anything but "graceful". This past year has been far worse that the first year of her fight. The thought of doing it for at least another year is more than she can handle right now. Please pray that God will give her wisdom on how to move forward and that the wisdom with come with peace!

Doctor's Report

9-4-10 Kecia met with her doctor last week and didn't hear exactly what she wanted to hear from him. She was wanting to know if they could lower her doses of chemo, or maybe drop one of the ones that has the worst side effects, but he felt like that was too dangerous at this point. Last time she was cancer free (a year ago) they significantly lower her dose for a month and cancer spread to her brain. Since having cancer in the soft tissue is just about the worst thing that can happen to a caner patient he feels that they need to continue fighting aggressively for another year. He wants to keep her on 3 chemos at full strength and will lower the one with harsh side effects from 8 pills a day to 6. Doesn't sound like that will decrease her symptoms much but we'll see. We were hoping for some changes that would allow her to feel better but he doesn't think it's safe to do so yet. She really trusts him, so for now she plans on sticking it out a little longer.
Another point of interest is her financial situation. She has been forced to take long term disability from work and so is not collecting a real paycheck anymore. My understanding is that she makes about 35-40% of her usual pay. What she made last month covered only the cost of her prescriptions. She still has co-pays, doctor fees and payment on any special procedures to come up with. She usually goes to infusion monday through friday for fluids and extra "side effect busting" meds but due to co-pays she has had to cut that down to the bare minimum so as not to rake up extra cost. Please be in prayer about this issue. It is very hard for her not to worry about the financial side of fighting this disease when the bills just keep coming in and she doesn't see an end to it any time soon. We know God is faithful to provide for her. He has shown His face to her (and those of us watching) so many times in the past 2 years but worry is our human nature. So please pray for God's provision as well as His peace for Kecia.