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.

August 23 2010-

Not much new to tell. Everything with Kecia is going as scheduled as far as we can tell. She had her new port put in and the proceedure went very smoothly. She recovered quickly with no problems. Having no port for 2 weeks meant no iv chemo so she only took the two oral ones. She felt like a new woman and enjoyed not feeling so sick for a little over a week. Our church had a end of the summer swim last night and Kecia and her family made it for a nice float around the pool. She can't do anything strenuous like swim or anything but floating and sitting on the steps was a real treat for her. It's the first real "summer activity" she has been able to enjoy so we were so happy to have them there. Not to mention....she looks very nice in her swim suit. She just rolled her eyes when I told her that but it was immediatly obvious that she has lost at least 20 pounds in the past 4 or 5 months. (the one up side to being so sick that you cant eat, I guess) She had forgotten what it feels like to feel good and by-golly she decided that she likes it! She plans to talk to her doctor at their next sit down visit and discuss reducing her meds or even stopping some of them. (she is taking 2 orally and 2 iv) She doesn't want to risk her health but she would like to reduce if possible to increase her quality of life. She is anxious to get back to work. Being idle and having no "purpose" is one of the hardest parts of this whole battle for her. So, if you re looking for something to pray about....pray that her doctor will be able to significantly reduce her chemo and not have any cancer grow! That will be a huge milestone in her recovery.

7-29-10 Kecia got the results back today and it turns out she has an infection in one of her port lines. She couldn't tell because its not actually in the port itself, but in one of the lines that leads to her heart valve. They are very anxious to get it taken care of before the infection actually spreads to her heart. They are going to monitor her blood work carefully over the next month to make sure that it doesn't, assuming it hasn't already. She is scheduled for surgery tomorrow. I don't think the actual procedure is until early afternoon but of course she has to be there early for all the prep work. They are going to remove the port and it's lines. They want to put in (I can't remember the name of it) one of those things that is like a port but the line will be outside her body. The surgeon who is taking out the port won't do the outside line because she says they are too dangerous and pron to infection. If they can't find someone to do the line surgery tomorrow, Kecia will have to go back in for a second surgery to have one put in once they find a surgeon willing to do it. She must have either a port, or a line because her veins are so collapsed that they can't access them. And on the few times that they have, they couldn't get any blood out. She will probably have blood drawn every day for several weeks to monitor the infection so they need some way to access her veins. Once the infection is taken care of and she is in the clear, they will have to go back and put a new port in. She is looking at 2 surgeries for sure, and 3 if they can't find a surgeon by tomorrow willing to do the line. I just spoke with her and she is a bit shaken and apprehensive. She is asking that we all pray that the surgeon taking out the port (who is the one who put this one in and did a fabulous job last time) will agree to put in the line and save her an additional surgery. Also, for her overall safety during surgery and for a quick stop to the infections spread. Will let you all know something when I hear it.

Well Kecia got the results back from her last brain scan and better than it could have been but not as good as she had hoped. There is no significant changes to the small spots at the base of her brain. Of course she hoped they would be gone, but is still very relieved that they are not active or growing. Her doctor still thinks they may already be "dead" and that what they are seeing is just the "footprint" left behind but he can't be absolutely positive without a biopsy which they won't do unless they have to. You may remember that she was told she would probably be on this aggressive chemo schedule for one year and then taper off to less and less chemo as was allowed to ward off new cancer growth. Well, that year mark is coming up in October, but now they want to keep her on it another year to make sure those on the brain are not active and don't have a chance to grow. She is thinking that she might want to just gamma knife them and get it over with. These are, after all, the three that were outside of the knifes reach when originally done and with such good results the first time it might mean she could start lowering her dose of chemo sooner, thus resuming a more normal quality of life sooner. She doesn't have an appointment with the brain doctor for several more weeks but plans to discuss her options with him in great detail at that time.....
In the mean time, Kecia had a pretty bad virus last week...running a fever of 103, achey (more than usual) vomiting (more than usual) etc. She was feeling a bit better when she went in for her monday checkup but they took blood anyway. She got a call this afternoon telling her she needed to get in to see the infectious disease doctor asap as she had "septic blood" Neither of us knows exactly what that means but we know it is NOT GOOD! If not properly treated in a timely manner it can be fatal. Needless to say, Kecia is a little nervous and wishes her appointment would hurry up and get her. They couldn't get her in until tomorrow so this is going to be a long night for her. Please pray wisdom for her doctors, recovery for her body, and strength for her.

GOOD NEWS! Kecia's results are in from her scans last week and everything looks GREAT! There is still no active cancer and the bone specialist says it still looks like the bones are regenerating where the cancer used to be. That is unheard of and as he told her, he did so with an attitude of awe and wonder. They continued talking about how different this was than the outcome all of the doctors had expected. He reminded her that 2 years ago, they were saying "we'll just take it one week at a time...and if what we do works, we'll go for a month...and then 3...and then 6. And if we can keep you here for 2 years then we have a real shot at keeping you around until a real cure is found." Her primary oncologist said "well, kecia has approached treating cancer with a very different attitude. It's like she is reading the book on how to treat cancer except that she rips out the parts she doesn't like and replaces them with her own version of recovery." I hope all of our prayer warriors truely understand what a miracle it is that Kecia is here with us today. Medically, she is not supposed to be. Her doctors can not explain it. How awesome that we got to be a part of that!!! I believe Kecia is still here because God has a special purpose for her that has not yet been fulfilled. I can't wait to see what it is. If Kecia works at it as hard as she works at fighting cancer, she is sure to be more than successful! They still need to do the brain scan to check on those 2 little spots that were outside the gamma radiation but her doctors expect good results. If they are still there, or are not shrinking fast enough, they will discuss more gamma radiation on those pinpointed spots. They are adding one more (easier to tolerate) chemo in pill form and plan to phase out the real yucky one with horrible side effects over the next few months. Will let you know when they do them and how they turn out.

We're still here!

I bet you're wondering where we are! Well, I apologize for the long silence. Not too much has changed for Kecia since my last post but things in my household have been a little crazy so I haven't had a change to update. Kecia is still fighting the big fight! She continues with her three chemos...two orally and one through IV. She goes in for hydration IV every weekday and spends most of the rest of the day in bed. She doesn't feel like she's "dying" but doesn't feel good enough to do anything either. Makes for a pretty boring week. She has only been able to come out here for dinner a few times in the past month and it seemed that she paid for it for several days following the visit. Her mom (Jeanie) was taken to the hospital last week for chest pains which gave Kecia quite a scare. They feared it was a heart attack but thankfully tests revealed that her heart was fine. Not sure what was going on but her doctor is keeping an eye on her. (not nearly as close an eye as Kecia, Im sure)
Kecia had bone scans done last Thursday so she is expecting the results Tuesday or Wednesday. As always we are praying for strong bones free of cancer! Will let you know when the results are in.

4-30-10 Kecia had some more scans done on Tuesday and got the results back yesterday. Everything still looks good...the spots on her brain that we were watching still appear to be inactive. No growth, but no shrinkage either. Her EKG showed that her heart is strong and healthy dispite all the poison being pumped into her daily. Praise God for that! (that is something that I pray for daily..that God will protect her organs from the natural side effects of prolonged use of chemo) So we are very thankful for the continued good news. On another note, Kecia is requesting prayer in the area of her job. She was told that she had to take FMLA even though she is working full time (from home). She is concerned for her job security since without it she will loose her good insurance. Please pray that God will watch over her in this area and provide for her needs.

It has been a long time since I last blogged so I wanted to touch base to let you know we are still here and Kecia is still fighting the good fight. Nothing new to report. Kecia had 3 good days last week and my children were thrilled that she chose to spend them with us. Nothing fancy, just laying back in the recliner..reading books with the 2 yr old, coloring with the 4 yr old and watching "Princess and the Frog" with the two big girls. It was good to see her feeling a little better. In fact, she has a nice thick "helmet" of hair covering her head now. She still has a skunk stripe right down the middle where it is a little bit shorter than the rest (from where they did radiation) but at this point we're thinking hair is hair and we won't complain about the unique designs. She started back on her tough chemo Thursday and was sick as a dog by Saturday so the vacation is over. We don't expect to see her up and about for another couple of weeks. She has to endure this schedule until late October...so I guess that's about another 6 months. Unless theres something to report, you probably won't hear alot from me, but I hope you will continue to pray for Kecia. We are still praying for complete healing....on by that I mean NO MORE MEDS! Also, pray for her mental and emotional health and she fights this long and tiresome battle.

update correction

3-25-10 Apparently I misunderstood an important part of Kecia's update and need to correct the information I previously posted. It's still good news, just not quite as good. Her body is NOT completely free of cancer. The two spots on her brain that couldn't be reached by the gamma knife are gone, but there are still a few places in her body that "show" cancer. They are old spots. There is nothing new and the ones that still show are getting smaller and are considered inactive. My last update implied that she was in remission again, but that is not the case YET. So..still great news but wanted to clarify the information. She is currently battling some virus that would be just a few days of incovenience for you and I, but it is keeping her dehydrated and malnurished. So please keep that in your prayers. Her spirits have definatly been lifted by they recent news from her scans, but as I'm sure you all know, feeling sick 24/7 is very taxing on the body and spirit.

PS I know the 3 Day Cancer Walk is coming up soon. Is anyone walking? If so, post it and let us know the name of your team.

...and the survey says....

Who's ready for some much needed good news? Kecia got her results back from all of her tests and the news is wonderful! From her Head to her toes...no cancer! Her doctor's actual words were "it looks like your cancer is just melting away". Even the two spots on her brain that couldn't be reached with the gamma knife are gone. PRAISE GOD FOR THIS GOOD NEWS! Kecia is so relieved by this much needed report. She still has to follow this strict chemo schedule for another SIX MONTHS in order to keep the cancer from coming back, but we're not even thinking about that right now. We're just enjoying the knowlege that for the first time in a long time, Kecia isn't worrying about where cancer may be growing in her body....because her whole body was scanned...and it was CANCER FREE!

We FINALLY got some news back from one of Kecia's tests. Her GI doctor called late Friday afternoon to let her know that the biopsy came back negative and her stomach, throat and esophagus are cancer free. He feels confident that the problems she is having are simply due to her chemo side effects and not something she needs to worry about excessively. He is putting her on a type of anti-acid Rx (just one more thing to add to her daily intake of meds) but it is NOT CANCER! Praise God for some good news! Still haven't heard anything about the other 3 tests, but Kecia's oncologist is on vacation until Tuesday so they probably have the results and just aren't calling her until he gets back. She thinks this is probably a good sign that nothing is wrong or surely they would call immediatly and not wait for him...right? We would hope so. Anyway, we have good news so far and that's what she is really needing right now. Keep praying for her quality of life to improve and for more "negative" news and I'll let you know when we find out.

3-13-10 All of Kecia's tests are finished and went well. She won't get any of the results until next week but she said they all went smoothly. The nurse in the GI office said that they did not see anything significant during the scope and biopsy, so that is encouraging news. In addition to the 3 scheduled procedures, they also squeezed in a breast scan for a total of 4 things in 3 days. We are praying for only good news! Will update when we know more.

Lots of tests

I haven't had alot to write about lately, but I guess when it rains it pours. Kecia went in for hydration today and spoke with her oncologist. He has scheduled her bone scans for tomorrow (Wed 10th) afternoon so she will head straight there after chemo. She also saw a GI doctor this afternoon to see if he could do anything about her extreme nausea and he wants to put a scope down her throat and biopsy her esophagus and stomach to rule out any cancers there. He has planned it for the following day (Thur 11th). And she already had her brain scan scheduled for Friday the 12th. There is ALOT of potential for bad news at the end of these three days and Kecia is asking that everyone pray for all tests to be cancer free. I'm asking that the pray it one step further and get some kind of good news beyond just cancer free. Kecia needs another uplifting miracle report. Emotionally and physically she is spent. Thank you for your prayers!
Also, Kecia's life consists of nothing but work (from home) and doctors appointments. She really enjoys the excitment of getting an unexpected card in the mail so I am including the address on your email update notice for anyone who would like to minister to her that way.

Easy Reference Prayer Schedule:
Wednesday.......bone scans
Thursday..........laproscopic exloritory surgery
Friday...............brain scans

3-4-10 It has been awhile since my last update and I apologize for keeping you in the dark. Not a whole lot has changed for Kecia in the last few weeks. She is still doing the three different kinds of chemo and going in every day for infusion. She had bit her lip a few weeks ago and had to go to get antibiotics because it had gotten infected. She is still having alot of trouble eating. She is so nauseated most of the time that she can only eat "sick" foods like oatmeal, soup and crackers. While that seems like a nice mild diet during sick times, it is not much of a diet to live on full time but that is all she can hold down. We are really needing to pray about her intense nausea. She needs to feel good enough, long enough to get some real food in her and keep it down. Also, she fell down 2 weeks ago and has done it 5 times since then. She says she just looses her balance and before she has time to react she is on the ground. This is not only very inconvenient, but very dangerous for Kec. Please add that to your prayer list as her doctors arent exactly sure why this is happening. She is scheduled to have another brain scan in a few weeks. We are praying that they will find nothing.

MRI results

Kecia got the results from her MRI and it looks good. If you remember, there were two legions outside the gamma radiation box that they were unable to treat. They were hoping that the radiation would still affect those areas since they were very close but wanted to watch them to be sure. When they did the MRI, they found that one of the two was completely gone. The other, is still there, and showing no changes. Her doctor isn't sure if it went untreated or if it was treated and dead but still showing up. They only way they could know for sure is to do a biopsy which they don't plan to do. So, they are going to do an MRI every two months to monitor it for changes. If it gets smaller they will know it is dead and shrinking, if it gets larger they will know it is resistent to the chemo and they will treat it with radiation again.
Our Bible study was praying for Kecia and her side effects last week. We specifically singled out her problem with myopothy (sorry about the spelling), restless leg, and pain in her legs. We are happy to report that she is having no problems with her legs this time around. I'm thinking we should have targeted the nausea as well, because she isn't able to keep anything down other than oatmeal. After seven days of oatmeal for every meal you can imagine how badly she would love ANYTHING else! She is going in everyday for infusion as that helps her body stay hydrated. She will see her doctor later this week to see if they stay the course or change things up a bit due to the last MRI.

1-24-10

I'm not sure if I told you this or not, but Kecia started back on Herceptin this past Thursday. She was taking that during her original bout with cancer but has only been on Xolmetta and ??? (sorry, can't remember) this time. They have decided to add Herceptin back in along with these other two. So as it stands now, she takes one of the oral chemos every day, the other is every day for two weeks then off for one week, and the Herceptin she gets through IV every Thursday. She is disappointed about this on several levels. First, we are wondering why they feel like she needs yet another chemo. Second, she feels bad enough without adding any more poison to her exhausted body, and third, she has to spend all day on Thursdays getting it IV style.
Her brain scan is scheduled for Tuesday the 26th so please be in prayer about this. I can't even imagine how she will feel if she hears that there are more spots on her brain. Her body is so exhausted right now. She desperatly needs a break so her body can begin to heal from all of the surgeries and chemo. We are praying for clean brain scans and a good break from feeling sick.

1-17-10 We Have FUZZ! Yes folks our prayers are being answered. Kecia has had NO hair growth since loosing it 3 months ago, and one week after we inlisted the help of our prayer warriors....FUZZ! Not a lot, but a soft dark shadow all over her head. YEAH! I know it may not seem like a big deal to everyone else (considering Kecia has much bigger problems to worry about) but to her it's a symbol that she is getting better. She feels less sick when she can look in the mirror and see changes in the positive direction. Thank you for praying with us about something that seems so little..because to Kecia it is important.

Not much to tell lately which I consider a HUGE blessing. Kecia went in for her regular check up at the Oncologist and he said everything looks good. She was concerned about a hard spot under her skin where the hysterectomy scar is but he says it is just a rather large spot of scar tissue. She has also been very concerned about her lack of hair growth. There is nothing growing and last time she was showing a dark shadow all over her head by now. He assures her that it will most likely grow back in time (even if it's not as quick as she would like) BUT there is a small percentage of people who's hair doesn't ever grow back. We are praying that Kecia is NOT one of these few people.

She has finished opening all of her Christmas "feel better" gifts and really enjoyed that! In addition to the earlier mentioned ones, she got a "ready to put pictures in" scrap book...house shoes...a devotional book...edible goodies...gift cards..and many more fun and uplifting gifts.

We started the new topic in our Bible study and although she didn't feel very well, Kecia and Jeanie both made it and had a good time.
That's all for now....