Half Way Through Chemo!!!

Dear Prayer Warriors,

Thank you all so much for your encouraging words the last couple of days about motherhood and raising kids. I love the analogy Shelly mentioned about parenting being a roller coster ride. It is filled with lots of "hair raising" twists and turns but I can truly say it is the most joyous blessing ever. I plan on coming back and rereading your posts whenever I have another "Calgon take me away day!"

Today was my third chemo treatment. I am now half way! Yeah!! And Guess what? You know that big ol' 6 cm + lymph node under my arm (we've affectionately called Sponge Bob)? Well it has shrunk to next to nothing!! The Oncologist and I can barely feel it. Last month it was 3 cm. What a miraculous change!! Praise God!!

Today in the chemo room I ran into Neil and his wife, Susie again. Neil is the patient struggling just get nourishment. Jello was about all he could get down and even that was tough. His wife Susie said the thrush sores in his mouth did finally go away which was a huge answer to prayer. He's back on his regular chemo but the chemo works with a particular enzyme in your body that Neil somehow lacks. It has made his progress slow. They are also traveling up from Athens, TN (about an hour 1/2drive one way) 5 days a week, and he is undergoing radiation at the same time. They are the nicest couple. She is a 5 year breast cancer survivor, so they've been through alot already. I was encouraged just to see Neil eating some crackers while I was there. Please keep praying for them.

While in the chemo room, we actually had fun telling ghost stories. I am always amazed by the laughter those chemo nurses share when they see so much sadness everyday. One nurse said she hated ghost stories and while the rest of us were sharing them, she was stomping her foot and yelling "Blah, blah, I can't hear you!!" There wasn't a cancer patient in the room who wasn't laughing. Those ladies truly have a gift for healing the heart as well as the body.

In the waiting room there was also a hospital volunteer playing music on a piano to soothe the patients. She was playing movie tunes. I am the type of person if I watch a gushy Hallmark card commercial or hear a sappy song, I can cry on the spot. One of the songs she played was from an early 1990's Robin Hood movie with Kevin Costner in it. It is not a Christian song but as I listened to the lyrics it really made me think of our relationship to God. It is "Everything I do" by Bryan Adams. For the first time I listened to it as though God was speaking to me and it made me get a little teary right there in the cancer ward.


Look into my eyes - you will see
What you mean to me
Search your heart - search your soul
And when you find me there you'll search no more

Don't tell me it's not worth tryin' for
You can't tell me it's not worth dyin' for
You know it's true
Everything I do - I do it for you

Look into your heart - you will find
There's nothin' there to hide
Take me as I am - take my life
I would give it all - I would sacrifice

Don't tell me it's not worth fightin' for
I can't help it - there's nothin' I want more
Ya know it's true
Everything I do - I do it for you

There's no love - like your love
And no other - could give more love
There's nowhere - unless you're there
All the time - all the way

There's no love like HIS love. Cross your fingers for me about the expo and have a great weekend! Lots of love,

Kerry