:]

So today is extra special to us because I am breaking a previous pattern. Ordinarily I would be sitting in chemotherapy right now, but I am not! Praise the Lord again. This is the first Thursday since February somethingrather that I haven't gone to the hospital and I am loving it. Thanks again for all your support. We pray that God has used these challenges from our lives in to grow you as well. He is quite good.

Braden and Christy

Hey!

We don't have cancer anymore. We just got back from the doc and he said so. The PET scan came back clear and clean which is a miracle in itself considering it's proximity to my last session. I still have to go in for one last session next Thursday, but that's the last of the nasties. Praise God.

PET Scan!

Just a quick note: I got a call today that my PET scan got bumped up to tomorrow. So here I go. Praise the Lord.

Two updates in one day! Someone must have been very well behaved.

We found out today near the end of Braden's chemo session that our PET scan has finally been approved by the insurance! This means that we'll be able to confirm that cancer has left the building, and we can go about our business (yes, I know I mixed my references). This is a HUGE answer to prayer since we've been waiting for this to signal the end of our treatment so we can start our kick-butt summer plans.

In other news, my students started the hugest food-fight ever recorded in the history of our elementary school. It began, as far as we could tell, with a student deciding to toss his entire tray in the air (full of food and beverages), and see if he could catch it without spilling anything. He failed. This is why 7th graders are awesome!

Thanks, as always, for your prayers and support! We're looking forward to our end-of-cancer party!

Nearing the end

Hello friends and family!

I'm sitting in the business seat right now. Not that one. I'm hooked up to the chemo dripper, but it's just saline right now. I'll have about a 1.5 hr wait till I begin, but I wanted to tell you all the good news. The doctor said that we only have to do 4 rounds. That means this is my second to last time to come in for chemo. The last session will be on June 2nd. We still don't know about which scan will be approved by insurance, but either way we'll be done with the bad juice soon. Thanks again for your many prayers and support especially today. I don't know how I made it here today except for prayer and I'm doing quite well. We'll be celebrating soon.

Love,
Braden and Christy

Hello there...

Hello,
Pardon me, it's been a while. Finishing up this lymphoma journey is being a bit tough. I've now completed round 3 and had a good visit with the doctor. I asked him if it was reasonable to think that I am cancer-free and he confirmed it. There is no sign of the initial tumor and no other lymph nodes in any sort of distress. He walked in to see me asking, "what kind of insurance do you have that denies everything?". It was a little bit funny to me.
     But the good news is he decided we won't wait on the insurance for a PET scan. He said we would complete round 4, do a CAT scan, see what we can see, and maybe finish up with round 5. Right now, the thought of any more rounds sounds like the worst thing in the world to me, but this means there is an end in sight. The conversation continued and will continue more within the next weeks to get the CAT scan scheduled and hopefully not do a 5th round. In the unfortunate scenario that we do a 5th round my last day of awfulness would be June 30th and from there on out I could be getting the bad bad chemicals out of my body. It's tough to describe having your body want chemicals out of it so bad including the power of the mind to support it. Much of my recovery is fought on the mental front. There's certain things I can't think about without getting sick, let alone talk about. It's pretty wild how we're made.
    Thanks again for all your loving support. Christy and I are so blessed to have you all. We're pushing to get through to the 30th of June when she'll be all done with school. In the mean time we have a whole slew of fun visitors! We're very excited.


Thanks again!

Braden and Christy

Happy Easter!

Hi all. We realized it’s been a while since our last update. We have started month 3 of chemo (Braden went in last Thursday, and is almost fully recovered now!). We were hoping this would be our last month, but sadly, the insurance company decided that it was too soon for the PET scan to show any change in the cancer, so they denied paying for the PET scan for at least another month. I’m still unclear on how the insurance company has final say in our treatment instead of our doctor, but that’s the way it is. Right now, we’re hoping that they will cover the PET scan in May, so that we can know how much longer we have for treatment. We’re pretty sure Braden is cancer free now (based only on intuition and hope) but we need the scans to confirm it.

We had a good time recently, during my spring break. Even though Braden was sick for almost all of it, thanks to a bad bratwurst, it was nice to spend time together. We went to the zoo on Wednesday and hung out with some lions. Lions are pretty good at curing cancer.

Now we’re back to regular schedule and looking forward to the end of the school year, when we’ll be done with 13-year-olds for a while, done with cancer FOREVER, and off on some crazy summer adventures. I’m trying to convince Braden that we should drive to Alaska and go moose wrestling, but we’ll probably only make it as far as my mom’s casa in the Seattle area.

Thanks, as always for your prayers and support! We have the best friends and family ever.