Tomorrow is my MRI day at U of M.  I’m nervous, anxious and partly excited.  Nervous and anxious about everything surrounding the MRI.  The IV poke to get the contrast in.  Sitting in a tube for 30 minutes with robotic noises blaring in my ears.  The results of the MRI (I won’t have the results until next week).  The list goes on.  I don’t even like walking through the doors at the cancer center.  Don’t get me wrong, I love U of M but not the feeling I get walking in there.  I see so many sick people at varying degrees of illness.  It’s hard.

I’m excited because Jill is coming with me and we’re going to IKEA first.  I love walking around IKEA.  What I love more is having Jill with me.  She’ll keep me upbeat.  She always does.

I had a great time with my Cancer Club girls last Saturday.  We met at JP’s.  It was great to see everyone and wonderful to have Lisa Vander Zwaag there for the first time.  She’s another brave soul who is around my age and battling this nastiness.  She doesn’t keep a blog so I can’t refer you to one, but please pray for her.  This is a picture of our cancer club.  From left to right is Kristi Rogalske, Lisa Vander Zwaag, me, Lynette Bell, Heather DeBoer, Amy Harper and Robin Maxson. 

Please pray that tomorrow’s appointment goes well and that the results are great. 

You know what sucks about my cancer?  I don’t know what to expect.  How many people do you know had breast cancer metastasize to their brain in the form of six tumors.  Undergo whole brain radiation and a couple weeks later endure Gamma Knife surgery.  If you do know someone, do they have a seven year old and two year old twins?  I don’t know anyone.  So it’s really hard to know what to expect.  I can’t bounce questions off people.  I have to take things as they come not knowing how long it will last.  Just when I think I’m getting better (last week), I’m wrong.  This week has been a little rougher with headaches, bouts of nausea and fatigue.  It’s frustrating to say the least.  Cancer sucks.

I think I’ve mentioned the Cancer Club in past blogs.  We’re a group of young moms who’re battling this demon and I beg of you to pray for Kristi Rogalske (a link to her blog is on the left rail).  She and her husband have made the difficult decision to stop chemo and they had their first meeting with Hospice yesterday.  Please pray that the peace she feels continues.  I’ve just been getting to know her and she is a wonderful woman, wife and mother.  This is really hard for me to think about. 

The big news in our house is that we’ve decided to move.  We’ve wanted to move before the cancer returned and now that things are calmer and more scheduled, we have decided to move.  We’re not moving anywhere exotic.  We’re staying in Zeeland.  So if you need a house on Paw Paw Drive (the street so nice they named it twice) there is a great one for sale.

Learn More – View Listing

Learn More – View Listing

Things are going reasonably well.  All side effects (fatigue, nausea, headaches, lymphedema, etc) are not as frequent or as bad and I’ve had quite a few decent days!  Praise God.   So much so, that I’ve had Max and Samantha home with me much more recently.  They are so much fun!  Naughty, but fun.  They got into the pantry the other day and played “eat”.

The blizzard was awesome.  Brooklyn was so excited that school was cancelled.  We had a great couple days off.  On Wednesday Brooklyn made a Blizzard Celebration Cake. 

On Thursday, my dad came with his John Deere tractor to plow our driveway.  Max LOVES Papa’s tractor. 

Dad created a huge “snow mountain” for the kids to climb on.  Brooklyn loves it. 

Brooklyn was bummed she had school again today.  I think I saw tears roll down her cheeks this morning.  Life is tough when you’re a first grader.  🙂

My next MRI is scheduled for February 24.  I return again the following week, March 1 (happy birthday mom!) for the results and another check up with Dr. Schott. 

Please pray for:

• Health in our family.  I’m fighting a terrible sore throat. 
• Peace for my family and friends.
• Endurance
• Faith not Fear
• My cancer to go away completely.
• A cure.