Hello all. I must deeply apologize for the delay in posts again, but we’ve got a lot to catch you up on. Mom had an exciting summer. In July she and Dad traveled to Jordan and Israel where they got to visit many sights of the Old Testament and to walk where Jesus walked.

Sailing on the Sea of Galilee and floating in the Dead Sea were some of the highlights. On her three-year anniversary of being diagnosed with cancer, she climbed 750 steps to the top of Petra in the humid 90’s temperatures. Talk about a survivor. Mom praises the Lord for giving her the strength and ability to make this trip with no problems.

Mom and Dad have also enjoyed spending time at Lake Roosevelt during the summer with her granddaughters, Kaelynn and Addison. It has been exciting for them to teach the girls how to wakeboard and watch how quickly they learned, went outside the wake, and now want to learn how to jump the wake. Soon they will be teaching Mom and Dad how it’s done.

Last week Mom started having severe pain in her lower legs/calves, after having a month-long battle with the flu. Unable to find relief she began to suspect a deep vein thrombosis and possible pulmonary embolism. She called her Oncologist and he suggested she come into the ER at Virginia Mason and get it checked out just to be safe. The CT Scan revealed she had several blood clots in her lungs. They admitted her into the hospital and began a regiment of Heparin and subsequently Lovenox. She had an ultra-sound the next day, revealing she has two blood clots in her leg, which is probably where they originated from. True to Jeanene form, she was thankful and felt blessed to be diagnosed and treated before the blood clots caused any life threatening complications. The CT Scan also revealed that the tumors in her lungs are growing again and new ones have appeared since her last scan. This means the oral targeted-therapy chemo (Tagrisso) she was taking is not working to maintain or reduce the tumors and a new chemo treatment needs to be found.

While in the hospital, mom spoke with her attending doctors about increasing episodes of ocular headaches she has been experiencing for the last several months. Mom and the doctors discussed if a brain MRI would seem reasonable to make sure the cancer was not spreading. Unfortunately, the MRI did show that the cancer has metastasized into her brain. The doctor’s report stated, “There are too numerous to count enhancing lesions distributed throughout the brain… These measure 2 to 10 mm.”  Not the news we wanted to hear, but again Mom Praises God they were discovered before she began to have worsening symptoms, and thankful she was able to get the MRI sooner rather than later.

Friday evening her oncologist came to speak with Mom and Dad and assured them that the new tumors are treatable. The regiment will be difficult, but the brain tumors can be controlled. Beginning next week she will meet with the Radiation Oncologist who will outline the treatment plan and get her started on radiation therapy to the brain, five days a week for the next three weeks. After which she will begin IV Chemo to continue to battle the lung cancer.

Mom feels assured God has been and will continue to go before her and stay close beside her every step of the way on this turbulent cancer journey. During the MRI she was listening to Christian music while the test was performed. The last song to play just as they pulled her out of the MRI machine was one of her favorite encouraging songs, “I Will Trust in You” by Lauren Daigle. She praised God for giving her that audible sign and assurance that she can indeed trust in Him through the next bend and bumps in the road. Mom continues to hold onto the promise, “It’s not the greatness of my faith that moves mountains, but my faith in the greatness ofGod.”

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support for my Mom and our family. We appreciate the thoughts and kind words, and Mom is always uplifted by your messages. Please pray that Mom will be able to withstand the new treatments with minimal side-effects and for effectiveness of the treatment on the growing tumors.  I will continuously be updating the blog, more often, throughout the ongoing process of radiation and IV chemo.