Fun Pictures

Hey everyone! Just thought I'd share a few pics of what we've been up to lately! These pictures are a few weeks old now but we still thought it would be fun to post some!!

Elisabeth posted the pictures this morning while we were in Iowa City and I thought I'd just add to her post what happened today. I saw Dr. Jamieson and they are kind of unsure what to do with me, after the transplant was delayed due to the infections, (which are getting better) they are now concerned with moving ahead with the transplant because I have some risk factors that they are scared of. Apparently my having a three way translocation of cells is very rare and they do not have enough experience with it to feel comfortable moving ahead at this time, It is also the reason they want to move ahead. (Thats a very simplified version of what they call a very complicated problem)They are going to wait another month and then do another Bone Marrow biopsy to see where I am at. They may very well change there minds in a month basically they are afraid to go ahead and afraid to wait so the safer thing is to wait and just get me healthier so if they go ahead I will have the best chance for success. If you would pray for the Drs. I would appreciate it they are a little stumped, In addition my platlet count has fallen and in my Drs. words "I think ITP is rearing its ugly head again" so I will be going in for many blood tests I'll go back Thursday and Monday and then at least weekly until it gets better, ITP is what I was hospitalized for last time it is when your immune system attacks your platlets (which clot your blood). So you could also pray that won't happen. On the bright side Elisabeth had her best swim meet of the year last week she had good times and it was fun for her (it has been a struggle for her to relax with all that is going on at our house) she has a meet tomorow night in Cedar Rapids so we are hoping she will do well again. She works Very Hard and its good to be rewarded with time drops. We are hoping Rex can get Linda out of the house to come and watch that is always a treat for all of us. (Love ya Linda) Have a good day.

Lance

Filling up my car tire! :)

Getting the bikes ready for us to ride

My team is wearing the blue

Dragon Boats

We haven't posted in a while mainly just because there isn't much to write about. I go in for blood work every week and nothing has changed . We had fun last weekend Elisabeths swim team had a Dragon boat race on the Mississippi her boat made up of the Varsity won 1st place. It was a beautiful day to sit by the river and watch what was going on. Dragon Boats are like giant canoes with a dragon figure carved on the front, there are (I think) 18 paddlers and they have to synchronize their paddling while one person drums a cadance and another lays across the bow and pulls a flag out of a platform to stop the clock. They race about a quarter mile down the river, It was fun and the girls really have a good time together. Teams come from all over Canada etc. and they are in different divisions elite, high school etc. Elisabeth will post some pictures when she has a chance she is really busy right now swimming many hours every day, she is battling a bad cold and it wears her out but doesn't slow her down. Penny has been working hard around the house trying to get things done before I go in the hospital, I sit around and watch (lifes good) Saturday morning we are going to watch Gavin (our Grandson) play football for the YMCA he is 7 and runs like Adrian Peterson. We will write more soon.
Lance

God's Timing

Today was suppose to be the day Lance was to go to the hospital to start Chemo for the transplant...... After our appointment Monday, I realized even more how God's timing isn't ours(or the doctors) and He knows what is best. During this time of delay because of the fungal infection, they have noticed more unusual things about Lance's case, Which makes them very cautious in going forward to transplant and also nervous about waiting........ not a really good option either way right now. But even though things SEEM uncertain and no one knows for sure the right answer we trust that God does. ----Penny

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! --Psalm 46:10

Delays

Yesterday, Monday we went back to Iowa City to see Dr. Jamieson and it seems that the infection they are so worried about is getting a lot better but not gone. So they are going to wait a while and see what happens. They received most of the results back from my last Bone Marrow Biopsy and it shows that the new drugs I'm on are just kind of holding things in place. They were hoping to see a drop in my Leukemia but at this point that is not happening, on the bright side it is not really getting worse either. I have now been on Dasatinab for 4 months and the rule is 6 months before they rule it as a failure, and since they have to wait another month due to the infection they are going to wait the full 6 months before rescheduling a transplant ( which is actually 2 more months from now so either late Octorber or early November before they make anymore decisions ). My Drs. said that they are 90% sure the drug won't work, but as long as there is a chance, and we will be so close anyway they think it would be wise to just wait. I will go in weekly so they can monitor my blood, they seem comfortable that nothing should get away from them in a week so it will be safe to wait. Dr. Jamison said they would need to see a miraculous amount of change for me to not need a transplant but we know Miracles can and do happen so if thats Gods will it will, Thanks for caring we continue to thank God for his Love and find comfort in knowing it is all in his hands.
Lance

New Groupie???

Well last night Lance went to his first Ten Avenue North concert. I think that secretly while he was teasing Elisabeth about being a groupie, that he really wanted to go! There was a free concert and Lance REALLY wanted to do something special for and with Elisabeth before he went into the hospital, it was a great night. We picked up Elisabeth's friend Christina to go with, then stopped to see Justin, Ashley and Dillan on our way and had so much fun seeing them and just watching Dillan. She is a show herself!! We visited and they made us a delicious lunch and Lance and Dillan got a nap before we left for the concert.

Tomorrow we head to Iowa City for an appointment and to get all the bone marrow test results. Thank you all for your love, prayers and support. God is faithful!

Transplant delayed.

Hi- Just a quick update I went to Iowa City today and met with Dr. Jamison and she decided that we need to postpone my transplant most likely for at least a month. I have a fungal infection that is quite common among Leukemia patients and it is just not responding very fast to the drugs that I have been on. They switched the drug two weeks ago and it looks like the new drug is working but it has a way to go before it will be safe to do the transplant. Dr. Jamison said that the leading cause of death during transplant is from this infection because once they kill my immune system it will just take over, they can't put me on some of the drugs they normally use because they interact badly with the medicine I take to keep my cancer in check so the best option right now is just to stay the course with the drug I am currently on. After that discussion she had me go in for a Bone Marrow biopsy just to see where the Leukemia is, it will take 7-10 days for the results of that test. Should it come back that I am showing too many blast cells or that the Leukemia is growing too fast, then they will go to transplant regardless because at that point it will be less risky than waiting. All in all she says it is not uncommon for this to happen and for delays to take place. I am grateful that they are so careful but a little disappointed at the same time we are ready to move on. Dr. Jamison said that I have had a very uncommon case from day one Penny says thats because I want to win at everything even being uncommon.
Elisabeth spent the day today at Devils Lake in Wisconsin hiking and swimming with the girls on the swim team, she had a really good day lots of fun. One good thing about all the delays in my treatments are she is about to start her senior season and I thought I would miss all her meets, I should be able to see quite a few now and am excited about that. Thanks to everyone for all your thoughts and prayers I really appreciate the support.
Lance

Triathalon

We had a fun morning today. Elisabeth was in a Triathalon she swam a 400, biked 12 miles and ran a 5k she did really well came in 4th place in her age group. Most of the Varsity girls from her swim team participated it was open to all the kids in the city and families. We attached a few pictures below, Penny also wrote under the pictures about tomorrow.

Got a call from Iowa City this week, they will wait to make any decisions concerning Lance's medicines and the timing of the transplant till after they get the results from his bone marrow biopsy which he has tomorrow. Don't know how long it will take to get the final results on that. He was suppose to go off his cancer medicine tomorrow in order to be ready to start the chemo for the transplant on Sept. 2, so we'll see what they decide...... Please pray for us tomorrow as we travel, that they give Lance LOTS of good drugs for the biopsy( it is not a fun thing to have done), wisdom for the doctors, and a clear calm mind for me so I can ask the right questions and remember all the details! It can get a bit overwhelming at times.....

Trusting God's timing

Quick update, Lance went to Iowa City yesterday to meet with the dermatologist. His rashes are getting worse again after pretty much clearing up a few weeks ago. Anyway he has become resistent to the drugs so they are not working anymore. His last blood work a week ago also showed that his infection fighting cells in his blood are really low again....... The doctors are trying to figure out what to do because of all the reactions between the drugs he is on and not wanting to delay the transplant anymore, but not wanting to put him at higher risk than necessary. Please pray for wisdom for all the doctors and for protection and healing for Lance. The meds. he is on are all hard on the liver, and can bring down his blood counts along with some other things but are also needed to fight the cancer and infections.......

Yesterday kind of felt like we were back at square one again, but even though we don't understand all the up and downs, the starts, stops, and waits.... Trusting that God does! Thank you all for praying! -----Penny

We have a Date

We had a full schedule in Iowa City on Wednesday this week. We started in Nuclear Medicine where I had a Mugascan which is a test where they determine the strength of your heart. They inject you with a tin substance in one arm and with radioactive stuff in the other and lay you on a table under a camera. (it looks a lot like a cat scan ) They watch you on camera and film your heart function for about a half hour then the heart specialists read your results. Anyway I passed. Then I went for labs they drew a lot of blood 15 vials some because they asked me to be in a research study, it will not do anything for me but they want to study my blood as I go through the transplant and after to see how I react to different things and how much graph to host disease I get. The purpose is to find out more about the disease so they may be able to help future patients who get what I have, they took four vials of blood for that test and they will freeze some of it for tests they haven't even been invented yet, they then can go get it and run those new tests. After that we went to Pulmanary Medicine and they had me sit in a little glass booth and you blow into a tube and have you do all kinds of tests to empty and fill your lungs you blow all the air out and then keep on blowing and blowing until they say you can stop (it really gets tiring) anyway I passed that test also but I was a little disappointed in the results of it, I thought I'd be really good at that one with all the stuff I've done over the years (running, hockey, etc,) and it was okay but not what I would have expected. (To much medicine for so long makes you short of breath) The primary reason for these tests is to be sure you are safe for the chemo but also to set a baseline so afterwards they can do them over and assesss any damage done by the medicines. Next we went to see Dr. Silverman who is the head of the transplant team, she is a really nice lady and explains things very well. She said its time to get it done and wanted to know if we had a date in mind. Penny and I were a little suprised we thought they would pick the date. Anyway they like you to decide within a window they provide to let you get things ready at home and to be mentally ready, I told her I was as mentally ready as I'd ever be and we decided to do the transplant on September 2. Dr Silverman said she has decided not to do the full body radiation on me (they were going back and forth on that) and just go with a very high dose chemotherapy she says she doesn't like to do the radiation on patients over 20 if she doesn't have to because it just does to much damage to your lungs. Chemotherapy is more likely to damage primarily the liver but at this point it is much safer for me to go ahead with that then not. I was happy that I won't have radiation I don't know much about it but people I know who have gone through it seem to really suffer for a while from the burns etc. so that was good news. I am releived to have a date it has been a long time coming and I am ready to move on. I am very grateful for my family and friends! People have been so good to me through the last year. Mostly I am grateful to God who has comforted me and been with me when I get scared. I will not go through anything that he did not endure and more. I know because of him I have that Future and a Hope that we wrote about months ago. I am perfectly at peace with what is coming although a little scared of the process and am looking forward to watching God work a Miracle in my life. Sometimes when I get frustrated that I can't do all the things I was accustomed to we look back on some of our old posts and read about how clearly Gods hand has been through this process and think about how weak we are. I used to read about the Israelites and how God would work these great miracles and they would turn around and forget. I tell myself don't be like that, remember what he has done for you. Regardlesss of the outcome of this transplant (and I do believe it will be successful) I am so blessed in this life and wouldn't change a thing.
Lance
P.S. Thanks to Sister Ella for letting us know the blog was broke its been nice to be back in touch.

Thankful....

THANK YOU all for your prayers!! Nurse just called and Lance's platelets are back to normal!!

This last week with having to have test in Iowa City and all that involved was a really exhausting week for Lance. As I waited for him to wake up from the meds they gave him for his test, I really struggled..... it is so hard to see him have to go through so many things.... and this was just a test....., I'm so Thankful to him for doing all of it. Years ago we used to talk about what if..... And Lance always said he wouldn't want to do chemo and all that stuff if something ever happen.... but now he wants to have a chance to live and to be with us and take care of us..... He is so good, never complains, laughs, thinks of others, working, giving of himself for us even when he is tired...

I'm reminded of Ephesians 5:25---Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her

As I realize how thankful I am that Lance is willing to undergo some very hard things to be with us, how much he loves us everyday in giving of himself for us (not only now, but always has). It makes me so thankful to our God!! The love we have for our husbands or wives is just a fraction of what God's love is for us.... Christ died for us!! Jesus knew what he would have to face......... yet he chose to do it for us. Don't know if it makes any sense to anyone but me!(that would not be unusual!), but watching Lance's giving of himself for us....., his love for us...., reminds me of what My Savior did for me..... SO THANKFUL..... What an Awesome God we serve.

Well next week on Wednesday the 28th, Lance goes to Iowa City to meet with the transplant doctor. He will also have a test to determine how much Chemo his heart can handle, and some lung testing. All test that they do before transplant, with more to come yet. Praying that the medicine will start working to lower the leukemia cells before transplant. Praying that he would be healed!! But as Lance has said all along, no matter what, we have already won! Thank you all for your continued prayer, and thank you Lance, love you! ------Penny