"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works with in us to him be the glory..." Eph 3:20-21
God is so good. He has protected my mother-in-law. I'm sorry for not updating more but just wanted to share a little with you now that she has made it to the other side of the procedure and is healthy enough that she and my father-in-law are actually traveling all the way to Iowa TODAY to visit us :) We couldn't be more excited. We are so incredibly proud of our Honey and how tough she was to endure all that she has gone through the past six months!
Thank you thank you thank you for praying for her. I know you did. and she knows it too. She is still a little weak and it could take another year for her to gain all her strength back from the intense chemo. But she is doing well!!! We couldn't be more thankful!!!!!!
Here are some updates from her that she wrote on her caring bridge site:
In Ann Voskamp's blog this week, a quote struck me. "The way to stand with the falling is to give them the gift of the knees because this is how His Body catches and carries each other home." It is a gift to hold each other up and I have definitely experienced it this summer with all of you. I want to be faithful in doing that for others. It's humbling and amazing to see qualities of God through this, His faithfulness, His Sovereignty, His Omnipresence, His Love for each of us, and much more.
Written Sep 18, 2013 6:02pm
This is Day 100! Unbelievable, how God has brought me through to today, the first hurdle of surviving the transplant and going infection free these past 100 days. It really is a miracle and I see God's hand through it all. The 100 day window is an arbitrary number used in transplants. Before day 100 is considered the time of acute complications like infections, pneumonia from the transplant, after day 100 is considered post transplant. (I had it explained to me much more clearly than this!)
The second hurdle was evaluating the MS. I had MRI's yesterday and today of the brain and spine, and was to go to Dr. Lim (oncologist) next week to hear results and to Dr. Saulog (neurologist) in 3 weeks to go over results more in depth and talk about the MS. Dr. Saulog, (she) called me today at 2:45 and asked if I could come in at 3:00 for an appt. It scared me to death thinking she had gotten results and found lesions and was going to put me back on MS drugs as soon as possible. I've been off any MS drugs since April. Donny met me there and we waited in exam room for a while, she did various neurological tests on strength and reflexes, kept getting up to ask something of her staff and finally said we'd go over the results of MRI. I was as nervous as the first time I was diagnosed in 1996 praying and trying to prepare myself for what she was going to say. Finally, she said with no emotion that I had no new lesions!!!! I was so relieved and I think she really was very pleased. You'd have to know her! There was no improvement in the old lesions and atrophy in part of my spine which probably will not get any better (which I wasn't too surprised), BUT hopefully I will not get any worse!
She wants to start me on IV steroids next week to boost me up and then she will start the weaning off the steroids a lot slower than before.
Also she is setting up physical therapy for this fall which I think will be great for me. It's hard to push myself when mobility is so hard. I guess I need a coach. I will still do the IVIG in a couple of weeks and the breathing treatment at the hospital.
Anyway, I feel hope! I feel like a weight has been lifted and I can now look forward to trying to get stronger physically. I will say I have been fighting doubt and insecurity, I guess Satan knows where to attack when you're weak. The devotion book "Jesus Today" that I read today was on hope, just what I needed.
"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction,faithful in prayer." Rom 12:12
"Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the LORD is the Rock eternal."
Is 26:4
"For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Rom 8: 24-25
"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." Proverbs 13:12
"Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. James 1:6
And a powerful verse that Team Lisa (some friends and family) have been praying the last 2 days is:
"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works with in us to him be the glory..." Eph 3:20-21
Please continue to pray for me that I will fight doubt and fear. I don't want to be like a wave tossed here and there, but firmly secured to the Rock. It will still be an uphill battle to build strength, stamina, balance and whatever else may be possible to gain. The studies have shown that improvement happens in the first 2 years after the transplant so I've got my work ahead but I'm so much more positive about the future now. Again I just can't thank enough the friends and family and some I don't even know who have been faithfully praying and hope I'm not selfish in asking for your continued prayers.
Praise the Lord for his goodness and mercy!
The second hurdle was evaluating the MS. I had MRI's yesterday and today of the brain and spine, and was to go to Dr. Lim (oncologist) next week to hear results and to Dr. Saulog (neurologist) in 3 weeks to go over results more in depth and talk about the MS. Dr. Saulog, (she) called me today at 2:45 and asked if I could come in at 3:00 for an appt. It scared me to death thinking she had gotten results and found lesions and was going to put me back on MS drugs as soon as possible. I've been off any MS drugs since April. Donny met me there and we waited in exam room for a while, she did various neurological tests on strength and reflexes, kept getting up to ask something of her staff and finally said we'd go over the results of MRI. I was as nervous as the first time I was diagnosed in 1996 praying and trying to prepare myself for what she was going to say. Finally, she said with no emotion that I had no new lesions!!!! I was so relieved and I think she really was very pleased. You'd have to know her! There was no improvement in the old lesions and atrophy in part of my spine which probably will not get any better (which I wasn't too surprised), BUT hopefully I will not get any worse!
She wants to start me on IV steroids next week to boost me up and then she will start the weaning off the steroids a lot slower than before.
Also she is setting up physical therapy for this fall which I think will be great for me. It's hard to push myself when mobility is so hard. I guess I need a coach. I will still do the IVIG in a couple of weeks and the breathing treatment at the hospital.
Anyway, I feel hope! I feel like a weight has been lifted and I can now look forward to trying to get stronger physically. I will say I have been fighting doubt and insecurity, I guess Satan knows where to attack when you're weak. The devotion book "Jesus Today" that I read today was on hope, just what I needed.
"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction,faithful in prayer." Rom 12:12
"Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the LORD is the Rock eternal."
Is 26:4
"For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Rom 8: 24-25
"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." Proverbs 13:12
"Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. James 1:6
And a powerful verse that Team Lisa (some friends and family) have been praying the last 2 days is:
"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works with in us to him be the glory..." Eph 3:20-21
Please continue to pray for me that I will fight doubt and fear. I don't want to be like a wave tossed here and there, but firmly secured to the Rock. It will still be an uphill battle to build strength, stamina, balance and whatever else may be possible to gain. The studies have shown that improvement happens in the first 2 years after the transplant so I've got my work ahead but I'm so much more positive about the future now. Again I just can't thank enough the friends and family and some I don't even know who have been faithfully praying and hope I'm not selfish in asking for your continued prayers.
Praise the Lord for his goodness and mercy!
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