A few new prayer requests

Hey! I made it through my first round of chemo, AND it's almost February!! Hallelujah!

I know so many people are praying for us, and I cannot begin to thank you enough or tell you how much that has meant to us. I truly feel uplifted and so encouraged.

I wanted to give you a few things to pray for specifically.

First, I need my tumor in my armpit to shrink! It may or may not, but it would give David and I such peace of mind if it even got slightly smaller. If it gets bigger, chemo gets put on hold and we do surgery immediately. If it stays the same, I think we continue. We will be asking more questions this week at my next infusion. But, we would love prayers that it gets smaller so we know for sure that the chemo is working. (The chemo will NOT even come close to getting rid of all my cancer. That is not the goal. The goal is to try and kill any cells in my body that are just floating around. If we can tell that the chemo is affecting my tumor, we know that it is killing any rogue cells as well.)

Next prayer is for my genetic testing. I met with a genetic counselor today, and it was extremely interesting. Normally, David is the one asking all the questions, and today it was me. I don't know why, but that seemed like a small victory to me. I felt slightly less overwhelmed and was able to participate more in the conversation. In our entire marriage, David has always been the more detail oriented person in our relationship. (If you know us well, you should totally be nodding your head right now. Ha!) I am the one that usually just smiles and goes with whatever the doctor says. Today felt nice to be able to ask more questions and just feel slightly more in control of my emotions. Anyway...I will have 28 different genes tested to see if one of them is broken. If a gene is broken we will be able to tell a few more things about my cancer and if I am more susceptible to other types of cancer. If a gene is broken, my entire family will have to undergo testing as well. Our kids will have to do testing at some point, and they will be more likely to have a broken gene or get other types of cancers. Basically, we are praying that the testing comes back "negative." Although it might be frustrating for me to not know why or what caused this, it would be SO much better for my children and family. Their risk would decrease significantly. Please pray for a "negative" result.

Finally, I have my second round of chemo on Friday. I am feeling fairly normal this week. I don't know if "normal" is a good word to use, but I don't feel quite as tired and definitely more like myself. (I completely HATE this stupid port, but that's another story.) Friday will be the beginning of another full week of exhaustion, nausea, and just not feeling like myself. The kids have been so sweet about it all, but I know they notice. I will also probably lose my hair this weekend or early next week. I still get pretty teary whenever I think about it, but I know it will just be another step to getting well. Please pray for peace as that happens, and for endurance and strength as I deal with the chemo this weekend and next week. Pray for David and the kids as things aren't normal for a few days again. I know that is so hard on all of them.

Thank you again for loving us through this. I feel like Moses sometimes. When my arms get tired, someone always comes along to lift them up again. Thank you for praying and for being the hands and feet of Jesus. It means more to me than I could ever say.