God at work

one more treatment

tomorrow Zabrina has her last taxol treatment. While we are very thankful this is the last chemo treatment and her body is responding so well to the treatments, it is still going to be a very tough week for Bri. This treatment gives a lot of arthritis like joint pain throughout her entire body. One day she said to me "my body hurts from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet, then she said you know, none of my organ hurt though." A blessing is she does not remember this pain from treatment to treatment. God erases the memory and Bri says that is a good thing because she is not sure if she could do it again if she remembered the pain.

We had a ladies day at our church on Saturday and Zabrina did come for most of the day. God sent an angel by the name of Lisa, who had breast cancer when she was 30 years old ~ she has been cancer free for 7 1/2 years (yes you count the months too). Zabrina has not talked with anyone who had breast cancer at 30. For me, witnessing the hand of God as Lisa and Zabrina talked was very humbling. A line from a song that we sing at church is ~
We are standing on holy ground,
For the Lord is present and where He is,is holy
I witnessed Gods awesome love for our daughter ~ and we indeed were on holy ground!
I know you all are praying and I wanted to share this God moment with you

We were headed to an appointment with the surgeon and bri was feeling overwhelmed and scared ~
Kristen texted Zabrina and said, "cancer has no power over you, because the blood of Christ has covered you and He has all authority over you"!

Luck "O" the Irish

Well happy St. Patricks day everyone! Just a little update and time line for ya. Not sure if we leaked the good news about the genetic testing. Zabrina was tested for the genetic strands that would pre-dispose her to this nasty disease and she passed with flying colors. She always has been a good test taker. What this means is that she does not have to have a bilateral mastectomy or deal with the whole ovarian issue. What a relief to not have to worry about passing this on, or dealing with more surgery.
We just had round 7 of 8 yesterday and it is going as it has in the past. The crazy thing about these drugs is you can set your watch to the side effects and how she is going to feel. Dr. Friedman is still very impressed with her progress and we have him do exams just so we can here him say everything feels normal. Last round of chemo is the 30th then we gear up for surgery. We will be meeting with the surgen next week to learn more about the procedure and what to expect. She will go for a PET scan the third week in April and surgery the last week, so mark your calanders for some seriouse praying time. Radiation will start about four weeks after surgery. So we should be done with the physical side this nightmare by end of July. The phsycological and emotional stuff will last a lifetime.
We are so thankful for all that has been provided for us and cannot thank you all enough for what you have done.

We Feel the Love!

For Zabrina's B-day a couple of her gifts were fun sandals for summertime and as the kodak moment shows we had a pedicure! Focusing on pretty toes and lazy crazy days of summer that call for sandals, is a prelude that proclaims we are on the other side of treatments, surgery and radiation. A recurring statement I make is that "on the other side of this, I know we are going to all be good."
Thank you to so many of you for saying happy birthday to Zabrina in so many loving ways. At church we had a beautiful hat and scarf day ~ many of the girls at church wore scarfs/hats to say to Zabrina "we are supporting you". Bob, thanks for spending time with Jeff turning money into sound. Tiff ~ on Monday you were an answer to prayer for Zabrina, armed with the word of God.

A girls lunch with Erin and Gabriella ~ fun.
But before we get to the other side:
Monday is the next taxol treatment ~ one more tough step for Bri. Keep praying ~ I so don't want Zabrina on this path but I also know God is healing her ~ spirit, mind and body.