Together for Another Christmas

Hallelujah, we get to celebrate another Christmas together. We are so thankful for all of our family, church family, friends and neighbors and acquaintances from years past that have dropped by, sent cards, called at just the right time, given rides to treatments, brought over food and have posted notes of encouragement here and on Facebook.

We thank you for being there with us for the celebration of what we thought was remission back in March. We thank you for your continued prayers during her second chemo series. We thank you for continuing to pray and encourage us as Cheryl continues the battle against brain and spinal cord metastases.

Since receiving this diagnosis, she was put on oral steroids to reduce inflammation and went through ten days of whole brain radiation to kill the tumors and treat the lining of the brain. She has continued to battle nausea, headaches and intermittent double vision. Friday afternoon, she lost her balance and fell off the couch. Praise the Lord, nothing was bruised or broken. The owner of one of the local flower shops was coming to the door to make a delivery when this happened. He helped her get situated and stayed with her until I got home form picking up prescriptions on post.

We don't know whether the symptoms she continues to exhibit are caused by the cancer, after-effects of the radiation treatment, or the medicines that she is taking. Cheryl took her final dose of steroids on Christmas Eve and we hope that dropping this plus juggling her pain meds will help get her back on an even keel.

Cheryl has her next appointment with Dr. Negrea, the medical oncologist on the 30th. We should know more about the plans for her spinal chemotherapy after that meeting. I'm off this week, the laundry's caught up and the dishwasher works just fine so we should be able to spend some quiet time together over the next few days.

Keep us in your prayers as Cheryl enters the next phase of her treatment.