And we're off...

Well.

First of all, for the three of you that know about the blog I started a year ago...I haven't the slightest idea what email address or password I used to set it up so, as a result, I can't update it or delete it! If any of you know how I can take care of that, please feel free to comment.

Secondly, I have been told I have an unhealthy love of the run-on sentence and that I write like the apostle Paul. To that I say, punctuation is way overrated and thank you for the compliment! If improper use of periods and commas bother you, feel free to take a Sharpie to your screen:)

With all that out of the way, let's get to the current round of character building the Lord has thrown at me and my family...

Right after Thanksgiving 2009, Stu and I found out we were pregnant again, eight months after our beautiful daughter, Emma Jewel, was born. We wanted to have two children close in age so we were very excited. Long story short, after several sonograms very early in the pregnancy it was determined that I had a partial molar pregnancy. The chances of this happening are 1 in every 1000 pregnancies, it’s pretty rare. Treatment at that point was a D&C and weekly blood tests to make sure a certain hormone level made its way back down to zero. At the time of diagnosis, we were told that there was a 2 to 3% chance that instead of falling, the levels would start to rise again and that the cells that caused the levels to rise would be cancerous. Last week, my levels started to rise again. I was referred to an oncologist in Shreveport and have seen him twice. Today I went in for a CT scan, partially to make sure the cancerous cells haven’t spread to other parts of my body and partially to have a baseline to compare future scans to and tomorrow, I’ll start my first round of chemotherapy.

Everything I’ve read on gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (that’s the official diagnosis), says it is almost 100% curable. It’s just a long journey. I’ll go to Shreveport weekly for blood work and every other week for chemo treatments. The oncologist says that it typically takes 5 or 6 rounds to knock this out, so about 3 months. After my levels get to 0, I’ll continue weekly blood tests for a couple of weeks, then surveillance blood tests monthly for a year.

The odds of all this happening are astronomical. Obviously, the Lord has chosen Stu and I to go through this for a purpose. To be totally honest, my emotional and mental state since we found out we had lost another baby (our first pregnancy in February 2008 ended at 10 weeks in a miscarriage), was already pretty touch and go at times and this just adds another couple of levels to the roller coaster. We’re fine for the most part and know God is sovereign.

I know there are many people that want to keep track of us as we go through this journey. I figured I could wear a big sign with the latest updates around my neck so I didn't have to repeat myself a thousand times, but my friends in Eustace and family in various parts of the country wouldn't be able to read it, so a blog it is:) I promise to try to keep this thing currently updated...here's to hoping:)

Thanks in advance for your support through this time and for your prayers for me, Stu and Emma. Our God is a big God. He’s still on His throne.