It was a difficult week this past week, preparing to say goodbye to Janna for 3 weeks. I (Cory) can visit with her, but the boys and Clara are not allowed to visit, although we might be able to pull some strings during the third week to get the older boys in. 3 weeks seems like a long time to be away from family (because it is, especially when it is not by choice), but we can make it - mainly because we have to make it. And more importantly, Janna has to make it as well, which she will - again, because she has to.
Janna has started her chemo treatments. The doc said it would take 4 days for the side effects to start. She started on Friday night and the side effects started Saturday. She has no appetite but is doing the best she can to force herself to eat. She was pretty nauseous at first, but it looks like the docs have her on a good anti-nausea medication now. She's pretty tired as well, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. If she can sleep through the next 3 weeks, great! She never really got over having a baby 5 weeks ago, since it has been almost all doctor appointments and hospital stays since that time. It's a blessing that she can now get some much needed rest, although we'd all definitely prefer to have her get rest at home.
She is having two high-intensity treatments a day for the first seven days. She is also scheduled to get a chemo drug injected into her backbone tomorrow, just in case the Leukemia has spread into her spinal cord (no record or proof that is has, just preventative right now, thankfully). She seems pretty resigned to the fact that she is going to continue to be poked and prodded and shoved into loud machines over the next 5 months because she understands that this must happen in order to make her whole again.
There is a lot of back-story to how she got to where she is today that I'll share in later posts. We really have received a lot of blessings in the past 5 weeks, all which overshadow the trial we're being asked to pass through at the moment. No, I would have never chosen this to come upon Janna or ask my boys to try to live a normal life while wondering just how sick mommy really is or if she will ever get better. It's not fun being apart - all the boys are reacting to it, but they are incredibly resilient (not to mention miracle baby Clara), and they also understand that she must be apart from us now so she can spend A LOT more time with us in the near future.
We have faith and hope - faith that this is in the Lord's hands and He is in control - that He will continue to inspire the doctors to treat Janna as she needs to be treated to make it through this disease - faith that whatever may come, the Lord will be with each of us. And hope for a better and brighter future together - hope that in 3 weeks, Janna will be able to come home and the doctors will find that the cancer is in remission. And if not, our hope and faith must continue, because I'm not sure what we could do without it.
Thanks to everyone for your continued thoughts and prayers. Please keep them coming!!
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