Keep The Faith

It is a milestone of sorts:  I had my last chemo treatment of this round today (Sept 21).  We are thankful that by all counts it is going well(literally counts --of white cells and hemoglobin and "kappa" cells and ...about 30 more important counts) What's next? What are we praying about? October will be about stimulating my body to give up some healthy stem cells and then the process of harvesting those  cells. November will be the challenging month as there will be three weeks of strong chemo and isolation.   At the end of November, by God's grace, the stem cells will be transplanted and begin building new bone marrow.  Perhaps by Christmas, the word "remission" will begin to creep into our conversation and the isolation can be relaxed! Thanks for joining us in some specific prayers about this next part of the journey.  It is both exciting and scary.  It gives us great strength to know that others keep the faith and thus we do not jour...

After  fever-filled night, we spent the day at the Emergency department at the U of A Hospital.  It looks like my immune system did a lousy job protecting my kidneys from infection. I will be receiving intravenous antibiotics this week as an outpatient.  We are grateful this did not lead to another hospital stay.

Ever since May 8, the day I entered hospital in Lethbridge, we've been searching for "normal."  Today we were blessed to do a couple of normal summer things.  We went for our first (short and easy) bike ride of the season (body-brace on of course) and later we headed to a park to cook our supper and sit around a campfire.  We are thankful to God to find some of these normal things in our lives again. .

It was a beautiful morning for the Edmonton Miles for Myeloma run at Hermitage Park. Team #Thankful was great.  Adam ran 10 km ; Heather, Vincent, Lukas and Mason all ran 5 km; Kathy and Brian walked 5 km and Linda did a portion of that before peeling off to take photos.  Poor team captain Jeremy, his broken foot in a boot,  cheered us on from the sidelines. A few shots of the morning from BD's camera: Team #Thankful Registration and pre-race strategizing Warm-ups We are off! Adam running the 10 K in under 50 minutes Vincent coming through Way to go Mason Even the old guy was #thankful he could walk the 5 Km and meet some other families dealing with Myeloma. There were some other taking pictures.  I will add some of those when I get them.  Thanks again to all the donors.  100% of the $4520 that was pledged for today's run will go to local research efforts. (Nine yr old Mikiah will be running next week in C...

Hi friends. We are only a few days away from the fundraising event, Multiple Miles for Myeloma .  ALL the funds raised will go to local initiatives aimed at finding treatments and eventually a cure for multiple myeloma.  It is NOT too late to sponsor Team #Thankful.  You can do that  BY CLICKING HERE.   Even though team captain, Jeremy, will be unable to run due to a broken foot, we have great bench depth and will get our kilometres in! My 9 year old grandson, Mikiah, who lives in Calgary, also wants to run for his Grandpa and others.  He plans to do that in the Calgary version of Multiple Miles for Myeloma.   Mikiah's fundraising page is  HERE. Thanks for all your support!

One of the ways God answers prayer is through this place--The Cross Cancer Institute. I am so thankful for the lab-coat-wearing, stethoscope-wielding, needle-giving answer to prayers that I find here! It is chemo day again and I just want everyone who has been praying to know that I am doing well. Thanks for your prayers and support. 

Today, after a one month cycle of chemotherapy, we visited with Dr. Sandhu, our oncologist,   Here is the summary:  GOOD NEWS!  We are #thankful my body is responding to the treatments!  Speaking of thankful, Team #Thankful , made up of Heather Dreise, Jeremy Dreise and Adam Mywaart will be running in the Multiple Miles for Myeloma event on July 21.  Please consider rewarding their efforts with a donation.  All the funds raised go into LOCAL initiatives and research aimed at finding treatments and a cure for Multiple Myeloma.  If you are able to sponsor one of the Team #Thankfu l members, you can do that  BY CLICKING HERE.   If you want to donate but do not want to do that online, just let one of the family members know.  Donations are tax deductible.  (more info at www.multplemyeloma.ca)