Pray Without Ceasing

It is incredible to think about how the God of the entire universe is intimately acquainted with all the details of our lives. I love that I can go to God at any moment of everyday and ask Him for prayer and for thanksgiving. Whether it to be for a dear friend, for one of our youth group students, or simply for guidance for my upcoming day.

One of the passions I have in life is praying. I think my favorite part of praying is seeing God be faithful to what I have asked of Him. Especially in the minute details of life. Time and time again, especially lately I have seen him work in my life and the lives of those around me. I continue to see God work through my Physical Therapist to help my foot become stronger and to help its range of movement return. I still have some work to do in that area, but it is getting better. The left side of my body continues to strengthen more and more as each day passes.

Yesterday was an incredible answer to prayer. One of our youth group students had to have surgery on his heart to help regulate his heartbeats. It was said that if all went well and that if a certain vein was on the right side of his heart he would be able to be operated and released on the same day. If the vein was on the left side of the heart they would have to puncture a hole in his heart to reach it and he would have to stay longer in the hospital. Well we received the news yesterday that He was released yesterday and doing quite well. If he continues to do well he will be released to go back to school tomorrow (Wednesday) and then be able to start football again next week. Praise God for great reports! Please continue to pray that he continue to be healthy.

On a different note...I need your prayers. Aaron and I received a phone call late last night from our previous next door neighbor (Debbie), she currently babysits Katherine when we are working. She stated that her brother-in-law (whose son recently passed away) passed away earlier yesterday. (Him and her sister-in-law moved into our previous home back in July). Please keep them in your prayers this week.

Also another prayer request...my co-worker's parents were recently moved here from Florida due to health and safety reasons. Patti's parents have recently both broken their hips, have had surgery on them, gone through physical therapy, and are currently here in Houston. Both her parents have a series of medical problems and her father just recently left ICU to be placed in a long-term care acute hospital. He has been battling with pneumonia since moving from Florida a couple of weeks ago. His status is up and down everyday. My co-worker goes to check up on each of her parents individually since they are both in different facilities (her mother is in an assisted living center). It has been stressful and draining on her. Please pray for her parents health and for her.

One last prayer request for today. Ever since returning back to work in August, I have been battling with extreme fatigue. I almost feel like I am in my first trimester of my pregnancy again but worse...LOL (some of you can relate to this). Some days are better than others, but it has been difficult. I am currently only working 12 hours a week (usually Mon., Wed., and Fridays for four hours each day) having a day in between to rest. I typically get home from work, eat lunch, and take a 2-3 hour nap. By that time usually Aaron and Katherine arrive home and I am rested so that I can give them my time and attention. I thought since it has been a little over a month that my fatigue would have gotten better, but it continues to still be a problem. Yesterday I heard back from the neurooncologists office and they are sending a referral for me to go to the Fatigue Clinic at M.D. Anderson. Please pray that I am able to overcome this battle without having to take any more medication.

Thank you all for listening to my heart today and thank you for you for praying without ceasing.

In His love...I pray that you have a wonderful and blessed day!

Another Day of Celebration...

Yesterday we went back for our three month check-up at the neurosurgeon's office. We arrived and were greeted by warm smiles. I just love my neurosurgeon and his nurse practitioner. They are wonderful people. We told them how things were going with rehab and the news from the neurooncologist. They were happy to hear about all the great things going on. The great news we heard when from him was he stated that in six months I will be able to start being weaned off of my seizure medications!!! Yay! I am so excited. He said he would wean me slowly for about a month (but I will not be able to drive during the time he is weaning me...just in case I should have a seizure occur). After then we will just continue to pray that I don't have any seizures occur. We have been asking all my doctors "why I might have a seizure...since the tumor is gone?" Well consensus says, "Scar tissue...after surgery you may have scar tissue that can cause seizures." Finally the mystery in my head resolved.

I pray that you have a wonderful and greatly blessed day today. I am now off to go to speech and physical therapy! Love you!

Praise Him, Praise Him, Praise Him

I couldn't help but think of Matthew 9: 20-22. [The verses are as follows from the New Living Translation.]

20 a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe, 21 for she thought, "If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed." 22 Jesus turned around and said to her, "Daughter, be encouraged! Your faith has made you well." And the woman was healed at that moment.

After this past weekend, in which I participated in a woman's retreat, and as I sat listening to the words of our speaker I began to ask God for continued healing in my body[especially for my foot that has been making slow progress and for a clean MRI report on Monday]. As I began to prayI sat quietly on the couch (and if you have been following the blog you know that I continue to have difficulty moving my foot from side to side) and I began trying to get my foot to move from side to side...after about a minute or so of trying my foot began to move slowly...more than it has since right after surgery...and at one point I felt like it almost had its full range of movement. As the minutes passed by it continued to move back and forth. I was so amazed at God's work...I just leapt for joy in my spirit. When I came home that evening I was so overjoyed and excited that I sat down and told Aaron look, look, look at my foot. And to my disbelief my foot just sat there...it didn't move. I was awe struck and disappointed for a few minutes because I wanted Aaron to share in the joy that I had experienced earlier that day. After those few minutes God spoke to my spirit and let me know that my foot was just worn out and to try the next day. Sure enough God is so faithful! On Sunday my foot began to move again...since then I have been able to move it bit by bit...I believe that it will continue to strengthen each day and return better than it was before!

All that to say...that the scripture in Matthew that says, "Daughter, be encouraged! Your faith has made you well." Really spoke to me, but I believe that not only is it MY faith, but yours as well that has continued to strengthen me!

Another awesome praise report...On Tuesday we went to the neurooncologist and he gave us the results of my recent MRI scans. He reported...that all is well and my scans are clean and clear (a.k.a. the cancer has NOT come back)! Aaron and I are truly overjoyed at our awesome and wonderful news. God is ever so faithful! When we heard that news...God brought the same scripture in Matthew to my spirit...just writing all of this brings tears of joy to me. I just can't fathom my life without my Father God. And for those of you who are out there and don't have a personal relationship with God...I encourage you to call Aaron or me...or if you don't feel comfortable find someone who is a strong believer in Christ that you may know and ask them how you can come to know Christ.

I pray that you have an awesome and wonderful day...and I leave this with you..."Where is your faith today? What/Who do you put your trust in?"

Thank you all for your continued love, prayers, and support.

The same yesterday, today, and forever...

Have you ever had one of those moments in time where you felt that you just wanted to give up and you no longer felt purposeful(tears stream down my face as I write these words)...well that was me yesterday. I felt the enemy attacking my mind, my thoughts, and my sense of self. But as always..my God shows up...He always reminds me of who I am in Him and reminds me that I am His child...and that I have a purpose in life.





Yesterday afternoon (after a long day...actually a long week of unpacking our new home that we moved into)...I stumbled upon a poster that was made for Aaron and me at the time that we were in the hospital (some of our dear friends brought it by when I was at St. Luke's in March). The day they brought it by...I vaguely remember (only for the fact that I was very medicated at the time and it was my first day out of ICU...however this was the same night that I became very ill and put back in ICU(3/6/09)...see Aaron's post on 3/9/09 for more details) however I do remember them bringing the poster and being excited about reading the encouraging notes on the poster. Well ever since we came home from the hospital I had been asking about the poster and its whereabouts...well since we moved (it's funny how things resurface when you move...LOL) we found it. I sat for awhile yesterday and read all of the notes on the poster and one by one each one of them encouraged my spirit and reminded me of why I continue to be here (just writing these words brought tears to my eyes...just because it reminds me of how wonderful and sovereign my God truly is). It's funny how God uses things and people to always remind you that He is always here watching over you and always taking care of you.

Last night when I was putting Katie down for bed, she was laying down in my arms (sucking her thumb...LOL) and staring into my eyes...at one point she reached up and gave me a few kisses on my lips and then stroked the side of my face. At that moment God spoke to my spirit and I felt him telling me...this is another reason I have you here...to be a wonderful mom to Katie and to raise her up to glorify me (this made me shed tears as I held her). Katie looked at me and wiped my tears as they streamed down my face...how humbled I felt that God would use my 16 month-old daughter to show me His Love and Compassion.

For those of you reading this entry...I hope that if you ever question God's purpose for your life and reason for being here...know that God is always there for you and He created you for a purpose. He is always here for you and will never leave you nor forsake you. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). (FYI...this scripture was written on "the poster" by Dodie Osteen (Joel Osteen's mother)...and was my inspiration for my entry today).

Follow-up

Well I went to my neuropsychologist appointment on Monday and they conducted basically IQ measures, memory and verbal learning tasks, fine motor dexterity tests, and an assortment of a few other tests. Tuesday I received my results. Basically the neuropsychologists stated that I am doing amazing well for where I am at. She saw improvements in my fine motor dexerity (the last tests she took were when I was at TIRR in rehab); however, she stated those scores still show that I am well below where I should be (in terms of my left side).

She stated she sees some memory issues, but is hopeful that with some strategies and recommendations she has it will help me.

Other than that she seemed to think all else was going really well and seemed hopeful of my full recovery. Praise God for the great news!

I suppose it is about time I write again. It has been way too long! I agree, you don't have to tell me again. I'm sorry for those of you who have been faithful to continue to follow up on us, but that I have been unfaithful to follow through to you.

I have been doing amazingly well. Overall things have been well. I continue to do therapy twice a week. Mainly focusing on the physical therapy. I am making gains in my foot. On Tuesday (23rd) I was doing my foot exercises and I was so excited at the mere fact (my eyes are tearing up as I write this) that my foot actually cramped...what that means is that I was able to actually to get my toes and my foot to curl hard enough for them to cramp. Which just means that my foot muscles are getting stronger and stronger! Thank you Lord for the little things in life.

On Wednesday, I was so so so excited!!!! We went to the beach and I was actually able to wear flip flops and them stay on my left foot without falling off. I was overjoyed at the idea that I can go back to wearing some of my shoes (seeing as how most of my shoes don't have backs on them, I haven't been able to wear then). This also means that my toes are beginning to work and get stronger. I still have some fine tuning in my foot area, but they are coming along.

Please continue to pray that my foot begins to move from side to side (still no movement in that arena), which causes me to stumble and sometimes fall from time to time.

Also, I will be having a neuropsychological evaluation on Monday (June 29th). Pray that all goes well there.

Our next appointments at M.D. Anderson (for the neuro-oncologist) are August 17 and 18th.
Be praying that all goes well and my bloodwork is clean and my MRI continues to show no cancerous cell.

Thanks everyone for your love and support.

Can I add one last prayer request...we are having to move out of our home in July due to the house being inherited by a family member. Please pray that all goes well, quickly, and smoothly with our July 18th move date.

With Love, Tina

Keeping the Right Perspective

What’s your outlook on life today? Do you wake up every morning ready to embrace the day? So many people allow their circumstances to dictate their attitudes; they don’t realize their attitude is a choice…Remember we all face difficulties. We all have obstacles that seem impossible to overcome. The difference between those who are able to rise above their adversities and those who get stuck in them is their attitude.

These are the words that I read yesterday (and again this morning) that have been ringing in my spirit (from the book Love Your Life: Living Happy, Healthy, and Whole by Victoria Osteen). Yesterday I didn’t have the greatest attitude. I began to focus on the negative things from our appointment on Tuesday, which left me in a state of worry and frustration. But this morning, I woke up and made a choice to focus on all the wonderful things of my life and to find something to be thankful for so that I may have a grateful heart for all the things that I failed to recognize yesterday that were going right in my life.

Now for the grateful news that we received from our appointment! Dr. Yung (I misspelled his name the other day) stated that my MRI looked great and said that Dr. Comair did an excellent job in resecting my tumor (didn’t I tell ya…I have the best of the best working on my brain…now that is something to be grateful for !). Therefore he didn’t see any reason at this time to begin any type of treatment. He mentioned because of my age (being so young :) ) that it would be best that we waited until MRI’s showed there were cancerous cells coming back…and then, IF they did, we would treat at that time. He stated that because there are side effects from chemo and radiation that can be both short and long term effects; he would rather wait.

We also asked about chromosomal deletions. It is a lot of technical medical stuff, but from what I (Tina) had been researching. It was found that people who had brain tumors with chromosomal deletions (meaning you don’t have these chromosomes) of 1P 19Q…they tended to have longer life spans and better chances of survival because they tend to respond to chemo better. We originally asked the neurosurgeon’s office about the deletions…they said that I had the deletion (meaning I didn’t have the chromosomes which was great news to us), but Tuesday we asked the neuro-oncologist and they said that the chromosomes were still intact. We went back and read the report from pathology and the way it was worded it was said that I was “negative for the deletions”…long story short…we were originally told incorrectly and the report was read incorrectly…so I still have those chromosomes. Which in essence…having those chromosomes basically means, from a medical standpoint, …and in the words of the neuro-oncologist…I may not be as “sensitive” to chemo or radiation. Ultimately if the tumor came back… I may not respond to those types of treatments as well as if I had not had the chromosomes.

We then asked about having other children and how all of these things would affect that process including the medication that I am currently taking to prevent seizures. As far as the medication I am taking…originally I was told that I would only have to take it for six months following my last seizure, which was right after surgery…given that I didn’t have another seizure in that time period. When I asked the neuro-oncologist how long I would need to take these medications he stated “for years.” That was disappointing to hear for the fact that there really isn’t much medical research on how this medication affects fetuses…which I can see why…who would want to risk their child’s well being and development. Anyhow, given that we want four children that was a little discouraging. Something else that was mentioned by the neuro-oncologist was that what he had seen over the years (I don’t believe there is much medical research on this either) was that women who had children after having a tumor were more likely to have their tumor come back and it grow quicker…he said not necessarily during their pregnancy, but afterwards. He mentioned he thought it might be due to all of the hormonal changes a woman has after childbirth.

Ultimately we continue to rely on God and really and truly he has the FINAL say so in what happens with our lives…not to say that we don’t need to use wisdom and heed the advice of wise counselors that surround us, but God directs our paths.

Today I look at this as just another opportunity to bring my faith to another level and rely on my God more and more. I remind myself (as I write this entry) that this just “another opportunity God has given us. He could have given this to many other wonderful people, but He chose to give it to us.” (another quote from Victoria’s book).

We thank you for continuing to read our updates and check up on us. We appreciate all of your love and support and the comments you leave on the blog…this encourages our hearts to move forward. Thank you!

Always Faithful...

We just received a message from Dr. Comair's office stating that we got an appointment for May 19th at 10:30 a.m.! Oh how God always exceeds our expectations! He truly is always faithful to His word.

Just wanted to let you all know the awesome news!!!!

Hmmmm...

Well here is some news in our end of the world. We received a phone call today from the neuro-oncologists office. They basically said that the oncologist that we were referred to was booked up until June 11th and we were asked if we wanted to wait or if we wanted to go with another neuro-oncologist. We opted to call Dr. Comair's (our neurosurgeon) office for advice. Dr. Comair called us (it was really great to hear from him) and asked me (Tina) how I was doing. He was excited to hear that my foot was moving up and down. We talked to him about our concerns with the neuro-oncologists office. He stated that he had already spoken to Dr. Jung (the neuro-oncologist) about my case and that he would give his office a call tomorrow (Wednesday) or by the latest on Thursday. Lord I just pray for favor! I just have faith that we will get an appointment sometime by the end of next week and we will have made decisions by then! In Jesus name.

I know that I am not any better than the person before me, but what I do know is that I am the apple of my Daddy God's eye...and I take refuge under his wings and I rejoice. I know that because I honor him...He wants to give me blessings and bring me favor in the eye of those around me. Ultimately, I pray for favor for an appointment next week and ask humbly for you to stand with me in this prayer.

Thank you for those that continue to pray for us and stay with us on this journey. For we know that because you are praying for us...God is honoring our prayers.

We love you. We'll keep you updated as we get news about our next appointment.

Following-up...

Well just wanted to update you as to what has been going on with us. I (Tina) am doing well and continue to go to rehab twice a week at Mentis. I have OT, PT, and speech. On occasion I have groups for communication and executive functioning skills. I have made some progress with my foot. It is beginning to move both up and down...still no movement from side to side, but I continue to work on that. So please continue to pray that SOON those functions will come back. I continue to have weakness on my left side...I think I notice it more when I have to push or pull on things. At times I get frustrated, but I know that with time I will continue to get stronger and stronger.

We heard from the neurosurgeon's office yesterday...they said that the neuro-oncologists office received the tissue samples from pathology, but we continue to wait for an appointment to be scheduled with the neuro-oncologist. The lady from the neurosurgeon's office said that if we didn't hear anything from them by the end of today that we should call her back...and she would talk with them. I guess patience is just a virtue we work on all the time. LOL.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. We love you all!