Hello! Thanks for checking in on me! I really appreciate the continued prayers for my health! As I really need them!
I just returned from a wonderful few days with Maribeth Mortenson Herman and her family in Park City, UT! It was JUST what I needed! After all, laughter is the best medicine! (At least that's what my 89 year old aunt, Evelyn Richardson, keeps telling me! She sends me handwritten pages full of jokes faithfully every week!)
Anyway, I laughed and laughed with Ali(8), Samantha(7), Sydney(7) and Andrew(3 1/2)! We had a blast! We also went sledding and played in the hot tub! Then I hiked up and snowshoed down Iron Canyon (a favorite of ours from last year). And Maribeth and I downhilled on Saturday, still love my new skis! I feel very blessed that I was able to do everything I wanted to do! Even went for a run in the snow! Oh and was treated to a much needed massage : ) Thanks MB and Bruce! I also got to see Mary Ratcliff Honigman and her precious girls Ava and Stella! I just love the west, especially Park City, UT and look forward to many more fun times out there in God's country!
All in all it was just what the doctor ordered! So today I am getting geared up for Round Three tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday. Please pray for a few specific things if you would:
1. That they get the IV in without pain and issues. My prayer is that it would stay in and work for the entire treatment. And that it wouldn't irritate my skin or veins. A tall order but I am believing!
2. That the Rituxan on Tuesday and the Treanda on Wednesday and Thursday do their good thing to rid my body of the lymphoma! And that they do no harm to the good things that are already there in my body! So far minimal side effects and I would love to see that continue!
3. That God would work in and through me during this time. And That I would show His love and grace to those who are providing for my care and those that I come into contact with at the doctor's office. It seems I always run into someone I know or meet someone new each time I go!
Thanks! And I will let you know how it goes! Oh and I understand this blog is not working so great! Still I would love to hear from you by phone or email anytime:
leslie.willingham@yahoo.com (404) 273-3046.
Blessings, Leslie
Monday, March 1, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
This Week
Hi! Well round two was this week and it went pretty well with few complications! My mom went with me to the first two treatments on Tuesday and Wednesday and today my former neighbor and great friend Pam Murrey went with me! It sure makes it better to have someone there! I had a bit of a problem with the blood draw and IVs this time but it was still better than having a port! Next time I have to try something different. But thats not for 28 days! My doctor wants me to stay off work another month due to flu season and all the germs on those planes. So I will be around!
The worse part of the week was not being able to sleep last night due to the steroids they gave me yesterday! UGH. Couldn't sleep so stay up until the wee hours reading and playing solitare and then got very little sleep before waking up again and lying there trying to go back to sleep. So I finally got up and drank some sleepy time tea and it helped a bit but still only slept an hour or so before just getting up altogether. Now I am fading fast and hoping to sleep well after my long walk this evening with Sarah Merrill and Catie Booher!
The last thing to get through this round is the steroid crash that might come tomorrow and will leave me exhausted if its like last month. But it only lasts a day and then I am fine! I am so grateful for Treanda and its less toxocity! Very blessed to have the timing work out for me to take this new drug!
Thanks for all your prayers! Our prayer is that the drugs will do only what they are supposed to do and will do that well and will harm nothing else in my body nor mind neither now with side effects or later! And that God will continue to uphold me and will use this time in my life to His glory. Thanks for checking in on me! Have a great weekend!
The worse part of the week was not being able to sleep last night due to the steroids they gave me yesterday! UGH. Couldn't sleep so stay up until the wee hours reading and playing solitare and then got very little sleep before waking up again and lying there trying to go back to sleep. So I finally got up and drank some sleepy time tea and it helped a bit but still only slept an hour or so before just getting up altogether. Now I am fading fast and hoping to sleep well after my long walk this evening with Sarah Merrill and Catie Booher!
The last thing to get through this round is the steroid crash that might come tomorrow and will leave me exhausted if its like last month. But it only lasts a day and then I am fine! I am so grateful for Treanda and its less toxocity! Very blessed to have the timing work out for me to take this new drug!
Thanks for all your prayers! Our prayer is that the drugs will do only what they are supposed to do and will do that well and will harm nothing else in my body nor mind neither now with side effects or later! And that God will continue to uphold me and will use this time in my life to His glory. Thanks for checking in on me! Have a great weekend!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
What a difference a Year makes
So my first flashback...for those of you that don't know or have forgotten. On December 10, 2008 we sold our condo at The Oaks of Buckhead. It was a beautiful condo and we enjoyed lots of things about being there but what we didn't enjoy was feeling stuck and we had felt that way for a long time. But once again we will see God's perfect timing at work!
Over Labor Day weekend, while visiting Maribeth Herman and her family in Park City, UT, I remarked that if we sold our condo in the fall, we might as well rent in Park City for the winter since we had to live somewhere! And Richard, the adventurer that he is, loved the idea! But could it possibly become reality?! Seemed way far fetched! We had a renter on the hook but he was wanting us to change 50 items in a standard rental agreement so I was relieved when he finally walked away as I think he would have been a royal pain! Then we had a short term renter possiblity and we were going for it, Utah and all, when low and behold I got a call from a real estate agent who really liked our condo and wanted to show it over the weekend! Then her client wanted to see the night view on Sunday night! I had just come in from a Feminine Hearts Alive retreat and wasn't planning to go to church but did since I needed to leave so she could show the condo. I so vividly remember walking across the bridge from the parking deck to the foyer of Buckhead Church praying "Lord, a renter would be great and all but it sure would be nice if this guy would just buy the place!" But I honestly don't think I believed it would happen - oh me of little faith! Well that's exactly what happened! And just like that we were outta there!
So less than a month later we are headed for Utah and the Chocolate Moose Lodge, our new home for the winter! (How that all worked out is a great story for another time.) God really is so good! So January 5, 2009 at 5:21 pm Richard and I head for Park City. Yes, you read right, we left at 5:21 pm, on a week night, from Forsyth, GA headed north through Atlanta, in the pouring rain on our way to Utah! I am a poor packer and it got the best of me that day! Little did I know, we didn't need to take anything with us except for clothes because this place we rented was Bed, Bath and Beyond (thank you Greg for your generosity!) So it took us exactly 48 hours to get there. We were so excited! We had a great time driving cross country as fast as we could and I even got out and chased and caught a tumbleweed that I cherished all winter!
So here's the point. What a difference a year makes! God is so very good! But I didn't really understand why He was so good to us last winter until the events of this fall. This diagnosis: low grade B-cell follicular non hodgkin's lymphoma took us by surprise like nothing ever has but it didn't take God by surprise. He prepared the way in so many ways but especially by giving us our hearts desire, last winter, to experience and treasure in the tough days ahead. So exactly one year later January 5, 2010 I started my treatment. And the first round took about 48 hours! So what do I do with that? I have wished so many times (not really lately but not that long ago) that I could just relive the first six months of 2009 over and over and never go forward (like the movie Ground Hog Day). Real mature huh! But this life is not like that, there will always be ups and downs and we can't avoid that but right there in the midst is a good God loving us through it all and providing and loving in ways we can't always see until later. I may never get over the shock of this diagnosis but what I pray I will never get over is the faithfulness of our loving Lord. May you know and recognize His faithfulness in your life too! Thanks for checking on me. Round 2 starts Tuesday, Feb 2nd. Praying that it will go as well as the first!
Over Labor Day weekend, while visiting Maribeth Herman and her family in Park City, UT, I remarked that if we sold our condo in the fall, we might as well rent in Park City for the winter since we had to live somewhere! And Richard, the adventurer that he is, loved the idea! But could it possibly become reality?! Seemed way far fetched! We had a renter on the hook but he was wanting us to change 50 items in a standard rental agreement so I was relieved when he finally walked away as I think he would have been a royal pain! Then we had a short term renter possiblity and we were going for it, Utah and all, when low and behold I got a call from a real estate agent who really liked our condo and wanted to show it over the weekend! Then her client wanted to see the night view on Sunday night! I had just come in from a Feminine Hearts Alive retreat and wasn't planning to go to church but did since I needed to leave so she could show the condo. I so vividly remember walking across the bridge from the parking deck to the foyer of Buckhead Church praying "Lord, a renter would be great and all but it sure would be nice if this guy would just buy the place!" But I honestly don't think I believed it would happen - oh me of little faith! Well that's exactly what happened! And just like that we were outta there!
So less than a month later we are headed for Utah and the Chocolate Moose Lodge, our new home for the winter! (How that all worked out is a great story for another time.) God really is so good! So January 5, 2009 at 5:21 pm Richard and I head for Park City. Yes, you read right, we left at 5:21 pm, on a week night, from Forsyth, GA headed north through Atlanta, in the pouring rain on our way to Utah! I am a poor packer and it got the best of me that day! Little did I know, we didn't need to take anything with us except for clothes because this place we rented was Bed, Bath and Beyond (thank you Greg for your generosity!) So it took us exactly 48 hours to get there. We were so excited! We had a great time driving cross country as fast as we could and I even got out and chased and caught a tumbleweed that I cherished all winter!
So here's the point. What a difference a year makes! God is so very good! But I didn't really understand why He was so good to us last winter until the events of this fall. This diagnosis: low grade B-cell follicular non hodgkin's lymphoma took us by surprise like nothing ever has but it didn't take God by surprise. He prepared the way in so many ways but especially by giving us our hearts desire, last winter, to experience and treasure in the tough days ahead. So exactly one year later January 5, 2010 I started my treatment. And the first round took about 48 hours! So what do I do with that? I have wished so many times (not really lately but not that long ago) that I could just relive the first six months of 2009 over and over and never go forward (like the movie Ground Hog Day). Real mature huh! But this life is not like that, there will always be ups and downs and we can't avoid that but right there in the midst is a good God loving us through it all and providing and loving in ways we can't always see until later. I may never get over the shock of this diagnosis but what I pray I will never get over is the faithfulness of our loving Lord. May you know and recognize His faithfulness in your life too! Thanks for checking on me. Round 2 starts Tuesday, Feb 2nd. Praying that it will go as well as the first!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
the First from Leslie
Hi everyone! Welcome to my blog! Check in as you will to find out the latest from me as I walk this walk that God has called me to and that only He can see me through! I appreciate everyone's prayers as they are definitely needed and felt! Since I am starting this blog months into the story, I will do sort of a "Lost" theme of flashbacks to fill in the gaps. Be assured that while it hopefully won't be as confusing as "Lost", it's doubtful that it will be as exciting either!
So I start with an incredible story. The real reason that I decided to do a blog. I was resistant at first to the idea but then I met a couple of courageous, inspirational people in treatment and was once again reminded of the faces of cancer (I know, how could I forget with my involvement with The Lighthouse Family Retreat!) So I decided that maybe I did have something to say...
Her name is Danielle and she is 32 years old. I saw her just today but met her in early January when I began my first treatment. Richard and I had noticed her there each day and we were wondering "what her story is". One day she had a t-shirt on that said something like "Kicking Cancer's _ _ _!" Anyway, Presley, one of the nurses, and a friend of Trisha McWilliams, introduces us. She asks me what I am there for and when I tell her she says, me too! She says excitedly "There aren't many of us. We have what everyone wants to have!" I think, well maybe just these people here in this treatment room!
Anyway, come to find out that back in September, when she was 5 months pregnant, she was having shortness of breath and tightness in her chest. Her doctor blew it off as part of her pregnancy but her midwife suggested that she see a cardiologist. After some other tests, they did a chest xray that revealed a huge mass in her chest. She was diagnosed with an aggressive form of non hodgkin's lymphoma. She was immediately admitted to Northside Hospital where my doctor, Dr. Colleen Austin, was on call. She began CHOP the next day. Yes, 5 months pregnant! CHOP is three chemo drugs plus predisone and its ugly! She underwent 4 rounds and then was given a month off to have the baby. So, her baby girl is now 5 weeks and doing great! Praise the Lord! Now she is back in treatment with another even uglier regime call RICE which is Rituxan plus ICE (not sure what it is but its tougher than CHOP!) But Danielle is doing great, such a great attitude, always smiling, even though I know she has been through so, so much! The amazing thing is her baby is doing great! A reminder that God's timing is like no other! Diagnosed any earlier, she probably would have lost the baby. But she was able to have serious, toxic treatments that ultimately do not appear to have hurt her baby! Oh, the miraculous design of our bodies by our Creator, the author of life! So Danielle is my inspiration and such a blessing! Please pray for her and her family as God leads you to. More to come...and thanks for tuning in...
So I start with an incredible story. The real reason that I decided to do a blog. I was resistant at first to the idea but then I met a couple of courageous, inspirational people in treatment and was once again reminded of the faces of cancer (I know, how could I forget with my involvement with The Lighthouse Family Retreat!) So I decided that maybe I did have something to say...
Her name is Danielle and she is 32 years old. I saw her just today but met her in early January when I began my first treatment. Richard and I had noticed her there each day and we were wondering "what her story is". One day she had a t-shirt on that said something like "Kicking Cancer's _ _ _!" Anyway, Presley, one of the nurses, and a friend of Trisha McWilliams, introduces us. She asks me what I am there for and when I tell her she says, me too! She says excitedly "There aren't many of us. We have what everyone wants to have!" I think, well maybe just these people here in this treatment room!
Anyway, come to find out that back in September, when she was 5 months pregnant, she was having shortness of breath and tightness in her chest. Her doctor blew it off as part of her pregnancy but her midwife suggested that she see a cardiologist. After some other tests, they did a chest xray that revealed a huge mass in her chest. She was diagnosed with an aggressive form of non hodgkin's lymphoma. She was immediately admitted to Northside Hospital where my doctor, Dr. Colleen Austin, was on call. She began CHOP the next day. Yes, 5 months pregnant! CHOP is three chemo drugs plus predisone and its ugly! She underwent 4 rounds and then was given a month off to have the baby. So, her baby girl is now 5 weeks and doing great! Praise the Lord! Now she is back in treatment with another even uglier regime call RICE which is Rituxan plus ICE (not sure what it is but its tougher than CHOP!) But Danielle is doing great, such a great attitude, always smiling, even though I know she has been through so, so much! The amazing thing is her baby is doing great! A reminder that God's timing is like no other! Diagnosed any earlier, she probably would have lost the baby. But she was able to have serious, toxic treatments that ultimately do not appear to have hurt her baby! Oh, the miraculous design of our bodies by our Creator, the author of life! So Danielle is my inspiration and such a blessing! Please pray for her and her family as God leads you to. More to come...and thanks for tuning in...
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