Truth and Beauty

Our Laura Jane is now holding hands with Jesus.

The day after her last post, she did make it to the hospital for treatment and surgery involving her lungs. In the process, doctors discovered the cancer spread much further than anyone realized. All expected her to bounce back from surgery and begin more aggressive chemo. But for no apparent reason her liver failed after the surgery.

As she slowly faded from this world over the next several days, she was surrounded by love. Friends held her hands and recounted fun adventures together. Her precious children, Emily and Joe, heard directly from their mother how incredibly much she loved both of them. And in an amazing show of God's grace, Laura Jane's husband returned home and she and Chad expressed their love for eachother.

She was a picture of courage and strength in her final week with us. She slipped into the arms of Jesus full of peace in her heart and joy on her face in the first hour of Saturday, January 22, 2011.

Laura Jane's family wants to thank each of you, whether you knew her in person or merely online, for entering into the beauty of this true story. And we invite you to post a comment to let us and others know how her story has touched you.

To God be the glory.

Snow

Snow is so beautiful. I love the way it looks when it falls..I love the way it covers everything and makes it all look so clean. I love how quiet it is outside when it snows... But I hate it when it falls on Dr's appointment day. Especially when your going to need to have your lung tapped and the next available appointment is over a week away.
And further more, they say that no two snowflakes are alike....I'm not so sure....how do they know that a snowflake that fell in the 1800's doesn't look like the one that fell in my back yard yesterday? Hmmmm, what are your thoughts on that?

Pleural Effusion

A few years ago I developed Pleural Effusion. There is a pleural cavity right outside your lung and it can sometimes fill with fluid.
When I had it the first time the Dr. had my lung "tapped" and took out a litre of fluid. Since then it has not returned. Until now.

The fluid is back per 3 x-rays ago. The first x-ray showed a small increase. The second and third showed no increase, but here is where the fun begins. Now when I breathe it sounds like carbonation. Little fizzy sounds. Are you grossed out yet? I am.
Life and symptoms have not gone well with this latest round of medicine. The good news is however, that my estrogen level went down 3 points. For most woman and their husbands, this is a bad thing....but for us breast cancer gals it is good news. We just have to buy a little extra chap stick.

Peace

Did I say "peace?" I meant "pain"..no, actually I meant "peace" or maybe even both.
Pain can come and go in life. It can be a stubbed toe or a broken arm. But pain that is deep and lasting is often followed by perspective change. I sure have had a lot of that these past few years. I even see it in my son at 14.
As we watched the fireworks at midnight on New Year's Eve I asked him if he had any resolutions for the new year and he said,"No. I just want this year to be better than last year."
Instead of saying "I want save for a Red Ryder BB gun with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time" he just wanted life to be better...that's what was important to him.

Life looks very different now. What was once so important is really not important at all. What's important now is kindness and not criticism, peace and not conflict, appreciating what we do for each other. Big changes, especially for me...yes I said me. I have learned much I confess. I mean after all, the blog is about the "true story" not the "pretend story".

Sleep... where have you gone?

Oh how I remember the good ol' days. Those nights when I fell asleep and stayed asleep.
Those nights have been hard to come by lately. Instead they have been replaced with staring at the ceiling, rolling over and then back again a few hundred times, taking a cancer inventory, thinking about my kids, starting a load of laundry, praying for a few hours, checking the clock and more.
It seems I get out of bed more tired than the night before.
A very hardworking friend once said that "Sleep is a weakness." It was funny at the time. Ok, it's still funny now, even with my perspective change.
I don't think that the robbing of every estrogen cell from my body is helping either. But such is the treatment.

So I guess what I am saying is, if you have any prayer requests let me know. It seems I have an extra 6 or 7 hours to fill.