Tyler - 17 year old fighting cancer!

Tyler - 17 year old fighting cancer!
Ready for Battle!

Monday, June 17, 2013

An update from Friday

Tyler's Aunt Cheri (Michelle's sister) posted this on Facebook over the weekend. I thought I would repost to the blog for those of you that missed it.
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Wow!! I had a great day with Tyler today. We went outside for an hour, he was feeding the chipmunks. As you can see Tyler couldn't reach so his mom let the chipmunk crawl on her so he could feed him. Just amazing. I haven't seen Tyler smile so much or laugh in awhile. But the chipmunk jumped on Michelle's back. Ty laughed so hard. Then we went and all got smoothies. Came back to Ty's room watched his favorite movie which we had over-nighted. Then watched a funny comedy that Michelle about peed her pants. Ty loved that his mom was laughing. Have to say how amazing Tyler and Michelle are. I had a great day with them today. Haven't had many good days lately, but today Ty talked my ear off. And I loved every minute of it.

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Praying for more days like these...more smiles, more laughs, more conversations...better days!!!

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Surgery Update

Tyler did well in surgery. It was about a 4 hour procedure. They did biopsies on his tumors and replaced his kidney stents. He's in pain, but back in his room and resting. We should know the results in a couple of days. Please continue to pray for his healing and relief from the pain. And don't forget to pray for his momma too!! Thank you all for your prayers, concern and support. Much love to you all!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Surgery tomorrow

Tyler is going in for surgery tomorrow morning to biopsy his tumors. Surgery is scheduled for 7:30. The last time he had this type of surgery, it was a painful recovery. Please join us in prayer for Ty, our family and for the surgeons. God bless!

Monday, June 3, 2013

Scan results

The scan results came over the weekend. Not as promising as we were praying for...the tumors didn't shrink, but, they didn't grow either. They are hoping to add the 4th medicine to give the treatment the "boost" it may need to do its work.

The 4th medicine has the side effect of not allowing wounds to heal. Since Tyler still has a trach and 3 or 4 drainage tubes, and is still recovering from a major stomach surgery, they are worried about incorporating this one in the mix. The cancer doctors are pushing for it, but need the surgical team's approval to add this one into his regimen.

Tyler is still dealing with pneumonia as well.  

Please pray for comfort and peace for Michelle and Tyler. Pray for healing for Tyler. Please also continue to pray for great wisdom for the doctors as they are making these decisions.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers.

Philippians 4:4-8 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

8 weeks

Today marks 8 weeks of this experimental treatment. They have yet to add the 4th medicine to the regimen because of the issues he has been having with his stomach and bowels. The plan is to do a CT Scan sometime before the 9th week. It is tentatively scheduled for tomorrow. We are hoping and praying that we see some progress, even if it is small, to give us hope in the continuation of the treatments.

Tyler is weak and coughing a lot. Some additional complications are that they now think he may have pneumonia and they are doing an ultrasound on his kidneys to check for complications. Poor kid. He just can't catch a break.

Please join us in praying for Tyler. Pray that the fluid in his lungs will go away and that his kidneys will come back to full function. Also pray we see some positive results on the CT Scan and that these 8 weeks of brutal treatments have shrunk that tumor some!!


Monday, May 20, 2013

One tough momma!

Tyler is dealing with a lot of nausea for the last week or so. He's not able to hold anything down, not even the drinks he finally earned back. He's very tired and is mostly sleeping again. Today he is in A LOT of pain (rating it 9 out of 10). He's also very weak right now. He's shaking a lot when he tries to reach for something, or get up. Please pray for strength, peace, relief from the pain and that they can get his nausea to subside.

Last night, he tried to get up, with the usual assistance of his mom. He was very shaky and his knees buckled and he fell. Thankfully, Michelle was right there and broke his fall. She wasn't able to hold him up, but could get him more safely to the ground. He said he was fine and didn't feel like anything was hurt. It was really scary for Michelle though. Her emotional strength, as well as physical strength is astounding. My heart breaks when I hear these updates, but she just keeps trucking along. She is his strength right now and she's doing a phenomenal job. He's blessed to have her for his momma.

He knows it too...do you want to see what he got her for Mother's day? To put it in perspective, last year, I remember he showed up to our family BBQ and I asked him what he got her and he said "nothing!" (in his 17 yr old way). Later that day, he reluctantly picked her up some flowers. :)

This year, in April, he started asking some of us aunts when Mother's day was and if we had some ideas for her. My neighbor had told me about this site (Heart on your Wrist - click to check it out) where they stamp your handwriting onto jewelry. So, I told Tyler about it and asked if he wanted to do that, and us aunts would pitch in and buy it for her, from him. He said yes and asked for a piece of paper. He spent about 15 minutes thinking it over. He asked how long it should be...I told him he could write a book if he wanted and we would just make one giant necklace. After a few more minutes, he handed me this piece of paper, which we put on the necklace below. And although the writing was shakier than what it would normally have been...his words cut to the heart and (of course) brought me to tears. I just love this kid's heart. A strong and quiet exterior, but a soft heart.

I love you forever and ever

And finally, I just want to make a shout out to Cheri, Michelle's sister, who colored, cut and highlighted Michelle's hair this weekend. For having never done that before, using a pair of craft scissors and box color and being in a hospital room...it didn't turn out too shabby. She looks refreshed :) Nice work, Cher!








Tuesday, May 14, 2013

J tube update

The surgeons opted not to do anything surgically to correct Tyler's j-tube, due to possible infection risk, scar tissue, etc. They are just monitoring it and starting back his feeding and meds slowly...to make sure they do not drain out.

Other than that, no real changes to report. That's my quick update.

God Bless!