Quick Update

Just a quick update on Alyson's progress. She completed her chemotherapy on Nov. 12. She did remarkably well. The cold cap did its job and helped her to keep her hair. It did thin out, but you would never know it unless you asked her. I think keeping her hair has helped her spirits during all of her treatments. We now are ready for her mastectomy....by the way, her surgery is tomorrow (12/12). She will go into the operating room at 8:30 am and will have to stay in the hospital overnight. She will likely be very limited in her activity for a solid 2-3 weeks. She will have 3-4 drain tubes for that time, so she will not be able to drive or lift anything until the drain tubes are removed and she has had adequate time to heal from the operation.
God has been present through all of this and we have felt the many prayers from our family and friends across the country. We love you all and you are all appreciated beyond what can be expressed in words. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. We are looking forward to a relaxing Christmas season and we are thankful for what the Lord will do in the next months as Alyson recovers. I will update everyone post surgery.

7 down 5 to go

Alyson completed her 7th chemo treatment Monday. She has had a very good week. Her sister, Jen, was in town for a few days and it was awesome to have her here! Thank You Jennifer for all your love and support this week!
We continued to be blessed by all the love and support of friends and family as we journey through this fight. Alyson is so amazing to witness. Her strength and resolve through all of this still blows me away. We feel the prayers from across the country and know that God is present in this time.
Basketball season is well underway as we have completed 3 weeks of practices. We are two weeks away from our first game on October 27th. If you're in the Elgin, IL area we play at 3:00 pm on that Saturday.
Thank you again for all the love, support and prayers.

Halfway through!!!

Monday, Alyson completed her 6th chemo treatment. This marks the halfway point of her treatments. She had a mostly good week, although she did have a bad headache on Wednesday. Overall, she is doing great with the treatments. We are amazed at her body's response to chemo, especially since she has been through this before. Chemotherapy, typically, has a cumulative affect on the body, but Aly seems to be doing great. Her hair is still 95% intact with only a few spots showing some thinning. The cold cap seems to be doing its job. She looks absolutely amazing!
We have some awesome friends in town this weekend from our old neighborhood in Texas. So excited to see them and hang out with them. Then Sunday, Alyson's sister, Jen, comes in for the week to help out at the house. We are looking forward to having Auntie Jen stay with us!
Thank you all for the continued prayers and support. We feel them and appreciate them so very deeply.

Approaching the half way point...treatment 6 on the way.

We are approaching the halfway point of Alyson's chemotherapy. The sixth treatment is set for tomorrow. We had hoped that we would be at treatment #7 at this point, but because Alyson's white blood cell count was down two weeks ago, we had to put #5 off. So now her final treatment is scheduled for November 12th, instead of the 5th.
When we went in for her original 5th treatment, her blood count was too low for them to allow the chemo drugs to go into her system, since it was compromised. The doctors like for the blood count to be at a minimum of 1000 and hers was at 800. Last week, her mom was in town and her counts came up to 1400 so she was able to get her 5th treatment. Nothing like mom coming in to make things better!!! When the counts were down, there wasn't really anything that she could do to get them back up. Because of her previous battle and chemo treatments, her bone marrow is compromised and therefore makes her susceptible to lower blood counts. Our hope is that from this point on she can stay above that 1000 level threshold.
The cold cap that she has been wearing during treatment appears to be working fairly well. If you see her you would never know that she is undergoing chemotherapy. She has, however, noticed lately that her hair is getting thinner in the areas that the cap does not touch, but otherwise she looks like her normal beautiful self.
The Lord's provision has been evident to us and we have felt the many prayers that have been going up on behalf of Alyson. We are grateful for friends and family that have come to visit, that have sent encouraging words and we have been blown away by the gifts of money that people have sent us. We did not expect any of the many gifts that people have given to us, but know that they are greatly appreciated. We are also thankful to the Lord for Him guarding our boys during this time. They have been handling all of this in stride.
Wednesday of this week is our 20th wedding anniversary!!! I am so blessed by Alyson. I truly am the luckiest man alive and am grateful for our lives. We have everything we need and couldn't ask for anything more. We have been blessed with two awesome boys. We also have the best group of friends that love and support us during the difficult times in life. I am looking forward to the next 20 years and beyond!!!
I will follow up more quickly after treatment #6 tomorrow. Please continue to pray for Alyson's remaining chemo treatments. We love all of you very much.

Week 3 and 4

I'm a little behind in updating how Alyson has been doing.
Week 3
The week went well for treatment #3. Wednesday was once again a little rough for Alyson as she had another bad headache. The best part of the week was having one of our best friends in town. Kindra Reed came in on a sort of "surprise" visit to help out for a few days. Kindra was a Godsend as her presence lifted all of our spirits. It was great seeing an awesome friend sacrifice time away from her family to come take care of ours. So a big shout out to Kindra D for hanging out with the Thrifts. You were helpful more than you know or feel.
Week 4
Treatment 4 went well and actually Wednesday was a tolerable day for Alyson as she only had a slight headache which was able to be controlled by some Advil. It was a low key week for us overall.
As we approach treatment 5, Alyson's hair seems to be staying mainly intact with the use of the "cold cap". We hope this trend continues as she progresses through her remaining treatments. IF the cold cap is still working, these next few weeks will really tell us how well it has been working. For now, though, she seems to be keeping hold of her hair.
My mom is in town this week to help out with the boys and our treatment schedule. Good food to follow!!!!
Thank you all for your continued prayers and support!
Treatment 5 to follow tomorrow...

Week 2 update

Alyson had a GREAT week. She felt minimal side effects from treatment #2. We are so thankful for this past week. She spent several days before her second treatment hydrating with Smart Water. It seemed to help a ton as she did not have any headaches or nausea. We are hoping that keeping her hydrated will continue to be the magic formula for her.
In the picture, Alyson is wearing her "cold cap". We are hoping this will either eliminate or greatly reduce her hair loss. This week (treatment #3) will be a big week for the hair loss. Chemotherapy treatment takes about 15 days to get to hair proteins/cells. If she weren't using a cold cap, her hair would begin to fall out in clumps. Hopefully the cold cap will keep this from happening to a large extent.
Your prayers are greatly appreciated and felt. I am still amazed at how resilient Alyson is and how she is not letting this cancer dictate her life attitude. God has been incredibly present in our family. Our boys are taking everything in stride. Brooks has been amazing! Brock on the other hand is patiently waiting for mom to get "chemo brain". For those that don't know, the term chemo brain refers to chemo patients that become forgetful. We jokingly told Brock that when mom gets chemo brain she will forget silly things. So, now anytime Alyson acts like she forgot something, Brock is quick to tell her she has chemo brain. It's all in good fun.
We are all set for treatment #3. Alyson got a "surprise" visitor today. One of her best friends flew in from Pennsylvania to help out this week. We are so grateful for Kindra and her willingness to come see Alyson and spend some time with her.
Thank you again, for all your continued prayers and support.

Ready for treatment #2!

Quick update

Alyson has had a very good weekend after having three rough days. She is gearing up for her second treatment of twelve total. I am hopeful that this week will be better and am praying that her side effects will be minimal. The boys handled the first week well and seem to be doing well overall. I know Brooks is very aware of what is going on as he spontaneously walked in one day last week and told Alyson, "Mom you are so beautiful". He sort of sang it to her, which was kind of cool to see and hear. It was just a quick 5 second affirmation of his mother, but it went a long way.
We have had a low key weekend for the most part and Aly has been drinking a ton of water to hydrate herself in preparation for Monday's treatment. She picked up some Smart Water that has electrolytes in it. We hope this will keep her from having any headaches associated with some of her treatment.
I will do my best to post an update, and with Alyson's permission post of picture of her putting on her "cold cap".
Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement.