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.

One down, 11 more to go

Alyson had her first chemo treatment on Monday. It was a long day as her infusions were done at a slower pace for observation purposes. The remaining 11 treatments will go faster. The first drug, Hercepton, was infused over a 90 minute session. They then observed her for an hour to see if she would have any adverse reactions since this was a new drug to her. After the hour observation, we had to put on her cold cap 30 minutes prior to her chemo drug infusion. They want the cold cap to start so that the scalp can be cooled down before the chemo drug got into her system. The chemo infusion lasted an hour. Once the chemo drug was done, she had to keep the cold cap on for another hour before she could take it off. We won't know if the cold cap is working until about the third or fourth treatment. We are praying that it is effective in eliminating hair loss for Alyson. As I said, it was a long day. We left the house at 10:30 am and didn't get back until around 8:00 pm.
Tuesday, Alyson felt normal for most of the day until her face became flush red. At first it was bright red and eventually subsided to a pink color. Before she went to bed she started to feel a headache coming on and it got worse through the night. She didn't get much good sleep, but woke up for work anyway. The headache was pretty intense to the point she is now laying in bed after getting sick a couple times. I am staying home with her today and the boys, luckily, are at a camp today and don't have to see her sick. We called to doctor to have them send in a prescription for an anti-nausea medication. I hope this will help her feel better and that the headache will go away too.
On the other side of this, we started school at the college on Monday as well. I am excited for the group of players we have this year. We have a lot of new faces and a solid core of returners. I cannot wait to get started working with this group in the coming days. I have a great assistant that will likely be on his own a lot as we care for Alyson, but I am confident that he will do a great job and have our guys prepared for this season.
Thank you for your continued prayers as we are still a little uncertain as to how Alyson will respond to chemo side effects. I hope she is able to recover in between treatments and can avoid being sick for this 12 week period.

Treatment begins

We visited the oncologist today to determine when chemotherapy would start. Since the lymph nodes were clear we knew that Alyson would not need to undergo radiation therapy. Today's visits were to follow up post lumpectomy and chemo port placement. She is healing nicely from the lumpectomy and we were told that the margins were clear (also good news). Now all we had to determine was the type and length of chemotherapy. She will begin her chemotherapy Monday August 20th. Alyson will get one treatment per week for a total of 12 weeks. She will go in every Monday for 12 weeks which will put her last treatment on November 5th. The obvious side effect will be hair loss. We think we may have a solution to that side effect. We have purchased a "cold cap" which will be worn during her chemo infusions. The purpose of the cap is, essentially, to keep her scalp cold, therefore restricting blood flow to her scalp which would keep the chemo drugs from getting to her scalp. This cold cap should either eliminate her hair loss or greatly reduce it. We are hopeful that it will prevent her hair from falling out. We won't know if it works for a few weeks after treatment has begun. Usually hair loss from chemo takes about 2-3 weeks to occur.
Alyson is in good spirits as she approaches this phase of treatment. We are hopeful that the chemo will have as little impact on her body as possible. The typical side effects are fatigue and nausea the day after and then gradual improvement within 2-3 days. She is hoping that the chemo will not impact her ability to work too much during the week, and oddly enough that it won't keep her from attending my basketball games at Judson.
After chemotherapy is done in November, she will recover for about a month before she will go in for her mastectomy. We hope she can have it done early in December and have a little time to recover before Christmas.
Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. It has been greatly appreciated and felt as we have traveled this road once again. Please continue to pray for chemo treatments to have as little impact as possible (except on the cancer). Pray that the cold cap works and for our boys as they may begin to really feel the impact of seeing Alyson not feeling well all the time.
I will update you as much as possible as we go through chemo. Thanks Y'all and we love you all!

Good News, no...GREAT News

Our last post stated that we were waiting until this week Wednesday/Thursday to find out the results of the lymph node dissection. Alyson received great news saying that her lymph nodes were clear, which means that the cancer did not spread into her body. This also means that she will NOT have to undergo Radiation therapy after chemo and her mastectomy. This is such a weight off of her shoulders, one to not have the cancer in her nodes, but two, she won't have to have radiation and all of its possible side affects.
We are taking the week off from doctor's appointments and will enjoy a quick trip to Iowa to see some dear friends from Texas. Yes, I said IOWA. We will go to the Iowa State Fair along with attending our very first Sweet Corn Festival...in IOWA. Should be fun! Iowa people!
Alyson will likely begin her chemo treatments somewhere around August 20. She will have 12 weeks of treatments. It will be once a week for 12 straight weeks. The other great thing about the nodes being negative is that the chemo will be less aggressive. We are seriously considering investing in what is called a "cold cap". She would wear this extremely cold cap during her infusions and it has proven, in many cases, to significantly reduce hair loss. It's expensive, but probably totally worth it.
Thank you all for your continued prayers and support! I will post more after we have more information from our next doctor's appointment on August 17.

Truer words have never been spoken...

Truer words have never been spoken...Cancer Sucks!!! Alyson has been diagnosed with Breast Cancer for the third time. We found out July 12 after discovering another lump back in May. This time it is on the right side. Previous occurrences were on the left.
As you can imagine, we have seen several doctors with different opinions on how to treat this cancer. What we do know for sure is that Alyson will undergo chemotherapy followed by a mastectomy and then reconstruction of the breast area and possibly radiation; she will then be treated with a drug called Herceptin for a year. To determine the strength and duration of the chemotherapy, Alyson underwent a lumpectomy and sentinel lymph node biopsy Thursday. The results of the biopsy will be in next week (Wed/Thur) and we will then know the type of chemo and the duration of the treatment. Friday she had her chemo port placed in her chest (left side). It was a long two days at the hospital.
This new cancer is more aggressive than her last two battles and will need to be treated as such. Previous occurrences were whats called Her2 negative. This time she is Her2 positive, which is more aggressive and unpredictable. I will give more details in another post soon. The good news is that we believe we have caught it early and the lump is relatively small. Our hope is that it has not gotten to her lymph nodes. If is has not spread she will be able to avoid radiation therapy, which she really would like to avoid. If it has spread, then she won't be able to avoid it. We have decided that she will be treated at Loyola Medical Center (Cardinal Bernadin Cancer Center) in Chicago. It is a little over an hour drive from our house, but we feel it is her best case scenario for treatment. Her oncologist there is the considered the world authority on Alyson's type of cancer. The team of doctors there have been phenomenal. Alyson's team consists of her oncologist, a breast surgeon,  a plastic surgeon and a lot of nurses and nurse practitioners.  Each time we have met with these doctors I have a feeling as if we are their only patient case. The individual attention is much appreciated. We are in good hands.
As for Alyson, she is in great spirits and ready for battle. No surprise there! I am blown away at how she just poises herself and keeps moving forward. This time, though, we have two awesome boys that will be affected in some way...we just don't know how yet. Brooks (12 yrs old) knew that when he was 1 or 2 his mom had cancer, but didn't really understand it then. He's seen pictures of him and his mom when she lost her hair, but doesn't really remember it. Now that he is older and is obviously much more aware, we know he will be affected because he has such a gentle spirit. When we told him, he teared up a bit, but then was ok. We just don't know how he will handle it once Alyson loses her hair and undergoes all these surgeries. Brock (7yrs old), on the other hand, just doesn't grasp the concept quite yet. For now, we have been carrying on as normal and by looking at Alyson they don't see any change in her to warrant concern on their part. Our prayer is that they will be minimally affected by this and that we as parents will be able to keep things as normal as possible for them.
We aren't putting her cancer journey on Facebook or social media...she struggles with Facebook, but would admit she is a bit of a Facebook stalker, lol! I will be putting updates on this blog for those that love her and want to pray for us.
Our next task as a family is not to ask God how He can help us, but rather ask how we can glorify His name through all of this. This won't be an easy task, because my desire is for Alyson to be healed yesterday! I do know this; God works in ALL things.  I will finish with this verse that I read just before she went into the operating room to have her lumpectomy and lymph node biopsy...
"So do not fear, for I am with you; Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." -Isaiah 41:10
Your prayers are coveted. This road will be a long one and frustrating at times. This blog will likely show the ups and downs that we may go through. But please pray for wisdom for Alyson and I as we care for her and our boys, and for the doctors that are treating her.