Do you like my picture?

Thanks to Amy Ford for posting my brand new photo on the blogsite. This photo was taken for an upcoming edition of Studio G only a few days before my diagnosis. Thanks to the amazing staff in the Gateway Media Department for taking it and for letting me use it! We had a lot of fun that day!

What do you think? I think my hair looks pretty good - and since it's all about the hair right now - I'm kind of glad they got a photo where it looks nice. I invest a lot of my husband's hard earned funds in high/low treatments and a great stylist. They tell me when my hair grows back it might be a totally different color, thicker, or even curly. I guess it's good bye to my old bob and hello to something surprising! You are still praying for me, right?

Speaking of my hair, it's still here, but dry and brittle. In addition to the blood tests which tell the doctor the chemo is working, I can tell the chemo is working it's way through my systems. My skin is dry and kind of creppy looking, (that's creppy not creepy) my stomach is doing flip flops and tonight during dinner my mouth blistered. Did you know that you could treat mouth sores with a high tech treatment called cryotherapy? That's a very fancy, scientific word for eat ice chips as fast as you can to reduce the blistering! It's working. My mouth feels better than an hour ago. Thanks to my fellow survivor Marianne Kalush for that tip!

Many thanks to Lisa Moseley for coming to my home today and driving me to my appointments. I wasn't so chipper this morning - so she helped finish getting ready and we headed off for our first appointment of the day. Bad news - my blood count was lower than the day before - therefore, another shot - and an antibiotic and a mask and a restricted diet and activity schedule. Good news - he cancelled my other two appointments for the day saying I didn't need to hang out in doctor's offices - go home.

So by 11, I was back home - in bed again - and being severely tempted to feel sorry for myself. Lisa prayed over me while we waited for the perscriptions and I'm convinced that the tide began to turn with her intercession. By 1:00 I was up, emptying the dishwasher, fixing some lunch and thinking "I feel better." I wonder if this is how cancer recovery is - a roller coaster of good moments, mixed with bad and the one consistent factor being you just keep going! I keep getting the same advice in lots of place - just don't give up! Somebody must have prayed for me (you know who you are) because I pulled out an audition dvd for Pink Impact and for about an hour I thought about how much God wants to share His heart for women. Needless to say, I was revived. This is a little trick I'll have to remember.

Thanks to the Sailor's for another amazing dinner! My boys are so happy! Blessings to this young couple as they are days away from welcoming their second daughter and still ministering to us by bringing food in 100 degree weather. Praying for a safe delivery and a healthy baby.

I've been thinking a lot about the goodness of God. How only He is good. I'm confident that cancer is bad - not from God - and not my destiny. But somehow, God who is good, will take my momentary circumstance (bad) and turn it for my good and His glory. Satan must be truly frustrated by the fact that what he intended for evil, God will turn to good. Here's the verse I'm meditating on today: But you shall serve the Lord your God, and He will bless your bread and your water, and I will remove sickness from your midst. Ex 23:25 - That's good!

I can't believe I almost forgot to tell you the best news of the day! My bone marrow biopsy came back clear! So grateful for every piece of good news! Narrowing down the scope and infiltration so that we can target our attack!

With love,

Jan