NO MO CHEMO

Wednesday, April 1

This is no April's Fool Joke. Tyler finished his last chemo treatment today at 2:30pm. Bruce, Conner and I had the privilege to be in Memphis at St Jude Hospital to celebrate and take part in the occasion. All of Tyler's nurse's came into his room along with his family (Charles, Sarah, Christian, Elijah and Glen)and his Aunt Debbie and Uncle Steve from Panama City to sing a silly song. They showered him with confetti and brought him balloons that said "NO MO CHEMO". His empty bag of chemo was thrown in the trash as we applauded gleefully.

We are looking forward to brighter days ahead. We pray that this was a successful treatment and there are NO more cancer cells remaining in Tyler's body. He will be checked out later this month to make sure that all the cancer cells are gone and that his organs are healthy. He will be taken off antibiotics in the next week or two
and hopefully his leg will be able to fight off the infection and he will not need surgery. We must wait and pray!

II Corinthians talks about comfort in time of sorrow and we can accomplish this because God's grace is sufficient and His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses. We pray that Tyler will feel God's strength and rely on that to pull him through these last few weeks of treatment. It has been a long, tough road and we look forward to a healthy young man returning to a life full of fun. Tyler has missed out on a lot of fun things these past 11 months. I look forward to seeing him and his family return to a normal way of living. One that doesn't include driving every day to a hospital, eating hospital food or not eating at all, laying in a hospital bed, throwing up countless times a day, watching him sleep for hours and hours at a time and just feeling so lousy that he can't get out of bed for days. We take normal days for granted and we say we are bored with life sometimes. Maybe each of us should have to endure a day like Tyler has had to endure, then we may all look at life differently.

Visiting St Jude hospital today was enlightening. What a wonderful place Danny Thomas founded so many years ago. He made a promise to God and fulfilled that promise with St Jude hospital. I challenge everyone to go online to read about the history of St Jude. There are so many lives that are touched and so many lives that have been saved because of this special hospital. We had the opportunity to deliver several boxes of toys that were donated by first grade students at Christian Academy. The hospital staff was so appreciative of the donations. We saw several young children playing with toys and making crafts to pass the time while they were receiving treatment. They had IV's attached as they were sitting at a table coloring, making a necklace or playing with a toy. I know these donations will be used to cheer a young person's life.

Continue to pray for this family and know you that these prayers have carried this family through. Stay close! Kim