Amy - Beloved

Her name means Beloved. It fits her well.     

Amy and Becca at Silver Dollar City

    The beginning of April was a trying time for our family. Testing was completed and we were anxiously awaiting the results. The doctors were optimistic and we were in constant prayer that this journey was going to end soon.
     Amy has a non-typical mass. This means that the usual plan for this type of tumor, chemo then removal, is not an option. The area where the tumor is located, and the amount of vascular tissue located inside the tumor prevent the use of radiation and surgery is not possible. The risks far outweigh the benefits to even try to obtain a new sample for biopsy. The news we received was that the tumor has not grown but it will not go away. It will be more like scar tissue and our option is to complete one more round of chemo and then more testing in three months.
     Amy is doing well. Her doctors are confident that the cancer cells were killed especially since her only symptoms have been caused by the chemo and not the actual tumor. She is tired sometimes and it has slowed her down some but she remains our same Amy. After the next chemo and testing she has been given the go ahead to return to normal life. She has plans for swimming, bike racing and horseback riding. We are looking forward to it as well.
     The tumor will not go away and it will need to be monitored long term but God has answered many prayers and we could not have endured this without His grace and mercy to our family. We hope and pray that in some way we have reached out to others during all of this and pointed them to Him. Our life will only count if we do not point to ourselves and say look at us but to point to God and say He painted our story. He brought us through a rough and frightening time and on the other side was His peace and love.
 We will continue to update everyone on her testing and progress as we go along. Thank you for all your support and continued prayers.