^^ Prayers for all above.

G was voted Prom Queen last night. She actually told my son that she wasn't thrilled because she feels like it was just a pity thing. :( She has been granted a wish by the Make a Wish Foundation and she meets with them Monday for an interview and to tell them her wish. She said she just wants a laptop and printer for college. What a down to earth kid :) She could get a trip anywhere, all kinds of luxurious things, but she's keeping it practical. Love her.

She'll be getting more chemo to make sure that all the cells are gone because it was so invasive and they know they surgically removed everything that they could see but they want to be on the safe side. She finds out Monday when that will start, how often she'll go and for how long.

Please send positive energy to two things things week.

The first is my stepdad has his first 6 month scan. He finished radiation last September. He's still go some complications with his pancreases.

The second is for the son of 2 of my coworkers. When he was 15 he was diagnosed with DSRCT, a aggressive cancer that causes tumors all over the abdomen. He went though a year and half of treatment and Fall they thought he was okay, but the cancer came back. This is not good of course since cells are always stronger the second time around. His particular type of cancer does not have a good 5 year rate. They were suppose to do an experimental surgery and hot chemo but they found out many more tumors, especially in his liver (which looks like it cannot be saved). Please pray for them. He's 17 now and his family is amazing. All four (his mom, dad and sister) are in Texas with family trying to figure out their options.

I'm betting it's not so much pity as admiration. I hope she comes to see that,

And she does sound down-to-earth. There was a story in the local paper recently about a nearby high school senior whose leukemia is in remission. He too had the chance for a wish from Make-a-Wish. His first thought was to meet Lebron James (?), but he changed his mind and asked that Make-a-Wish provide lunch (Chik-Fil-A) one day for his entire school as his way of saying "thanks" for all the support teachers and students had given him. He stood in the food line and spoke to each student and teacher who came through. Pretty cool, I thought.

The Epsilon Iota Chapter of Psi Upsilon today lost a recent alumnus to a rare form of brain cancer. I didn't know her well, but we did meet a couple of times so this is a bit of a shock. I ask for your prayers for her, for her Brothers and for her family.

Oh no - prayers for all.

I just got home from a graduation party for G and her twin sister. G was in the hospital in the last week and her cancer is back, spread throughout her abdomen and she had a kidney infection. She will start chemo again on Tuesday. I had a hard time keeping it together at the party and gave her mom a hug as I was leaving and I told her to call me if she needed anything. She said "I can't even think, I have to just keep going." I can only imagine how heartbreaking this news is for all of them. I had carefully selected a graduation card that had a message about looking forward to a bright future, not knowing this latest setback. Her sister got a tattoo that says "hope". I'm so sad and praying fervently for this wonderful young lady and her family.

This is devastating news. It really puts everything into perspective for the rest of us. I'm afraid I can relate somewhat to what they're going through. My cousin battled cancer from age 17-22, when he lost his fight. You just never expect someone so young, on the cusp of adulthood, to have to go through this. It's so unfair. I hope her family can keep up their strength and a positive outlook. I am sharing in your prayers.

Her sister's tattoo reminded me of the room in the local Ronald McDonald House these girls remodeled when working on their Girl Scout Silver Award.

http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/l...81307_0_BG.jpg

I am really struggling with this news and so is my daughter. She sent me a text from the next graduation party she attended asking "Did you get the whole story on G? Her family was acting like she was a walking corpse." Later, when we caught up after the fourth grad party of the day, we talked about it more. She said that G's grandma hugged her when she got there and said she was so happy that she got to see the girls graduate together and was glad that G had such supportive friends. Apparently G was only released from the hospital long enough to attend her party.. like a day pass. Their party ended early because G was in a lot of pain and had to get back to the hospital. G's sister told some of the other girls that they don't think that the cancer was ever completely gone, but that they weren't looking in the right place. It seems like if it was that widespread, they would have been doing MRIs and pet scans of her whole abdominal region. I mean, she'd had mets to the lungs originally.. wouldn't they have been looking just about everywhere to find all the tumors? To go from "She has no more visible cancer and we don't think she needs any follow up chemo because it is all gone" to her being this ill due to kidney interference in 6 weeks time just doesn't seem right at all :(

This is weighing heavy on my mind and I have shed a lot of tears about it today.

I just prayed for G and will continue to do so. God bless that entire family. :(

ETA: I'm up late packing for our church's mission trip tomorrow/today. We were originally going out to a small town in Mexico but the violence spread to the area where we were going so we no longer felt safe going there. Instead, we'll be gone for a week serving some local-ish neighborhoods, helping the homeless and the HIV-population (e.g., delivering meals to those too sick to leave home). I'm chaperoning the youth so prayers for our safety and their overall experience would be great.

My sister is a pediatrician and she says that 100 years from now, people are going to look back and say that the way we treated cancer was barbaric. I think that there's so much that they don't know. I'd like to think that if you had cancer, at least they could find all of it, but that just doesn't seem to be the case. In my cousin's situation, when his tumors were first discovered, he was literally whisked out to the Mayo Clinic within 48 hours. At that point, they said he had 3 weeks to live. His local doctors had initially suspected something orthopedic (he was an avid athlete), then MS (the tumors were pressing on nerves in his brain that affected the left side of his body, so the symptoms fooled everyone for a while). They were able to operate and use radiation, and 3 years later, he had had several "cancer free" check ups at Mayo. He'd had one in June, and was in his college apartment the week before school started when he didn't feel well. He went in to get checked out, and the cancer was all over his body, in a different form. So, he went back to Mayo. I am sorry to share a sad story...I wish I had something uplifting to share. But I have learned that it's called the "practice" of medicine for a reason.

I do know and understand all that. I just desperately want it to be ok for her. I am angry that this can happen to a young person. I am sad for her and her family. I really wished I had known about all this before I was at the party. I didn't have any time to process the information and put on my happy optimistic face. I spent some time trying to figure out if I'd be able to get hypo home on short notice for a funeral once she's away at school.

I know life isn't fair and I don't expect it to be for me, but it should be way more fair than this for young people.

That's basically what happened to my sister. In November they thought they had it all and in February it had come back with a vengeance.

Eff cancer. Eff it straight to hell. I hate cancer so much.

But, yes--if it comes to pass, you should be able to get a decently-priced plane ticket on short notice. The least expensive tickets I've ever purchased have been for funerals, when I had to buy them on 48 hours' notice.

I talked to G's mom today at a graduation party. I asked her what the oncologist said and she shook her head and started to tear up. I said "We'll talk later?" and she nodded her head and then said "It's not curable at this point. They can't give her anymore of the old chemo and they're giving her something new but we're just hoping it keeps her going long enough that a new drug comes out that will cure her." G did not look good. It is so very sad :( G's twin sister hadn't told the girls yet. I'll need to let hypo know, but didn't want to tell them during someone's grad party.

So sad. Praying.

G's twin sister told hypo that they have given G "weeks". She is home, presumably on hospice and their older sister posted on G's Facebook that she is home so if anybody wants to visit in the next few days, they should stop by. We are going to stop by there on Sunday. I don't even know what to say to a kid who is dying. I knew what to say to a kid who was fighting.