News from Edie via her Mom

She loves to read your wonderful messages of encouragement. Keep them coming!! She wishes she could post on the blog for you and will do that as soon as she is able.

The latest new: Her pain is at a minimal level. She continues to spike fevers but Tylenol is helping. The good news this morning is that they gave her a liquid diet as she was not permitted food or water for at least four days. She could rub her lips with a sponge. There are still hurdles to climb but Edie approaches them with here strong trust and faith in the Lord.

She does have a new blackberry but they could not retrieve any of her past information. She needs your phone numbers once again. The good news is her computer was fixed and she did not lose any information.

God Bless,

Edie's Mom

Hi All!

Here is why you have not heard any new news from Edie.

Edie's phone and her computer crashed on Friday. One thing she can be sure of and that God's connection does not crash. Being connected is important to her. She would appreciate it if all of you could call her or text her with your phone numbers once again. Your faithfulness and encouraging notes mean so much to her.



Health up-date:

The past few days Edie has been dealing with high fevers and stomach pain. It seems that this is a part of this process she will have to endure. The Apostle Paul reminds us in Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me". This is true for Edie as well.

Thank you and God Bless,

Edie's mom

Thursday the 19th

Hi Everyone!
I have been too tired to blog by the end of day, so I thought I'd try at the start of my day :-)

I slept pretty good last night. I'm getting more tired now, but that's part of the plan to get me better. In two weeks I should begin to rebuild cells and begin to start feeling better again. I'm counting the days. I'm a little homesick, so I'm hoping the time goes by quickly. I miss Jim, Megan and Julia tremendously and look forward to lots of hugs. I also miss Zeek and Rusty too! I'm looking forward to be able to spend a lot more time with everyone.

Over the last few days I've had a lot of wonderful visitors. Thank you for your gifts and cards and prayers. You have all truly blessed me with the support and concern you have showed me and my family.

I have found that we have the worlds crappiest health benefits system. Here I am fighting to stay alive and having to make sure I don't lose my benefits or job in the process. Everything is "time is of the essence" or possible cancellation or bill collectors, and there's no allowance for making things easy. Lot's of paper pushing bureaucratic stuff. Ugghhh. If I make it through this, I will certainly want to address the process for those who are sick in a hospital or under treatment. They should be allowed to focus on getting better not worry about so many other things. Thankfully God has provided me family and friends who will take over some of those concerns for me, but what about the person who doesn't have family or a supportive church like me?

My appetite has severely decreased. I had to pray through my breakfast yesterday. I mentioned it to a few of my visitors. You must be praying, because I did better the rest of the day and this morning. Still no nausea. They say I'm responding to the Chemo very well. Tomorrow is day 7. I will have my last chemo for this round tomorrow. We will wait another 7 days to see what rebuilds. Then we will do another bone marrow biopsy and take it from there. My prayer is that its clean and I can come home by early-mid July. I will come back again for another round a few weeks later, but as long as I don't have any fevers, I can go home after the week of chemo and recover there, rather than stay 30 days. Let's be praying for that! Next steps from that point will vary depending on the cytogenics study results of my bone marrow. Please pray that I'm on the side of best odds for the Leukemia not returning. That path is much easier :-)

I love reading your comments! What an encouragement and blessing it has been to me. Thank you to everyone who has left one. I love You all!! Thank you also to all of the visitors I've had. Going forward, please call first to see if I'm up for visitors. The next couple of weeks will be more challenging and I need lots of rest:-)

Thank you Jeff, for your music. It has ministered to my soul. I look forward to what God is going to teach me and how well I will know him as I enter the heart of the "Valley of the Shadow of Death" He will comfort and protect me. I will know His voice like never before! Psalm 23; I knew the song we were working on wasn't finished:-) Your song "Take me Lower" was not what I wanted to hear yesterday, but it kept coming up on my phone. LOL. But, I desire more of God and less of me in a physical and spiritual way. He is preparing me for something beautiful.

Love,
~Edie

Monday Update 6/18

Hi Everyone !
I'm doing good today. I didn't need a blood transfusion. Yipee. God is blessing me and I have such peace. I'm experiencing a little more tiredness, but overall feel pretty good. I'm responding well to the Chemo thus far and am trying to stay active while I can. They make me walk around the hall on my floor to prevent clotting or fluid in the lungs. It looks silly carting an IV pole around.

They expect a minimum of 6 months for recovery not including any possible need of a bone marrow transplant. I'll know more over the next few weeks and I will update you. So much is still unknown, its hard to plan. I'm praying for a little speedier recovery and no transplant. I guess I'll get a chance to catch up with everyone that I've lost touch with due to my busy schedule :-)

A few of you asked what was King Da Ka. That's a funny story. I believe it is the worlds tallest, faster roller coaster. It's located in Sixflags Great Adventure in NJ. I took a group of youth there on May 31st for our end of year Hoorah! It was a perfect day. We re-rode our favorite mega roller coasters many times. The end of the evening we ran over to King Da Ka. We closed the park on that ride. Corey Fisher, Jamie Walter, Jess Hannon, Jimmy Dunn and myself went on. Jess and Jimmy had enough after a few times, which for anyone is still amazing, but Corey and Jamie and I kept going a few more times, laughing all the way about our " Re-Ride". The ride attendants thought we were crazy :-) By the fifth time we were able to pose for the first camera which is hard to do with your eyes in the back of your head and your face flapping in the wind like a cartoon character. LOL.

I have been blessed today by a few visitors I didn't even know personally, but are praying for me. My heart overflows with love. My friends Ann and Toni are coming by to talk hair and girly stuff and visit. My parents might drop by tonight.

Please see God at work in all of this. There is a plan and a purpose and it is for my good and His Glory. I pray God will encourage you all and your faith will increase.

Love,
~Edie

How this journey began

Many of you have asked what happened. Did I notice any symptoms? What do the doctors say? How am I feeling? I thought I would start with the basics for those of you who may have just learned that I have Leukemia.

Thursday night June 6th going into Friday morning while at work, I noticed my feet were swelling and I couldn't find my ankles. LOL. When I came home I took a water pill and drank some water thinking that it was the chips I ate from Panera Bread being too salty and this is part of getting older :-) Well, the swelling was still there when I went into work on Friday night. My chest was tight and felt like someone was pressing down on it. The pain began to travel up my glands and I had a stiff neck. I felt chills and had a rapid heart beat. Of course, not wanting to mess up my paid time off, I stuck it out at work until morning and thought I'd call the doctor. Something inside me told me I might be really sick, but I was hoping it was just a virus and didn't want the emergency room to charge me a lot of money to say I had the flu. I left work with about an hour left on my shift after some strong persuading from one of my managers, of course my co-workers and supervisor were telling me how bad I looked and I should go home the entire shift, I'm stubborn like that. I like to keep my commitments and do my job sick or not. I called my primary care who then directed me to the ER. It was there I found out that my white blood cells were abnormally high with cause for concern, and my red blood cells were too low and I needed a blood transfusion. They took several tests over the next two days and felt that they had compeling evidence of Leukemia but they needed to do a bone marrow biopsy to confirm. That is what led me to the University of Penn. I arrived here Tuesday night. Had the biopsy Wednesday and started Chemo first thing Friday morning. I am on a 24 hours a day for seven day treatment, with an additional chemo drug pushed through for 3 days. Today was my last for the other Chemo and I have 4 more days of the seven day treatment.

Next steps; After the chemo treatment on Friday the 20th, my B-day, I will wait a few days to see if my cells start to rebuild. They will do another bone marrow biopsy to see if I need additional chemo or something to help my cells rebuild. After another 10-14 days I should be able to come home. That is as much as I know for now. I will eventually come back for another round of chemo, and pray that I won't need a bone marrow transplant.

Did I have any other symptoms? Yes, but I didn't make any connections. I felt unusually tired for the past month. So tired that I could barely get though cleaning my house, and many of you know how compulsive I am about that :-) I just thought I was getting out of shape and hired a personal trainer of which I only had two sessions and then two days later ended up in the ER, go figure. Well, I will lose those extra ten pounds without the trainer now, that's a bonus. LOL. I also had noticed bruising. My King Da Ka ride 5x in a row left some serious ones, but there had been others that I noticed prior to that, enough so I was intending to go to the doctor about it that same week-end I ended up in the hospital. Also, my gums were very irritated and bleeding, which I thought was just me needing to floss more and get a better mouth wash. Who'da thought?

How am I feeling? I'm feeling pretty good despite my situation. God has given me a supernatural peace about everything. I have no fear and feel so blessed by the outpouring of love and concern from all of my family and friends. They emails are beautiful and encouraging. I have had a lot of visitors, even all the way out here in Philly. Thank you all for how much love you have showered me and my family.

Today I needed two more blood transfusions because my red cells dropped into the sixes again. That had me a little tired, but I'm feeling better now. So far I have not experienced any nausea from the Chemo..... Praise God! My hair will fall out, but the good thing is it could grow back curly, how cool is that! I'm going to sport a good wig in the interim.

Jim and the girls came to visit today. Megan brought Kelsey P along and the Schlaegel's were here too. It was great visiting with all of them.

I just want to thank you all again for the prayers and concern for me and my family. Know that God is in Control and He is good all the time. He comforts and protects those that seek refuge in Him. Psalm 23 has been a comfort to me, please read it and be encouraged. I know that I am safe and secure while in the valley because God is my Shepherd and I shall not want.

Love you all!!
~Edie

My first blog

Welcome to my blog. I hope to create an easy way to keep all my loved ones updated on my journey through the valley of Leukemia to the green pastures of remission and increased faith. I'm new at this, so bare with me as I try my new tech skills out. I hope to add a new blog later giving more details about how I began this journey and where I'm at right now.

Love you all!! Thank you for all the prayers and support that you have shown me and my family. May God pour out His blessings in abundance on all of you :-)

Love,
~Edie