Today's the day

Madeline is out of surgery as of 1:45PM. Seems like everything went as planned. Will try and update everyone when we can. 

Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers!

Goodbye Cancer Day!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The house was full of people we love and we are so thankful to have had the time together. We ate great food, stayed up late, slept in, watched football, and played so many games we lost count and at times, lost track of the rules. The weather was rainy and cold but it was such a great excuse to stay home and enjoy each other. 

Madeline's surgery is scheduled for 11:30 tomorrow morning and will last about two hours. One sweet friend texted me a few days ago that tomorrow is "Goodbye Cancer Day. We are done with you!" She's right! That terrible tumor that has caused all of this mess, will be gone! I'm so afraid of the reality that may come after this surgery, but the cancer will be gone. We pray that the surgeon, Dr. Gilbert, will be able to get every last malignant cell out. We pray that Madeline will be able to reclaim her life and all the things she loves, despite this surgery. Following the surgery there will be more chemo, but certainly this is a huge thing to check off that "fight cancer" to do list. 

Thank you for wrapping our family in prayer. Madeline's bravery and peaceful heart have to come from all of the love she is feeling from all of you. We will update as soon as we can tomorrow. 

Thankful

We are thankful for Madeline. She is the bravest person we know. Thank goodness that she sees this as a season in her life, and not her life. She is not angry or upset. Instead, she is focused on completing the steps of her treatment and moving forward. She has a special strength and faith that gets us all through every day. 

We are thankful for Ben. He reminds us to be normal, and that we have to enjoy this time together even if Madeline isn't 100%. He makes us laugh and drives us crazy just like he always has. 

We are thankful for our family. We are excited to share a Thanksgiving meal with them this week and for the sacrifices they make for our little family. We are so blessed that both of our moms can help keep our house running and that they love on Ben when we are at the hospital. 

We are thankful for our friends. We are overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of our friends. Our family friends, Brad's work friends, my school friends, and our children's friends. We are prayed for, fed, entertained, encouraged, and loved by so many people. We could not do this without you, we are so thankful to each of you. You are our people and we will neve be able to fully express our gratitude. 

We are thankful for the nurses and doctors at Medical City. We trust them and are so grateful to them for taking such good care of Madeline. We are praying that her surgery on November 30 goes well and that Dr. Gilbert, our surgeon, can remove every bit of cancer from Madeline's leg. 

Enjoy this Thanksgiving holiday! Be thankful for every single thing, big and small. 

Surgery plan

We met with the surgeon and the oncologist today and the good news is that we have a plan.

The surgery will be the Monday after Thanksgiving.  Without getting into all the details, the orthopedic oncologist was very impressed by the significant reduction in the tumor size.  He said he generally doesn't see such a dramatic reduction. That's good news.  He is the surgeon that originally performed the biopsy (and he was the unlucky guy that had to break the news to us that it was malignant back in August...but we like him).  To make sure that they are removing the tumor and any potential surrounding cancer cells, they will remove the top portion of the fibula and some of the surrounding muscle and tissue. 

The not so good news is that this will likely mean that they will need to remove the peroneal nerve which controls most of the movement of the foot. This will result in "drop foot".  Not ideal, but there are supports she can wear (think of an ankle brace type contraption) that will help her manage walking and there is another surgery she could have down the road (way after chemo is wrapped up) that could allow her to regain ability to flex the foot upward. When we asked him about running and sports, he said that we definitely shouldn't rule that out even without the additional surgery. She'll have to work to compensate, but he expects that she'll be able to function quite well. Keep that in your prayers! 

As you might imagine, Madeline wasn't excited about today's news...  We all realize that it's better than several of the terrible alternatives, but no 12 year old girl wants to hear they may lose use of their foot and get a pretty big scar.  

Focus on the positive...  So far Madeline's kicking cancer's butt (major tumor shrinkage & it hasn't spread), she's feeling good these days, surgery recovery is only a few days, and it could be much worse.  Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers. I swear we feel it!  

Prayers and Good Thoughts!

We ask for your prayers tomorrow at 11:30 when we meet with the surgeon. 

Only FOUR more days to order your very own "Madeline Strong" shirt! 

https://www.booster.com/madelinestrong2

Sunday Thoughts

Hi friends. Many of you have asked at times what you should "specifically" pray for. Today, I think we should pray that Shana and I, and Madeline's doctors make the right decisions about Madeline's surgery. We meet Tuesday to discuss. There may not be a ton of options that require decisions, but I'm sure there will be some: from how much bone to resect, to picking a date for the surgery. I ask that whatever we face, that God help us to make the right decision that gives Madeline the best chance at a full recovery from this awful disease.  

It's such a great feeling to know that we have so many people thinking about us and praying for Madeline. Thank you so much. 

Lungs are clear!

Most of you saw Shana's positive update yesterday, but we were still waiting on the results of the chest CT.  Our oncologist called this morning to tell us that they had a chance to review the chest scan from yesterday and Madeline's lungs look great.  No indications of spreading to her lungs which is a really big deal!  All clear!!

We expected the scan results to be "all clear" since the MRI indicated that the tumor on her fibula reduced by such a large amount and there were no indications of spots in her lungs from the beginning.  As faithful as we have been, I think we were just a little scared that they could have missed something when they initially scanned her chest at the very beginning of all of this... What a relief to hear the confirmation this morning.  Thanks for all of the extra prayers this week!  The next step is that we meet with the surgeon on Tuesday and talk about the surgery to remove the tumor and start planning/scheduling the details.

Madeline was feeling pretty good last night.  Her leg has really felt much better for several weeks.  No swelling or pain in her leg for some time now, which we hoped meant the chemo has been effective.  Getting the confirmation yesterday was a little validation that all of her hard work with chemo over the last 10 weeks is paying off!  To celebrate, Shana and Madeline went the The Sound of Music at Fair Park last night!  They were so excited to get out and they had a great time!  I'm so happy that my girls were able to have a girls night out!! 💛💛 I attached a pic.  They swear that they were NOT trying to dress alike.  There's enough difference to believe them, but I'm still skeptical... :-) They both looked great either way!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  I'm pretty sure we will!