Friday, November 30, 2007

To God Be The Glory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Family and Friends,
I have such wonderful news to report to you all!!!! Today my oncologist called and told me that all my tests that I had taken this week came back cancer FREE!!!!! Praise the Lord and to Him be all the glory! I can't even begin to explain the pure joy and excitement in my heart to hear that report. God is awesome, amazing and a healing God. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers and love through this process. You have truly been my encouragement. I just want to catapult myself into heaven for a brief second to give God the hugest hug! It's like my thank you's aren't enough. However, I hear Him saying "I just want your love Dana- that's it, just your love"! Wow, what a gracious and merciful God we serve! I have learned and am learning through this journey that God is not just a God of the Bible times but He is living, active and alive in our lives today. Matter of fact the Bible states in the book of Hebrews that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. So we can surely count on God doing the same wonderful miracles today that He did in the Bible. All I need to do is BELIEVE!! Well, off to bed for a restful sleep!
I love you all and thanks for praising God with me!

Love,
Dana

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Family and Friends! So much to be thankful for this year. My dad and I have been touched by God's miracle saving power and what praises we will have on Thanksgiving! This year has been extremely challenging physically, mentally and spiritually and still have quite a bit of recovery. However, God deserves so many thanks for the ways He has provided for us throughout the year! I just wanted to give you a quick update on what to pray for this next week. On November 26th, 27th and 29th I have all my scans and xrays. Please pray that all the tests come back great! I hope to then visit with the oncologist to plan a surgery time. I would really like to get the surgery done in December so I can be done with it, but I am trusting in God's perfect timing. Please pray for me as my body is recuperating from the chemotherapy. My mind wants to get going much faster than my body and that can be extremely frustrating for a gal that is usually always on the go! The doctors say that it will take 6 months to a year before I will feel "normal" again or have the energy back. Pray for my patience to just rest my body so it can heal. Pray also for my thoughts. My thoughts and emotions are like a roller coaster. One day I am rock solid and the next day I just fall apart. I need my prayer warriors to lift me up :) This Thanksgiving I will be at the Dunlap's enjoying Marlene's wonderful cooking. Mark's sister Debi and family and Mark's cousin and family will be there along with Marlene's sister and grandma Gladys. We will enjoy the time spent together. I will be missing mom, dad and my sister and fam!!!!!!!!! I love you guys sooooo much and my heart is there with you in Wisconsin. I just pray that God sends my love to you across the miles during this time. It is so hard at times to be away from you going through all this! I just keep thinking of all the fun times we will have this summer together once dad and I have fully recovered. I so look forward to making some great memories! Well, that's about it for now. Thank you all for your prayers and love. Happy, happy thanksgiving and enjoy your time with family and friends!

Love you,
Dana

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Getting Better Each Day!

Hello to my dear family and friends,
Thank you all so much for the wonderful cards, blog posts, calls and meals! Each day keeps getting a little better as far as energy and strength. I know with each treatment of F.E.C. it took a little longer to recover. So I am hoping in a few more weeks I will begin to feel strength come back that I have not felt in awhile. Many of you are wondering what's next? Right now the doctor is allowing my body to heal from the chemo and let my white blood cells rise again to a normal level. On November 26th and 27th I will have an MRI and mammogram and ultrasound. This will of course reveal God's awesome healing power through my body because WE ARE BELIEVING that the cancer is gone :) After these tests I will visit with my oncologists regarding the results and the surgery. I will also get a PET scan sometime in December which is a complete scan of your whole body. I am just guessing, but I am thinking the surgery will take place middle to later part of December. If you go back to my very first blog entry I remember joking how "All I want for Christmas is my one left boob"!! Well, how things and priorities have changed!! I think my new song is" All I want for Christmas is my joy and peace"! This has been a battle with a capital "B"!!! Not just a battle of my physical body but of my mind. I praise my God everyday that He walks beside me every step of the way because I could not have gotten through what I did without Him!! Thank you Jesus! Oh, the things God has taught me along this journey and continues to show me each new day. I know some of you have wondered if I will need radiation. I will know that after surgery when the surgeons can test the breast tissue and lymph nodes. If there are 4 or more cancerous cells remaining, radiation is needed. I believe with all my heart and because of your many prayers I will be cancer free. So as far as I am concerned no radiation will be needed - Praise God!! During the last treatment I was overwhelmed with awful thoughts of the cancer coming back or that I would die from it. How the enemy loves to attack when we are at our weakest!! What discouragement and lies straight from the pit! No wonder God had given me so many promises through scripture and people before this even began. What I wanted to share with you is how God has shown me just in the last few days what WORRYING can do to us and effects it has on us physically, mentally and spiritually. I read in Mathew 6:25-27 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is life not more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? WOW! How many times I have read that verse but this time it means so much more. Based on that scripture alone this is what I got out of it through some study notes in my Bible:

7 Good Reasons NOT TO WORRY:
1) Math. 6:25 - "The same God who created you can be trusted with the details of your life".
2) Math. 6:26 - "Worrying about your future hampers your efforts for today"
3) Math. 6:37 - "Worrying is more harmful than helpful"
4) Math. 6:28-30 "God does not ignore those who depend on Him"
5) Math. 6:31,32 " Worry shows a lack of faith in and understanding of God".
6) Math. 6:33 "There are real challenges that God wants us to pursue, and worrying keeps us from them."
7) Math. 6: 34 "Living one day at a time keeps us from being consumed with worry".

Then my study notes followed by explaining the difference between worry and concern: " worry immobilizes, but concern moves you to action. I was the queen of worry and how God is putting out that fire!! Worry not only destroys our physical bodies with sicknesses but destroys the very purpose of what God is doing in our lives. It takes us away from what God wants us to focus our attentions on at the present moment. What a freedom we have in knowing that the same God who created our bodies can be trusted with the details of our lives! I still have much to learn in this area and OH I am sure that the devil himself will continue with his lies, but at least I have come to realize that God is in charge of it all - all the days of my life! I look sooooooo forward to giving you all lot's of hugs and spending some good "girlfriend time" over a good cup of coffee or tea. Love you tons!

Dana

Monday, November 5, 2007

Yes!!! God Got Me Through!!

Praise Him and Hallelulliah! My treatments are done. I am feeling still a little weak this monday morning but Praise God for getting me through each and every treatment. Now I am believing with all my heart that God has healed and rid my body once and for all of this cancer and will look forward to His constant healing physically,mentally and spiritually! I can not wait to share my story and look sooooo forward after my surgery sometime in December to start visiting all of you for some long awaited hugs! I love you all so much and want to thank you for ALL your prayers. Please continue to pray that God directs and gives us wisdom in the next month regarding doctors, new meds and surgeries. Pray that my body each day continues to heal and become strong again. That's it for now. Just wanted to give you a quick hello and Praise God together!


Love you,
Dana