Dad and Josh on Christmas night!

Today Parker and I took Josh to his Dr.'s appt. in Tucson. All of the prayers are working! The Dr. did a physical exam and said that the tumors have definitely shrunk! Thank the Lord! He will still have a scan to determine how much they've shrunk and to see what's going on, but they're going to have him wait until Jan. 31st to give the latest round of chemo a chance to shrink them even more! Please continue to pray for great scan results! I'm praying the tumors will be completely gone when they do the scan! A friend of mine told me her dad was praying that God will wash away the tumors/cancer just like he washes away our sins! I really liked thinking about it that way, so that's how I pray all the time!

On another positive note- the Dr. said the next round of 5 day chemo can be done as an outpatient if Josh promises to go directly to wherever he's staying in Tucson (he can't go back to Sierra Vista) and stay inside the whole time that he's not having the treatment! He's so excited that he won't be stuck in the hospital! Just the thought of being in the hospital makes him cringe! Just finding out he didn't have to do the scan at the hospital made him happy! (He gets to do the scan at a place right down the street from the Cancer Center and I think the chemo will be done at the Cancer Center!)

One of things that was new info to me, was that he can only do a few more rounds of the 5 day chemo. The Dr. said he would like to keep him from doing more than 4 rounds. The drugs they're using are very dangerous to his other organs and after a certain point they've found out that the drugs don't continue to make things better. I guess the progress just plateaus.

They are trying to get him into the clinical study that he found out about right before the first round of 5 day chemo. His Dr. knows the Dr. that's doing it in L.A. and he thinks he can get him into that study after they're done with the intense chemo. I think it has something to do with giving him some kind of bacteria that liquefies the tumor. ?????? I'll give you more info about it when we find out exactly what it entails.

His blood count today was low so I'll be taking him back to Tucson on Thursday for a blood transfusion.

Today was a GREAT day! Please pray that he continues to have these kinds of days and that things just keep getting better! Please continue to pray for the scan results and his overall health! Today is proof that all of the prayers are working and that God is working on our miracle!

I don't know if everyone can read the comments or not, but our cousins daughter Brittany posted a comment under the Jan. 9th update about a cancer relay being held in Tempe, AZ in April. If you're interested click on the green letters under the post that say comments! If you can't get that to work, please email me and I will forward on the info. For some reason this program won't let me cut and paste what she wrote and I'm way too tired (had to leave my house at 6:30am to get Josh to Tucson on time) to re-type all that she wrote! Thanks Brittany for organizing this! Hopefully you'll have a huge team! Unfortunately the Crowley's won't be able to participate, because I'm not allowed to travel that far in April! It's too close to the baby's due date! But we will definitely be there in spirit. Mom thinks that they do something similar here in Sierra Vista, but she doesn't know when it is!

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers! Keep those prayers coming! Thank the Lord for all the good news we got today!

Jeff and Josh on Christmas night!

YYYYYEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHHH! Josh is home! They told him this morning he would be able to go home around 6:30pm tonight and he actually got released a few hours early! He looks great and he's very happy to be out of the hospital and home with his family! His next Dr.'s appt. is Jan. 15th and that's when they'll discuss when they're going to schedule the next scan. Please continue to pray for his strength and his overall health! Please pray that when they do the scan that the tumors will be gone! :)

Josh has been handling the chemo very well this time! Thank the Lord! He's feeling much better than he did with the last round! He's also been doing better about eating and keeping it down. The plan is for him to get released later this evening! Please pray that it works out that way and that they don't keep him waiting there! He's very anxious to get out of there and get home to his family!

I just received a prayer request from one of Mom's really good friends and would like to ask all of you to add them to your prayers and your prayer chains! Her sister has a good friend with a 3yr. old daughter named Kaitlin who just underwent heart surgery. Please pray for her to have a speedy recovery and for her health. Kaitlin's grandmother is also in the hospital battling aggressive ovarian cancer. Please pray for her healing and for the whole family as they are dealing with so much!

Well not much info for tonight, except that Josh found out he won't get to come home until Wednesday! Needless to say he's not real happy about that, but he kind of knew that's the way it was going to be when they didn't start the chemo until late Friday night instead of in the afternoon when they were supposed to! Please keep praying that things continue to go well!

Josh and I (and baby) on Christmas night!

Jeff, Parker, and I ( & baby) went to Tucson yesterday and we got to see Josh for a little while! He's looking really good! He looked much better than he did the last time I saw him in the hospital. So far he doesn't have any of the swelling that he normally gets when they give him the IV fluids. He was also able to eat a lot more yesterday and Mom and him did 7 laps around the floor of the hospital. Rosie brought Aiden up to see him and I'm sure that cheered him up to spend time with them. He was supposed to get out on Tues. but Josh is afraid it will be Wednesday since they started the chemo so late on Friday. I think they're supposed to talk to someone about that today, so I will post another update when I find out.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

Rosie, Ethan, and Josh on Christmas night! (Aiden was too busy playing to have his picture taken!)


Josh has started the second round of 5 day chemo!

He went up yesterday and again had to play the waiting game! Late that evening they got him in a double room with a guy who had his TV so loud that Josh couldn't even hear his! Around 11pm they finally got him in a private room and shortly before that they started the chemo.

They want him to try and eat every hour so he can gain some weight. The last time I talked to Mom she said he ate everything he ordered for breakfast, but he was waiting to order anything else because they were supposed to come get him for a chest x-ray.

Yesterday, the Dr. told him his belly wasn't as hard and that could mean the tumors are shrinking and that the last round of chemo did some good! YYYYEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHH! I still haven't heard when the next scan will be to compare the sizes, but I will let you know when I find out. Please pray that we will see BIG results!

Please pray for his strength to fight this and get through the chemo! Please pray that he keeps his spirits up while he's in the hospital! It's always so hard on him to be there!

Dad, Mom & Josh on Christmas night!


Merry Christmas everyone! We had a wonderful Christmas! Josh seemed to feel better that day than he has lately! It was wonderful for all of us to be together!

Josh was supposed to be admitted yesterday for the second round of 5 day chemo, but they sent him home and rescheduled it for next Friday. When he got out of the hospital the last time, they said he had a touch of pneumonia. I guess they're still waiting for that to clear up before they start the chemo. They did some blood work and his counts are better than they were before, so we can be thankful for that! The other thing is that the Dr. said his belly isn't as distended as it was before, so that could be a good sign that the tumors are shrinking. Josh has also said that the one he could feel, did feel smaller to him. Please pray that the pneumonia will go away and that everything will go as planned next Friday! Please continue to pray for his strength to fight this and win!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!