OK, OK, OK! I know I haven't updated the blog lately, but there really hasn't been much to tell! :)

The week of Valentine's Day Josh wasn't feeling well! His whole family had been sick! Then on Monday he had a blood transfusion. That raised his counts and he started feeling a little better. He even went to work for a little while and did some work around his house! He's supposed to start the next round of intense chemo this coming Monday. He will do it just like he did last time -outpatient! He's going to ask if he can come home to Sierra Vista during it, but he doubts they'll say yes to that! Please pray that this round will go very well. I think this is the last round of the intense chemo that they will let him do. Shortly after this round is done they will do another scan to see the progress! We're all praying and hoping the scan will give us great news! I will let you know as soon as I know anything else!

Thank you everyone for your continued prayers and support! We all appreciate it so much!

Josh & Aiden ( a long time ago, look how little Aiden was!)

Josh started his 3rd round of intense of chemo on Monday in Tucson. In the morning he goes to the Cancer Center for about 3 hrs. and then he gets leave and do whatever he wants the rest of the day. He leaves with a pump and still receives the chemo overnight. He's staying at his brother-in-law and sister-in-law's house and should get to come home on Saturday. When I talked to him the other night he said he was feeling fine and was just very happy that he didn't have to be in the hospital.

Please continue to pray that he does well with this round and for the next scan to show that everything is gone!

Brett and Josh on Christmas night

Josh had his Dr. appt. and CT Scan today! They said the tumors are shrinking and degrading! YEAH!!!!! I guess they can't measure the ones in his liver but when they say they're degrading, that means they're not showing up as bright on the scan. The plan for now is for Josh to start the 3rd round of intense chemo on Monday. He will go to the Cancer Center in the morning and they will get him started and then he gets to go home (home meaning wherever he decides to stay in Tucson) and then come back again in the morning to get it changed out. He will do this for 5 days again, wait a few weeks and then do it over again. After the 4th round they will do another scan and decide where to go from there. They're still talking about the clinical trial. He does have to go to Tucson again tomorrow for a blood transfusion though. He's anemic again. Other than that he's been doing really well. He's been feeling better and has more energy to do things!

Please continue to pray that the chemo will continue to shrink the tumors, that he does well with the outpatient chemo, and that the next scan will show that the cancer is gone!

Poppa, Omi, Amber
Brett, Josh, Kathy
on Christmas night!

Just a quick update! Josh's blood transfusion went well on Thursday! He's been having a great week! He's had more energy and seems to be eating a little more! He even let me go get him a Cinnabun on Thursday while he was having the transfusion done! He went into work on Wednesday and got in a full days work! He was pretty tired when he got home, but I think he just needed to get out of the house and do something!

I have gotten two emails with info about Relay for Life and that happens here in Sierra Vista. (Thanks for the info Janne and Malea.) It's going to be held May 9th and 10th. If you would like more info on that the website is http://relay.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RelayForLifeGreatWestDivision?fr_id=6229&pg=entry

Please continue to pray for his health and for excellent scan results on the 31st!

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! :)