Here I am!

Hi there! I know it has been a while since my last post. I have not had much news lately, but like my aunt said, no news is good news.

I have been feeling okay. My stomach issues are pretty stagnant. Sometimes I feel a little sick to my stomach and I take an acid reducer. My nurse suggested it due to the meds and it does seem to help. My feet continue to be just a minor issue. I am in the midst of my oral chemo treatment, so my feet tend to be sore. It is as if I have been on my feet all day, and it is only 9:00 AM! I have heard of some people on this medicine can barely walk, so my discomfort is definitely minor.

I go see Dr. Haley Thursday. I will ask her more specifics on my last body scan. So, it will be good to just hear the news from her in person. I do not recommend ever reading a radiologist's first impressions before hearing it from your own physician. All the medical jargon looked much worse than reality. She will be able to show me pictures of the scan, which will be helpful. I suspect I will continue on the same plan.

Jadyn has her pins from her hip surgery taken out Tuesday morning. It is just a day surgery, but I am still a little concerned for her comfort and nervousness. She keeps saying to me, "It won't hurt, right mama?" She still loves her scar and will show it to most anyone who asks!

I am so excited for my aunts, sister, mother and cousin that are walking in the Breast Cancer 3Day this October! I am very proud of them all! However, I am a little jealous because I want to be walking with them. If my feet are feeling better, I will try. At the least, I will be able to cheer them on at the pit stops. Maybe I can be the one waving from the massage chair as they pass mile 20! I love you all so much. I will post on here their website so you can donate to their group and watch their progress. And/or maybe one of you can leave the site in a comment to this blog. There are some other dear friends of mine walking also, so when I find out their info I will post that as well. It is such an awesome organization. I don't want any of our daughters to have to live through cancer, and the Susan G. Komen organization funnels millions of dollars into the research that will find a cure. I think it will be within our lifetime too.

Beyond that, he big news in my life is potty training Bryn and not cancer, so that is a good thing. It has been just over a year since my diagnoses, and though I wish I never had to think of cancer again, it is still something I will probably always have to deal with. That said, I am so grateful for the place I am in now....Annie hair and all! It is the peace that passes all understanding where I still stand.

Soccer Season

Note: I originally posted this on 3/28, but it didn't show up on the web page.

Bryn, our youngest is finally acting like herself. She woke up Saturday afternoon from her nap with a 103 fever. It left just as suddenly Sunday morning, but she has been acting like a different girl that the one we know. Bryn is nearly always joyful and is the comedian in our family. She loves to make me and our family laugh. The last two days she has been very "eeyorish" and a little mean. I think of all of us Jess has been the most sympathetic she knows what is like to be feeling not yourself.


Having gotten the all-clear from Jadyn's doctor a few weeks ago, Jadyn is going to get to go to the first soccer practice 0f the season today. Even though Jadyn is moving around wonderfully I am still a little nervous for her. Jadyn on the other hand is very excited. We tried on her size 11 soccer cleats last night only to find out that her foot had outgrown them. I was in disbelief because 1. she had just worn them last season and 2. she still wears a size 11 shoe for her other shoes. With soccer practice coming today Jadyn and I went out shopping for them. Jadyn thought the twelves and thirteens were also too tight so we got a 13.5 soccer cleat. Jadyn was already excited about soccer coming and with the new cleats she is bouncing off walls.


Jess says her stomach is doing OK. Which means, I think, that it is a little bit upset but not a lot (the Tagament helps).

Yesterday, Jadyn and Jess both had doctors appointment and Jess and I had a speaking engagement. Jadyn's appointment went great-- Jess said it went really quick. Jadyn got an x-ray that looked great according to the doctor: she is healing fabulously. The doctor said that from the x-ray that you could barely tell that she had surgery (of course I think the huge pins would give it away). She got cleared to play soccer just in time for soccer season. Jess had a relatively quick infusion one that the Yikes even went on. She said the girls did great. The best thing is that the doctor was able to give her some help as far as the stomach problems she has been experiencing. She said that she was experiencing acid reflex, yet another side effect of the medicines Jess is taking. The good news is that after Jess took a Tagament last night, immediately she began to feel better.

Jess and I spoke to about 80 or so high schoolers last night at our church. It was pretty neat because I had a lot of them in EFC or in one of my classes. We spoke on what to do in a crisis. Kind of like we do on here we tried to give them the open book version of what we have gone through the past year. I know many of the high schoolers are indeed going through a crisis of their own right now: divorce of their parents, struggling to get along with friends, etc. I hope that God was able to speak through us to them. It certainly felt good after we were done. I think the coolest thing Jess said is something she keeps saying lately: the biggest trial brings the biggest testimony.

Weekly Prayer Calendar

Thank you Terre for putting this together!

Monday - Pray for continued effective treatment for Jess - Psm 41:3

Tuesday - Pray for no anxiousness but instead peace - Phil 4:6-7

Wednesday - Pray for unity between Jake and Jess - Col 3:13-14

Thursday - Pray that Jake and Jess will be strong and courageous - Joshua 1:9

Friday - Pray that God will be their refuge - Psalm 34:8

Saturday - Pray that the entire family will be still in the Lord - Psm 46:10

Sunday - Pray that Kaylors will continue to put their hope in God - Psm 42:5

A Nice Break

We had a wonderful break. Bryn and Jadyn didn't seem to mind waiting in lines for rides and once they were on the rides they laughed almost non-stop with glee. Jadyn said her favorite things in San Antonio were 6 Flags and getting a snow-cone. Katelyn seemed to have an OK time but she was too scared to ride the big rides and we had to constantly tell her she was too tall to ride most of the little kid rides. Thankfully her cousin Corbin was also in San Antonio and she rode a few bigger rides with him when he came the second day. We got the girls matching t-shirts with green Shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day. My biggest dissapointment was that they don't dye the river green on Saint Patrick's day until after it gets dark and we left before we got to see it. Thankfully the river is pretty much green anyway, so we got to see the algae-induced version. Jessa's feet hurt from all the walking but it wasn't unbearable. We were able to take advantage of the trolly system when we parked downtown on Friday and that helped a lot too.

A Nice Break

Normally a nice break in the Kaylor house means Bryn has been too adventerous again and is about to get another cast. However this week not only is it Spring Break, but it is also Jessa's week off for chemo treatment. Tomorrow mornig we are leaving, kids and all, for San Antonio. We got the hotel stay cheap on Priceline and our Six Flag (the amusement park in Arlington) passes are also good for Fiesta Texas (the amusement park there), so the only expensive thing will be the gas it takes to get down there.

After I took Jess out last Friday night, she told me what happened on that date a year ago. The doctor had just told her that he thought the lump she had found in her breast was cyst, but that she should get a mamogram just in case. Jess got that mamogram on March 10th. Needless to say she was glad that she had better memories of March 10th this year.

Jadyn is doing great-- she starts soccer next month :)

Why it's a Good Idea to Trick Your Wife

The biggest news at our house the last part of this week has not come from Jessica or even Jadyn, but little Bryn. Out of the blue on Wednesday she used the potty. Now she's using it every day. It's amazing because she went from never using it to always using it. Our whole family is thrilled. Well almost thrilled. She hasn't quite figured out when she needs to go, so she tries to go all the time. This is not a problem at home, but when Jess took her and Jadyn out of the house yesterday, Jess felt like she spent all of the time in the restroom with Bryn.

Yesterday I tricked my beautiful wife. About two weeks ago, the group of teachers I eat lunch with decided to give Jess and I two gift cards one for a movie and one for dinner. It took awhile to pull it off, but yesterday morning everything was finally in place. That morning I told Jess that I was going to take Jadyn and Bryn to the playground when I took Katelyn to soccer practice. I also told her that I would be bringing home dinner. Jess remarked as she was reading the movie listings in that paper that she would really like to see a particular movie, Failure to Launch, sometime. I acted like I had no interest in it. In reality I was going to drop off Jadyn and Bryn at a friend's house, had already arranged for Katelyn to get picked up from soccer practice and was going to take her to that very movie.

A few glitches happened when I got home however. Jadyn fell and scraped her knee. They were minor scratches, but Jess said "She can stay home with me." Fortunately I talked her out of it. Then good friends of ours called and invited us to dinner with them at 6:30. Katelyn's soccer practice ends at 6:30, so Jess thought we could get there about 6:45 and still have plenty of time to enjoy dinner at Central Market (something we rarely do, but enjoy). I told her no because I didn't think the timing would work. She looked very, very dissapointed but dejectedly said OK. The plan flimsily still intact, I loaded up the kids, dropped off Katelyn at soccer practice, dropped off Jadyn and Bryn, and stopped by the restaraunt to put our name down on the watiting list. I called Jess on the way and asked her if she would be ready to leave if she had to go right then. She said yes, but I didn't answer any of her questions why. I pulled up to the house and a very confused Jessica Lynn comes out. The first thing she does is look in the back of the van and ask, "Where are the kids?" When I told her what was going on she was very delighted. We ended up having a great time at dinner and although it had too much cussing in it we laughed the whole way through the movie.

Good News

This week an amazing amount of people have been praying whole-heartedly for us. Every day Jess and I ran into people that have emotionally supported us and encouraged us. It has been a hard week for both of us, so this has been much appreciated and needed. We are blessed to have you all online, rejoicing with us in good news and praying for change when we have bad.

I have news today of bad news changing to good. Finally, Jess was able to speak with Dr. Barbara Haley (her oncologist) over the phone. It is her opinion that the scan that showed what may have been a significant increase in tumor growth actually shows signs of healing. In other words the tumors are getting better not worse.

Scan Results

For the first time, Jadyn walked almost normally yesterday. Before yesterday, she was walking like she still had a cast on.

The scan Jess had last week measures the amount of sugar the tumors consume. The more sugar it consumes the bigger the tumor. There are three tumors (I didn't realize she also has one on her rib cage in addition to the one on her lower spine and collar-bone). All three tumors have more than doubled their amount of sugar consumption. There is however a chance that the tumors "flared" as a result of the treatment, but if that's not the case they have grown considerably. Neither Jess or I know how a tumor "flares" but she is planning on asking Dr. Haley soon. We hoping and praying for a clean scan: Jess and I both are very shaken by the news.