A year ago today…

Thank you for all of your prayers and support.  My surgery was successful.  During the five-hour procedure, the doctor removed three tumors, many lymph nodes and my middle lobe.  The procedure was fascinating.  They collapsed my right lung and the surgeon went over my entire lung with her fingers looking for possible tumors which were too small to be detected on CT scans.  The pathology reports came back with two of the three tumors being dead and the third tumor was cancerous.  All of the lymph nodes came back non-malignant.  Recovery has had its ups and downs.  During the first three days in the hospital, I had an epidural that made the pain tolerable.  Once the epidural was removed, I was in a lot of pain.  I’m feeling much better and will be going back to work next week.  One procedure down, and one more to go.   On October 24th, I’ll have a resection of my colon.  Please continue to keep my family and me in your prayers. 

When I was younger, birthdays were about toys and slumber parties.  As I grew older, birthdays were more like milestones, and after I reached 21, birthdays were a day to reflect on what I wanted from my life.  This Thursday I turn 37, and when I think back to this day last year, there was much excitement in my house.  My youngest daughter, Anabel, was born on September 27, 2012 (the day after my birthday).  What an amazing gift.  I feel indescribable joy when I think about her birth.  As I watched my daughter Katie hold Anabel in the hospital, I felt my life was complete in every way.  At this time last year, we were a beautiful family, full of love, and unaware of what was in store for us.

Early on, during my fight with cancer, I realized things happen for a reason and that there is a bigger plan out there.  If my cancer had been found earlier, Janie and I would not have considered having more children.  Anabel has been a blessing throughout this journey.  Anabel is our little miracle baby who has made a beautiful family full of love, more beautiful and more loving.  Now for every birthday I will reflect on how fortunate I am and what a blessing it is to celebrate another birthday with my family.  I will sorely miss eating an entire lemon cake with lemon frosting.  I can’t eat cake because of my dietary restrictions; I would usually eat the entire cake because no one else likes it.

Katie holding Anabel for the first time.

Update by Janie

Kevin will be having two surgeries this fall.  Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.  On Wed. Sept. 11th at 8 am,  Kevin is having surgery on his right lung to remove three tumors.  The surgeon is confident that she can remove the tumors.  She will need to remove the middle lobe (the smallest of the lobes) and said that Kevin will lose about 7% of his lung capacity.  Then 5 weeks after lung surgery he will have surgery on his colon to remove the site of the original tumor with about 1/3 of the colon.  Kevin still has a battle to fight.  He is so brave, strong and positive.  We believe that with love and prayer amazing things will happen.  We thank you and love you.  We had the time of our lives this summer filled with family, friends and fun.  Kevin will post about it soon.