Day two...much better

This will be a short one as today was much better than yesterday. Got the 2nd shot, this time in the left cheek. Thankfully, nausea was at a minimum. It came and went throughout the day, so it was not a major concern. Thank you for your prayers. I followed up with the hospital, and tomorrow I head to the Nuclear medicine wing at Presby and get to glow again, although this dose will only run a refrigerator or two as the dose is very low. Sorry, you won't see me glowing like last time. Thursday will hold no visit to any doctor or hospital, yahoo! Friday will be the scan and blood tests, so maybe next week I'll will get the results from the doctor. Thank you again for your prayers and encouraging emails, notes, etc. You have all been a great blessing. I will write more after the treatment on Friday.

Blessings,

Jeremy

Day One...what will tomorrow bring?

Day one down and four more to go...I didn't quite know what to expect other than an appointment at the doctor or hospital everyday this week. So today began at my doctors office to get an injection of a drug called thyrogen. I didn't do my homework like a usually do and read up on the drug I would be on, so this morning about an hour after the injection, I started getting nauseous. I then decided it would be a good idea to read the information the nurse gave me on the medicine, and yes...one of the side effects of the medicine is nausea. It stayed with me all day. But what was odd was if I was active, I didn't have nausea. We had a meeting this morning and it started late, so, as any good recreation major should have on hand, I got a frisbee out and started playing frisbee with my co-workers while we waited outside, and no nausea until about 10 minutes after playing. Again, the rest of the day nausea would come and go. This evening I joined my volleyball team and played, and just like the morning, the nausea was gone. Now I tell my story like this, please note the sarcastic humor...I just spent $900 on medicine to make me nauseous. And tomorrow I guess I get to do it again! Oh what fun! In all seriousness, I am sure this will help with the treatment. I must say that I have been very blessed for this to be the worst I have felt during this whole journey! God has been faithful to walk through this with me and to keep the pain at a very low level. So, we'll see what tomorrow will be like! Keep praying for a easy treatment!

Blessings,

Jeremy

Nearing the End...

I never realized how much time it takes to maintain a blog until I got busy with life and as I ran into people who asked me how I am doing and that they were following the blog, I then realized I was not writing like I should have nor keeping folks up to date on the latest.

It seemed like the next phase in this 'journey' was to end this past week. I saw my endocrinologist in March, and we had scheduled my treatment for Monday, May 10. Last week as we approached the end of the week, I started to wonder why I had not heard from the hospital about the treatment, so I called them. I spoke to the person who had originally scheduled my treatment. My treatment was to consist

of two injections, one each day starting on Monday. Wednesday would be a small dosage of radiation followed by a scan on Friday. When I asked about the injections, the lady on the phone said that my doctor would know about the injections. I called the nurse at my doctors office and asked her about the treatment. She stated, "I'm sorry but your insurance has denied your treatment." I was like 'WHAT"! I asked her to explain. She said that she had contacted CVS Caremark and they denied my treatment.

They had appealed the the denial and had written a letter of medical necessity for the treatment and were waiting for a decision. I immediately said, "CVS Caremark is not my insurance. That

is my prescription plan." I told her I would get back with her. I immediately called the insurance people at work, and they had no idea that I was scheduled for a treatment. I told them about the doctors office calling CVS, and their comment was the same as my thought. I immediately connected the doctors office with my insurance. This whole story happened within an hours time. I was praying this whole time for peace and that this situation would be resolved. I was at a loss of words and was in a bit of shock. About an hour after this story, I received an email from the wonderful case workers at my

insurance that they had talked with my doctors office and would process the procedure through my insurance. I was overjoyed! I then figured the treatment would then have to be rescheduled.

It has been rescheduled to the week of May 24-28. It will take a little time after the scan on the 28th to know the results, but the doctor feels pretty sure that all will be well.

Since the last treatment, I have been adjusting to the medicine and seem to be at the correct dosage. I have exercised some and traveled on two trip, one to Guatemala and just recently to Kenya, and I seem to be doing great! I will post a couple of photos from the trip to Kenya. It was a great trip full of great ministry to kids!

I'll try to write more when I get a chance!

Blessings,

Jeremy

The latest update

This will be a quick update as I am headed out for some travels. I saw the doctor a couple of weeks ago, and everything looked good as far as my tests and thyroid medicine levels. We determined my final date for the last radiation treatment to be the 2nd week of May. This round will be different with me visiting the hospital everyday during the week for injections, tests, radiation, and scans. I hope to write a good update when I get back. Thanks again for your prayers, emails and encouragement!

Blessings,

Jeremy

Oh my...I still have a blog out there.

It's been awhile since I have written, and I almost forgot I even had a blog. I will try to write a real update soon. I am supposed to see my doc this week, so I should have a good update at that point. Had a real interesting situation at seminary tonight. One of my fellow students has thyroid cancer. We talked after class and she had lots of questions. It seems God is using this experience to encourage others facing the same thing. I'll write more later. Thanks again for your prayers!

Jeremy

Catching up!

It's been two months since my last post...sorry! It has been busy since the last post, so I thought I would at least get folks caught up. Mid-December I saw the doc again, and he said I was progressing as expected. He increased my meds (Thank the Lord for that!) My energy from the treatment until the increase of medicine was pretty low. I found myself tired through the day and then when I got home from work, I had no energy to do anything! Literally, I would sit on the couch and had little energy to get up or even change the channel on the remote. Pretty sad, eh? After the increase, I really couldn't tell a difference for a week or two, but then I had to prepare for my first trip since being diagnosed. I was really surprised how well my energy was during the trip. I kept up with the students on the trip and the most of the kids in the orphanage as well. Praise God for his provision of energy during the trip! I will have another blood test next week, and I hope to have a small increase in the meds. I won't see the doc again for another 6 weeks. The plan for the rest of the year will be as described above, plus I will have another round of radiation in May very similar to the first round. Once the second round is complete, if nothing is found, then I can officially say I am cancer free! This was a short post. I hope to write more very soon. Thanks again for all your prayers and encouraging messages!

Blessings,

Jeremy

Go ahead...Raise the roof (sort of)

Moving from the emotion of yesterday to today has been quite the story! This will be a short posting, but a good one! Got the results of the body scan at 4:30 pm today. The doc called and said that the scan came back and was as it should be. Meaning...the scan showed that the radiation was taken up by remaining thyroid cells as it was designed to do. Those cells were located where my thyroid was before surgery (exactly where he expected them to be) and so there was no indication or signs that the cancer had spread. That alone is a wonderful praise! I will have to have another dose of radiation in 6 months which will be used to confirm that the first dose killed off any remaining thyroid cells. The next 6 weeks I will continue my meds and will see the doctor in mid December to check the dosage of meds to see if it is at the right amount.

Thank you to all of my friends and family for your prayers, notes, and calls concerning this journey. I still have more to go, but I thank God for walking with me through this. He has carried me through alot of tough moments. He also placed each of you in my path to encourage and support me as well.

My prayer request now would be for my mother and sister as they both undergo tests, medications, and possible treatments for their thyroid issues. I'll keep you updated on the latest!

Blessings!

Jeremy