Below is the recent update on Cassidy Clark...we are praying for wisdom for the doctors and a miracle for cassidy!!
Prayer Request Update
Today at 3:54am
Thank you to everyone who has been praying along with us for Cassidy. Her blood work has recently improved and we feel that God has a miracle in progress. Please continue to pray for her. She will have another bone marrow test in two weeks.As of right now, the doctors are confused at her condition. She most assuredly does not have ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukemia) - the disease she was diagnosed with. We believe that her Chemo treatments were successful in ridding her body of that disease: however, she does have some form of Leukemia. Doctors believe it to be a Conversion in that it was originally the ALL, but is a different form now. At this point, her symptoms make it unclear exactly what type of leukemia we are dealing with. She is seemingly healthy to have the one type of Leukemia, but a little out of the age range for the other.
Her doctor (DR. STORCH - a name to add to your prayers) in her research has only found two other patients in the world who suffer from this conversion. The primary reason to wait two weeks for another bone marrow is to try to get more information on the course of her leukemia, although, we are praying that God will heal her of her leukemia by the time they do this test. As for treatment, they have not yet scheduled any until we know what type of leukemia we are dealing with because both have different treatment plans. Chad and her sisters gave blood today so we could see if they were matches to her bone marrow as that is a very viable treatment option. Please pray that they are because the chances of finding a match in someone other than a family member is something like 1 in 20,000.
Cassidy feels well and you'd never even know she was suffering from any disease if the doctors weren't saying it was so, but Dr. Storch warned us that at any time, she could become sick and, in a matter of days or weeks, be fighting for her life. It is because of this unpredictable situation, that Chad and I feel the Lord leading us to move up our wedding. We had planned for June 19, 2009, but are not sure at what stage of treatment Cass will be in. She has been eager to be a part of our wedding all along and we wanted to make that possible while she still felt well. The new date is Sept. 1, 2008. Needless to say it has been a busy week, but thanks to the help of our friends and family, we will be able to have a simple, quiet ceremony.
Please continue to pray for us as we allow God to make us who HE would have us be. We are thankful for his mercies that are new every morning....and all throughout the day when HE reminds us of his love and sovereignty.Long story short (as Chad would put it), we have 2 major prayer requests.1. That the results from the Bone Marrow test in two weeks would show that God has healed her2. That either Chad, McKenzie, or Savannah would be a match for Cass's bone marrow in the event of a transplant.Thanking you always for your prayers,
Jen
Lam. 3:21-24
below is the result from Cassidy's bone marrow test. I encourage each of you to lift this family in prayer and pass it along to anyone and everyone who can be praying as well! my heart is breaking for this family and little girl! cassidy is only 3 months younger than jt and has gone through nearly 2 years of treatment already!! not to mention the trauma of watching her mother suffer and lose her own battle with cancer.
Diagnosis for Cassidy:
Today at 7:02pm
I am trying to find the words to say. We got the results for Cassidy's bone marrow test. Her Leukemia is back and severely worse. Please pray. We go to the doctor on Monday to discuss treatment plans, but the survival rate has gone from %80 to %50.
wow...the title sums it up! seems like yesterday I was getting the jitters about jt riding the bus...and wam! one week of school has already flown by! so, as I sit with an absolutely SILENT house i thought i would take a moment to reflect on all that has happened over the past few days.
monday everyone was up and at em at the crack of dawn! i woke around 5:20a before the alarm sounded and made blueberry breakfast cake and coffee. if you know me, you know that me cooking breakfast is a rare occurance...i leave that to jason ;) unless it involves cereal and milk! lol
as i was finishing up in the kitchen, i heard some stirring, but assumed it was kyle getting ready for work. when I went to wake the kiddos up at 5:45 I discovered the girls were already up and DRESSED! it was a back to school miracle! :) they are hard sleepers and have traditionally been very difficult to wake up.
next it was time to wake my little man...jason. he awoke fairly easy and was ready to jump into clothes and head out the door. after breakfast and a visit with the kitty, the kids were all itching to head outside and wait for the bus. except for a minor incident with jt and an anthill the wait for the bus went well. we took the usual pics and then they loaded up and took off on the bus. i was surprisingly composed. just shed a few tears as I headed back to bed. i think more than anything i ended up being cranky most of the morning. jason took me to lunch and to pick up a couple necessities and it was nice to be able to run errands together...without kids.
day 2 was a little harder for JT and he asked...with eyes half closed..."do i have to do this EVERYDAY?!?" uh oh! by day 3 it seemed we were getting the hang of things. so our lives have become a pattern. wake up (way tooo early), eat, school, homework, play, bathe, eat, and bed.
day 5...friday...i don't think I have ever been this excited for a Friday in my life! the phrase tgif couldnt be more true! i had a hard time rolling out of bed, but was encouraged by the fact that it is the last day of the first week...and we had surivived! after hitting the power button for the coffee i headed to jt's room and was a little surprised when his first words to me this morning were..."wow mom, it seemed like forever til morning!" i think he may have adjusted to the new early morning hours faster than mom!
so...in the words of the allstate guy....life comes at you fast! i am thankful for moments like today when I can stop and reflect on all that went by in a blur this week. I am also reminded to hug the kids a little tighter when they get home because before you now it another school year will have flown by as well!
here is an update that was posted by Jennier this morning after cassidy's tests that were conducted yesterday afternoon...
Thank you to all of you who have been praying for Cassidy. You are such an encouragement to us. Her bone marrow test was yesterday and although we don't have the complete results, we do have a glimpse of good news. It was amazing to see her doctor go from being nearly certain two days ago that it was back and very unsure yesterday. Her blood work, although a little better than Monday, is still showing very low percentages. Two pathologists looked at slides of her bone marrow yesterday and didn't see any "blasts" (leukemia cells). There are more tests they need to do on that bone marrow so we are still not out of the woods. The good news is that we went from a %90 chance that it was back to about a %50 chance...so keep praying. Cassidy's spirits remain high, although yesterday's tests were hard. It is a lot for a little girl to handle. We will know on Thursday afternoon or Friday the complete results of the bone marrow test. Thank you again for your continued prayers.
I wanted to pass this story along to everyone I could. As some of you know Chad Clark has gone through an incredible ordeal over the past few years with Myndi's cancer and death and then 6 weeks following his youngest daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. Cassidy has gone through 21 months of treatments and they recently found something at a routine checkup. Please read the following note from Jennifer, Chad Clark's fiance, please keep them in your prayers and pass it along to others who will be praying as well!
As most of you know, Cassidy, my fiance's youngest daughter has been battleing Leukemia (and winning being in remission since very early on) . She lost her mother to cancer six weeks prior to her own diagnosis. As you can imagine, the past few years have been very difficult on this family. Cass has only 5 months of her 26 month treatment plan remaining. Today we went to the doctor for a routine blood draw and the doctors found some suspicious percentages in the blood work. Of course, we won't know %100 if her leukemia has returned until we get the results from her bone marrow test tomorrow afternoon, but her doctor has serious concerns that it has returned. She was not even two when her mother was diagnosed with a rare sarcoma not related to her leukemia. She will be five on September 4 and has experienced more trials in her short life than most people experience in a lifetime. Please take a few moments and go to the Lord on her behalf. If the leukemia has returned, the next set of treatments will be much more difficult on her little body than what she has thus far experienced and will most likely require the aid of a bone marrow transplant. Chad, the girls and I appreciate your prayers more than you'll know.
school is still 12 days away and I am already getting nervous! so many emotions rush in as i think about august 18 and all that it means. this will be a year of changes for all three kids! alyssa is starting 5th grade this year! yikes! that just doesn't seem possible! lexi is going to be a 3rd grader...halfway through the elementary years already. and jt....well he is starting kindergaren!! oh my.
this afternoon as I sat at the kitchen table watching the kids play with a friend from our street, I noticed a car slow down in front of our house and call the kids over. ok...this was not good so I walked out and heard the lady calling them by name. after running over to the car I discovered it was the new bus driver for the kids school! wheew...that is a reminder to brush up on our "stranger danger" talk ;) turns out she was just driving the route and getting aquainted with it before the big day in a couple weeks. it was nice to have met her and jt was so bashful...you could see the excitement in his eyes! because i have the only kindergartener on this part of the street we are going to be the pick up spot. yippee looks like our garage will be "the" hangout spot each morning. :) we did get a couple things worked out so now we are all set for the first day...right?!?!
after she drove off and we walked in I talked with jt a little about starting school. he decided he wanted ms. cookie (the bus driver) to call him jason and all of his friends and teacher to do the same while he is at school. he did tell me that i can still call him jt, but at school he is jason! wow! i was wondering when this moment would come when jt would choose which name he wants to go by! i was hoping it would be junior high and not K5! oh well...he assured me that he will still love me even though he is growing up and will always be my jt! (seriously he used those words!)
sigh....like it or not....in only 12 days my little jt becomes JASON....sigh
tonight has been nice. after a very long weekend with good friends and a long week of work (for jason)...it was nice to take a break and enjoy a meal out with the fam tonight. we headed into p'cola for one of j's faves...Sonny's. that was one of our go-to spots for sunday afternoon lunches back in atl. it is one of those comfort spots for us. :) and it was nice that kids eat free on saturdays!!
after a great meal, we dropped by blockbuster and picked up some movies....jumper, 21 and college road trip i think. we picked jumper as tonight's movie and raced to get pj's and pillows as soon as we got home. the movie turned out pretty good, just enough action and mushy stuff to keep everyones attention. j almost made it through the entire movie...but we finally lost him about 15 minutes before it ended. j is still in the recliner and jt (just like his dad ;O) ) is passed out on the living room floor.
nothing fancy...just a great night spent with the ones I love :) now, i guess I better get the boys up and in the bed.
Alyssa: when is lexi coming home?
Mom: I am not sure...I don't have a car to pick her up.
JT: what if they keep her forever?
(I think JT and Alyssa are actually missing Alexis...and it has only been 24 hours!)
Alyssa: Hey Mom...you should go to Virginia College (it's not in Virginia).
Mom: why would I do that?
Alyssa: so you can get a job!
pause....
Alyssa: on second thought, you probably shouldn't because then you would meet attractive men!
Mom: silence
Well for the past few months I have been considering the idea of starting a blog. I even went as far as to set everything up...then it hovered in cyperspace blank for months.
So here goes...I am takin the plunge...jumpin in...and ripping off the proverbial bandaid. Not sure what I have to say that will be of any interest to the world or the few that might wander by here...but here I go...I am divin' in, probably won't be goin' deep, can't imagine going over anyone's head...but here I go.
(splash)
