Laurie's Last Treatment

On August 4th, Laurie completed her last treatment of chemotherapy.  After 12 treatments and many drs appointments, tests, labs, scans, struggles and tears, we are optimistic that she is cured.  On August 29th, a final PET scan will be done to show that the cancer is COMPLETELY gone.  Until then we are looking forward to taking a much needed vacation to visit both are families in Utah.

Laurie's last treatment was bitter sweet.  She was so excited to be finished that she was mostly all smiles.  Unfortunately, its chemotherapy and its hard to be happy when you feel terrible.  She has had a rough few days but she keeps saying that every day that passes, is one day closer to when she will be feeling great.  This is a great point of view, especially for those who are currently struggling with difficult situations.  Just know that every crappy day that passes is just one day closer to when things will get better. 

Hopefully, Laurie will only feel sick for another couple days and we can celebrate the end of her treatments right.  We'll be leaving for our much needed vacation to Utah on August the 12th and look forward to getting to see many of those who have supported us from so far away.

Since Laurie's last treatment we have been able to do a lot of fun things as a family, like going to the zoo and swimming.  Here are some pictures of us doing our best to take advantage of my time off of school.

Kinsley with our neighbors, Kate and Ellie at the park

Kinsley at the exotic birds exhibit at the zoo

Laurie and Kinsley at the petting zoo with the goats

On the way to the beach

Kinsley at Mooville. Its a creamery that

also has a petting zoo.

 

Kinsley with her friend, Kate, picking blueberries

at the blueberry farm

Kinsley and the neighbor girls probably ate twice

as many bluberries as we picked

Kinsley and Kate swimming at Lake Lansing

The family at the East Lansing Aquatic Center

This is a video of Kinsley singing like Ariel

on Little Mermaid.

Our next blog post will be filled with tons of pictures and hopefully the good news that we've received from Laur's Doctors.  We are also hoping to make a post of some of the things that we have learned from this experience.

I haven't done a great job of keeping people updated on Laurie's book but she has two GIANT scrapbooks filled with letters.  I had originally hoped to be able to have enough letters to give her a letter a day for the first three months.  Thanks to most of you, I was able to give her more than 6 months worth of letters.  Its great to see the hundreds of letters and pictures, filled with love and encouragement.  These letters were easily one of Laurie's favorite things to help get her through the day.  Whenever I was a slacker and didn't give her a letter, she would remind me about it. She looked forward to each and every one of them.  Thanks to everybody that helped Laurie get through her bad days and helped her get one day closer to feeling better again.