We returned home from Houston yesterday and Brooke has completed her second round of chemo at MD Anderson. Brooke’s best friend met us out there after moving her college finals around with her professors so Tatum had an extra pair of hands to catch an on the move soon to be toddler. Since she gets chemo over a three day period each day she seems to feel a little worse but it was night and day from the first round that had her pretty miserable everyday. The worst days for her seem to be the day after chemo stops and the day after that (today). At least that’s what we have noticed so far that correlates with the first round. The next two weeks will consist of a lot of blood work locally and another heart echocardiogram to make sure her heart is looking good for another round. Then we return to Houston for scans to make sure the regimen is working and round 3 of chemo. They will let us know after the scans if they will be adding in radiation to happen while she is doing chemo to shrink the tumors faster in preparation for surgery.

We were able to stay with a wonderful couple that had seen Brooke’s story on Facebook. We have no mutual friends and know that it was the Lord working for them to have come across Brooke’s story. They reached out to us because they live outside of Houston and host Pastors as well as missionaries and offered for us to stay with them. They cooked for us, opened their home and really ministered to us the whole time we were there with them. We absolutely just felt at home and just cannot put into words how grateful we are. I have never felt the meaning of brothers and sisters of Christ more than when they opened their home to us and it felt like we knew them.

Specific prayer request:

1. For the scans to show miraculous shrinking of the tumors

2. For Brooke’s heart to continue to be protected from the chemo

3. For her energy levels to return. As of right now she can only take a few steps without being exhausted and winded however that’s a normal side effect from one of the drugs

Brooke wants to let everyone know that she has seen the well wishes, the words of encouragement and prayers and that she appreciates them all and everyone so much.