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Emily’s Story

Site created on December 9, 2018

12-11-18
Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.

I am Emily's mom. Emily was born 4 days before Christmas. I came home with my little bundle Christmas Eve, and sat down by the Christmas tree marveling at the tiny wonder I held in my arms. She was not my first baby, she has an older brother Nathan and an older sister Aliza and each one held the same miraculous secret! How did God create such wonderful tiny beings?

Typical childhood went by so fast, growing into a beautiful young woman. Her love for animals took her down the path of becoming a vet tech, first working at a small pet clinic, then on to animal research at Mayo. She taught me that pigs have a wonderful personality, each different! And they are fun loving! They do lots of research on pigs, very important as we are closely related :-).

Emily has three lovely children; Tyler who just graduated from high school, Annalise who will be 11 on Christmas day, and Mason who is 6. Emily has two fun kitties and the latest addition to the family is 7 chickens. One rooster and the rest are laying hens.

So here we were living this wonderful life, Bob & I and our beautiful children, their spouses and 8 grandchildren ……. and this bomb hits! The horrible headaches beginning a week ago, the confusion and loss of ability to track time, text, type and remember simple things. The brain scan in Red Wing with the diagnosis of bleeding mass, is this an aneurysm?, a tumor? Ambulance ride to St Mary's Thursday night with lights and whistles. We all let out our breath when they say it is not an aneurysm, but then hold it again when they say there is a tumor. How can that be? She is so young!

Friday morning is very tough, mostly waiting for the CT scan and MRI. Lots of neurology doctors and residents coming in and asking the same questions and making Emily do the same tasks as they try to determine what is going on. The headaches continue, they do not want to give her much for pain as some of the drugs will encourage bleeding. What they did give her either didn't help or made her nauseous.

Saturday was a lot of waiting as well. Again many neurologists and neurosurgeons visited with all the same questions and tasks. They did determine that there was swelling around the tumor that was causing some of the symptoms so they started Emily on Dexamethasone. As I type the word 'symptom' I think of how Emily struggled to write the word symptom. The frustration of trying to make a 'y' made her throw the pencil after many attempts. When she was being discharged from Red Wing she needed to sign her name and she could not. How frustrating is that?

Home on Sunday with appointments in hand to return on Wednesday for an F-MRI and a visit with Dr Parney whom I understand is the lead neurosurgeon. Emily will most likely need surgery to remove the tumor, and probably will need a follow-up of chemo and radiation, but we'll hear more tomorrow.

The out-pouring of well wishes and prayers has been unbelievable!! I cannot begin to tell you all how grateful we are all feeling. Emily is on many prayer chains, and today Fr Russell made the trip to her home to administer the Sacrament of the Sick.

Monday and Tuesday Emily and I spent most of the days cleaning, organizing her home and tying up loose ends so she will be able to rest after surgery.

Please continue to pray for us. This is so hard on everyone. I didn't think I could cry this much...…………..
Bonet

Newest Update

Journal entry by Bonet Olson — Oct 14, 2019

October 9th, last Wednesday, Emily had another MRI and oncology appointment at Mayo. And she had a clear report, nothing has begun to grow back!!

She has also completed her 6th and final month of chemo. The last two rounds of chemo were uncomfortable as she reacted to the drug, breaking out in hives all over her trunk. Although she is very happy to be done with it, it feels a bit vulnerable to not be taking a drug to prevent the cancer from returning. This is where we need to rely on faith and prayer! We have faith that she will be spared it's return, and we keep praying and thanking God for giving her health.

Emily will have a repeat MRI & oncology appointment every two months for about a year, then she will go to every three months.

And so friends & family, please continue to pray for my daughter, that she remains cancer free.

Thank you so very much for all your prayers and love; we feel it!

Bonet

Read More of the journal titled "October 14, 2019 God is good!"

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