An update from Lonnie’s daughter Abby:

There’s been a lot of life that’s taken place since our last update, so let me catch you all up on mom’s happenings!

Mom’s chemo plan was to have a 23 day break between chemo cycles. She had her blood tested at a couple of points in between. When she had her blood tested on April 8 (the day before she was scheduled to begin chemo round 2), her platelets were low, so the doctors wanted to wait a week. She had bloodwork done today and platelets are back to normal, so she will start her second round of chemo tomorrow night. Prayers are appreciated - that she will continue to have few side effects and that it will be effective.

Mom has been on steroids and her speech has improved so much that she is no longer a candidate for at home speech therapy! She will continue to see a speech therapist at the clinic. She is so relieved to be able to speak better, and even be able to read again. Praise the Lord! Mom wanted to sincerely apologize to everyone for the crazy things she said, texted, or wrote while she was having challenges communicating. Personally, her “word-finding gone wrong” had me laughing so hard at times - I figured the world needed more of that, so I didn’t stop her one bit!

We also had a follow up with neurology - since mom has had no seizures, she’s technically cleared to drive again from a neurological standpoint.  She will do an occupational therapy driving evaluation next month.  While she is eager to have this limitation removed, we all love our time as her chauffeurs, so that’s not going to change!

When we asked the doctor of any precautions mom should have while on chemo, his perspective was that “she should continue to spend time with the people she loves, doing the things that she loves.” Mom continues to live life to the fullest. Highlights since the last update include:
    ⁃    Attending her grandson, Ryan’s theatrical performance
    ⁃    Decorating the Christmas tree with Easter eggs with her grandsons because she wasn’t ready to take it down
    ⁃    Stations of the Cross and other special masses with her sweet church friends 
    ⁃    Hosting Easter - with her and her granddaughter, Tina cooking the food and doing to cutest Pinterest ideas
    ⁃    Family Pizza Nights
    ⁃    Flying to Florida and Road-tripping in an RV back to Minnesota with her son, Scott, brother, Todd, and friend, Brenda - including a night out in Nashville enjoying country music
    ⁃    Precious time visiting with and sharing meals with family and friends 

And, Lord willing … we are just 10 days away from our family taking a cruise! This has been something mom has always wanted to do. Thanks to mom’s daughter-in-law, Erin for helping to coordinate this in short order and please pray that God will continue to order our steps for everything to go smoothly. If I’ve learned one thing from my mom over the past 4 months, it’s been to live intentionally. We can’t control our circumstances, but we are to have faith in the one that does - and cherish the beauty around us. Say I love you. Play the game with the child. Connect with the friend you haven’t seen in a while. Grow stronger in your faith. Take the trip. Seize the day. So that’s our cruise motto “SEAS THE DAY”.  I promise you, there will be cheesy matching shirts to memorialize it!