Having a hard day

I will keep this short, but wanted to ask for specific prayer. The burning has gotten worse and is so very painful that I am feeling overwhelmed by it all today. I am not sleeping well, and I know that effects my ability to handle the pain emotionally. Please pray that I can sleep, please pray that the pain supernaturally is lifted and for swift and miraculous healing for the skin. I won't even go into how gross the burn is, but it is bad, much worse than I imagined it could get. I really need your extra support in prayer, it makes all the difference. Thank you.

Friday, April 24th was the last day of radiation

Good news! I was able to complete my radiation treatment on Friday!! Ron was going to take me, but needed to take Hannah to the doctor to get some antibiotics for a bacterial infection she developed, so Linda D. was kind enough to take me to my appointment. Thanks Linda!

I was able to take flowers in for my doctor and the amazing techs who have been so kind to me over the past six weeks. I feel like they are helping to save my life so the least I could do was give them flowers. They've been so nice and so kind. They are so funny, they call me "Jamie Lee" because they all think I look like Jamie Lee Curtis, and they call Ron "hallway man" because he often spent the time he was waiting for me to have my treatment out in the hallway making calls for our church, Lighthouse.

I am so grateful to be finished with treatment and so grateful to you for praying me through it all! They said that the burning, which is considerable, would get worse before it gets better. It is hard to imagine that because the burning is pretty bad already. They said it would take a couple of weeks before the healing begins. Radiation has a cumulative effect, so the burn I am experiencing today is from radiation they gave me a few weeks ago. I have a couple more weeks of radiation in me that still needs to works its way out.

Thank you for your continued prayer as I begin the healing phase. Love to you! Leslyn

Really, really burned

On Thursday my skin was so burned that the doctor wanted me to skip Friday's radiation treatment, which turned out to be a very good thing! By Saturday night my skin had blistered up pretty badly, on Sunday morning I woke up and my shirt was stuck to the skin. Before I realized what was actually going on, I pulled my shirt away from my chest and my skin tore off...oh my goodness did that hurt!!!! So I cried a lot on Sunday from the pain, I can't imagine what it would have been like if I had been treated on Friday. A dear friend reminded me that there is a Person who also had His skin torn off and that she knew He could help and bring healing...I so appreciate how Jesus intimately understands all that we suffer.

I went in to see the radiation oncologist this morning (thank you Jennifer for the ride!). My doctor wanted to see me before treatment to decide if they needed to delay treatment again. I am so burned that she wanted me to take today and tomorrow off. I will go in and see her on Wednesday to decide if they can treat me then. If so, I will have radiation on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and then I'll be finished. I am hoping that works. I would love to have this behind me.

Thank you for continuing to pray for healing and supernatural restoration of my skin, it hurts really badly.

My hair is growing again!

I asked Hannah to take some pictures of me so that you could see my hair. It is finally growing in again. It is still really short and it has come in grayer than I expected but it is mine!! As my friend Mary L says, "any day with hair is a good hair day!"


I still haven't decided if I am going to color it or just leave it gray. I think I will wait and see how it looks when it gets longer. I have been told that I am not supposed to color it or use a curling iron on it (not that there is enough to curl anyway!) for awhile. I guess that the hair is so new and fine that it damages it too much. It feels like baby hair. You can see that my eye lashes and brows have grown in too! It is all very exciting!! I have never enjoyed having hair so much in my life.

I included a picture of my sweet dog, Charley, because he has been my constant companion throughout my illness. He is never far away and has been so patient and sweet during my long and many days of bed rest and being house bound. He has been such a blessing from the Lord.


Thanks for your many prayers! My head of hair is a clear sign of the healing that is happening in my body and the recovery that is taking place after the chemotherapy.

Down to three more treatments...

Today is Friday and I got to have the day off from radiation treatment, I may have Monday off too. This week my skin suddenly got very burned. I thought it was burned before, but apparently, I was mistaken! Oh my, I had no idea. The texture of some of the skin is sort of crispy like the seaweed paper that they use for sushi...tasty on sushi, not so good for skin texture!! There are some blisters, some open sores, some crispy bits and skin so red it almost looks purple. Most of all it is sore!!!!! I have actually had to start taking codeine for the pain, especially so I can sleep. Even having cotton against my skin hurts. The good news is that I only have three more treatments, so I am almost finished. The doc is hoping that taking a few days off in a row will allow my skin to heal enough to finish up the remaining three treatments.

They stopped doing the bolus treatments to the skin on Thursday. (A bolus is a way that they deliver an extra strong dose of radiation to, in my case, the skin to make sure they kill off any possible cancer cells that might be lurking there. Judging by my skin, it worked. They've been using that technique from the beginning on me.) They won't do any more bolus treatments, just "regular" radiation for the remaining three treatments.

Please pray for supernatural healing over the next few days so that they can complete my course of treatment. It is important to do all that we can to keep the cancer from having a chance to come back. Please pray for me especially at night. I have been having a hard time sleeping because of the pain as well as having to sleep on my back. I am not a back sleeper but that is the only place that doesn't hurt. Thank you!! I so appreciate you!!

Tomorrow I'll be 2/3 through with radiation!!

My how time flies when your having...oh wait, that idiom doesn't quite fit, but time is flying!! I am encouraged that I have made it this far and am not as tired as I expected to be at this point. I am still in need of naps, but radiation is much better than chemo.

My skin in the radiation field is getting more painful and I am developing some open sores. Ouch. I am also having some complications with lymphedema and am going back to the lymphedema clinic tomorrow (Tues, April 7). My left arm, the side that is getting radiated, is very sore and the tendons or lymph channels or something is getting really tight. Every morning I have to go through painful stretching exercises just to be able to straighten my arm all the way. It hurts a lot. On my right side, the side I didn't think I'd have any problems with, has developed some significant swelling under my arm. They ruled out blood clots and cancer, which was good! Now they think it is lymphedema, though I did not have any lymph nodes removed from that side. Apparently, when they do a mastectomy, it can disrupt the lymph system and cause problems. A temperamental little system apparently!! So I should find out more after they evaluate me tomorrow.

I would really appreciate your prayer that my burned skin would heal, especially the open sores. Please pray for a release in my left arm, that the tendons or lymph channels or whatever is causing the problem would be healed and relax so the pain would stop and I can have full use of my arm. Please also pray for whatever is causing the swelling in my right arm to be healed as well. It sort of feels like I am carrying a clutch purse under my arm, but of course there is nothing there but swollen tissue...it feels weird but at least that side doesn't hurt.

Thank you for continuing on this journey of faith with me! You are a great traveling partner!!