Shana Bearden

8-2-08– Shana has had a really good couple of weeks. She got her bad Chemo last Thursday and was feeling really tired for a couple of days thereafter but then on Sunday she started running on high speed. On Monday, She was feeling so good that when she started getting cabin fever this week, she borrowed Brad’s truck and began driving around town and shopping on her own. This is the first time in 10 months that she has driven and I started crying when I found out that she was out driving alone. We have come a long way on a very circuitous course over the last 10 months since Shana was originally diagnosed with Cancer. The fact that Shana is out driving alone and exerting her independence is a big change over the situation in mid May, just 90 days ago, when I brought her back from Baltimore and expected her not to survive the month. Her recovery has been truly miraculous, leading to her current condition. I thank each of you every day for your prayers on her behalf to a very merciful God and for his granting of our wish for a healthy Shana. Certainly her very positive reaction to the Chemo combined with her surgeries and a healthy lifestyle has something to do with it, but in my mind it has been the large chorus of prayers and well wishes that led us to where we are at today. Shana’s stomach is nearly back to her normal size, she has her appetite and her pain is managable. The doctor’s are amazed and believe the tumor has shrunk dramatcally and they have even suggested that if the tumor continues to shrink, we may be able to have another surgery that would remove the remaining tumor. Although that would not cure Shana, it would likely add years to her life expectancy. We will just have to wait and see. Keep praying PLEASE! For a while, I could feelthe tumor in her abdomine pushing out to the side. I don’t feel it at all now and that portends good news if it keeps shrinking. Praise God.
I have benefitted as well. Shana now cooks at home instead of eating out every night and it is wonderful to have home cooked meals for a change and we even stay up past 9:00 pm most nights now. Getting old and sick is not for wusses!
All the girls in our family are now back at school teaching and each are having issues they have to overcome to get in the groove for the year. Chrissy is loving her new school and co-workers in Deer Park ISD. She gleefully notes that all of her second graders know what to do in class, they are potty trained and all can read. Thats a big change from last year when she taught kindergarten in Kennedale ISD. Because Doug works nights and she works days, Chrissyrarely sees her new husband and she is very very lonely and is already making plans to come visit when she can first get away.
I am worried about Wes. I am a pressure freak and thrive when the pressure is on but Wes’s pressure level is just unbelievable. Work, School, new baby with colic, serving on a city commission, hiring, firing and about everything else in the world is on his shoulders. He is getting maybe two or three hours sleep per night and yet he is on the Dean’s honor roll, invited onto the law review, asked to make speaches and still insists on spending as much time as possible with his wife and baby. I admire him and I ask that you pat him on the back when you see him around. He is an amazing person.
Antoinette is in the same boat with taking care of her baby, starting a new school year and having her mom stay with them until Bella gets old enough to be put into a day care facility. They have just weined themselves from sleeping at that house. Wow.
April is very happy with her team of teachers this year and thinks they are great. THe school she is working for now is seeking its International Baccalaurate Certification and that is as hard as it getsfor a public school anywhere. She is a key player in that effort. TJ, her husband and my son in law spent last night with us while he was on a sales swing through town. We enjoyed his trip and visit.
Kathleen Donahue is having her thyroid surgery next Wednesday so please turn up the prayers for her and her family to help her through the low points. Although Kathleen tries to act like she is cool about the surgery, it sure seems to me that she is scared and worried about it. Wouldn’t you be if you were in her shoes? Keep praying for her so everything works out OK please.
So….. things are good right now at the Bearden ranch. I hope it is at your spread too!
We love you guys and we have survived because of you.
Jim Bearden

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.