It’s been almost two months since Alycia’s last chemo treatment. A lot has happened in those two months. We celebrated Thanksgiving, our entire family was off school and work for two weeks, we celebrated all the holidays, and we ate all the cheese. As I wrote in our last post, we had a lot to be thankful for. Even as I prayed before Thanksgiving dinner, we all felt a great sense of gratitude that God had provided for us and sustained us through an extremely difficult season.
For me, it has been such a joy to see Alycia returning more to herself. She has more energy and she’s not sick all the time. We were having just a normal family dinner in December, just our own home cooked meal, and Alycia went back for seconds. Eating had been so hard and food tasted so bad for so long; I was just happy to see her enjoying a simple meal. Last week Alycia told me how happy she was just to drink a glass of water. All throughout chemo it was really hard for her to drink water, so Alycia appreciated the very pedestrian act of drinking water. And, even though she doesn’t see it as clearly as everyone else, Alycia’s hair is even starting to grow back. The past two months have been filled with little signs that our lives might be getting back to something resembling normal.
That’s not to say everything has been completely normal.
We knew that Alycia’s radiation treatments were going to start a few weeks after her last round of chemo. We were grateful that the treatments were able to start on December 16th; we wanted to get them over as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Kaiser wasn’t able to get Alycia in for treatment at Ontario or Fontana. Instead, Alycia had to drive down to Anaheim for her daily radiation treatments. She had 16 treatments, which meant a lot of our Christmas break revolved around those drives down the 57. We turned a few of those trips into family affairs, which was a lot of fun, but we’re thankful that they’re over. Alycia finished her last radiation treatment on Tuesday.
Now, all that Alycia has left is her targeted treatment. These treatments happen every three weeks and last for about 90 minutes. The side effects are almost non-existent compared to chemo; mostly the treatments just leave Alycia a little tired. After the challenge of chemo’s rhythms, these last few weeks have felt a lot easier for our family.
Here are some ways that you could be praying for Alycia:
- Pray that all of the treatments continue to do their job and completely heal her from cancer.
- Alycia has been having some stomach issues that resulted from the chemo’s side effects. Please pray that those are healed as well.
- Radiation basically causes a bad sunburn. Pray that it would heal and that Alycia wouldn’t be too uncomfortable.
- Pray for Alycia now that she’s back to work full time. She’s got a full load of students and weekly meetings. Pray that she’s able to connect with her students and has all of the energy that she needs.
- Pray for Clara and Jo. Things are a little more normal, but they still worry about their mom.
Thank you so much for walking with us through the challenges of last year. We’re hopeful that 2025 won’t be as challenging, but we know anything can happen. We don’t know what this year has in store, but we know that God will continue to provide for us and use all of you to support and encourage us.
2 Comments
Bill and Jennifer Rock
January 12, 2025 at 9:30 pmWe are so happy to hear the good news! We have been praying for you all and will continue. Praise the Lord Alycia is feeling so much better. Praying that continues!
Love and Blessings,
Bill and Jennifer
Jimmie and Lois Sanchez
January 15, 2025 at 7:49 amPraise God Alycia is doing so well. We have been praying for strength for your family.
Please say hello for us.
God is so good and will continue to be there through this journey.