The tumor is gone.

There are no traces of it left.

Her brain is healing beautifully.

Miracles happen. Prayer works.

We can never thank you enough.

As the tumor was aggressive and malignant, we keep fighting, we keep praying and we keep having faith that all her MRI's that she will have about every 90 days will have the same result, no tumor.

We begin maintenance Chemotherapy this week, we also have more appointments tomorrow to determine the digestion pain. But today, we are thankful. We are thankful most especially to our Father in Heaven who is in charge.

And now we pray some more. :)

Reality Check

Merry Christmas everyone!

Lets get to the nitty gritty. As usual, a lot and not a lot, has happened here at the Bird house. Mom has been finished with ChemRad for 20 days now. Time flies!!!

GOOD News!
Since December 2nd, mom has slowly come off steroids and other medications and her brain has had time to adjust and heal from all the surgery and radiation. Her scar down the right side of her head is looking prettier every day! Her hair is growing back in some places and has not grown back in other places, we heard it takes 3-6 months to see what really is going to grow back (we're crossing our fingers!), though her hair is the least of our concerns. :) We have had many friends drop by and say "hello" and drop off yummy treats, which her children have totally been enjoying for her.
We have fun going through the mail everyday and reading all the get well and Christmas cards! We love hearing your news and seeing how your families have grown and changed over the last year, thank you so much for sending them. Mom and I did all our shopping on Amazon Prime (the man who invented it should be given the Noble Peace Prize) and we eagerly awaited the arrival of France and Brett who are HERE and are so helpful! We love having our boys!
Elder Bird in Arizona is doing wonderfully and he and mom share some funny emails back and forth as mom is still typing poorly (or as Jake likes to say "she writes in Vulcan"). We are excited to talk to him on Christmas Day! Jen & Todd and the girls are having Christmas is Savannah and we will be video chatting with them as often as possible! Sienna took her first real walk across the room the other day when she heard "Grandma Sheri" on the computer and came over to say hi! Mom and Jen both shed some tears as Sienna remembered Grandma Sheri so well after living in Spokane for a year. Needless to say, mom loved it. We are all happy it's Christmas and we get to spend some much needed time together. :)

NOT So Good News

Since ChemRad, mom has not been feeling well, at all. In fact, she has been the worse she's ever been. Her legs have atrophied to the point of where walking anywhere is difficult, we cannot leave the house much, if we do, we make sure the place we are going has a wheel chair so we can push her around. She has also had severe pains in her abdomen and esophagus. She cannot eat hardly anything, just some broth, chicken and rice here and there and maybe a little oatmeal, then once it's in her system it causes a lot of burning in her stomach and other painful symptoms.
In the last four weeks mom has been through so many tests and Drs appointments to determine the cause of her pain. We have had scopes, ultrasounds, blood tests and UA's. All of which are inconclusive. She has been on so many different pills we can hardly keep up anymore as the dosages and frequencies change daily. Let me just say, her doctors are SAINTS! They want to help her as quickly as possible and hopefully soon we can have her out of some pain. We pray continually for her. For those of you who have been through ChemRad or know someone who has, you know it's not easy. In fact, it's quite the reality check. We are on a long road to recovery and sometimes we feel as though we have only just begun.

Tomorrow is Mom's MRI to see what the results of all of the surgeries and treatments have been. They are going to see her brain tomorrow. They are going to be looking for signs of a tumor tomorrow. Tomorrow is a bit of a scary day. It's also a hopeful day as we KNOW that ALL THE PRAYERS ARE WORKING and we need them now more than ever. Please pray for her tomorrow if you can. Please. We are going to plead for this beautiful woman's life. We can ask for that, and we will.

We will hear the results on Monday and the results will be the Christmas miracle we are all hoping for.

We love you, we thank you. Miracles are wrought through prayer. It's true. Christ lives and he loves us! Merry Christmas everyone!

Love, The BIRDS

The End of ChemRad!!!

Hey everyone!!!!

So mom finished her 7 weeks of ChemRad last Thursday, so it's been a week since she's been done! We celebrated the next day by taking her to the 2D version of 'Tangled' (the 3D would have been TOO much!). We LOVED it and it totally exhausted her and she slept the rest of the day.

We were anticipating some hard times coming off all the drugs and radiation as the side effects can be a bit harsh. We didn't have to wait long! As radiation 'seeps out' she is even more tired if you can believe it! She has slowly been allowed to cut down on steroids and little did we know that the steroids, besides making her a bit un-Sheri-like, have been giving her artificial bursts of energy that she so looks forward too everyday. The steroids have also atrophied her legs quite a bit-I tell her she has Jake Sully legs from Avatar-which is not funny and totally inappropriate, but hey, we laugh every time.

She also has been having some major stomach issues as all the drugs have torn up her little tummy. We have been trying all sorts of antacids that the doctor recommended, but to no avail, no relief has come. Finally we took her into the hospital yesterday as the pain had worsened and she's pretty bored of oatmeal and dried toast and ta-da! We got some MORE medication. But it IS working! Yay! All of the side effects are totally normal bytheway.

For better news: She is OFF steroids completely as of today, she is so excited! It still takes time for them to leave the body entirely though. Also, her hair is starting to grow back in 'like a weed' :). AND we got to have Thanksgiving a few weeks ago with Brett & France! France & I pulled together dinner (with Mom's help of course) and the boys helped by cleaning their plates and the kitchen! We set up the tree and have been enjoying all the pretty lights! It's funny, the timing of things. Mom's favorite holiday is Christmas and she gets the WHOLE month of December off of Chemo to enjoy it (until she starts up again the 27th for maintenance, which we will explain soon!). What a blessing.

We live one day at a time here at the Bird's and we are not sure what the next few weeks will bring as she continues to rest! But we sure look forward to having Brett & France back soon and cuddling up in Mom's room watching movies, playing games and just being a family.

Thank you so much for everything. You'll never fully know the impact your prayers and service have had on our family. We are so incredibly grateful and blessed to have you all in our lives. We have unwavering faith in the plan that God has for us and are excited to be celebrating the birth of our beloved Savior this month. Christ lives and loves us! Hope all is well with you and yours. We love reading everyone's messages, they are so fun and inspiring! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!