From One Journey to the Next!!

We are nearing the end of another year and we are also nearing the end of Kahlan's Cancer Treatments here in California. This year has been filled with excitement, worry, tears, prayers, love, exhaustion, happiness, Family and surprises.

The year started with Albert getting home from a deployment, we were so happy to get him home safe. Which was followed by the horrible news that Kahlan had a very rare and dangerous tumor, ATRT. She then under went her first brain surgery at Primary Childrens in UT.

We were then sent moving to Monterey California for Albert to learn French at DLI. On the way to California, we had to leave Sammie and Alex with my family so that I could take care of Kahlan at UCSF Children's Hospital. Albert started his French classes and Kahlan started her first round of chemotherapy. Things were really hard during this time, with our family in 3 different places and we were unsure if Kahlan was going to make it. Shortly after Kahlan's 2nd round of chemotherapy, and MRI showed us distressing news. Kahlan's tumor had grown back to half its original size. She then had her second brain surgery. It was amazing to see how resilient Kahlan is with the right medical attention, prayers and blessing from Heavenly Father.

The next step was to have Samantha and Alexander come home to monterey! We had missed each other so much during the 2 1/2 months they were gone. Now we were back together for a short time until Kahlan started radiation.

The kids were able to stay with Kahlan and I because Albert's sweet wonderful sister Rosemary was able to come and live with us. It was so nice to have all of the kids together again, but we were still apart from Albert, which made it hard. It was very hard having Rosemary leave, but Grandma Wilson came out twice and babysat Sammie and Alex and Grandpa Lieske came and took care of them too! It has been so amazing to us to see how much we all need each other and how important families are! Family and friends have made this year bearable for us. We have felt all the love and concern and it has made all the difference!

The last of Kahlan's treatments included 2 stem cell harvests and then 3 tandem stem cell transplants with high dose chemotherapy. This last phase has taken well over 3 months so far. However the end is in sight! Kahlan is done with her official treatments and now all that is left are tests to make sure she is cancer free!

Also during this time, Albert graduated from DLI and also got his Associates Degree. We are so proud of him for all of his hard work and dedication. Its hard enough to pass the class without a daughter undergoing cancer treatments. We also found out that I am Pregnant and that I am due May 22nd 2010. We weren't planning on having a baby yet, but I guess God has other plans for us!

Now Albert is all moved back to Ut, and is working at Camp Williams. Sammie and Alex are at Grandma Lieske's and Kahlan is being treated with antibiotics for a fever she had a few days ago. Things are starting to slow down. In 2 weeks Kahlan and I are headed to UT and starting a new journey. We are hoping and praying that life can go to somewhat of a normal pace for us. We are excited to be pregnant with our 4th and final child. We are excited to be together as a family! We are so Thankful that Kahlan has made it through this ordeal and that we can now be together! We are grateful to the lord for blessing us with so many wonderful blessings this year!

Its been a long time!

Its been way too long since I updated this blog. We are all doing great! Albert is almost done with his French course here in Monterey Ca. He will be moving to Pleasant Grove in November, and he will start working at Camp Williams. As for me and the kids, we will be here in San Francisco until the first week of December. Kahlans cancer treatments should be finished by that time if everything goes well.

Kahlan is starting her first set of High Dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplant tomorrow. We were admitted to the hospital today, just to get everything ready for chemo tomorrow. My mom is staying at the family house with Sammie and Alex while we are in the hospital. We are hoping to get out on Tuesday and be home by the 30th for about 4 weeks. After the 4 weeks then they will do the cycle over again 2 more times. Once in October and the Last in November. We will see how it goes!

Other than that we are all doing well and just taking each day as it comes!

Pictures of the kids

Here are some recent pictures of the kids! I can't wait for Alex and Sammie to come out here with us!!!!

I Made a site for Kahlan!

It has been too long since I updated this site. Anyways I have made a site just for Kahlan so that I can update everyone about how our Journey is going. Here is the site for anyone who doesn't have it yet.

caringbridge.org/visit/kahlan

As for now we just started her second set of chemo on Sunday and if all goes well, after 21 days she will be starting radiation. The only other concern is that the tumor might still be growing back. So they will do an MRI tomorrow and see if she needs another surgery.

Now to some good news; my kids are doing good at my moms house and will soon be going to visit Amber in St. George for a couple of weeks. After that they will be coming home to be with Albert and his sister Rosemary for the summer. I am so excited to see my babies again, my heart aches just thinking about holding them again!

I also just want to say thank you to the Thomas's. Jessica Thomas was here at UCSF with her baby boy Tyson, He was being treated for spina bifida and they are also LDS. They were so sweet and gave me meals for a day and all of their extra food before they headed back to Utah. Thank you guys! I also want to thank everyone for their prayers and love! I know that Kahlan is doing so well because of your faith and prayers! Thank You!

Updates!

Alright a lot has happened since I last got on here. We are officially moved to Seaside, CA. Albert is there by himself going to military school to learn french. Samantha and Alexander spent 3 days at my sister Ambers in St. George and are now currently with my sister-in-law Jenny and my brother Jonny's family until Thursday. After that they will be in Pahrump NV with my parents until the middle of June. When June comes around Samantha and Alex will then finally be able to come home to Seaside and have their Aunt Rosemary take care of them while Albert is still learning French.

So there is an update on the family, now for Kahlan and me! We are now in UCSF Childrens Medical Center. It is very nice here and the doctors and nurses are great. Kahlan will be getting her first set of Chemo tomorrow April 23, 2009. I will be here with Kahlan until she is done with her treatments. Her treatments will include 4 sets of chemo, radiation, and re-integration of her own stem cells that they will harvest along the way. All together it could take anywhere from 8 to 12 months for her treatments to be done. We are all doing great and we appreciate all of your love and concern! Thank you all for your prayers!
Love
The Lieske's

Sigh...Life is way too busy

Kahlan is doing amazingly well and healing from her brain surgery. She is almost healthy enough to start doing tests and then chemotherapy. We start the tests the day or 2 after we get to California. Which will be around the 15th or 16th of April. But as for now, life is crazy busy. We have to pack everything we need to take with us before they move all of our stuff this Friday. We have to buy a new car so Albert has transportation to work and I can take Kahlan to the Hospital in San Francisco. We found out Kahlan will probably be hospitalized through almost all of her treatments. We have to ask whoever we can get to babysit Samantha and Alexander while I am with Kahlan for 2 months in the hospital. Luckily we have one week taken care of so far and then whatever else my mom will be able to help out with. I wont be able to take care of All my babies for a while and that makes me sad. And last but not least Albert had to fly out to California today to sign our lease on our new house and then fly back tomorrow to help pack up and move. Also my husband has to get a 70% or above on every test he takes at DLI or we get kicked out and we wont have medical insurance. I guess we do what we need to do to keep things going. Wow I think that this is the busiest my life has ever been so far...(knock on wood.) Ah...Im kinda tired...lol! Anyways our spirits are still good and very optimistic for the future, its just hard planning everything so it goes smoothly. Its a good thing trials make us better people because other wise life would really suck. I am so grateful I have an eternal family and I have something to hold onto during the rough times in our lives.

A little left and a whole lot of chemo

So we are home now and we found out that there is 2% of the tumor still left on her brain stem. It is a small little bit left that they would have had to scrap her brain stem to get it. We all can imagine how much damage that would have caused. So better safe than sorry. Now she is healing and when we move to California she will start chemotherapy and probably radiation there. The tumor is called ATRT, if you want the technical name you can just Google it and it will come up with the whole name. It is a very rare tumor, only 30 kids in the US get it each year. It is a very aggressive tumor and very hard to treat. There is a chance that our little Kahlan might not make it. The doctors are very optomistic though. Her chemo will be in 2 cycles to start. Each cycle is 21 days and there is a couple weeks of break in between. After that they will do some scans and then if need be more chemo or hopefully radiation. It is going to be a rough time for all of us but mostly for our little Kahlan.

She is out of surgery!

The doctors think they got all of the tumor. She is recovering amazingly well so far, and now we are just waiting to find out if it was cancerous and if she needs any chemo therapy. Its not over yet, but at least they got all of it out! YAY!

Kahlan has a brain Tumor.

So on Saturday March 28th Albert and I got home from our vacation to Monterey California. We went there to set up housing for us for our move on the 13th of April. Albert is still moving on the 13th. As for Kahlan, we picked her and our other 2 kids up from the in-laws, and I noticed that her face wasn't moving right and that she acted like she couldn't see out one her right eye. So I took her into the insta-care in Logan because her dr.'s office was closed. They sent us to the ER in Logan and they took a CT scan and found a mass in the bottom, back of her brain. Then they sent Kahlan and me in an ambulance to Primary Childrens Hospital. They got her on an IV and set up for her to get an MRI on the 29th of March. The MRI showed us more specifically where it is located in her brain. It is in the 4th ventrical which is next to the brain stem. The tumor is an inch by inch and a half in size and it is pressing on her brain stem. In turn causing the facial nerves to be temporarilly paralyzed and for her vision problems. Also for the placement and her age she has a 2 out of 3 chance that it is cancer. So we are praying that she is lucky and is that one out of three that it isnt cancer.

As I write this she is in the Operating room with some amazing nueral surgions. I have faith that they will do what is best for Kahlan and her recovery. We just pray that the surgery goes well and that there is not permenant damage to any part of her brain. After they get the tumor out we will know what will be next for her treatment. We are grateful for all of your paryers and love. I will keep everyone updated when the surgery is over.

She took her first steps.....Finally!!!!

I am so excited! My baby Kahlan finally took her first steps today! She turned a year on the 13th of December, so compared to her siblings she is a very late walker. I have been working with her since she was 10 months old and finally she over came her fear of falling and took 4 steps!
It is so amazing how fast they all grow! Life is just truly amazing! I am so excited to have 3 beautiful and healthy children. I never thought it could be so fun to watch your own children learn new things and be such wonderful smart kids! Albert and I are very blessed to have such amazing kids! I just wish that Albert could have been here to watch them grow this year! I am so grateful that this deployment is almost over. The anticipation is literally killing me! LOL ok well not really, but sometimes it feels that way. I just hate waiting...I usually have really good patience, but after waiting for over 12 months...my patience is wearing thin! Well we only have to make it less than 28 days! I pray it goes fast!