Welcome, Friends

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
The rains fall soft upon your fields
And, until we meet again,
May Gold hold you in the palm of His hand.

Greetings!

As you all know by now, our dear friend, wife, sister, mother, godmother has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. We've created this blog to keep everyone updated, as well as to solicit prayers, positive thoughts, words of encouragement, and perhaps some help throughout Jane's fight. Thank you all so far for the phone calls, notes, and prayers you've been sending our way.

First of all, an update: Jane met with her oncologist, Dr. David Bender, on Monday. You can find his bio here. He was fantastic, and we all felt much more comfortable knowing she's in such good hands. The news was about as we expected--the cancer is on both ovaries, her liver, and her spleen. There is also some lymph node involvement. The gold standard treatment at this point is surgery and then chemotherapy--and that's what we're going to do. Surgery is scheduled for next Wednesday, December 28. After a 5-7 day hospital stay, Jane will start chemo 2-4 weeks later. We don't know much about the chemo yet, which is fine, because our first priority is successful surgery and recovery.

Second, how is Jane doing? The short answer: as well as can be expected. After her diagnosis last Tuesday, Scott and Jeff came home with their families for a long weekend. We spent a night at Pzazz in Burlington, where the grandboys had a blast at the indoor water park. We also had a small Christmas (with lots of trains and dinosaur presents!) and spent lots of time relaxing and enjoying each other's company. We have all had our angry and sad moments (or many moments) and many tears have been shed, but we have also had some really wonderful family time during the season when family time is especially cherished.

I was going to add something here about how Jane is gearing up for a big fight to kick cancer's butt, but then remembered something she said one of the first days after her diagnosis. She said, "If I die from this, I don't want my obituary to say 'Jane died after a brave fight against cancer.' I hate that. Say that I was pissed as hell." Doesn't that sound more like the Jane you know? And we're all ready to help her brave this fight in as many ways as we know how.

Third, what can you do to help? Right now, prayers and positive thoughts are very much appreciated. At some point Jane and Randy may need some help with meals or help around the house, but there's not much to do right now. We are hoping this blog will be a place that we can send out information and that Jane can receive all of the positive energy we know you're ready to send her way.

As for the blog, please let us know if we can do anything to make it more user friendly or if there's anything else you'd like to see. We'll update it as often as we can and since Jane will probably not want us taking pictures of her in the hospital, we'll be posting cute pictures of Jane's grandbabies and family. There's not an easy way to create a guestbook through this website, so please use the comments section of each blog post to send your notes to Jane. If you'd like to send notes that aren't visible to everyone else--or just want to get in touch with someone--please contact Jeff or Nike Fleming. You can reach us at jeffandnike@gmail.com or on our cell phones: Jeff (319-321-9873) and Nike (319-594-5267).

Thank you in advance for everything! Jane has touched so many lives and supported so many friends and relatives that we know she has a wonderful support network ready to help.

A few pictures of Jane's grandboys (Connor and Jack) enjoying an early Christmas: