December 10, 2009--117PM

Our social worker is still trying to bring her home this week. Pray for God's timing and will!!!!!!

December 7, 2009--8:00PM

I haven't posted in a while. Heather is through round 2. She still really feels nauseous and has some GI pain, both of which are common side effects with chemo. She is now officially bald and beautiful. Please pray that she can maintain her positive spirit and see God through this process.

We were also wondering whether Tessa might be home this week, but right now, it doesn't look that way. Soon, I pray. We got pics today and she is adorable. God's timing.

November 26, 2009--3:31PM

Heather now has thrush, which is an infection of her mouth and throat. It is common with chemotherapy, unfortunately. Her energy, nausea, etc vary from moment to moment. I would ask that you pray for her health, our children's well-being and my leadership through all of this.

November 24, 2009--8:37PM

Heather went in for fluids today, which helped her nausea a bunch. She ate some pickles, a hot dog, and a thanksgiving dinner with the SPUDs. Weird, considering she hadn't eaten much the last few days.

Paperwork's in Texas. Waiting for a court date.

November 23, 2009-7:08PM

Heather has been pretty nauseous for a few days. Today, her nausea started getting better, but they removed her drain tube and gave her an antibiotic, which makes her nausea worse. She is frustrated with feeling nauseous...and dependent. Pray for her.

We sent off the final bits of paperwork for Tessa today. She could be home as early as December 3 (yikes!!!!!!) or as late as January 18th. Pray for God's timing.

Father, we trust in you in all things.

November 21, 2009--7:44AM

Heather is on day 3 post-first-chemo-treatment. She has been sleepy a lot and intermittently nauseous, both common side effects. The medications they gave her for nausea are reasonably helpful, particularly the lorazepam, which knocks her out as well. She has maintained good spirits, but continued prayer is requested.

Heather has been playing email tag with our social worker regarding getting Tessa home. Apparently, she is going to Ethiopia on December 3rd (!) to escort another child back and was encouraging us to complete our paperwork as soon as we have everything in hand. It is remotely possible that she would be home then, though that is only 2 weeks from now. It is more likely at this point that Tessa will be home after the new year. Again, pray for God's timing and our sanity. :-D

November 19, 2009--8:12PM

Heather had her first course of chemo today. The oncologist went over Heather's test results with us, clarifying that her scans looked good and then said, "I see you still have your drain in, so I presume we won't be starting chemo today" or something along those lines. All the color drained from Heather's face as she has been psyched up for this. When convinced by the surgeon that there was no sign of infection, we were off to the races.

The nurse injected her with AC-chemotherapy, which in and of itself was not too bad, from what she has said. However, initially, her eyes burned, which is a common side effect. She is now quite nauseous, but has 4 different anti-nausea medications at home to try.

We are also going to ship off some paperwork for the adoption tomorrow, God willing.

Continued prayers are always appreciated.

To God be the glory!

November 19, 2009

Heather had a port placed in her arm so that she can begin chemotherapy today. Her mom is back, which is a huge help. Dear God help it to go well and kill all the cancer.

Also, our social worker still thinks a December welcome home for Tessa is possible.


Thank you all for your continued prayers.

November 18, 2009--7:55AM

Heather had her port placed in her arm yesterday so that she can start chemo tomorrow. All went well. Please pray that chemo is able to start tomorrow and that Heather is able to tolerate it well.

Thank you all for your continued prayers.

November 16, 2009--3:40PM

Heather's back from the doctor. Prayers were answered before they even went out. She has "bony islands" which are basically as common as moles, but in the bones. It was not metastatic bone disease! Yay! Praise God!

November 16, 2009--2:50PM

Heather had tests today--CT scan, bone scan, surgery follow up. Something abnormal on the CT but didn't show up on the bone scan. They asked her to come back in to look more closely. She is there now. God let it be artifact and not mets.

When I am afraid,
I put my trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can flesh do to me?
--Psalm 56:3-4

November 14, 2009--9:41

Heather still has an opening in her incision site, which is kind of gross. They will probably stitch it--without anesthetic--which is even grosser. Pray that goes well. Also, please pray that we receive the paperwork we need from Ethiopia today!

November 13, 2009--7:30AM

Heather has been feeling pretty good. Pam went home yesterday in fact. Last night, however, she noticed a little bit of drainage from one of the suture sites. She is concerned that this means her antibiotic has not taken full effect. She is going to call the surgeon today and see if that spot can get stitched and if there is anything else she needs to do for this.

Also, talked with our social worker in Florida. Apparently, she would like to go to Ethiopia the week of December 12 and would like to bring kids back with her. Pray that, if it is God's will, that our paperwork gets through Immigration and Naturalization smoothly and that she would be home with us by Christmas.

We would ask that you pray that we would have a smooth, non-doctor-visiting weekend.

Love, the Kanzes

November 11, 2009--6:33AM

We had Heather in the ER last night. She was having back spasms about every 10 minutes that were debilitating. They prescribed a muscle relaxant, which has been quite helpful. On the positive side, her infection seems to be clearing nicely. Praise God!

Heather also talked with her social worker yesterday, who indicated that she is hoping to go to Ethiopia from about the 12th of December to the 19th. She would like to bring kids back with her. Pray that Tessa is one of them!

November 10, 2009 6:02 AM

Yay! Heather and I both slept through the night!

November 9, 2009--8:34PM

Well, Heather was back to the surgeon today. 36 hours of miserable pain, nausea, and fever suggested infection. The red streaks were a dead giveaway. Needless to say, she was started on an antibiotic, which has slowly led to improvement, though where the real benefit came was in having her infection drained. She said her headache disappeared nearly instantaneously. She has slowly improved, but is still sleeping it off.

Chemo is on hold for a while, naturally. She is scheduled for all of her "stuff" again next week, though the infection will really be the deciding factor. We press on, trusting that God is in this with us.

November 8, 2009-3:09PM

Last night, thanks to a friend who volunteered to watch the kids, Heather and I went on a date. It was really fun. After dinner, we came home, got the kids, and went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. When we left the theater, Heather asked if it was really cold. By the time we got home, she had a major headache and was nauseous.

This morning, she still felt pretty awful, so we took her to urgent care. She had a fever and it turns out, she had developed an infection. She is now on antibiotics but still feels pretty tough. She is supposed to start chemo this week, but I don't know what this all will mean for that now.

Heather's mom is on the way.

11/5/09--11:55AM

Sorry for the delay in updates. Things have been going well at home and we have been focusing elsewhere. Today we met with Heather's oncologist. He reviewed the final pathology. There was 1 positive lymph node, she has an estrogen positive (good), progesterone positive (good), HER-2 neu negative (good) tumor. Although her tumor was multifocal (bad), the largest area was 1cm (good). It was graded III/III (not great). I know most of you won't know or care what this means, though some of you (i.e., Gen) will.

She is scheduled to begin chemo next Tuesday. She will undergo 4 courses of AC chemotherapy followed by 4 courses of Taxol. Click this link for some info. Following that, she will be undergoing a 5 year course of Tamoxifen, which will interfere with estrogen production and is important because she has estrogen-positive cancer.

She will lose her hair, and she has her facebook friends voting on wigs so we are in the process of figuring that out. It is hard to say entirely what side effects she will have.

We are also working dilgently to figure out when and how Tessa will be coming home. Now that she is officially ours, there is some additional paperwork we need to get done before she comes home to us.

Please pray that chemo goes well and that Heather tolerates side effects well!

October 31, 2009-5:57AM

Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.”
-Proverbs 31:25-29

Heather's mom left in the morning yesterday (thank you for your help Pam!), so Heather ran the household alone and quite successfully. She is getting back into the swing of things.

The draining of her seroma went well. In fact, she often couldn't feel the needle going in, which is a common side effect of mastectomy. She had to switch to an electric razor as well because shaving with a blade when you have no feeling leads to too much blood, as you could imagine. She still tires pretty easily, but she is staying up much of the day now.

Prayer requests:

• We meet with the oncologist on November 5 to figure out where to go next.
• That God would be preparing Heather's spirit for chemotherapy.
• That our paperwork for Tessa would fly through the system so we can get our little girl home!
• That God would show His powerful hand with our dear friends, the Thuls, whose little girl Amelia is in Children's Hospital of Minneapolis with a viral encephalitis.

Thank you all for your prayers. Grace and peace. -Jason

October 29, 2009--10:00AM

Well, Tessa is officially ours. We passed court this morning and so we officially have another daughter. We will post pictures of her later. Please pray that things go well with the paperwork we now need to file.

Also, Heather is healing nicely. I think her mom is going home today. She does have a "seroma", which is a fluid accumulation that needs to be drained. Please pray for that.

Thank you all for your continued prayer, help, and encouragements.

October 27, 2009--6:24AM

Heather was up most of the night. She is suffering from the "Heebie-jeebies" as she calls them. She had a great time with God, visited with a friend who was also up in the middle of the night, and did some marching. She did sleep from 3:30 until about 6:15, though. I think going out for a walk today would be of great benefit.

Funny thing is, I got up at 4:00. Grace has a sinus headache, so perhaps we need to get a neti pot today. :-)

October 26, 2009--8:03PM

A few of the SPUDs, stopped over tonight--Laura, Emily, and Tonya. It was so good to visit with them and catch up with their lives. Heather took a shower and shaved her own legs. WooHoo!

October 26, 2009--3:55PM

Heather had her follow up with her surgeon today. He removed the drains, which Heather said felt like there was something alive moving inside her body, so it is good to get those out. Heather had kept the drain receptacles in a fuzzy sock to keep them from touching her skin. Dr Pitchford was quite impressed and commented that he could market those and stop doing surgery. :-D

Pathology was also back on her lymph nodes and only one showed cancer. Praise the Lord! Other than that, a shower is in order tonight, but I told Heather that unless she really needs me to, I am not going to shave her legs.

October 26, 2009--5:28 AM

Well, as I said, Heather didn't go to church yesterday; instead, she slept a good chunk of the day, which was good. She also switched from vicodin to tylenol, which makes her less loopy. Today we have an appointment with her surgeon to check things over and maybe have the drains out. They are still draining fluid, so I don't know if they will take them out or not. In any case, we are going to go.

I would ask that you pray that the pathology is back on her lymph nodes and that it is good news (no evidence of cancer).

I am off to work today, but Heather's mom is here.

October 25, 2009--7:22AM

Heather has a cold, so she will not be going to church with me today, but I will be there. Her parents are coming back today to "watch over her" while I am away. She awoke in the middle of the night with some significant pain--she assumes she unknowingly stretched in the middle of the night.

How does one keep from stretching awkwardly while sleeping?

October 24, 2009--5:43

We have enjoyed some really fantastic food so far that has been provided by our friends. Chili, spaghetti pie, lasagna, baked potato soup, meatballs, Snicker salad, cake, cheese, cookies, bread, and on...and on. Thank you to all of you who have been bringing food for our family. It is one less thing to worry about.

Can someone bring a larger size clothing for me?

October 24, 2009--7:58AM

Proverbs 31:27a-- "She looks well to the ways of her household"

We had a long night last night. Heather did fine, but it seems everyone was up at one time or another--including the dogs. In fact, Grace came into our room in the middle of the night. She was whiny, and much more childlike than normal. She just wants to feel better and get over her cold. I was irritated; Heather graciously offered to go sit with her in her room and slept there the rest of the night. Amidst these trials, she remains a compassionate mother. She truly is amazing.

Many of our good friends are doing the breast cancer walk in Eau Claire today in this beautiful Fall weather. Thank you all!

October 23, 2009--9:41

I am at work today. The clinic is crazy with H1N1 pandamonium. Frequent hand sanatizing is strongly encouraged. Heather is at home with the kids and her mom. She is good spirits today, but is resting now. Her dad is coming today and will take Pam, Heather's mom, home today. Heather's mom will then come back on Sunday.

Here is a link from the American Cancer Society on how to perform a breast self exam. If you are a woman, and you don't currently do these, GET ON IT!!

Jason

October 22, 2009--7:18

Connie Cake. Yum. That is a great finish to this day. For those of you wondering what I Corinthians 16:13 is, here you go--"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong."

I told Heather the verse and she said, "act like a man? I am half way there." ;-)

October 22, 2009--6:04PM

Heather ate some of Sara Montagna's fantastic lasagna and garlic bread and is now picking out new hair. Kids are playing Wii. I cannot wait for her to tie into Connie's cake, but I am going to try to limit myself to one...half of the cake.

October 22, 2009--3:29 PM

Heather's home. She is sleeping upstairs in our bedroom. As she laid her head on her pillow, she sighed a deep sigh of relief at the comforts of home. She asked if I was ready to have her home--how could I not be? Grace has been coughing, so please pray for her that she stays healthy.

Jason

What Heather wrote, for those who don't get her emails.

Heather wrote this on Tuesday, for those who don't get them.

Hi Everyone,

So after all that we went thru this past week I am once again crying over how awesome our God is. On Tuesday morning we recieved the following e-mail from Tessa's social worker who told us on Monday after recieving our cancer news to get healthy and to keep going with our adoption as planned....

The memo line said...court date.
The e-mail said "Oct.29th"

Our court date for Tessa is October 29th. We have giggled a lot over God's timing of this. She will be home for Christmas!!!!! Now I just need to get healthy!!!!!!!

On Tuesday afternoon we had our appointment with my oncologist Dr. Muslim. After explaining our case to us, I found myself smiling at him and thanking him. We laughed as we left as we talked about how he was like a Dr. Wilson from the TV show House but of a middle eastern descent. We found out that his MA Laura is the daughter of friends of ours from church. So God has placed us in good hands and we look forward to working with them.

As I write this, it is about 4 am so forgive me if I babble a little. I couldn't sleep go figure .

I won't go into all the technical details for you but here is the jist of our future with cancer. This morning we will need to get to the hospital at about 9. They have tests and prep and such they have to do. My surgery is at 11. My mom will be home with the kids. Jason's mom will be meeting him at the hospital. They will be doing a single mastectomy of my left breast. The oncologist said it was silly to consider doing a double. There is no risk for me to get cancer in the other breast considering my history and the cancer type. So I guess I will get to use the fake boobie that Grace made me from the ABC noodles .

The surgery will be a few hours. The big thing at this point will b how many if any lymph nodes have been affected. That will give us a better idea of long term outcome but frankly those predictions don't mean much to Jason and I since we know that God is so much bigger than whatever odds that they give us. Dr. Muslim told us that I have a less aggressive form of cancer so that was good news for us and that breast cancer is CURABLE not just treatable!

Depending on how quickly I recover I will be released on Thursday I think. Please wait for word from Jason on when to come and visit in the hospital. He will let you know as soon as we know something.

After about two weeks of recovery we will meet with Dr. Muslim again and go over the reports. I will be having chemo reguardless of what the reports say or what they find in the lymph nodes. I will start in about three weeks. I will have 8 treatments total for a total of 16 weeks. One about every two weeks. The first four will be the most difficult then it will get better and better. It goes in thru an IV and the treatment lasts about two to three hours. I will be able to drive myself there and home and should be able to care for my kids afterwards. He assured us that it won't be that bad and that he has no concerns about how I will handle it. We joked that I already know how it feels to be constantly tired and nausas with my RA and my pregnancy with Ian. He laughed and said that they have much better meds than what I took with Ian so I should be able to tolarate it fine. I will loose my hair but we found a catalog with lots of cute hats and wigs that Grace has already gone thru and marked her favorites. So don't be shocked when I come to church as a flaming red head! We are going to have fun with this but they do have one wig that actually is VERY close to my hair color and style that I have now so I am going to have a little normalcy to our lives as well.

We do not know about radiation at this point. That will depend on the lymph node thing I think.

So you may be wondering about Tessa coming home...
Once we pass court next week she is legally ours. We have a power of attorney that is working on our behalf. After next week Jason (I can no longer go obviously) and most likely his mom will travel anywhere from 3-6 weeks later. So Tessa will be coming home to a bald mama in the middle of chemo. The doctor didn't think that would be a problem but I am sure that I will need some help. I am guessing I won't have to beg people to come help take care of our new addition :)

*Huge thank-you to the huge group of Cedarcreekers who volunteered to take care of our yard. If you are able to help them out I'm sure they could use it!

I know there will be more needs as we learn more but that is all I can immediately think of.

Please don't send flowers since I am allergic to them. I would love cards and e-mails but please don't call unless you need something. Our phone has been ringing off of the hook unless of coarse you are family or part of our close church family! We check our e-mail almost constantly so if we are able to respond we will.

Here is the lastest set of prayer requests for Tessa to come home and our cancer jouney...

*Please pray for our friends and family who are struggling with this diagnosis. Some are reliving their own experiences of their own cancer or a loved ones cancer. I have also become aware of three others that may be facing breast cancer. Those closest to us are scared and don't know what to say or do. Give them the peace that they need and pray that EVERYONE uses this time to draw closer to God and to make a changes in their lives so they can look back on their lives with no regrets.

*Please pray for our surgeon and all of the medical team that will be working with my case. Pray that I am able to share my faith with them and that God can use me to work in their hearts to someday come to know HIM.

*Please pray for Jason, Grace, Ian, my mom, and Jason's mom as they sit by my bedside and watch me lay in pain. That will be difficult for them I am sure and they need God's strength to get thru this.

*FAST RECOVERY!!!!

*Please pray for good health for Tessa and her caregivers.

*Please pray we pass court!

*Please pray for us as we prepare our hearts and home for our daughter Tessa and work out travel details for Jason!

As our prayers are answered I put them at the bottom of the letter so you can keep track of how awesome God is!

Thank-you again for your prayers today.
Your family in Christ,Heather, Jason, Grace, Ian, and Tessa Kanz Answered Prayers!

*Recieved clear direction to do a single mastectomy 10/20/09
*Recieved our court date of October 29th. 10/20/09
*Cedarcreekers volunteered to take care of our yard! 10/20/09
*Found out that flights were not nearly as expensive as we thought. 10/3/09
*Wyneens raised over $700 for us! 10/3/09
*Wynveens volunteered to have a garage sale fundraiser for us! 9/25/09
*We recieved confirmation that Tessa is living in Addis and won't need to change homes and caregivers in her last few months in Ethiopia 9/24/09
*We recieved 12 new pictures of Tessa 9/24/09
*We recieved word that our dossier was translated, authenticated and submitted to court this week 9/21/09
*Our USCIS paperwork arrived 9/15/09
*Frequent flier miles donated 9/14/09
*Three new pictures arrived of Tessa 9/14/09
*Dossier arrived safely to Ethiopia 9/12/09
*Garage Sale success! Raised $1500 9/12/09
*Assistant Stork was able to process our dossier quickly and get it sent to CCI 9/4/09
*Reese's Rainbow profile is on the website 9/4/09
*Our passports came in the mail today and fun news about Tessa. 9/3/09
*Fingerprints were easy to do and Kelley survived her day with the children 9/2/09
*We recieved our dossier back from the state today, made copies and had sent it to the Assistant Stork to send it to the US department of State and the Ethiopian Embassy! 9/1/09
*We recieved a new video of Tessa today! 8/31/09
*We made over $1000 in two days of garage sales and have enough for a second sale!!! 8/29/09
*The girls had a great first day of selling and made $99! 8/28/09
*We had lots of brave helpers for our Friday sale and volunteers for tommorrow as well! 8/28/09
*Our documents arrived from CCI and our dossier has been sent to recieve the Great Seal of WI in Madison . 8/28/2009
*Our letter from CCI to include with our dossier is in the mail and on our way to us so we can add that last piece of paperwork before mailing it off to get the Great Seal! 8/25/09
*Beth Crammond volunteered to make some jewerly for our sale! 8/25/09
*CCI and Catholic Charities were able to communicate today and add the missing information to our homestudy and everything is approved! 8/25/09
*Melissa approved our homestudy 8/09
*Cynthia was able to get our changes made to the homestudy quickly. 8/16/09
*We recieved our fingerprinting appointment sooner than we expected and Jason was able to get approval for getting off of work for our fingerprinting appointment in MN plus we have a babysitter! 8/13/09
*Our last homestudy meeting went well! Answered prayer 8/13/09

october 29, 2009--11:58

She sleeps now. I think she got a little worn out this morning, though she still looks good. I think she is excited to go home, but we will need to keep her sitting and resting when we are there. Thankfully, Pam will be there to manage the ins and outs.

Jason

October 22, 2009-10:02

Heather washed her hair and feels so much better. Pam, Laurel, Grace, and Ian are here at the hospital with me. Roman and Lisa are next door. Party time!

October 22, 2009--830 AM

Heather's going home today. Pain is still great. She is eating breakfast, though her omelette was greasy. She wants her hair washed.

Jason

I am at the hospital. Roman's here. He actually spent the night next door with a client. So we are all visiting. Heather said she is feeling well and still not much pain secondary to Tordol and not nauseous secondary to Zofran. We are still waiting for the surgeon to come in and talk.

Later, Ian and Grace will be in. Heather said she will be up for visitors.

Much love,
Jason and Heather

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S-KdxH848I

October 22, 2009--5:59

Heather tried instant messaging me in the middle of the night. I was asleep; she wasn't, claiming a good nap. I am going to the hospital this morning hopefully to catch Dr Pitchford and get an update on what her status is, and so forth.

I also didn't eat all of the cookies Nikki sent or the bars that Sandy sent. Praise God for restraint!

October 21, 2009-8:30 PM

Well, we are home from the hospital. Heather should sleep well tonight. When we had left, her pain was still 1/10 and she'd had no pain meds. She is taking some this evening, probably to help with her sleep.

With much encouragement, she also got up with the intention to walk to the door of her room and back. She walked to the end of the hall, then the other end, then back again. We couldn't get her back in her room.

We met a nurse, Kathryn, who is friends with our dear friend Gen. It is interesting to make these connections with people.

We'll continue to pray for healing, trusting God that He knows exactly what He is doing!

October 21, 2009-6:15PM

Grace is here now along with Pam and I. She brought along the fake boobie she made out of alphabet noodles. So that has led to a conversation about fake boobs. Heather is about to fall asleep--but we need her to get up and walk and for her to pee.

Ian apparently wants stickers out of this deal.

Will keep you posted.

Keep speaking upward.

10/21/09--5:24PM

She is really tired, but pretty lucid. Heather's mom is here now too. They are going to get her up and walk her around in a little bit, which should wipe her out, but she is a real trooper. No Connie cake yet, but she has had grape juice.

October 21, 2009-4:13 PM

I am sitting next to Heather. She is conversing with me, but is a bit loopy and very tired. She is slowly sitting up because she needs to be sitting up before she is allowed to drink anything. She isn't allowed to eat anything tonight, but she can have water and later fruit juice. I am sure she wishes for some Connie cake, but she will have to wait for tomorrow.

Please pray for comfort as the fog lifts. Pray for our kids as they are with their grandparents at our house. I asked her about visitors and she said, "let's just see" so we will keep you posted.

Peace and love,
Jason and Heather

October 21, 2009--2:35 PM

Heather's out of surgery. As I mentioned, the surgeon did dissect the lymph nodes and he is pretty sure at least some of them are affected, but we probably won't know until next week how many. He said that one he found was large and quite hard, which is a good indication that there is cancer in it.

So please keep praying for Heather for healing. God works in miracles not odds, so lift her up please. I will post more once I meet with her.

Jason

October 21, 2009-10:21

Heather has been in surgery for about 1 hour. I just got a call from the OR nurse and they are going to remove her lymph nodes because the sentinel node biopsy injection didn't take up into the lymph nodes. Therefore, they are taking them all and will send them to pathology. She should be in surgery for about another hour, but things are going well so far.