Horn Family Updates

Update #24 - May 3, 2012

Hi prayer warriors,

I thank God for all of you daily.  When I don't know what to pray for, or don't feel like praying, I know you are praying for me and God is listening to our prayers.  You are helping get me through the tough days and also keep me having great days, too.  I have had both types of days over the past few weeks.  In fact, I experienced extremes of both this week. The new diet, supplements and exercise gave me some of my best days yet, then post-chemo I have had some of the worst days.  Please pray that I feel up to taking my supplements and doing my exercise and diet so I can have a better chance of feeling good.  I started Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy this week and I will say it is a bit weird.  I think it is a good therapy and am hopeful that it will provide pain relief and even possibly help me to beat this cancer faster.

I met with a surgeon this week who will be doing a Colostomy on Friday. He will try to do it laparoscopic, if possible, since my body has a hard time healing due to chemo.  Pray for this surgery to go smooth and for me to heal quickly and for it to provide relief for me.  This will be my first real surgery in my life.  Pray that I will remain at peace and not get nervous about it.  I will likely remain in the hospital for a few days following the surgery.  The surgery will be done at Providence Hospital in Waco at 11 am Friday morning.

I feel your prayers and am so thankful for them.  Please pray for my sweet children.  I think Braden (the oldest, almost four) is having a rough week, as we believe he is starting to be affected by my sick days.  It breaks our hearts to see him struggling.  We remain positive around here, but he sees me not feeling well.  Pray for me to feel better really soon and to be cancer free.  Also, pray for my body to remain healthy enough to continue the treatments I need to beat this.  I had a borderline white blood cell count for the first time this past chemo week.  My counts have to be good enough for me to get treatment and I am now nine months in so it is starting to be more difficult for my body to remain strong.

I am so thankful for the nine months I have survived cancer so far and am praying for many, many more years and to survive without having to fight so hard.  Thank you for praying for me and for believing in a miracle for me.

Love, Wren

Update #23 - April 18, 2012

Hi prayer warriors,

I have to start with thank you so much for continuing to pray for me and my family.  Please keep believing in my miracle of being cancer free so I can take care of my family and enjoy a future on this earth.  God has been so good to us and will continue to love us thru this.  

I am plugging along with my chemo treatments and will continue to.  Some weeks are good and some are not so good.  I decided to see a special doctor that is a nutritionist who specializes in cancer cells and making chemo patients feel better. This is a non insurance thing but I felt like it is a good decision to attempt to make me feel better more often so I can fight this better.  I loved the doctor and he is even a christian who believes in miracles and prays over his patients daily.  He spent a whole hour with us giving us so much information and it all made so much since so at the end I came home with a lot of supplements to help my body recover from the chemo and hopefully feel better. I am also on a low glycemic diet most days and completely cutting out all raw leafy veggies.   The day before chemo I will have a no carb day and on chemo days every 4 hours I eat one serving of something that will raise my blood sugar fast.  I am willing to try this because I figure since I am doing this strong chemo eating healthy can only help me as can the supplements.  There are special reasons for each thing and for the diet but I don't' want this update to be pages long.  :)  

This past week after my nutrition meeting which was in Austin we all stayed with my parents for the night while there.  I ended up really sick in a lot of pain so we stayed until Sunday when I felt up to making the trip home.  Still sick I contacted my gastro ( christian friend) on sunday asking to be seen on Monday and although it was a day off for him he got me in right away and ended up doing a stigmoidoscopy on Tuesday morning which found I have a large ulcer in my rectum right next to where the tumor was causing the severe pain.  My choices are limited in stopping the pain and removing the ulcer that was caused by radiation because of my need for chemo to stop the cancer.  My doctors talked with each other and did some research to figure out a plan for me and today, Wednesday, I had an appointment with a wound care specialist here in town that does a Hyperbariac  Oxygen Therapy that is an alternative therapy for many conditions including mine.  It happens to be my only choice right now so we are waiting on insurance approval then will start.  It will be a 2 hour treatment daily 5 days a week for 6 weeks but should help my body heal itself and stop the pain.  It sounds daunting but I continue to take things one day at a time and then I can handle it all better.  I am also desperate for this awful pain to go away as soon as possible.  I actually laughed with the doctor today because this pain was caused by the radiation therapy that I got in the first place to stop the pain I was having.  ha ha!  

Well that might have been a lot more information than some of you wanted but still not enough for others...  I want you all to know I continue to believe God is the ultimate healer and that He is sending me to all these specialists even though He is capable of healing me without any of this.  I thank God for each day I get to spend with my family and friends. Keep praying for and believing in my next miracle.  

Love, Wren

Update #22 - March 21, 2012

We saw Dr. Harris for my cat scan results this morning.  The largest spot on my lungs shrunk and all other spots on lungs stayed the same with no new growth.  Also there is no new cancer in abdomen, chest, or pelvis area. He said this is good news... not great because that would be all cancer gone... but this means the chemo is working because cancer is not growing.  This means chemo again Monday and every 14 days indefinitely with cat scans every 2 months.  I am still processing this.  I am hopeful that one of these scans will show the cancer completely gone.  I know that God is able to do this and I am not anxious about anything.  I do get tired from being on the chemo and weary that is will probably be a long time.  We found out about the cancer 9 months ago.  I am so blessed with a family and friends that are staying by my side through this.  I remember God's blessing when I look at Grace who survived chemo, and pain medicines and being born 2 months early... and is 7 months old now and doing great.  She is not even on premie charts anymore!  She is so healthy and happy.  I am able to play with the kids and spend time with Brian.  We have a helper "nanny" now that does everything I can't so I can focus on getting better.  Some sweet friends hired her for us and she has blessed our family greatly.  I am unable to do much for the first 5 days after I get chemo then I feel pretty great on non chemo weeks.  I thank God for every day I have to spend with my sweet family.  We also still have both of our mothers coming to help us.  Life is different with cancer but we have so much to be thankful for. Thank you all for continuing to pray for our family.  I believe in miracles and are praying for a big one... God to remove all cancer in my body while on this earth. 

Love, Wren

Update #21 - January 18, 2012

Hi friends,

Well due to a pulled muscle in my chest the doctor ordered a cat scan on my chest yesterday to make sure it was not a pulmonary embolism... which can happen during chemotherapy treatment.  There was no blood clot so we now know that it is just a muscle around my lungs.  The doctor saw Brian and I today to go over results of what the cancer in my lungs looks like now.  He gave us tough news that every spot of cancer in my lungs has grown significantly during the past two months while I was having radiation of my rectal tumor and a low dose of chemo.  This was not what we wanted to hear. What this means is my cancer is very aggressive and grows faster than 'normal' colon cancer.  So my month off to rest and recover is not going to happen.  My final radiation therapy is Tuesday the 24th and I will go straight into the aggressive chemo treatment I was on before that started to shrink the spots.  The treatments will be every 2 weeks with cat scans every two months until it shrinks the cancer away or stops works in which time we would have to switch treatments.  This fight is a marathon and I have to stay strong to be able to endure it.  God gives me the strength I need each day.  I am praying that this is the last of the bad news doctor visits for me... I want to start seeing significant shrinkage at each scan from here on out until it is completely out of my body.  I believe God can and will take this cancer completely out of my body so I can be here with my beautiful family.  I need all of my warriors to believe so for me too and to ask God for it each day. 

While today feels like a setback we remember that God is so much bigger than cancer.  This means no month off so vacation will look a little different for us.  Brian and I decided we still need the getaway to change our surroundings and enjoy spending a quiet restful week together so we have the energy we need to face this.  We will spend several days at a resort in the hill country the week after my first strong chemo.  We know I could be sick and tired but still feel we can enjoy the time with each other and it will be good for us.   Thank you all for continuing with us on this difficult journey. 

Father God thank you for sending so many to encourage and lift us up.  Please bless them for the time they spend praying for me and my family and for the gifts they continue to send to us.  Lord God thank you for the beautiful family you have blessed me with and for the sweet husband I am a lucky gal.  God I beg you to hear our prayers and for you to remove every spot of cancer from my body so I can spend more time on this earth taking care of my sweet family.       
I pray all these things in Jesus Christ's sweet name.  AMEN

Wren Horn