T-Shirt Update

Thank you SO much to all of you who have ordered t-shirts for you and/or your family.  We are SO close to our first goal!  We cannot wait to start wearing them and showing the Lewis family how much we love and support them!    We also hope that we can all wear these shirts to the benefit on October 26th.  (more info to come soon)

If you have had any trouble ordering through Paypal, need a size that is not listed, or you would rather send your check to the Lewis Household, please email us your order here.   If you would like to order through Paypal, you can follow the link on the top right of the page.

Week 2 of radiation is over, and we cannot tell you how much every aspect of your support is appreciated.  In our "rougher" times, the support and love you have all shown is really lifting us up.  We will soon be posting an update of how week two went!

THANK YOU ALL AGAIN!

*Many of you have asked how they can help support the Lewis family.  Here is a list of ideas.  Thank you SO much in advance for your encouragement and love.

Team William Shirts!!!!

INTRODUCING...TEAM WILLIAM SHIRTS!!!!!!!!

We are so excited to start our new fundraiser for Team William and continue to support the Lewis family during their journey!  We hope that you will purchase a shirt for you and your loved ones and  support William by wearing these shirts on important days along his journey.  We would love for you to embrace the spirit and take pictures of you and your friends and family wearing the shirts and either email them to Willliam or post on our Facebook page to show your support.  There is a link on the sidebar where you can preorder your shirt through Paypal.  Once we get 40 adult and 40 youth/toddler shirts, we will place our first order.  Once we get the shirts, we can either ship them to you (at a $3 per shirt fee) or you can pick them up at various Houston / DFW locations.  When we get closer to pickup time, we will be sending you an email with all of your pickup dates and locations.   We hope we can get our first preorder soon and start wearing our support for William!

*If you choose not to pay for your shirts through Paypal, you can email your shirt sizes here and we will send you the address to mail your check.  THANK YOU!!!

*Many of you have asked how they can help support the Lewis family.  Here is a list of ideas.  Thank you SO much in advance for your encouragement and love.

Week 1 Complete

We are ecstatic that the first week of radiation and chemo is complete.  So far, William has done marvelous.  Overall, his only side effects are that he is a little more tired (requiring him to sleep a bit more) and has had one day of nausea. I am so proud of my husband!  He is amazing!  I know I could not be going through what he is with as much poise and grace.  I am so thankful for the man I married!  He is and always will be a positive force to be reckoned with. Cancer, you don’t stand a chance!   

 We have been praying a lot as a family.  We say prayers to God to help, “Heal Daddy” and to keep him strong for his “treatments.”   We then say the Lord’s Prayer: “The Our Father.”  Abigail at the age of 4 can now recite the whole prayer by herself.  We are proud of her and are so blessed every day by our girls. 

You may have noticed through our Facebook Team William site that the pictures for the last two days have only been of our “supergirl” and “batgirl” Audrey.  Big sister Abigail has traveled to Pennsylvania to spend some time with her aunt.  This was a little hard for us as a family because this was supposed to be our family vacation, and this was going to be William’s first time to go to HersheyPark with Abigail, who loves roller coasters, like her mommy and daddy.   After William’s diagnosis, we were no longer able to travel due to his current treatments, so we let Abigail go with my parents to have some fun and the rest of us stayed behind to take care of Daddy.  We did try to see if we could shorten our trip, so we could be together as a family, but we were unable to afford to change the tickets (and the airline wouldn't work with us), so we stayed behind and let her go.   Abigail called us tonight to wish us a good night before bed.  She had seen a play today with my family and it was about Noah and the Ark.  She said Noah was looking at the sky talking to God.  She leaned over during the play and told my sister, “I think Noah was talking to God asking him to make Daddy better.”  Such a sweet and loving child. 

The last few days William and I have stayed up at night and talked a lot about things.  It has been good how in a strange way this diagnosis has only strengthened our marriage more.   It has made us refocus on spending more time each day talking to each other and telling each other how we feel.  I only wish now I could rewind and just have done this everyday with him since our wedding day.   I am not perfect and I know that, but I am sure trying to be better about it now. 

I want to again thank everyone for all their prayers and support for Team William.  We are so blessed by each and every one of you whether we know you personally or not.   Thank you for believing in my husband and this fight.  We got this and we will beat this cancer despite any statistics.  Celebration for the week: 1 week of radiation down!!!!!

Pictures below are of Audrey and Daddy in their Superman and Batman gear.  We are bringing in all the “fighters” we can to help BEAT CANCER!  We are trying to keep spirits up for William with these shirts and outfits (corny maybe, but fun). 

Again this journey is just the beginning….

*Many of you have asked how they can help support the Lewis family.  Here is a list of ideas.  Thank you SO much in advance for your encouragement and love.

Specific Prayers:

-Pray that William will continue to have minimal side effects from the radiation and chemo and continue to handle this fight with the grace and poise he has been.

-Pray for blessings to those who struggle with all types of cancer as we know each of us has been touched by someone close to us that has suffered with this diagnosis. 

-Pray for more opportunities to go on family vacations again in the near future.

My Hero (Audrey in training and learning from the best!)

Sweet Audrey learning the ropes as a super hero in training

Supporting My Daddy

Sweet

  

Our Champion

One of Daddy's Biggest Supporters

One Day Down...

Last night,  William started his first day of Chemotherapy.  He was nervous about taking his first Chemo pill and felt that it made it more "real" that all of this was happening.   Last night, prior to William coming home to start Chemo, we prayed with a group of friends and family (our immediate family, William's parents and two brothers, Michael and Andrew, Brad and Kate Little and their daughter Caroline).  William did great with no problems or side effects thus far.  His Chemo is every day for 6 weeks, so we have 40 days to go after tonight.  Radiation was a little more intimidating for him.  Prior to his treatment, his blood pressure was elevated due to nerves.  However, he went in like a champ and came out having done great!  We are going to kick this cancer to the curb and fight like heck doing it.  Today, to show our family support and unity,  we all wore Super Man shirts.  Even Audrey wore a shirt to match!  Everyone at MD Anderson's clinic thought it was great :).  First day down of chemo and radiation!  We got this!  With all the love and support from everyone, we feel more strength to trust God.  We know a miracle is possible and William is in Good Hands.    We know that this is a journey for our family and this is just the beginning.  We hope you all will stay along and ride this one out for William and our family.  Thank you. I know we are off to a fantastic start!

Below is a little acronym I found in a book and thought I would share with you all.   

Radiance
And
Delight
In
A
Time of
Inner and
Outer
Necessity

by Sandy

Create positive acronyms (from the book, You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought)

*Many of you have asked how they can help support the Lewis family.  Here is a list of ideas.  Thank you SO much in advance for your encouragement and love.

Specific Prayers:

-For continued strength for William through the first week and for weeks to come

-For Eda as she goes back to work and tries to juggle everything

Thank You for Your Blessings!

I wanted to let everyone know who is following us on the blog and on the "Team William" facebook site how much it means to William and me.  We feel blessed and lucky to have such a united team praying and supporting us through this obstacle.  We are going to do everything we can to fight this.  We know that we are stronger due to each and everyone's support and prayers.  God determines all things and we are not giving up.  Thank you for the hope and love you each have shown.  I met my friend, Charlotte, this morning at Starbucks and told her that I could not believe how many people as of this morning had heard about the blog and were reading it.  It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I knew I didn't have to do this alone and more importantly William and my girls do not either.  Thank you!  Thank you for sharing some of the load.  Thank you for the emails we received today with the encouraging words and to some of my old friends who have reached out to me sending me letters in the mail.  Means a lot to see people that I had lost touch with as well as some that we don't even know reaching out to us through personal cards.

The Lewis Family is blessed!

*Many of you have asked how they can help support the Lewis family.  Here is a list of ideas.  Thank you SO much in advance for your encouragement and love.

Specific Prayers:
-Please pray for William as he prepares for his chemo and radiation that will begin on Monday.  Pray that he stays strong and experiences little fatigue. 

Daddy and Abigail Having a

 Moment to Just Dance

Hard....

Tonight William and I sat down with Abigail to discuss the emotion bracelets that we received through MD Anderson today  to help her express her feelings about things.  Tonight it hurt my heart to see that Abigail knows Daddy is very sick and is sad.  She put on the worry bracelet and the angry one.  She cried tonight and also was a little scared to be around him in fear of hurting him.  This made William upset as well.... He loves his little girl to pieces.  This is so hard for all of us to see how cancer is affecting our family.  This tumor may have been in him, but I know God has the ability to work miracles and I know my husband is deserving of it.  I will continue to stay vigilant in prayer and have faith that God can do all things.  I know that when we are weak... He is Strong.  So I know WE are strong as long as we have God.  We have God in the Lewis household, so this will be okay.

*Many of you have asked how they can help support the Lewis family.  Here is a list of ideas.  Thank you SO much in advance for your encouragement and love.

Prayer Requests
-Continued prayers for William's healing
-Prayers for Abigail as she begins to process her feelings

Prior to Treatments

The last couple of days, William and I have been meeting with the doctors to prepare for radiation and chemo therapy that will be going on for the next 6 weeks.   Yesterday, when we met with the neuro radiologist, she discussed the precautions and said he will likely have side effects of fatigue, hair loss, and inflammation of the brain with radiation.   He will also be on an antibiotic and zofran for nausea and prevention of infection.  Weekly, he will have blood draws to check his platelets and white blood cell counts.   We are praying that the chemo and radiation will keep the remaining tumor from growing.  If no growth, a higher level of chemo will begin for 1 year with MRIs every 2 months.   Today, I went to pick up William's prescription at the pharmacy, and the charge was $3,450.  This was in addition to the other copays, parking fees, and other cost of medications.  Though we are grateful for having health insurance, it's overwhelming to think of all of these costs added up.

Today was just hard all around.  To add to the stress, our youngest daughter was sick with what we thought was an ear infection. We were stuck at MD Anderson today so couldn't get her to the doctor.  It is hard to not be able to be the best caregiver to my husband and my child.  Thankfully, William's uncle made a house call and was able to look at Audrey at our house.  God always provides...even in the hardest times.

*Many of you have asked how they can help support the Lewis family.  Here is a list of ideas.  Thank you SO much in advance for your encouragement and love.

Prayer Requests
-Prayers for continued faith that God will not let this tumor grow during these next two months
-Prayers for financial peace

At MD Anderson

Brain Conference

Over the weekend, we attended a brain tumor conference in Houston that MD Anderson offers once every 2 years.  It was a bit of information overload.   We struggled to listen to everyone be excited about survival of greater than 2 years.  They talked about the "new normal" we were now going to discover.  William doesn't like this new normal and for sure I don't either.  It is hard to swallow that people are excited about that kind of life expectancy.  We are going to fight to beat this as hard as we can.  This journey is just beginning.

At the conference, William was able to express a few of his fears.  Fears that Abigail won't remember all the good times and that Audrey will not know her daddy at all.  He feels that both girls are not old enough to instill so many things he desires to teach them.  This upsets him, but he is not giving up.  He will beat the odds. 

*Many of you have asked how they can help support the Lewis family.  Here is a list of ideas.  Thank you SO much in advance for your encouragement and love.

Prayer Requests
--Prayers that God will give William peace in knowing his children will know and remember him

MD Anderson

Today, we went to MD Anderson to meet with our neurosurgeon, Dr. Sawaya. He was pleased with William's healing and said that he believed that they got about 90% of the tumor.  We then met with Dr. Mark Gilbert, a neuro oncologist, who informed of us of the poor average prognosis, but he felt that we had some hope because of William's age, the position of the tumor, and the fact that the surgeon had gotten 90%.  Assuming the remaining tumor responds to the chemo and radiation, they are hopeful that he will have a life expectancy beyond the average.  While this was a more "hopeful" diagnosis, it is still devastating, especially with little ones at home.  His tumor is aggressive in nature and therefore, he will be treated with chemo and radiation for 6 weeks everyday, and then he will have 1 month off and get another MRI.  If the tumor does not grow, he will continue with chemo for 1 full year with scans every 2 months to see if there is any new growth.  There is a good chance that the tumor can reoccur, and if it does, the prognosis isn't great.  The plan now is to start chemo and radiation on August 19th.

If anyone would have told William or Eda before July 23rd that he only had a few years to live, he would have said that it was crazy.  Now, they are committed to fight the fight for his life.  Eda is trying her best between being a caregiver to William and the girls, working, and taking care of the house.  She truly appreciates all of the encouraging words, support through Lotsa Hands, and all the other ways that people have shown support.  Please continue to lift them up in prayers!

*Many of you have asked how they can help support the Lewis family.  Here is a list of ideas.  Thank you SO much in advance for your encouragement and love.

Prayer Requests

-For William- that he continues to heal and recover well from his brain surgery

-For William and his spirits- that he tries to stay positive 

-For Eda- that she can handle all the demands and be forgiving of herself when she can't do it all

-For Team William- that we will all know how to support their family in the best ways