Surgery

Normally I would be posting about chemo today, but this is Leanne's week off! Instead of chemo, Leanne got a much needed massage.

The Care Team met on Monday to discuss Leanne's plan for surgery. Her surgery is scheduled for May 29th. She will have chemo on May 3rd and 10th  as long as her counts are high enough. At this point, radiation is planned for after surgery. Leanne will not be able to have reconstruction until after radiation is complete. They want to give her some time to heal and get radiation in without trying to stretch the skin too quickly.

As far as surgery goes, the surgeon will have to take some skin in order to get clean margins. (Meaning the surgeon wants to get all of the cancerous tissue in that breast) 48 hours after surgery the final pathology report will come back. If the margins are not clean enough, they might have to go back into surgery again. Once the surgeon has clean margins, if the skin does not close they will have to use a flap of skin from her back to close.

So, as you can tell, lots of changes are in store for Leanne. Please keep praying for her. Here are some specific requests from Leanne:

• That the surgeon would be able to close without any trouble after removing enough skin to get clean margins
• Pathology reports come back with clean margins
• Counts stay up for two more chemo treatments before surgery
• Freedom from fear and anxiety in the coming weeks
• Guidance for the doctor's hands.
• Leo to sleep through the night.

Baby shower

Leanne's friends at her school in Alexandria had a baby shower for Leanne and Leo this week. So, Leanne, Fran, and Leo headed up north to celebrate!

Leanne, Ryan, and Leo were blessed with lots of great gifts!

  

Amy enjoyed her snuggle time with Leo :)

  

And Leanne enjoyed getting to spend time her friends.

  

Thanks for taking the time to celebrate Leanne and Leo!

Round 2: #9

Today was not just any old Thursday, it was a chemo Thursday filled with lots of appointments. At 8:05 Leanne, Ryan, Chris, and Fran headed down to Dr. Bloom's office for the first appointment of the day. Dr. Bloom continues to be pleased with the results of the chemo and gave the OK on his part for surgery to happen when the surgeon determines. Praise the Lord the tumor has shrunk enough for surgery to be a possibility right now. God is so good!

Next, it was chemo time! Holly was Leanne's chemo nurse today.

 

 Leanne is so thankful for nurses like Beth and Holly for taking such good care of her. Fran and Ryan were the chemo buddies for today! Mary was the lucky lady who got to spend the day with Leo. Thanks Mary!

 

Miss Mollie and I were some of the lucky ones who got to Skype with Leanne.

 

Mollie loves her Skype time with Auntie Leanne. As soon as she hears Auntie Leanne's voice, she immediately begins signing "please" for her to start singing. And Auntie Leanne never disappoints!

  

I know for certain that every member of TEAM CHIN is so thankful for the gift of technology!

Then, it was time for Leanne's appointment with Dr. Johnson, the surgeon. He also gave the OK for surgery to happen. (Praise the Lord again!!) All we know at this point, is that surgery will be in about 6 weeks. Dr. Bloom and Dr. Johnson are meeting on Monday with the care team to discuss whether or not Leanne will have chemo in the 6 weeks leading up to surgery. I will post an update when we know more about their plan for Leanne's treatment.

We are so thankful for your continued prayers!!! Please keep them coming! Here are some specific requests:

• Pray for wisdom for the doctors as they meet on Monday and continue to make decisions regarding the plan for Leanne's treatment
• Pray for Leanne and Ryan to continue to have peace about the plan of treatment, whatever it may be
• Pray for Leanne, Ryan, and their families to ultimately trust God's plan for the Miller's
• Pray for Leo to continue to sleep longer at night. He has been sleeping great the past few nights! Thanks for your prayers!

Check back tomorrow for pictures of a baby shower for Leanne and Leo!

Faithful Warriors,

Thank you so much for partnering with us in prayer!  I can truly feel your prayers and the peace that can only come from God wrap around me. Would you please partner with us in lifting up the J family today.
Woodland School lost one of our own last night.  Judy J went home to be with Jesus after her own courageous battle with cancer.  Please lift up her family.  Her husband is Bill and they have three kids (similar ages to myself and my two sisters).  Please pray that they find peace in knowing that Judy is no longer in pain and that she is a part of the biggest party!
Right after I found out last night Ryan and I were talking and praying for the J family and it started to thunder.  I am not a big fan of storms at all but Ryan and I were rejoicing in the fact that Judy was having the time of her life with JESUS!!!

I leave you with the words of another favorite song.
When I don't understand I get to choose you, when I don't understand I get to choose to love you god. . . And you are good God, and you are good to me.   (I Breathe You In God- Brian and Katie Torwalt)

from Leanne:

Taken from Leanne's blog:

My heart is light tonight. I am continually amazed at the love and support of people!  I cannot tell you how many people have shared the link about the honorary batgirl contest.  People from all different times in my life, people that I talk to regularly and others that I have not talked to in years and others whom I only know by association.  Whether or not I win is not the point, the point is that I feel sooooo loved to know that people care enough to want to share.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart to each person that has shared the link or voted.  I am truly humbled by your support of me as I walk what has been the toughest journey of my life.  Knowing that you are behind me gives me confidence and energy to continue walking each day at a point in my journey when it is easy to get frustrated and tired and want to quit.
I am also constantly amazed at how God provides opportunities to remind me of his love.  The sunshine, a smile from a stranger, a song I love on the radio, a parking spot near the door on a day when I am tired.  Each week as we leave the Gathering at church I reflect that the music was just what I needed to hear.  You see, I LOVE the music part of worship and find comfort in songs because they remind me of the promises of God.  Tonight was no different.  We sang two of my FAVORITE songs tonight and as I head into another week and the beginning of another three week round of chemo I leave you with the promises of those songs. . .

Your love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me.  And I never, ever have to be afraid, one thing remains. . . (One Thing Remains- Jesus Culture)

I will bring praise, I will bring praise, no weapon formed against me still remains, I will rejoice, I will declare, God is my victory and he is here.  All of my life, in every season, you are still God, I have a reason to sing, I have a reason to worship. . . (Desert Song-Hillsong)

Round 2: #8

The cutest, little red-head was one of Leanne's chemo buddies today! (Isn't he getting to be quite the chunker!)

Grammie Fran was also there to help keep Leanne and Leo company. The nurses were pretty excited to see this little guy! And Leanne too :)

Dr. Bloom (her oncologist) saw Leanne today and continues to be pleased with the results of the chemo! Praise the Lord! Please keep praying for Leanne in the following ways:

• Wisdom for Dr. Bloom and Dr. Johnson (her surgeon) as they meet with Leanne next Thursday to discuss the next steps of her treatment plan
• Peace for Leanne, Ryan, and their families as they trust in God's sovereign plan for Leanne's treatment
•  That the medicine would continue to effectively shrink the tumor
• Leo to keep sleeping longer and longer each night!

Care Calendar Update

Some of you may have noticed the Care Calendar set up for Leanne and Ryan has no open dates. While I know so many of you have been faithful to help in so many ways, no openings is a good thing for the time being!

Leanne and Ryan feel like they are in a good routine right now and are able to take over the responsibilities from the Care Calendar.

However, with surgery sometime in the future, Leanne and Ryan will need your help once again. So, enjoy the time off and I will let you know when TEAM CHIN needs your help in this way again.

Round 2: #7

Leanne had some very special friends go to chemo with her yesterday!

 Amy and Patti (two of her teacher friends from Alex) joined her yesterday! Thanks for spending your personal day with Leanne :) She was so thankful you were both there with her. And thanks to Auntie Aimee for watching Leo!

Leanne saw Dr. Bloom in the hallway and he continues to be very excited about the results of the chemo treatments. What great news! We are so thankful that God is allowing this medicine to keep working.

Please keep praying ...

• Pray the chemo would continue to shrink the tumor
• Pray for wisdom for Dr. Bloom as he makes treatment decisions
• Pray for peace and contentment for Leanne as she trusts God's plan
• Pray for God to continue to show himself faithful to Ryan, Leanne, and their families
• Pray for Leo to continue to sleep longer at night :)

Happy Easter to our TEAM CHIN friends! May you rejoice in the power of Jesus' death and resurrection like never before this Easter.

Fundraiser!

As many of you know, Leanne is a 5th grade teacher at Woodland Elementary in Alexandria, MN. However, due to the place God has them in life, Leanne took the remainder of this school year off to focus on beating cancer and taking care of precious Leo.

Even though she is not there day to day, her school has certainly not forgot about her. The students organized a fundraiser this year and wanted to donate the proceeds to the American Cancer Society in honor of Leanne and another teacher at her school who has also battled cancer.

So yesterday Leanne and Aimee headed north to Alexandria for the presentation of the check to the American Cancer Society.

Here are all the sweet kids gathered for the assembly. Look at all that pink! (the kids wore pink and yellow to honor Mrs. Miller and Mrs. J.)

One of Leanne's best teacher friends, Amy, helped with the assembly. Here she is with the three students who also organized the fundraiser.

Leanne got a chance to speak for a few minutes and was presented with a medal from the American Cancer Society acknowledging her fight against cancer.

Here is Leanne with two of her former students who helped organize the fundraiser.

Leanne and Amy

Leanne's class made these awesome signs for her!

Leanne was able to spend some time with her students! I don't know who was more excited, Leanne or the students.

Thank you Woodland Elementary!

Vote for Leanne!

Thanks to the MLB for celebrating all the women who have faced breast cancer in their lives! They are going to honor one woman at each team's Mother's Day home game. That woman will be the honorary bat girl. So this is where you come in! We need your votes!!!!

If you are on Facebook, you have probably already seen this on Leanne's page, But just in case you have not seen it yet, please click on the "Vote for Leanne" link below and it will take you to her voting page. Click on her picture and then click on the read button at the top of her picture. Once you get to her personal page, scroll down and you will find where to vote!

Vote for Leanne!

I have figured out you can vote more than one time from each computer, so copy the link to your favorites and vote as many times as you want :) Please feel free to pass this on!

Voting ends April 5th!