Dear Friends & Fans…
Thank you SO much for lifting our family up in prayer. We feel them!
This week has been a tough one for Jessie and our family. We had an MRI on Monday and by that afternoon we were told good and bad news. Good news was her two tumors were not growing…the bad news being she had “significant” swelling around her cerebellum (back of head) and frontal lobe. There was also some mild fluid build up, which is not good either. This truly has the doctors stumped. They thought her right facial paralysis was due to the tumors.
We made several trips to the doctors this week trying to figure out what was happening. Still nothing as of today. Thankfully the massive amounts of steroids and diamox have helped Jessie’s headaches go away, which means the swelling is dropping from the drugs. We are starting to tapper her off to see if the swelling returns…if it does, she will have a minor surgery to put a shunt in her 4th ventricle to let the fluid drain properly. As with any meds, there are side effects. These are causing Jessie to feel jittery at times and very sluggish at others. Her poor feet feel like they are burning all of the time. She truly isn’t acting like the sweet little girl we all know…hope the reduced drugs allow things to return.
As one week ends, we start another still praying for answers and complete healing. God has been faithful to keep her tumors down. Jessie has another round of chemo Tuesday…would appreciate your prayers for little pain and easy treatment. We are grateful to Aunt Kimmy and Uncle T for coming and sitting with Jessie. We are also grateful to Nana, Papa, Tanta and Bob for all of their weekly support. We have the most amazing family. Our friends have also been amazing too…calls, emails, texts, meals, etc…always there to help. We feel so loved!
This week also starts another month of fighting cancer. Yesterday we finished our 8th. It seems like it has been 8 years in many ways…but when we think back to the moment we heard…”I’m sorry. Your daughter has cancer”…it still is a very fresh impression. We are so thankful for all of your prayers, support and love. 8 months ago, Jessie was known at school and at swimming…now people from 37 countries and all 50 states pray for her and us. That is only by God’s grace.
Jessie still continues to stuff her JoyJars and send them to kids fighting cancer. We have had lots of local clubs, troops, schools and churches do JoyDrives (our version of a toy drive) to help us collect goodies. If you, your family, your school or your church want to do a JoyDrive…we can use them year around. Just email erik@negu.org.
Due to the amazing support, we will finish this year close to 3,000 JoyJars. We still need 47,000 more so Jessie’s Wish can be achieved. That’s what parents do…help their kids reach their goals. This one just will take God’s amazing blessings…we have no idea where the 1 million dollars will come from…50,000 kids x $20 per JoyJar…but we believe that when you love God and love people He blesses your efforts.
We are also very blessed to have such a committed team leading Jessie’s charity called The NEGU Foundation. This was started in Denver and was approved by the IRS as an official 501 c3 public charity in 2 weeks. That is a God thing! This great team allows us to focus on Jessie (and JT & Shaya), which is always our top priority. They are planning a great gala on January 21st to help Jessie’s Wish move forward. Hope you can make it. You can find out more at www.negugala.org.
Thanks again for your daily prayers, posts and encoruagements to Jessie. They truly keep her going in so many ways.
NEGU,
Erik & Stacey Rees
