Proudmom

The initial look at Tucker's bone marrow test looked clear...Praise God!! While they did the bone marrow test they did the biopsy and put in his port. All the results should be in Friday or Monday at the latest. He got his crutches yesterday too..Our youth group went "praise caroling" (instead of Christmas caroling)last night & Tucker was our first stop. He was tired but that didn't stop his face from lighting up and smiling. It was so awesome to see kids from 3 to 14 singing "Jesus Love You (the kids wanted to change it from me to you) to their friends. Tucker was so happy to see his buddies. After that we made a couple more stops to children that have been battling the flu. Please visit Tucker's web page and sign it for him. He and his mom read this together everyday....
GOD BLESS!!!

Update on Tucker...He and his parents meet with their team of doctors yesterday. Tucker now has osteogenic sarcoma cancer. This amazing little boy has a fight for his life ahead of him. He will endure 40 weeks of chemo. The first ten are going to be the worst. Just some of the side effects from two of the drugs in this first series are frightening. I'm a mother of a 13 yr old boy and he is friends with this little guy. I can't imagine what Tucker's mom is going through but she inspires me as does Tucker. Now that there is a plan they now have to run other test to make sure Tucker will be able to withstand the treatments. Chemo will probably start towards the end of this week. Now that we know what he is in for we can be more specific with our prayers. Please pray that Tucker will not have to endure the side effects of these drugs. Pray that his parents continue to let God work through them and continue to let him be in control.

My son has started a "Basket of Smiles" with all of Tucker's buddies at the Church At Ross Station. We are collection donations of hats/caps, small electronic games, arts and crafts supplies, books, rolled coins for vending machines, videos, video games (just anything that Tucker can do to pass the time in the hospital when he is up for it of course. If you like you can mail any donations to our church. Just label it Basket of Smiles. Also check out our church web page for up coming golf and fishing tournaments to raise money for Tucker. www.rossstation.org.
Keep lifting the Beam's up in prayer.

Here is a copy of a journal enry made to Tucker's web page from his mom on Sunday 24th. Through all of this they are worried about us! Please visit his site.

Our meeting today with Dr. Watts went really well. We got to spend about 2 hours with him. For any of you who have been to the clinic before, you know that the dr’s time is stretched to the limit. Today was a blessing to have some uninterrupted time with him. Thank you Dr. Watts.

He went into much more detail about the cancer, and then we spent most of the time talking about the treatment. Tucker’s treatment will be both chemotherapy and local control(radiation or surgery). As far as the local control, radiation is not likely because he has already had a large amount of radiation to the area. The more likely choice will be surgery. At this point, we don’t know what that will involve. The chemo will consist of 5 drugs over a 40 week period. During his treatment for Rhabdo, he did not receive any of the chemo drugs that he will be getting. Dr. Watts says that is a good thing because his little body will not have built up immunity to them. Praise God for that. For the first 10 weeks Tuck will receive 3 different drugs. All chemo drugs are hard, but 2 of these are really tough. These 2 have some serious side effects that are possible. Please pray that Tucker will not have to deal with any of those possibilities. After 10 weeks he will have surgery, followed by 30 more weeks of chemo. All of our chemo will be inpatient, but for the first 10 weeks, we will only be scheduled for 2-3 day stays. During the weeks followi

Well, we got to see little Tucker last night at Bible Study. We attend a new plant church and we currently have our youth Bible studies at our pastor's home. We had 40+ kids last night. Can I just say CHAOS!!! After we finished class we were getting ready to close out with prayer when Tucker raised his hand. He proceeded to tell us what he would go through today. Tucker started his chemo today. He then asked all of us to pray for him that the iv wouldn't hurt and that the medicine would work. As a mother my heart felt his fear. But what really brought me to tears was to see all of these kids from 2-13 surround Tucker and then to hear a seven yr old boy ask if he could say the prayer. That little guy said the sweetest and loving prayer for his friend. Tucker told us that his favorite Bible verse is Joshua 1:9 and asked everyone to pray that for him. This little boy is amazing and inspiring. Tucker, GOD loves you and will carry you through this journey and give a testimony to tell. Please check out his site and sign it. Let him know you are praying for him.

Well, Tucker has been through alot since I blogged last. He has had some sickness from the chemo which was expected. His red blood cells are holding pretty good but his white cells (immune fighters) are nearly non existent. Tucker ran a fever over the weekend and had to be admitted back to Children's. He hasn't been able to have any contact with anyone except mom, dad & the medical staff. If you knew Tucker that is tough for him. He is such an outgoing and active little boy. I'm sure Tucker was very upset about missing the church Easter Egg Hunt this weekend. But we have some great kids that hunted the eggs and then gave them to their Sunday school teachers to be taken to Tucker when he is feeling better. Our church (The Church at Ross Station) has organized a Golf Tournament for March 24th (Monday) & a fishing tournament to help raise funds for Tucker's family and his care. There is also plans in the work for a blood drive fro Tucker as he will need many transfusions. He is A+. We are in need of sponsors for the tournaments. Please check out our church website for more info (www.rossstation.org). Also please check & sign Tucker's caring bridge page.

Tucker had a good week last week. He's hair started to fall out so he went ahead and shaved it. Our pastor and his two sons didn't want him to come to church bald alone so they buzzed their heads too. My son is planning on doing it too as soon as he gets back from visiting his grandmother. I just love our church family. We come together for each other and love each other so much...I've never been a part of such a loving church. And there is so much focus on our children. After all they are our future. Back to Tucker, he and his family are taking off to the beach for a few days. He starts his second round of chemo this week. Tucker is a great kid and God is going to do amazing things with him. Just keep praying for him as he gets ready for chemo again and that he does not get any infections. Thank you!!! Stay strong Tucker-man!!! Love you and your family!!!

We really missed Tucker and his mom, Courtney, at church on Easter. They were definitely there in our hearts and thoughts. His dad and little sis were there. This family is such an inspiration...After church my son was ready to shave his head for Tucker. The golf scramble for Tucker is going on right now. God is truly listening to all of our prayers. Last count we had raised nearly $14,000 for Tucker and his family. With his mom out of work this going to be a huge blessing for them. We still have the fishing tournament to go. Just to give you an idea of medical expenses one of Tucker medicines he has to take is shots. The small vile of medicine is $4000 a vile. This medicine helps build up his white blood cells. There are so many kids living with this disease it just makes me feel like I should be doing more as a sister in Christ for these families. I do what I can and then I'm praying several times a day for Tucker and others like him. Pray that this disease can be cured!!!!