Kristi came home from the hospital late yesterday. She was very
excited to be home, having now spent the last three holidays,
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years at Western Wake. We are removing
Valentines Day from our calendar. She was able to receive Herceptin and
Navalbene (chemo) treatments before she left. Her lab work revealed that
platelets are up a bit and Bilirubin levels are almost back to
normal. We praise God for those positive numbers.

One of the blessings of being in the hospital during the holidays was
that Dr. Graham was able to spend a lot of time with Kristi which
allowed him to understand her case even better. We know that God
created the circumstances to allow Dr. Graham to be responsible for her
treatment. He has been fantastic. One of the best moments of her stay,
maybe of the 10 weeks since Zane was born, was a conversation between
Anne, Kristi and Dr. Graham late Tuesday night. When asked what the
improved numbers regarding the cancer cell count meant, Dr. Graham
explained that those numbers represent cancer cells per some unit of
blood. This measurement is based on cutting edge technology that he
uses. Her reduction from 421 to 6 means that her cancer is very
responsive to the chemo treatments she has received. The most powerful
thing that he said about that result is that he has a profound belief
that Kristi can live. He told them that he would not have said that if
he didn’t believe it.

You must know that we haven’t heard those words from anyone before
Tuesday nite. We have been praying for a God sized miracle and those
words let us know that God has been working in powerful ways through Dr.
Graham, his team and the medicine that God provided. We praise Him for
that gracious blessing of encouraging words and the good report on
treatment status. We know Kristi has a long way to go and that trials
will be ever present, but what a New Year’s gift to hear a positive
report!

We’d like to ask our friends to join in prayer for another young woman,
Sydney Gaylord, who delivered her third child on December 1 and was told
December 27 she has a brain tumor. Sydney is being treated at Duke and
awaiting results of a biopsy. We are touched by the similarities to
Kristi’s story and pray for the treatment of her disease, her recovery,
and her family. Her story is on Caringbridge.org if you care to learn
more about her. Thanks for praying for Syd.

Mike Winters