Flashback to June 3, 2015: Telling the world...God's servants pick up our broken pieces.

The following are the Facebook posts Matt and I put up a few hours after the phone call from Dr. Strickland.


Katie's:
     Well, today my family received some pretty hard news to swallow. It has been confirmed that I am beginning a battle in breast cancer. Although all reports are not back, based on the results we do have, it looks to be stage 3 inflammatory breast cancer (further tests will confirm that). Don't google it bc it will scare you to death and I am here to reassure you I am not going anywhere!!! I'll know more tomorrow after my oncology appt @ 2:30, but it looks like chemo will start immediately, with surgery to follow after margins have shrunk. Rest assured, we are making sure baby Griffies will be fine through all treatments, and nothing will be done until we are given that reassurance. That being said, it's a very aggressive cancer and we cannot wait until delivery. I love you all and desperately need your prayers for me and my nugget as we begin this journey. More than anything, my God will be glorified because He has given me a peace of "I'm gonna be ok" that can only come from Him, and for that, I am blessed and thankful!!! Now, let's beat this cancer!!

Matt's:

     Katie was diagnosed today with Stage 2 breast cancer. We meet tomorrow with the oncologist to discuss chemo treatments. Katie was told that it is a very aggressive cancer but that it is a curable cancer. I'm sure it's going to be a tough road ahead but I'm confident that God is with us during this and every thing is going to be fine. I ask that you pray for our family, for Katie's healing, for baby Griffies' health, and for Bella. God is good, all the time and all the time, God is good!! Thanks!

My response in the wee early morning hours of June 4th:

     As I sit here unable to sleep, and read all these precious messages again and again, to say that I am completely humbled and in awe of God's love through you, His servants, is an understatement!! I am truly blown away by the number of precious souls that are covering my Heavenly Father's throne tonight on my behalf. I'm sure He's even a little blown away ;) I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being warriors for me. I ask that as this journey is just beginning and progressing, that you will keep those prayers going up every chance you get!! I have had a peace that I would beat this from the beginning of the possibility that it was even coming, but Satan uses fear in powerful ways and I need him to get behind me. I need to continue reading y'alls sweet messages and know that with all these prayers, there is just no way God could say no! I'm gonna continue loving my sweet hubby's "no worry" nature that sometimes drives me batty, I'm gonna keep that sweet secret my daughter gave me tonight as I was putting her to bed, and I am going to watch my second daughter be born and her life unfold before my eyes, and I am going to continue teaching other's about God through this battle!! Please join me in that faith friends!!!

To say that we were overwhelmed, in a good way, by all the love and support that began flooding our souls and picking up the newly broken pieces at this point, would be an understatement too great to explain!! We both grew up in the church, but neither of us have ever been through a situation quite like this before, and so the love of His people that was poured out on us in such beautiful ways, was truly awe inspiring and brought tears to our eyes daily! God is so very good guys, ALL the time, and we thank you for choosing to walk this weary road with us!! We are truly honored to have you come along :) We also realized at this point, we had a choice. We could either focus on the good and see that if we trusted in Him through this trial, He would win souls for His Kingdom through our toughest of days, and hopefully bring my body back to complete healing, OR, we could sit back and focus on how much it all really sucked, and make this journey much harder than it naturally already was to be. Thankfully, through the sweet words of our friends and family, God showed us we had the strength and peace to choose the first option, and we decided to lean on Him and get ready for the bumpy road ahead, knowing we would be carried by His hands. We began clinging to each other and His promise of "You're gonna be OK. Trust me." Just because we chose Him though, did not stop the crazy from beginning ;) 

#Godiswritingmystory 

Ripping Band Aids: Compression Wrap

I am SO flipping tired of this compression wrap around my chest!!
"Leave it on as much as you can," she says!! 

Well you know what....there are moments in any cancer journey where you feel as though something is squeezing you so tight that you are unable to breathe, and it just becomes too much sometimes! So out of panic, you often just kinda rip it off like a bandaid, even if for just a moment, to get some sweet relief from whatever it is. Well tonight, I got tired of literally not breathing and ripped this bad boy off!!!

Ahhh, freedom.

No worries, it went back on in about 45 minutes ;)

Relay for Life Kick-Off

Please come out and join us as we kick-off Autauga County's Relay for Life season!!! We will be having a cupcake war to see who has the best cupcakes in town, learning how to help our little community raise funds towards cancer research, and most importantly, remembering and honoring the survivors and fighters of cancer in our area!! I am thankful I have been given this platform, as the event's speaking survivor, to share my story of letting go, being held, and living out a God-written story of cancer survival!! Hope to see you there :) 

My Post-Masectomy Path Report: "As good as it can be!"

Path report is back!!!! It's not "humanly" perfect, but I know it is perfect in God's sight so I will take it and be grateful :) Dr. Strickland said its "as good as it can be!" There were a FEW microscopic cancer cells around the sight of the biopsy, but they had changed from Invasive Ductal Carcinoma that is Inflammed to Ductal Carcinoma In Situ which means they were confined to the ducts only AND considered stage 0!!!!! Yep, you read that right, stage ZERO!!!!!!! That's just unheard of with IBC......God's such a show out and I love Him for that ;) Also, out of 11 lymph nodes that were taken and looked at, only 1 showed signs of treatment residue which indicates the chemo killed all the cancer cells that were there and none of them survived treatment and were able to spread!! Overall, all of this means, as of October 30th, the day of my surgery, my body is completely NED, NO EVIDENCE OF DISEASE FOUND!!!! This path report indicates I had a full response to treatment and am CANCER FREE as far as any doctor or test can tell!!! We will continue with our treatment plan of radiation to follow healing of the double mastectomy as soon as possible because that step lessens the chances of reoccurrence as much as possible! Thank you all for the prayers and support that have carried our little family through this dark valley. I have never felt the love of God and His people so strongly before, and I hope and pray that each of you can experience this incredibly love at some point throughout your life. It is truly an awe inspiring beauty that can come from none other than our most gracious Lord!! I know I've said it before, but it still holds true through this storm...Let God write your story, it will be beautiful. #Godiswritingmystory

Bella Bits: Gratefulness of a child

"Dear God, Thank you for taking my mommy's cancer away. Thank you God for making my mommy cancer free!!!" -Bella, October 14, 2015

My heart is full.

October 14, 2015: Results are IN!

Please forgive the delay in posting. "Craziness" would be a good adjective for my life the last few weeks! I'm gonna try to do better though :) Hang in there with me ok?!?

"But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given unto you." 
Matthew 6:33

My God asked me to trust Him, and although it hasn't always been easy, He has kept His promises!! There was NO EVIDENCE OF DISEASE FOUND!!!!!!!! I wish I could hear and see all the happy dances right now wink emoticon What a journey we have all been on!!! Please, stop reading right now and say a prayer and give God ALL the praise for His unwavering love, devotion, and mercy that He has given my family through this journey!!!!!!! < prayers wink emoticon > Now, let me explain just a bit. The PET scan can only pick up cells that are a certain size, so even though it picked nothing up, there could be some smaller cells still lurking that it can't pick up. So, keep those prayers going that there aren't any sneaky, microscopic cells lurking and that we will be able to get that confirmation through pathology of the breast. Also, if you don't mind, pray for knowledge and peace to make and accept our upcoming decisions. Friends, I cannot even begin to tell you all how much your love and support as God's angels here on earth has helped carry us through this journey! We love and thank you from the bottom of our hearts!!!! ‪#‎Godiswritingmystory‬ ‪#‎GodkeepsHispromises‬

Tests and Prayers

Yesterday was my breast MRI and first ever PET scan! After the PET, I finally felt like a cancer patient....radioactive and all!! ;) Both tests went very well, and like most tests, the prep work was harder than the actual test!! For instance, with the PET, I was to eat high protein and avoid carbs and sugars for the 24 hours before the test. Ha! Yeah, these people CLEARLY do not know Katie Griffies ;) But anyway, we survived the prep, became radioactive, and now, we wait :) Tomorrow we have our oncology appointment to hear the results of the breast MRI and PET scan. Please continue those prayers for "Full response to chemo...NO evidence of disease found!" Also, Matt and I have a HUGE prayer request. We have MANY decisions that have to be made, in what seems like a very short amount of time, and currently, we do not feel that unwavering peace about any of them. I have let God write my story thus far, and I most definitely want Him to keep it up, so I need Him to start talking wink emoticon Please pray He will speak through my medical team with great clarity so that we will have an obvious path to take! Thank you all again for walking with us through this journey. We love you!! ‪#‎Godiswritingmystory‬

Bella Bits: While we paint our pumpkin, TOGETHER....

Bella: "Hey my cancer fighting momma!! I'm glad your cancer is gone momma."

Me: "But we don't know it's gone yet baby."

Bella: "God knows that you are healed. He knows your cancer is gone."

Me: "How do u know that? Did He tell you?!?"

Bella: "He heals those that believe in Him and He promised us you would be done with cancer!"

Please join our family as we strive to have the faith of God's most precious 4 year old blessing, Bella. PET scan and breast MRI is Monday and we are praying for "Complete response to chemo. NO evidence of disease found!"

#Godiswritingmystory

50 Can Fight

At any given time, there are up to 50 people receiving treatments in the treatment room of the Montgomery Cancer Center. 50 sweet people at any given time will be fighting for their very lives! I'm grateful to have gotten to know some of these sweet people, and today, I may be saying goodbye to the treatment room, but I will keep those relationships close to my heart and whenever I think of them, I will remember them with fondness for the strength we give one another when we're crying with panic as we wait for a test result, sobbing over the loss of hair, talking out surgery options, laughing at the crazy sides of cancer, or simply talking about our faith in Him to deliver us from this nightmare. I am blessed to sit in one of those 50 chairs, and I pray with each treat bag I give out, they will know they are loved and cherished for sitting beside me on this journey!! 

#Godiswritingmystory 

Ringing the Bell

Ringing the bell. Today, Thursday, October 1, 2015, when I finish my 8th and final chemo, I get to ring the bell. They call it “ringing the bell,” but I imagine that for me, it is going to be more like the sounding of the trumpets in Joshua 5:13-6:27. I’ve always loved that Biblical event! Not just because there’s a catching little tune connected to it that Bella and I love to sing, but because it’s one of those stories that is full of faith and action. Here Joshua was marching around a wall, with trumpets, to conquer it. Let that sink in……MARCHING around a wall, with TRUMPETS, to CONQUER it in battle! No guns, no bombs….just MARCHING and TRUMPETS! And even as crazy as the whole plan might have sounded, Joshua trusted his Lord. He had faith in God to keep His promises that the city would be delivered unto them, and showed he was a faithful servant through the actions of following His plan. He took the plan, “crazy” and all, and marched! Simply amazing how God shows His loyalty and power isn’t it?!! This cancer journey is like my battle of Jericho. And the plan, oh yeah, it has definitely been looked upon as “crazy” at times. I mean, lets get real, a pregnant woman had to have chemo?!? Yeah, its definitely been crazy, but God sent His servant at the beginning of this journey and told me exactly what to do, “trust Him.” So Matt and I, along with all of you, picked up our armor of God in the form of prayer, and we marched ourselves to battle!! Guys, we have marched for 17 long and tiring weeks. We have marched through muscle fatigue, headaches, loss of hair, weakness, tiredness, anxiety, extreme dry eye, blisters, giving birth, etc. But tomorrow, 17 weeks after our march began, I get to ring the bell and we get to shout to our God in the Highest again that He is good and faithful to His promises!! I will have survived all chemo, with a perfectly healthy baby girl in toe, and in the next couple of weeks, I pray and believe a PET scan will confirm that I have had a FULL response to chemo and no cancer is found!! I ask that you join me in that prayer as well!! What an absolutely beautiful day my God has allowed me, one of His most undeserving servants, to be able to see!! We are so incredibly blessed to have been chosen to walk this journey, and I am so very thankful God has continually opened my eyes to His blessings and His endearing faithfulness. They call it ringing the bell, I call it blowing my trumpet! 

‪#‎Godiswritingmystory‬

Flashback to June 2, 2015: His whisper

When the lump started growing rapidly at 27 weeks, I had a gut feeling. You know, one of those gut wrenching ones that no matter how hard you try to ignore it, and pretend its not real, you just can't shake it?? One of those. I wanted to pretend I was just an emotional prego, but sadly, I knew in my core that something was wrong, terribly wrong, and I was just not going to be able to shake the feeling. My heart knew I had cancer. Fast forward to the morning of my first appointment with my surgeon for the initial ultrasound that would ultimately confirm my gut feeling. I parked right in front of her building, it was about 8:30 in the morning, and the building was covered in pink. So. Much. Pink. I’ve always loved the color pink, but in that moment, I despised it. I despised what it looked like. I despised how it made me feel. I despised what it stood for. I parked the car and just sat and looked at all the pink and thought to myself, “and so it begins,” as tears began to stream down my face. In that moment, knowing I had no control of what I was about to find, I said a simple prayer through my little sighs, “Dear God, please let me be ok, either way….cancer or not.” In that moment, I absolutely cannot explain it, but remember it with the most vivid of details. God reached out with His mighty, but all too gentle hand, and with the sweetest of whispers said, “You’re gonna be ok. Trust me.” With a new found sense of complete peace, my response was a simple “ok, lets do this.” Tears wiped, car locked, big girl panties back on, and I opened the pink door…. 

#Godiswritingmystory

Flashback to June 2, 2015: Let's go back to the beginning..."It's cancer."

Around the time I found out I was pregnant, which was around 5 weeks (November or December of 2014), I found a lump in my right breast.  I showed my OBGYN at my first pregnancy appointment, and after examination, we both agreed it seemed to be a fibroadenoma.  It was movable, round in shape, and had probably shown up due to the pregnancy (or so we thought).  I agreed with this diagnosis because I had a fibroadenoma removed from my left breast when I was 17, and it did seem very similar.  Looking back, this was God’s perfect timing beginning to work!! Had we pursued an ultrasound at that time and found the cancer, I could not have safely begun the aggressive treatments I needed due to the fast growing cells of the baby. The chemo would have attacked her as well and she would not have survived. That is one fear I am so VERY thankful I did not have to endure….again, God has perfect timing!!  At 27 weeks, the lump began to grow very rapidly; so big it was protruding out of my bra, pain began to manifest, and my skin began to favor something that is best described as an “orange peel”.  When I went back to Dr. Logan at 29 weeks, she agreed that since it had changed, we would seek a second opinion from a breast surgeon. The next day, 2nd of June 2015,  I went to the breast surgeon, and upon an ultrasound, she told me that she didn’t want me to necessarily prepare for bad news, but she wanted me to know she was concerned enough that she wanted to do 3 biopsies that very day. She said that the lump did not have clear margins or the symmetrical shadows that a traditional fibroadenoma should. As she left my room, I composed my nerves just enough to shoot Matt a text to say a little prayer. He of course was ready to head to me, but as odd as this may sound, I needed to be in that moment alone. I was able to just pray and process and be, and who would have thought that I would need those few moments, but for whatever reason I did. I needed to just hold my little belly and remember my God was bigger!! So after a few minutes, it was time to start the biopsy process. Oh the biopsies! That was an adventure in and of itself!! At that point I was 29 weeks along, so my little darling had grown enough that she could lay on my venae cavae, and during the biopsies, she planted herself right on it when I had to lay flat!! Lets just say, trying to keep me from blacking out during that process was probably the most challenging of all ;) They were so sweet though, and Dr. Strickland was able to get what she needed even in the twisted position I had to lay in order to appease the baby within ;) And just FYI, the loud "shot" sound of that needle biopsy contraption will most definitely play with your mind and nerves, just so you know ;) Any who, she called me the next day, 3rd of June 2015, from her daughter’s basketball game of all places because she didn’t want me to have to keep worrying. When I answered the phone, the world stood still as I heard the echoing words..."It's cancer." Dr. Strickland informed me that I had a highly rare and aggressive invasive ductal carcinoma known as inflammatory breast cancer; stage 3. It had already spread to one lymph node as well. I asked "on a scale of 1-10, how bad is mine in the realm of having breast cancer" and she said "a 9." So "great," I thought, "one of the worst ones." My daughter within gets the wiggles, and my own heart shatters in the same breath…. 

 #Godiswritingmystory 

A blog begins....

"It was the worst of times, it was the best of times."

This book opener continues to flood my mind as I reflect back on the journey we have traveled, through a lump and a bump, since June 2, 2015. It has most definitely been the worst of times, and the best of times. Since I have not been diligent in keeping a journal during this trial as I had planned, I wanted to create this blog so that I can go back to the beginning and document our journey better. Documenting this valley has been important to me because one day our girls will look back at these writings, and know that even through the darkest of times, God is good and He will make all things right!! We just have to keep our faith, trust in Him, hold tight to His unfailing hands and be held!  For those who have followed our journey through FB, there will be a few posts with repetition of my FB posts, want to make sure to include those in my journal, but there will also be posts along the way that will include new moments I want to remember and document. Thank you for following along in our journey as we continue to stumble in the dark, and I pray you will be able to help us praise Him in this storm!!

Katie
#Godiswritingmystory