Becca, Life, & What's Ahead

Time for an update.

Let's start with Becca… 

Two good things happened today. Becca got an encouraging call from her endocrinologist, and she went back to work. The endocrinologist has reviewed her body scan and informed us that the radioactive iodine was being soaked up only in the region of her neck. This means that it doesn't look like the cancer has metastasized!

After the body scan last week Becca was able to start taking her daily dose of Synthroid, the replacement drug she will be on for the remainder of her earthly life. It hasn't miraculously made her feel more energetic and healthy, but she doesn't feel any worse either. Her doctor told us it would take a few weeks to see significant progress. Our hope is that after a couple of months Becca will feel more healthy and energetic than ever.

Other than routine follow-up appointments with her surgeon (her scar is healing up nicely) and endocrinologist, our next important visit will be in about 6 months. This appointment will include some focused blood work and another body scan, hopefully all indicating that she is cancer free. 

Thankfully Becca has good benefits and short-term disability. She's definitely got a bunch of medical bills, but they are manageable and she's really good with money and budgeting. Today she starts going back to work half-days. Hopefully in a couple of weeks her energy will be up to the level where she can resume a full-time work schedule. I think it's going to be nice for her to get back into a routine, but even getting ready for work and making the drive in is more activity that she's done in awhile. 

We thank you, again, for all of your prayers and best wishes. We ask that you continue to pray for her complete healing and the eradication of cancer from her body. 

So… Can I talk about myself for a minute?

First of all, I'm getting married in breast than 4 months!

See what I did there? 
You're welcome.

Seriously though, how lucky am I?…  I get to marry this incredible woman.

The band I work for, Kutless, decided to take a much-deserved break during January. This means that Becca and I have gotten to spend a TON of quality time together. February gets a little busier, but in March we get back to a normal touring schedule.

I didn't plan on being a Merch Manager when I moved back to Nashville, but I enjoy it. The behind the scenes work of ordering and managing product draws on a lot of what I learned in Business classes at Belmont. I also enjoy the touring life. The tour bus has not lost its luster, it's still cool. My favorite thing about being an artist in Omaha was promoting shows and working with folks like Marc Liebowitz and Emily Engles. Now I get to see all of that stuff played out in front of me every day, but on a larger scale. It's fun. And the guys in Kutless are genuine and humble. I'm lucky to be in their camp. 

I'm still working on new music. I actually just got an email from my Foresters mate Nicholas Petersen this morning discussing plans for a new project. 

The majority of my creative time, however, has been spent researching and writing a novel. For years my family has joked about how we could write a great book or movie based around the incredible life of my grandmother. 

So I'm doing it.

My 82-year old grandmother has led a fascinating life. Her stories astound people. I'm not writing her biography, but rather a novel where I'm taking the key events from her life and creating stories and characters around them. It's the whole "based on a true story" idea. 

I'm also reading a lot about book publishing and literary agents, etc. 
We'll see what happens. 

All that to say, life is good. I feel blessed by God and excited about what's ahead.

Thanks for reading. Hope you're well.

Becca Update: Phase 2

Hello Friends,

Many of you have been asking about an update on Becca since my last post. Here's where we are at today:

Becca had surgery on December 21st. Her entire thyroid was removed. Post-surgical pathology reports indicated that she had three nodules of cancer in her thyroid; one on the left side and two on the right. Cancer was also detected in one of her lymph nodes close to her thyroid.

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Post-Surgery Update

Hello friends,

Surgery went well. Dr. LaNeve removed Becca's entire thyroid after confirming that there was cancer on the left side. Becca spent a couple days at the hospital and is now at home. She's pretty exhausted.

While the doctor was removing the thyroid he also took a few lymph nodes to be tested. We received a call from him yesterday letting us know that they did find cancer in one of the lymph nodes (only one of 7, and it was closest to the thyroid).

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