boo cancer!

Instead of my annual breast cancer PSA, today im going to share some other info with you all. on october 17 CL's cousin jennifer was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

jennifer is a fellow baylor bear, which before meeting gave us an instant connection. she and her awesome husband eric (is it weird or pure awesomeness that both of our cousin's married amazing men named eric?) live in north carolina.

(kirbi, jennifer and me in kansas city, mo for tuckers graduation 2010)

anyways, if your like me, your like, what in the world is acute myeloid leukemia? according to the US national library of medicine,

"Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is cancer that starts inside bone marrow, the soft tissue inside bones that helps form blood cells. The cancer grows from cells that would normally turn into white blood cells."  With treatment, younger patients with AML tend to do better than those who develop the disease at an older age. The 5-year survival rate is much lower in older adults than younger persons. Experts say this is partly due to the fact that the body of a younger person can better tolerate strong chemotherapy medicines. luckily for jennifer, she's 30ish (a woman never reveals her real age, but she's very young!) so with treatment, she should kick this cancer's ass and can then concentrate on starting a family!

(jennifer and her hubs, eric, on their wedding day!)

she started chemo on octber 18th and eric has been documenting her journey in blog form. let me know if you want to read it! i dont want to blast it all over the web! 

according to eric and CL (he briefly spoke to her on FB chat) she is jovial and in good spirits. form time to time the chemo is making her nauseous, but that is normal. she got a pixie cut this weekend and is more interested in hockey than anything. (she's a HUGE sabres fan!) her brother tucker shaved his head in honor of her, and after our engagement photos on nov 6, CL will be shaving his head too. jennifer has an amazing support group and the best doctors working with her in north carolina. we are all thinking and praying for her every day and know that she is going to beat this. we can't wait to see her in may at our wedding and celebrate her and the winning of her battle over this disease!

please keep her in your prayers!