You Have Uterine Cancer

On Mon January 4, 2010, Cherie went to Harris Methodist to have a D&C done by Dr Matthews for hyperplasia. Dr Matthews did the procedure in less than an hour and came out to tell me that all seemed fine. She cleaned out the lining and cauterized 3 'bleeders' but it was of no real consequence. They did pathology on the lining and we had to wait for those results. On Mon the 11th, Dr Matthews called Cherie with bad news. She told her that she had uterine cancer and she wanted her to go to Dr Hancock, a gynecological oncologist. It was very shocking and it rocked our world, but Dr Matthews was very confident that we had caught this in an early stage and we would get it with a total hysterectomy. We got an appointment to see Dr Hancock on Wed the 13th and I'll pick up on that in the next post.

Mike

Micro or Macro Blog?

I'm still learning about blogging and how to add pics onto the blog but I want my posts to be short and limited to one paragraph if possible. I will post scripture, news items/links and tell stories in brief summations. I hope you readers will appreciate the brevity and it will make for easier reading. Thanks for reading our memo.

Mike

How It Started

Cherie's health issue started back in September. She had unusual menstrual cramps and she called her doctor. The doctor was not too concerned until Cherie started having severe cramps in October. She started bleeding and the bleeding never stopped until the D&C was done in January. Dr. Matthews gave her some pain meds that helped. Cherie went in to see Dr Matthews in November and she did a sonogram and was put on Provera for a thickened uterine lining. The Provera did not do anything and, after a second sonogram in December, they scheduled a D&C for January 4, 2010.

Mike

Ree?

Now, what is this Ree thing? It's a cute story really. In 1992, we became fast friends with Scott and Stacy Berg. They had a little 2yo boy named Steven who we adored. He lit up the room all the time with his smile and we laughed incessantly at how mad he would get went put in bed while we stayed up to play cards. Steven never could say Cherie, it just wouldn't come out of that 2yo mouth, so he called her Ree. We all thought it was cute and started calling her Ree as an inside joke. Steven would giggle about it too. Well, it just stuck. Stacy called her Ree all the time and Cherie really enjoyed the cute nickname.

When we finally got internet and email, we decided to have some fun and use mikenree. I called her Ree some but it really took off with our email address. Our friends in the late 90s heard the story and playfully called her Ree. It is cemented now. Ree has become an affectionate nickname that Cherie likes and people who know her well will use out loud or in emails. 2 of our nephews call her Aunt Ree. Its a fun little way for a nickname to take off; and that is how we became Mike and Ree.

Mike

Intro

Hello! We are Mike and Cherie Stephenson and we are a Texas family that relies on Jesus as we journey through this life. We have been married for 20 years this August and we have 2 kids, Zach 10, and Emily 5. We also have a 1yo Havanese named Chelsea. So what will this blog be about, you ask? Well, we're going to share our journey from now and we'll go back into the past to share stories of how the Lord has blessed us in this life. To begin with, you'll read stories of Cherie's fight with uterine cancer. We will keep you updated as she fights off this disease and you will see how God is going to bring us through victoriously. Then, we'll get into all the other stuff that life involves. Funny, sad, beautiful and amazing stories of God's blessings and testimonies to His grace and mercy. I'm goofy and stubbornly opinionated so I'll probably put my foot in my mouth a time or two but it will be fun. Thanks for reading about our life journey!

Mike