At Peace.

After a long 16 year battle with cancer, Chris Ellis is finally resting peacefully and is in a much better place.

Today at 2:15 she took her last breath surrounded by her family.  She went quickly and peacefully and in true Chris style everything was perfect and everyone was taken care of in a way that was perfect for them.  She had an obvious plan. 

As crazy as it sounds, just a few minutes after she passed she got a smile on her face.  Her energy was everywhere, and it was an extremely healing experience for the family.

We will post once funeral arrangements have been made, but we are so grateful for your prayers and kind words over the last while and want you to know that it has been very comforting.

Update

The doctor came today.  She said that she is a very strong woman, her heart and oxygen are strong, but her body is shutting down.  She is no longer getting out of bed or speaking.  She is not really waking up much anymore.

She said that she is at extreme peace, especially for someone her age, so we were happy to hear that.

She told us that she will likely pass within a few days.

Thanks again for all of your love and support.

Resting Peacefully

Right now she is at home and resting.  We are trying to keep her comfortable and she seems like she is not in pain.  She is starting to show signs that she is slipping away, but of course she keeps fighting.  Today we went and made funeral arrangements and picked out the perfect casket for her.  Honestly, if she would have been there we know she would have went straight to that one.  I think she will be glad that me and Brooke were there to pick it because my Dad liked a granny one and a blue one called "mystic blue" which we named big blue, and she would have hated them both.  The woman has style, you have to give her that.

She is unable to say much but she is smiling a lot, especaially for the kids.  She can't really walk around anymore and is pretty weak and has managed to get even skinnier.

She is surrounded by loving people and we are amazed at how kind everyone has been to our family.

Doctor visit

Went to the doctor today.

He said there is nothing more he can do for her at this time.

We are going to take it a day at a time, but don't be surprised if she pulls through!

She is a tough cookie!

We are going to get her hooked up to an IV at home and hopefully she will get stronger and a little fatter!

Time will tell.  Think positive thoughts.

Not doing so well

Things aren't going too well.  She seems to be getting a little worse each day.  Please send your prayers her way!

Hangin in there!

Not MUCH new to report. She is just kind of hanging in there and doing her thing! Right now she is not having any treatments, but she does have a lot of pain and spends the majority of her day resting.

She liver function is not great and she is getting her abdomen drained every couple of weeks. In fact she went this morning.

I wish I had more to report, but I am glad that I don't.

Thanks everyone for thinking of her and praying for her. It helps!

surgery a no go...

Wednesday was supposed to be another round of chemo in the liver. She went the night before and got her MRI and then I took her to Huntsman for the scheduled procedure. When we got there they didn't have her scheduled, which was weird, but she hadn't had bloodwork yet, so we figured it was cause of that.

I left her there (carpool) and as soon as I got home she called me to come and get her. The doctor decided to wait on it until June... we think he had plans or something (Doctors+Huntsman=frustration) and wanted to push it off.

So for now she gets to keep feeling good and enjoy the nice Spring weather. She will go back the first week of June for another treatment, and this could be done every few months to treat her liver.

Doing really well!

This was taken on April 30th at Carsons babtism. She is feeling really good and trying to decide if she wants to do another round of chemo.

More liver chemo

Last Thursday she was back up at Huntsman for another round of chemo in her liver. The surgery was quick and went really well.

Hopefully this will be the last time she has to do this, but if not it really isn't too bad. I guess that is coming from me, she probably would disagree, but I just mean compared to some of the other things she has had to do!

She is now feeling great. She has been awake all day today, and believe me that is a huge deal!

Watch for her around town, you might even start to see her with some hair soon! WOO HOO!

Test results

Last night a CT scan was performed on her liver. It looks like the previous chemo that was put in did not get all of the cancer. It did get some, which is good, but he would like to go in again and place some more in the spots that still have tumor and try to shut off the blood supply to those spots.

He said that her liver does not have defined tumors but more just cancer all around and that is why it is harder to get it all at once.

Luckily her liver function is good enough to perform this surgery. It is scheduled for 4/7, but it might happen sooner!

Surgery success

The surgery was a huge success.

We arrived at the hospital at 11:30 and got right into a room. This would be the room that we would wait in for about three hours. They were finally able to get her IV in, and she was pumped full of drugs.

While we waited the doctor came in to talk to us. He told us that all of her labs were normal. NORMAL!! That means that her liver is functioning at a completely normal level, a huge surprise. He briefly explained what he was going to do. It went something like this:

I (the coolest doctor ever) am going to go in through your main artery in your femur and I will go up into your liver. Then we will assess what is going on in there and place the chemotherapy right by the cancer. This will possibly be repeated on the other side of the liver in 5 weeks. Oh and did I mention how amazing I am? No really the first impression wasn't the best but she really does like him now. She said he is really nice.

They finally came and took her back. We expected the procedure to take 45 minutes because that is what she was told at some point. After a couple hours we started to panic a little and I went and asked someone if they knew how long this procedure takes. They looked it up and said 4 hours!

So we waited.

They finally called us and told us that she was out and in her room. We went and found her and she looked great. She was wide awake during the whole procedure and said it wasn't too bad. She did have to lay on the cold metal table for about an hour before they even started, so that is nasty!

She had great news. She said that the doctor got into her liver and said that there wasn't even very much cancer in there. Crazy! It was great news.

She had to stay in the hospital overnight because she needed to lay completely flat. If her artery opened up she would bleed out really quickly, so it was important that she didn't move.

Things look really good. She has this amazing body that just wants to heal, and an amazing spirit that just wants to fight. It is making for a great combination.

Merry Chrsitmas to us!

Great NEWS!

The Doctor just called and her test results look AMAZING! Her liver function has improved a ton, way more than we could have hoped for. What a great Christmas gift!

Tomorrow she is going to the Huntsman Center to see what options they have for her. Cross your fingers!

Doing great!

She is feeling so wonderful. She is happy, energetic, and so excited to leave for Arizona this weekend. She is for sure loving life!

On a side note I am loving myself becuase I just figured out how to make it so that you could have these updates sent STRAIGHT to your email, just incase you are more of an email person than a blog person. Just type your email address in the box right over there ---------------------------> and BAM, you will start to get the emails.

Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, and of course shout it from the rooftops. Chris is feeling great and her daughter is kind of a genuis!

Test Results

Test results came in yesterday and it looks like everything has gotten a little worse.

On the brightside she feels great and has tons of energy! They are leaving Sunday for sunny Arizona. Her liver is totally excited for that sun, I just know it!

We are looking forward to a very Merry Christams.

Doc visit

Today is the :LAST: day of radiation. Horray! It has really seemed to do the trick too, her brain is functioning better than ever...

The doctor visit was uneventful. He basically told her to keep on resting and get stronger. He didn't do any blood work this time, but will next time.

For now the plan is to take a break from Chemo! That will be really nice for the holidays.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. We will. We have lots to be thankful for.

Update

Still improving. Just two more days of radiation to go! WOO HOO!

She has had Zak visiting for the last few days and has been loving his company and his cooking!

She goes to the doctor on Monday so I will post any news after that!

Thanks everyone, you are all so kind!

Great Day!

Today was a great day.

She went to radiation and walked from the car to the hospital... uphill...

She even let Brooke take her out to lunch.

Zak arrived and brought lots of happiness.

Mom told Zak she is coming to visit him in Arizona in December. She will.

She is speaking clearly, making sense, and doing do much better.

We believe in miracles.

Todays lesson: Do not let a doctor determine your fate. Have a will to live. You decide, it's up to you!

Almost a week ago...

From *

I think the new name for cancer should be... rollercoaster... honestyly that is what cancer is to the family and the patient, a rollercoaster of emotions, information, and day to day battles. It is so amazing how from one day to the next things can change so drastically!

I never updated the blog yesterday, I think because my brain was fried. Honestly by the time I got home I didn't even know what day it was. Our morning started off with some very bad news that her liver function was worsening, and the news was not well received by anyone, especially my Mom. Well, okay not by anyone. I have to say that our morning was hard.

From *

She was so excited to have some fun visitors, especially our sister Jenny and our GIANT nephews Brock and Jon. It was so amazing to see them and it really lifted her spirits.

From *

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Amy came to visit from Arizona, and it was a good thing. My Mom had an adverse reaction from her sleeping pill the night before and was up all night going crazy. She was arguing with the nurses saying that she was at a credit union seeing Amy and they needed to let her leave. She also said they trapped her in a hotel and wouldn't let her out. She called Brooke at one in the morning ("HI! What ya doing?") and the nurse called my Dad at 4:30. They said she would get really mad at them saying that they had to let her out and then she would just smile. She didn't want to be rude. So funny. Well not, but we are laughing about it now.

From *

We got her to go on a little walk down that hall which was huge (okay I made her and she was angry but she liked it) and she eats and loves her food. She has gained over 20 pounds since Wednesday (which is possibly fluid retention which is not good, but hopefully that will fix itself) and she is loving telling us stories, which we like hearing since they are so imaginative!

From *

She wanted to have a sleepover last night so Brooke was the lucky one. In the middle of the night the nurse came in to check her vitals and she told them to hold on. She then reaches over to Brookes foot and tickles it and says "tickle tickle" and then turns back to the nurse and gives her the okay to talke vitals. First things first she says! Brooke needs a nap today!

This morning the doctor came in and said that he liver funtion is IMPROVING and that she looks SO much better today. She is going home right after her radiation.

From *

Good day

Today was a good day. She had lots of joking around to do, and even walked down the hall. She is loving food, drinking, and seems to be reacting well to her radiation therapy.

If only I knew how to work my new computer and wasn't so tired I would have some great pictures to post.

Maybe tomorrow.