Reimagining Resilience

Category: J/K treatment round #2

  • Wake me up when September ends

    Woof- September has been a doozy for the Mahans. We’ve had every virus school can throw at us, a broken bone and I had two chemotherapy weeks this month. (the 3rd and 23rd) BUT We do have “confirmed” new dates for the stem cell transplant. I will start the process October 16th. My central line…

  • We have dates

    September 17th: pre-admission September 18th: Line placement September 19th– chemo conditioning begins September 25th– Transplant day (I’ll be admitted for around 5-6 days) It’s a littler later than we were expecting but I did find out my donor is international. I don’t know where she’s from but am amazed at the thought. I’m admittedly anxious…

  • Stem Cell Eval #3

    It’s been a busy week for the Mahan clan and it’s only Wednesday 🙂 Monday & Tuesday were days spent at the hospital completing tests for the THIRD time for stem cell transplant evaluation. I met with my team, reviewed my new protocol and donor (both different since March) and finished Tuesday off with a…

  • Let’s claim a win, shall we?

    “Don’t wait to celebrate. Celebration is a form of worship, a rebellion against fear” -Katherine Wolf My second (more like 12th but who’s counting?) round of chemotherapy was on Tuesday. I met with my team and discussed the progress of the lesions on my legs/arm. I am HAPPY to report that my doctor was v.…

  • A summer, re-imagined

    It’s been a busy month in the Mahan house, as I’m sure it has been for most. We have been celebrating a lot of things: Jacob’s 9th birthday, Annie graduating pre-K and my finishing radiation. We completed our spring sport’s season and the kiddos are all wrapping up their school year. This week I started…

  • A glimpse of normal

    For the last few week’s my family has been blessed with a “glimpse of normal.” It was confirmed through my bone marrow biopsy (4/8/2025) that my once empty bone marrow is now growing. My body is healing itself. I haven’t had a blood transfusion in over a month. Because of my higher hemoglobin numbers (11…

  • Radiation Oncology and an update from the heart

    This morning I met with the radiation oncologist who presented me with a plan to do electron beam radiation therapy. We are targeting the entirety of the lower half of my body. In addition they are going to booster (hit harder) the spots on my legs and one spot on my arm that the biopsy…

  • Back to the drawing board (with the words you’ve heard a million times before)

    I am officially starting over from day 1 for treatment. To recap since January 2025 we have realized: It’s a hamster running on a wheel. Like we worked hard and got nowhere in 2024. However, since diagnosis we knew the deal. We knew this cancer would come back and will KEEP coming back until I…