Urgent prayer request

[Jen Eagan]

There is a story that goes back generations in my family that someone made this gypsy woman angry and she put a curse on our family. Since then, at least once in every generation our family has lost children and 3 of the last 5 generations have lost young mothers (in their early 20's). My aunt lost her son, my sister lost her son, I lost Hannah. I never really believed in the whole "curse" mumbo jumbo, but I have always had a fear of losing another child in our family. And now we might be facing just that again. My 16 year old little cousin has a 6 inch tumor on her kidney. They just found it today and she has to go to children's hospital for testing tomorrow and surgery probably by Wednesday. We are such a close knit family, we are all so terrified right now. Please, everyone pray for my little cousin. Her name is Samantha and she is just a beautiful girl inside and out. She has two little sisters and a whole bunch of cousins who love her dearly.

I haven't been this scared since Hannah got sick.:(

[Cheryl Haggard]

Jen-You can count on my prayers for Samanatha. I will put her right away on a prayer chain. If there is anything else I can do for you, let me know.
Stay Strong, and Believe!
Cheryl

[Jen Eagan]

Just got the test results.
Childrens hospital is admitting Sammy. They are doing a biopsy tomorrow
to determine what kind of cancer we are dealing with. It is in her
lungs, her liver, her kidney and her diaphram. This is much worse than
originally thought and all the prayers you and everyone you know can
send out are needed and appreciated.

[Kirk Kief]

My prayers are in double mode for this prescious young thing. And, you and the rest of the family are there as well. I know there's nothing I can do for you from here, except to keep you in my thoughts, and keep Sammy in my prayers.

[Cheryl Haggard]

Jen, My thoughts and prayers are with Samanatha, her family and you right now. Please call if you need someone to talk with...
Stay strong, have Faith...
Cheryl

[Jen Eagan]

www.caringbridge.org/visit/samanthacrowell

[Tammy]

~~JEN~~
My thoughts and prayers are with you, Sam and your families Jen. Should you need anything at all, please let me know too...ok? {{{ HUGS }}} And please give Sam a hug for me....

[Megan Kitchin]

Jen,

My prayers are with Samantha, her parents, you and all of her family! Try to stay strong and think positive!

[Jen Eagan]

Thanks everybody for the prayers. No update yet, just wanted to add that I made a frappr map for people to mark so Sammy can see how far away people are praying for her and thinking of her. I'm taking it to the hospital tonight to show her, in case anyone wants to stick a pin today.
http://www.frappr.com/loveandprayersforsam

[Pennie]

My prayers are with Samantha and your whole family.

[Kirk Kief]

I'm taking it to the hospital tonight to show her, in case anyone wants to stick a pin today.
http://www.frappr.com/loveandprayersforsam
Hey, everybody. Go to the map that Jen has created and plant your flag. I'd love to fill up the map before Jen takes it to Sammy. I'd thing she'd get a huge kick out of seeing a lot of flags from all over the country(including Canada!)

[Cheryl Haggard]

Just added mine...

[Jen Eagan]

Thanks guys. My mom brought her laptop down, so Sam has already seen the website, but don't know if she saw the map yet. Supposedly she's in getting the biopsy now.
Pray pray pray.

[Kirk Kief]

What's the latest on Sam?

[Jen Eagan]

Her biopsy results won't be in until Monday now, so they sent her home yesterday for the weekend. Figured no sense in keeping her there, she didn't need an iv or anything, and most likely they needed the bed. She got the last bed Monday night and had to wait for that one.
Anyway she has to go back to the hospital Monday for who knows how long, they'll get the test results and probably want to start chemo or something pretty quick I imagine, but I don't know for sure, as I've never been through cancer from day one with anybody so close to me before. It's all waiting right now.
She sure appreciates everybody visiting her site and signing her guestbook and map though. She has had over 700 visits to her site just since Wednesday.

[Martin Comiskey]

Just added ours. Please know she is in our prayers.

Marty C.

[mommy2jaidyn]

I know I am a little late, but I just wanted to let you know I will add Samantha and your family to my prayers. I hope all is going as well as it can be.

Hugs
Jen

[Jen Eagan]

Thanks, they're at the hospital now, but haven't called yet with the results. I have managed to get a little bit of work done though and keep my mind off it somewhat- so that's good but now I'm just waiting on edge.

[Jen Eagan]

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/samanthacrowell

UPDATE!!!

[Erica Stone]

I just saw your update - your family must be so relieved! I'm sure it will be difficult for her at times, but I'm sure everyone is thankful that it's treatable. (Whew!) Samantha seems like such a spunky girl - and a fighter!:)

[Kirk Kief]

That is marvelous news, Jen! I'm so happy for you, and your entire family. Especially for Samantha!

[Jen Eagan]

I just saw your update - your family must be so relieved! I'm sure it will be difficult for her at times, but I'm sure everyone is thankful that it's treatable. (Whew!) Samantha seems like such a spunky girl - and a fighter!:)

She is honestly one of the sweetest girls you could ever meet. She's not shy at all, actually wanted to go out for cheerleading next year and is really upset that she can't- but she is just kind and other than having the normal 16 year old attitude with her mom every once in a while, I've not known her to be anything but the sweetest girl in the world- since she was about 3. When she was 3 though- man was she a stinker! LOL. Made me vow to never have children. Not wild, just a mouthy little brat! Hard to imagine it now though. And I'm not just saying that because she's my girl- everyone who knows her thinks that.

We are all very relieved. Still worried because we aren't sure how the treatment will act with someone her age, but we're optimistic at this point. :)

[Erica Stone]

Any more updates this week Jen?

[Jen Eagan]

She's at the hospital again today having some measurements taken of her heart to use as a baseline, as the chemo can cause her heart muscles to enlarge and they need to monitor it pretty closely. She also has her 2nd round of chemo today, and this is when she'll be getting the stuff that will cause her hair to fall out. She came over this weekend and we did some photos- with Sam and her mom and sisters, then Sam and sisters, then Sam and mom, then Sam alone. They are on my other computer so I can't post them right this minute, but maybe will post a few later this afternoon.
Thanks for checking.

Her mom is pretty good at posting updates on her caringbridge site- http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/samanthacrowell

[Deb Stoner]

Jen, Left a message on Sam's site today to let her know a "friend" of a friend was thinking of her.

[Kelly Story]

I, too, posted on Sam's site and on her map. I'm lifting her up in my prayers.
Kelly Story

[Jen Eagan]

Just wanted to update- Sammi is on week 9 of her chemo treatments and the main big tumor (15.5cm) has only shrunk one cm- and that was in the first 5 weeks. The past four weeks have shown NO change. Also, she has so many lesions on her liver they cannot do radiation because they cannot radiate her entire liver. They are trying to figure out ways to localize the radiation into just the spots that need it- but it's tricky. They have decided to wait 3 more weeks to give the chemo more of a chance to shrink the big tumor, because it's 7.25" now (not 6 as I first thought, nobody had done the math to figure out how big 15.5cm was) and on her tiny body it's just too big to take out. It's going to be an extremely complicated surgery. She is very frightened and now thinks she may not make it through this. We are all going through I guess what we're supposed to be, we're angry, terrified, sad, but we're also trying to remain hopeful. Her mother finally asked for a prognosis yesterday and it's not what we had been believing, and it's not great. It's not terrible, but it's not great. We are praying constantly and trying to stay positive for Sam. That's what she needs from us right now. She is so frightened, I only wish there was something I could do to help her.

In packing for my Los Angeles trip this weekend, I found bag of old beanie babies that Hannah got for Christmas, and we'd collected a few more when I was pregnant with Kayla- and I am going to try to list them on Ebay for our Relay for Life team for next year (we came in 3rd place this year for rookie teams- next year we want to come in 1st place for ALL the teams!!)- and we found 4 bears we are going to keep out to give to Sam. One is a little tie dyed bear named Sammy. Two are angels, and one is a little praying bear called Hope.

Anyway- I will update again as I know more. Please continue praying for Sammi's healing. We're pretty deep into the woods right now and it's going to be a long way out. This girl means as much to me as my own children. We are so close and it hurts me so much that she is going through this. I would so gladly take her place if I could. Also pray for her younger sisters Brianna and Karley, and her mom Lisa. This has been an extremely tough time for them as well.

Thanks.

[erinm]

Jen,
I will be praying for her and her family. I was just at children's hospital today for a annual memorial service. My friend Kaylene lost her son on the same day as Tyler died. Her son had trisomy 13 and was at children's. So, i joined her for the memorial for all children who passed in the last year.
I recently met Kaylene throughy an online group about 2 1/2 months ago. She said when she was at childrens hospital with her son Mathias who was born 2/28/06 and passed 3/3/06 that childrens hospital didnt even have a camera to take pictures. The camera was misplaced a while ago. So, she really wishes they would have known about NILMDS. But they dont. I will see if I can give her some brochures and see if she can get them to the people she worked with at childrens hospital.


I still would love to get some brochures and I will take them to the people that worked with us for Tyler at different hospitals.

Erin
mom to Tyler Joel 3/3/06

[Kirk Kief]

This is a little off topic, but...... I'm going out to Seattle this week to help celebrate my Dad's 80th Birthday. I have three sisters, all of whom live out there. My Dad lives in Illinois, but, my step Mother is getting him to Washington on the premise of a little trip to help celebrate their Anniversary. They will be staying on Orcas Island. Of course, my Dad knows he will be seeing all of my sisters, however, since I'm in Florida, he has no idea thatmy family and i are flying out there. The reason I posted this personal stuff in this thread is because we are going to have a group photo made, and Jen has agreed to be our photographer. I'm really excited to finally be able to meet her!

[Jen Eagan]

Erin- are you free tomorrow? I have some time tomorrow I could meet you and give you some brochures. I was told that Children's used the group "Souluminations" which is why I didn't push too hard to get in there- but it sounds like there's more need now. Email me and we can pick a place and time to meet to get you those. I can do tomorrow or Thursday.

[Martin Comiskey]

Kirk,

You and your family have a save and joyous trip. Wish your Dad a happy birthday.
Martin