Marc and Janette's Anniversary

Ten years ago I married my eternal companion and became the luckiest man to have Janette Baron Andersen in my life. She blessed me in so many ways and loved me so unconditionally, it hurts so much not to see her beautiful smile everyday. She taught me what it truly means to give of oneself and forget your own needs. She is the reason I am who I am and where I am today, a father of two beautiful boys and graduated from Samford University with a PharmD degree.

Jan always said she struggled with patience and had a hard time waiting for anything! I watched her go through some amazingly painful procedures and receive some of the most potent chemo available. She did it with such grace and patience I will never know or be capable of. Nurses who took care of her would attest to this. She would many times be in so much pain that the nurses would ask what her pain level was out of ten. With a gritted smile she would say. "Oh about an eight or a nine, could I please get some morphine." But, being Jan, she knew the nurses were understaffed and that they were dealing with an even more difficult situation in the next room so she would add, "but I know you're busy so whenever you get to it!" I wouldn't have been so patient! Jan always reached out to others and cared for them. Her two boys were her pride and joy, her calling in life that she was so good at without any guidance. She somehow just knew what to do in every situation.

Many of you on Facebook and Jan's blog brought her so much comfort while she was hospitalized or just having a bad day. It was therapeutic for her to talk with you, share her fears and desires each day. Thank you for taking the time out of your lives to bless her when she needed it. Thank you for helping me during this time

Thank you Jan for the best 10 years of my life. I love you sweetheart!

Spotlight Supporters

We haven't done this in a long while but with Janette's passing I got this email from someone that did not personally know her but touched her deeply. We will be making this into a book for Marc and the boys and when Janette and I started this blog Spotlight Supporters was very important to her. So if you have anything you would like written on here to be added to the book for her family please go to the spotlight supporters tab and contact me. Thank you.

Janette-
We never met. I've never spoken a single word to you, and although we went to high school together I didn't recognize your face or name when I first learned your story from Brandie. You are now someone I will never forget. I so badly wanted to introduce myself to you at the fundraiser held at Box Elder High, but I chickened out. I wish desperately that I would have at least said hi because even from across the gymnasium, you had a light that I could feel. A light that I so desperately wish I had.
My daughter was born with a rare neurological disorder called lissencephaly. She is five years old, but functions at about a 2 month old level. She is visually impaired, severely developmentally delayed, suffers from seizures almost daily and doesn't speak. After I heard about you, I would sometimes talk to London about you. I would tell her that she was strong like Janette. And I know that that is true. I know that your situation was completely different from hers, but hearing about how you fought and fought, and were such a positive, strong woman, I felt like London would like to hear about you. And I know she did.
We never even met... but your light affected me. I'm sure there's little comfort my words could bring to your family at this time, I'm glad you are no longer suffering.
God bless you, Janette, Marc, Conner, and Brayden!

~Danielle

Angel Marielle Hayes

A professional photographer name Marielle Hayes has selected Marc, Brayden, and Conner to benefit from her Christmas fundraiser. She is offering a beautiful photo for anyone that donates that made her think of Janette. So you help by donating but you get something for it too. Please check out her site for all the details. This is amazing. Marc is so grateful for all of your love and support. He is managing well as super dad but missing his soul mate. Your support is really helping to lift him up though. So from all of his family they just want to thank you so much for everything. Check out Marielle's site even if you're just looking for a amazing photographer.

http://www.mariellehayes.com/2012/12/photographer/personal/so-this-is-christmas/

Sincerely,
 Brandie

From Marc

Message From Marc

Thank you to my blog friends and family who give me strength and the ability to face another day. The many posts sent to me and my wife are so touching and wonderful. This is by far the hardest thing I'll ever do. I spent the past year as a caretaker for my sweet wife. I am grateful for every single day I had with her! Whether it was in the many, many hospital nights praying for Janette Baron Andersen pain to subside so she could rest or the many opportunities I had to just tell her how much I love her and would do anything for her. The way she handled such a horrible situation with such grace made it so easy to take care of her. I would have continued to do that for many years to come if God had allowed me to. But that is not to be. He has taken her back to her heavenly home where she no longer feels the pains and weaknesses of our human bodies.

To the many many people who donated time and money that allowed me to spend 100% of the final year of my wife's life on this earth: THANK YOU! You will NEVER know how you have blessed my life. As i said before, i was able to tell my wife everyday multiple times how much I love her! I am so grateful for that! I never had to worry about money or bills or anything that took my attention from Jan's needs. I wish I could hug you all because of this tremendous gift you have given me.

I love my wife, I KNOW where she is and that she is no longer in pain. Her Father in Heaven is with her and all of us who grieve her passing. I am so grateful for eternal families. I will see her again in the next life! What a sweet time it will be.

Janette's Obituary

We miss you so much Janette!
Memorial Obituaries Andersen, Janette

Our Angel

Janette lost her battle with leukemia yesterday. She put up a long and strong fight but she knew god always has a plan. Right now he needed Janette. We know it's cause she is one of the best. She has left a lasting impact on so many peoples lives. She was the most beautiful person inside and out.

When we started this blog it was to give Janette a place to talk about what is going on, update everyone, and just vent out her feelings. We never expected to be here less than a year later having 35,000 hits. Her words will go on to help so many more people. Her story will inspire people and she will live on through Marc and her kids forever. 

Janette was the most incredible wife to her soul mate Marc, the most loving, attentive mother to her boys, the best daughter, sister, granddaughter, and friend.

No fun

The past two day's have been horrible! On Thursday night we started an injection called interfuron. It is supposed to stimulate my new bone marrow so that it can attack the leukemia. The problem is, it is very hard on your body. It gives you terrible fevers, body pain, nauseu, and causes your numbers to drop in your blood. Well, Friday morning I noticed that I was beggining to get some blood blisters in my mouth. In the past I have never gotten those unless my platelets are under 20. And the last time they were under 20 is when I had 3 occular hemmorages. So I went to my local ER and had them check my platelets. They were at 41. That was very strange to me. The on call doctor at huntsman told me that he wouldn't infuse me at 41, but to continue to look for other signs of bleeding. As the day progressed one of my blood blisters got bigger and bigger until it was the size of a penny and jutting out from my cheek so I couldn't close my teeth without biting on it. I knew that it wouldn't improve unless I got some platelets. So I called my doctor back, at this point it's 9:30 at night and he tells me to go to Ogden regional to get some platelets so I wouldn't have to drive clear to SLC. I was also concerned because 9:30 is when I get the interfuron injection and I am supposed to take tylonal and IB prophen with it because it causes such an inflamatory response in your body. I was terrified because those meds would thin my blood even more! So I called up my sweet dad and he drove me down to Ogden Regional. Lucky for us, they were pretty empty so we got right back. However, they had to do a typing screen which takes about 2 hours, then order up the platelets which takes another hour, then one more to infuse. Everyone there was pretty fascinated with me, it was kindof funny! My nurse had never seen a central line like mine before and she really liked it! The doctor was very curious about all that I had been through and sat in my room just talking and asking question for about 45 minutes! Once the platelets were almost done I decided to ask the ER doctor to take a look at my stomach. Over the past two days I had been having alot of stomach pain in my upper stomach, and it was begging to swell up. I told the docs at huntsman about it, but they said to just watch it closely and wait (I am so sick of hearing that answer!) But this doctor began feeling around my stomach and immediately said that my liver was very inlarged. She brought in an ultrasound machine to look at it. She said the tissue walls looked fine, and there wasnt much fluid outside of it, it was just really big! We didn't know if it was graft vs host, which is what we are waiting for, or something else.  So they wanted us to go down to huntsman the next morning so they could run some more tests. So we left the ER at 3:00AM, I didn't get to bed until about 4. Then the kids came in to get us at 7:45. I was so tired but Marc didn't want to let me sleep because he wanted to get to huntsman as fast as possible! When we got there they ran some blood tests and found that my liver enzimes are a little elevated. Not to the point of liver failure, but they were trending up. The other thing is that my platelets were at 31! Just the night before I had an infusion and before the infusion they were 41! So I am really freaking out about my platelets. They are just too scary. They said they didn't want to give me more today because the more you get, the more resistent to them your body becomes. So I am going down to the local ER tomorrow to get them checked again and make sure I'm safe. The next thing they did was a CT scan of my mid section. First I had to drink 4 cups of contrast that tasts like dish soap! They had to give me some zofran in order to finish my last cup! They did the tests and about an hour later the doctor working that day (who I knew pretty good from when I was inpatient) Told me that I do not have graft vs host....:(   he said it looks like the leukemia cells and this new interfuron injection are attacking my internal organs!! My spleen and my liver are very enlarged. Also, the signts where I had my gall bladder surgery last spring, they were attacking the scarr tissue! Those are actually the parts that hurt the most! My stomach is so swollen that I look like I'm 5 months pregnant, and it hurts so bad! But there's nothing they can do for me right now because I HAVE to stay on the interfuron until I get graft vs host to insure my bone marrow is fighting. I get another injection of my donors cells this Tuesday, so that should speed up the process a bit. The other interesting thing they said is that my labs look weird. My blood was full of blasts (we expected that, it's what the leukemia makes) But there is also a large amount of broken cells in there. Most of them are the leukemia cells. So Something is beggining to kill the leukemia! They werent very clear on what other types of cells they found broken as well..... The one dangerous thing about this, is now my body has broken dead cells that it needs to get rid of. Which could cause a blood clot, or my kidneys to get blocked. So I am supposed to drink ALOT of water!
Even though I feel terrible, I am so grateful that I am able to still be home. I hope I am for Thanksgiving! This is a very scarry and long road, especially since I am the first AML patient to recieve this treatment at Huntsman. We really don't know what to expect. I am feeling like it's going to be  very difficult for a while, but I believe this will work.  Now I just have to stay focused on that each day,