Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry it's taken me so long to update things. I was holding out until Eli's next appt. which was today. Christmas around here was great! The boys got everything they wanted (Evan had to have a Chad Johnson jersey and Eli just wanted video games). Big Eli even got the one thing he wanted, but didn't actually ask for. Elijah loves the poem "Footprints In The Sand". It refers to a man questioning God about why, when he needed God the most, did he only see one set of footprints in the sand. God goes on to inform him that the set of prints in the sand are his own because he was in fact carrying the man during his time of need. Elijah knows that God is the one carrying him through this battle right now. Well I bought Elijah a poster with the poem on it years ago, but it was kinda cheesy. It was very difficult to find something nice, that would go with our house with the poem on it. When Elijah was hospitalized he kept saying he wanted to get someone to handwrite the poem for him so he could get it framed. So of course, that's what I had made for him for Christmas. I found a lady (Marie Adamson - writtentreasure.com) in Rockwall, TX, who did an absolutely fabulous job. I'll take a pic and post it when we get it framed. The smile it brought to his face was wonderful. He had to admit that it was exactly what he wanted.

I wasn't able to go with Elijah to his Dr. appt. today because I have a cold. I have yet to figure out with all the additional handwashing and hand sanitizing I've been doing how I caught this cold, but oh well. So I have to stay out of Eli's face because I don't want him getting sick from me again.

I typed up a long list of questions and things I needed the doctor to address, gave Eli's friend who took him to the appt. my notebook to take notes in and Eli took a little pocket recorder to tape record the appt. for me. So I just listened to the tape and it sounds like Eli is continuing to do well. We should know by the end of the week what his new M-spike number is. That's the number that measures the amount of myeloma in his system. Hopefully it would have gone down again. The plan is to prepare Elijah for a stem cell transplant, using his own cells. That procedure should help ensure that the myeloma is pushed further back into remission for a long time. He's still feeling tired, but that's just a side effect from the chemo. The recovery time for the transplant should be about 2-3 weeks. Prayerfully Mr. Man will be able to start getting back to normal pretty soon. My dad will come back to help out which is truly a blessing. He just left today after being here for a week. I was so glad that he was here because he was able to keep an eye on the boys and keep them entertained. I'm hoping he'll move here soon, but I'm going to have to keep working on him.

I'm going to run now because this cold is wearing me out. I just spoke to a friend of mine who said I need to go to the doctor in the morning, so I'm taking her advice.
PUH-LEEZ keep the prayers coming, but also keep our friends Matt and Jenny Stinchcomb, Eric and Danielle Beverly, Bobby and Cecilia Romanski as well as Tony Dungy and his family prayed up as well. Good night folks!

That's pic of Evan, age 7 and Elijah, age 10 - My mini-husbands.

Hello all! I know, I know, long time no speak. Well no news id definitely good news. Elijah received his 3rd of 4 chemo treatments today. According to the blood work that was done he continues to respond positively to the treatment. THANK GOD! After the fourth treatment he will be reassessed and then they will collect his cells to do a transplant later that month. When I tell you that the Alexander's are literally counting down the days till January, please believe it. My husband has finally accepted the fact that working out during chemo will not give him his body back. The chemo just makes him too tired and weak. He's looking forward to getting some weight and muscle back on him in a few weeks.

Elijah's initial cancer reading was 3.7%, that's the percentage of cancer cells that were in his body. As of today that reading has dropped to .70%. The goal is for the cancer to be declared undetectable and all signs are pointing to us being there soon! Once that happens we'll begin getting our lives back to normal and doing whatever it takes to maintain his remission.

Let me brag on my husband right quick, you guys. I think I mentioned to you all that Eli and were supposed to be taking a trip to Orlando this month. As the day for our departure grew near I was not too happy about going because Eli was still feeling bad due to his cold. I told him I was going to cancel the trip a few days before we were scheduled to leave. Because I was raising such a stink about it he went ahead and admitted to me that the plan was never for us to both go, but that he had arranged for my Jodi, my dad and my brother to meet me down there to give me a mini-vacation so that I could recharge my battery. His friend Gumbo came out and helped him with the boys while I got to hang out with my family and do a little shopping (y'all know I loved that). I'm glad it happened the way it did though because the original plan was for him to keep me in the dark until we arrived at the airport and then he was going to inform me that I was going to be going on the trip by myself. I told him that would have made me an emotional wreck because I would have been worried sick about him and the boys. At least this way I had a few days to plan accordingly.

Well let me run. I'll be back soon. I am trying to not stay up too late these days.
Love ya!
Kimberly

You all know I need to be asleep, but I figured I'd jump on here right quick sinceI'm in a better mood. I was soooooooooooooooooo glad to see my husband up and about today. I'm starting to realize that I feel better on the days he feels better and vice versa (I guess that's understandable, huh?). He'd been pretty out of it since Thanksgiving thanks to that cold. Today he was finally starting to show signs of getting some strength back. We got the numbers back from the doc and the only one that was down was his white blood cell count. That was to be expected though since he had the cold. After school me and rugrats went to get flu shots. To my surprise one of my neighbors called and informed me that she had prepared dinner for us. I was so appreciative because since I'd been running errands all day I hadn't had a chance to take anything out. She told me she was preparing fish, but I'd have to make the sides. I was so glad. But when she showed up at my front door not only did she have one of favorites (salmon), she'd gone ahead and made beef patties, green beans, rice, rolls, brought a tin can full of cookies, two bottles of apple cider and plastic plates, cups and forks for the four of us. Talk about RIGHT ON TIME! I couldn't believe it. It's people like her that I learn lessons from. I learned that when someone offers help, accept it. That's kind of been an issue for me. I'm the type that tries to handle it all when in all honesty, I can't, at least not right now.

I'm still behind on t-shirt orders and I'm going out of town this weekend. Ughhhhh. My husband surprised me with another Christmas gift last night. He felt I needed to getaway so he's sending me to Florida for the weekend to do some shopping and visit friends. For those who know my husband you know this is a big deal because Mr. Budget doesn't fund too many shopping trips. LOL! You know I don't care though because his financial savviness is paying off now. I'm torn about going to Florida though because I hate leaving him here. He was supposed to be going with me, or so I thought. I just found out that that never was the plan. So he and the boys, along with his friend and my brother-in-law will be running the house this weekend. I think I'm going to have to slip my kids a $20 to make sure there are no parties going down.

You know the drill, please continue to pray for us. they are truly appreciated. Also keep our friends Danielle, Shellie and Matt lifted in prayer too. I can't be selfish, we're not the only crew that the devil is messing with.

Good night!

Hi everyone! If some of you have not heard, there was an article published in yesterday's paper about Elijah and his Wildcat football team. I think the reporter and photographer did a great job in describing what happened during our ceremony Tuesday night. If you missed it, there's a link below.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/frisco/stories/DN-frcoach_01met.ART0.North.Edition2.13b7280c.html

He was so proud of the boys.

Right now fatigue is kicking his butt. It's a side affect of the chemo that we look forward to ditching come January. My once go-go-go husband is now learning how to adjust to slowing down. He's taking care of priorities and business first and resting often in between. Staying busy and keeping his mind going is good for him.

The doc says his numbers are still looking good, even with his cold.

On a side note, I know some of you have tried to post comments and have had trouble. It looks like that may have been my fault because, despite appearances, I ain't the most computer literate. I have a touch of ADD (all busy mom/wives do) and I didn't follow directions for allowing comments. Hopefully that bug has been fixed, if not, continue to e-mail me directly, I love hearing from you.

As devastating as this diagnosis has been the outpouring of support, reconnection with old friends and the creation of new friendships has truly been enjoyable. Now let me run. I'm trying to stop going to bed so late. Oh yeah, please excuse my typos too. I went back a read some of the stuff I typed and I'm sure I embarassed my mom and dad. My bad.

Love ya much!
Kimberly

Hi folks! Off the top, today was a good day. Eli had a doctor's appt. Even though he's recovering from his cold his numbers are still looking good. He's improving with each visit. Thank G-O-D! I have to run, we've got the Wildcat banquet tonight. I'll be back with more updates soon. Keep praying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kimberly

Today was a little rough. This cold is really making Eli feel weak and bad compared to how much better he had been feeling. He rested all day today while me and the boys went looking for Christmas decorations. I'm hoping that by making the house seem festive it'll put us all in a better mood.

I finally got our portraits, from when we renewed our vows this summer, framed. I thought they turned out nice. It was kind of bittersweet to see all four of us in the picture. It was the first large portrait we ever had made as a family. A couple of years ago Eli told me he was afraid for us to take a picture like that because he thought it'd almost be like bad omen. It's amazing how so many comments that we have made to each other throughout our years together seem so poingant now. I can remember all the times I thought my life was too good to be true. Everything for us seemed to happen so reletively smoothly. We'd had our ups and downs, but truly no major challenges. And now this. Forgive me for sounding down, but right now, it's just how I feel. The look on Eli's face when I showed him our portrait today has me feeling sad. We received the DVD recording of our renewal ceremony a few days before Eli was hospitalized and I haven't even gotten up the nerve to watch it. It was such a special day our family.

While I was typing this little message I went back through some files on this computer and found a couple of pics from that day. Seeing them is actually making me feel a little better. I guess I just needed a little reminder of how special our relationship is. Lord knows I love this man so much. Everything's going to be okay. I just has to. Please continue to keep us lifted in prayer, as you can see, it's needed. Let me go downstairs and check on him and go get some rest. Thanks for reading my ramble. Kimberly

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

How are you all doing? I hope everyone enjoyed their day with their family. We enjoyed ours. You know we have so much to be thankful for. My in-laws came over and we had plenty of food and watched the football games.

Eli and I were a little under the weather yesterday and we still haven't been able to shake it. We're learning the hard way how detrimental it is for him to catch a bug from the kids. The boys had colds earlier this week and Big Eli and I caught it. The only problem is that it broke him down a lot more than it did me. We both took Nyquil shots on Wednesday night so by Thursday morning we were still dragging a bit. We shook it off in time to get our eat on though. Eli started feeling bad again tonight and so he's taken some more Nyquil and gone off to bed. I just want him to get some rest so that he can get back on track. It's hard seeing him struggle, trying to get back to normal. He's such a trooper though. He knows this is going to be a long battle.

Let me go so I can go catch up on t-shirt orders & put my kids to bed (they're pushing the envelope and staying up late since they're on vacation).

Love ya,
Kimberly

WooHoo! My husband gave me my Christmas present early so I am FINALLY coming at you all from my own computer (I'm sure he was sick of seeing me in his office). As I promised, here's a pic of the big guy and our boys. This pic was taken a couple of weeks ago, the morning of the BIG games. Don't they look handsome? The boys have since gotten twists in their hair because I was a little fed up with the afros they were growing. So now I'm a happy camper, my husband's getting better and my son's don't look like little ragamuffins.

We are doing well. Coach is still working out and trying to get his body built up. The boys are happy to see their dad getting around so well. They don't say much, but I know when they worry about him. Whenever he's not home they always want to know where he is. I try to reassure them that he's okay and he's just out running some errand or conducting business.

Please continue to pray that my husband will regain his strength and stamina. His mind is working at 100%, but I know it frustrates him that his body doesn't. It's tough for him to not be able to do all the things he could before, but we're determined to get him back to his old self. His goal is to be in shape by next training camp so he can come out of retirement. :-)

Love ya,
Kimberly

Sorry folks. I have been a little busy lately so I hadn't had a chance to update you all after Eli's latest check up. Once again his numbers from his bloodwork are all headed in the right direction. We have come a loooooooooooooong way in a short period of time. His kidneys are back to normal and he's carrying on business as usual. He's continuing to work out daily and he was pleased as punch when his doc said he could go ahead and jog on a regular basis. Once it warms up he'll start that up. He'll have chemo again in December and January and prayerfully the cancer will be undetectable after that point. His response to this aggressive treatment is promising. Now that the football season is over(we only have one more Wildcat function) he can get some much needed rest from coaching duties. You know we have to have him ready to go next year so the little Wildcats can be champs 4 years in a row!

What an amaizng 5 weeks it has been. From his initial hospitalization 10/03/05 to today my husband has been a fighter. With your prayers, positive words and thoughts he's realized how much we all love him. We couldn't have done it without such supportive friends, family and most importantly, the good Lord.

I've said it once and I'll say it again, THANK YOU! Please keep the prayers coming because once this cancer is knocked out we're still going to need the prayers that it never rears its ugly head again.

Love ya much!
Kimberly

Every where we go, people wanna know. Who we are, so well them...

WE ARE THE MIGHTY MIGHTY WILDCATS!

Yes folks! Big Eli's little Wildcat team WON the championship game on Saturday, 30-24. It was a great game! I think those little guys are what kept him going during this. I'll post pics soon, my computer is acting up so I'm on the coach's computer for the time being. The older Wlidcat's, L'il Eli's team, lost 6-0 against the Vikings. It was a tough game, but the boys handled the loss well.

Big Eli was tired after being out at the stadium 6 1/2 hours so he came home and rested and spent Sunday doing what he loves to do most on Sunday. Sit in his gameroom and watch every NFL game that comes on. He seems to be handling the chemo well. I think Saturdays games were very intense for him so I'm not surprised that he's needing to rest today. Let me run so I go check on him. I just wanted to give you a heads up about how the big guy is doing!

Love ya,

Kimberly

Real quick update here. Eli and I came home this morning. His other kidney specialist stopped by this morning, just to speak, and told him kidneys were functioning completely normal. He came home, ran some errands, took a nap and was off to football practice. It was the last practice before the boy's big games. They are so excited.

The chemo treatment went smoothly. So far so good. I still have my eye on him because I'm always afraid he's doing too much. I'm sure once the football season is over he'll slow down, at least I hope so.

I probably won't be updating again unitl after his appt. next week. I'm going to make sure he continues with his supplemental medicines as well as the prescribed ones and his heaping dosage of prayers. I'm convinced that between the prayers, the hands that have been laid on him and the oil that has touched his head the medicine is serving as a backup to getting him on his feet.

Thanks for checking in on us and continue to PRAY!!!!!!!
Kimberly

All right folks. I am typing this from Eli's hospital room. He made it through having his port put in with flying colors. We're now in the room that he'll be in until tomorrow. He's feeling great! He's on the phone runnin' his mouth right now. The kidney doctor that treated him a few weeks ago stopped through tonight when he saw that Eli is here. Even he was amazed at how great Eli looked. He said that for Eli, being in such great shape before all of this happened, was a good thing and a bad thing. The good part was that he was able to bounce back quickly from being so low. He said that Eli had toxic levels of myeloma in his system and believe me, we knew that. He said the bad thing was that since Eli was in such good shape it took a while for his body to recognize that there was something really wrong. All the nurses (we're back at the same hospital where he received his plama pheresis) were amazed at his progress too.

As for me, I realized today that the t-shirt biz is mobile. While waiting for him to have his surgery I made shirts. I had to answer a lot of questions from other patient's family members in the waiting room who were wondering what the heck I was doing, but I got a lot done! So if I owe you or someone you know a shirt, it's comin'!

We're waiting for Eli's dinner to come in now. His weight is steadily creeping back up. Fortunately I've managed to keep mine in check while he eats high calorie, but healthy meals. I jus get to watch. No cheesecake and apple pie a la mode for me.

I'll be in touch soon! PLEASE KEEP US IN YOUR PRAYERS AND KNOW THAT YOU ARE IN OURS!

Love ya,
Kimberly

Hey y'all! I'm just jumping on here real quick to give you the latest! We went to the doc's today, Elijah's blood work came back great! All the numbers that either needed to go up or be within a normal range are just that! YAY! He's ready to go into the hospital in the morning. We had a little bit of a scare today. When we were asking the nurse about how he should expect to feel after the procedure, she said he'd feel very fatigued. Well you know we're not trying to hear that because we've got TWO big games on Saturday. We told her that and she said, "Oh no, you shouldn't go out there. You could become dehydrated and end up back in the hospital." She said Eli could be wiped out for about a week. So of course we were floored. When I went on to elaborate about how imporatnt it was for Eli to be at the games because he's coaching she said, "OH! I thought he was going to be playing!" We had a good laugh and reassured her that those days are O-V-E-R! I'll be bringing him home on Thursday to MAKE him rest so he can encourage the boys on the field the way only Eli can do.

I plan on adding pics to this soon too! Thank you so much for the positive comments regarding this blog. It lets me feel good knowing you all don't mind going through this with me!

Love ya!

Hi friends! I have created this little on-line journal (at the suggestion of my friend Tamee) so that you all can check in on us from time to time, when it's convenient for you. I don't want to invade your space with e-mail updates all of the time. Heaven forbid it get to a point where you see my name in the "from" section and dread opening it. I can't thank you all enough for all of the prayers. And I beg you to keep them coming. Seeing the progress my husband has made in a month is proof that prayer works! Oh, yeah, I'm calling this blog "Eli's Girl" because back on a five year anniversary we couldn't decide on gifts for each other so we got tattoos. I have a little heart on my shoulder blade that says, "Eli's Girl", of course.

Today is November 7th and it's almost a week since the last time I cried. That's huge!!!!!! It was October 3 when Elijah was first hospitalized and I have been running on fumes. During the past couple of weeks it was starting to hit me that my husband has a cancer for which there is no cure (multiple myeloma). It's still a little hard for me to say it. I figure if I say it enough, eventually I'll get used to it, so quite often it rolls off my tongue like, "Hey this is not a big deal." But, it could be. At 35 my husband is dealing with a disease that most don't have to face until they're twice his age. I have already been through the 'why hims' and the 'why us'. Now that it's here I just want to do all I can to ensure that he's here and feeling as good as possible for as long as possible.

So enough about that. How 'bout those WILDCATS! No, not the Kansas State Wildcats (are you kidding me?) The Frisco Football League Wildcats, in the 8 and 9 year old tackle division! Both L'il Eli's and Evan's football teams have made it to the finals which will be played this weekend. And yes, Daddy is still coaching. That' how I know he's feeling better. Naw, that's an understatement compared to how he felt a month ago. Big Eli is feeling great! He's waking up at the crack of dawn and going to work out. He even did a light jog today for the first time. And yes, I do feel bad that he STILL makes working out a priority while I lay in bed as long as chronologically possible. One of these days I will be as good as he is.

Tomorrow we will go back to the doctor to have his blood work done up before they fit him with a port. A port is a little contraption they will insert in his chest to make administering drugs through IV easier. While he's there they will also give him a bag of chemo. He'll be kept overnight for observation and I'll bring him home Thursday. We have to get coach back right so he can be ready for the mini-me's games on Saturday. He's determined to be there. The doctor said he shouldn't have a negative response to the chemo. His immune system may be weakend, but to help offset that I have already started him on several alternative medications and vitamins. My aunt Angie told me about a drink called Kombucha (http://naturezone.net/) that we both now drink daily. Hie's also on another product that a nutrionist recommended called Panacea (http://www.panacea4u.com/index.html). He's eating a lot of seafood and organic fruits and veggies.

I'm getting sleepy so let me get out of here. Check back soon, I'll keep ya posted on what's going on with my hubby.

Love ya!
Kimberly