Thank you for so so so much for your love and support-I just know Jeff would be thanking all of you for sending so much love to his 3 girls.

I wanted to let you all know where and when my honybun’s memorial service will be.

Saturday, October 9th at 10:30am

King’s Harbor Church in Torrance off of Lomita Blvd. between Hawthorne and Crenshaw

23915 Garnier St.

Torrance Blvd. 90505

Although the sadness overwhelmes me at times, I miss him terribly already, the girls and I still have joy and laughter in our home.

With Love – Julie

Jeff passed away last night.

My sweet sweet Jeff’s cancer came back. His health status kept declining after Washington. We found out that the cancer has infiltrated his cerebral spinal fluid, so the cancer is surrounding his brain, in his brain stem, as well as down his spinal column.

I brought him home from the hospital and with the help of hospice care am keeping him comfortable, and of course covered with lots of hugs and kisses.

He is no longer speaking or moving, and I have O2 on him now, plus all the meds so he is peaceful.

I do have to say I am so VERY VERY thankful to the Lord that He did not take Jeff when we were in Washington. During the past 5 weeks, I have been able to adjust gradually to being a single Mom, with my honeybun still here with me. Also, although my heart is heavier now, Jeff’s is not, because he is unconscious and closer to Jesus now than he is with me-that gives me peace.

Kayla and Natalie…how difficult that was commning back from the hospital to tell them their sweet Daddy will be going home to heaven soon. I know it helps that 95%  of the time, although I am sad, I am strong and our home is still filled with laughter and joy in the midst of all of this.

You know how I am going to protect them and do the best possible job I can raising those two beautiful girls.

This life on earth is truly a blip compared to eternity I will have with Jeff in heaven…It is just going to be a painful blip to not have my best friend with me.

We have the best support system anyone could ask for, that I can’t even express how thankful we are to have our, families, church family, MBPD family, our friends who drop everything to come help me. In such terrible circumstances I have the best of circumstances-Jeff just touched so many peoples lives.  You see? I knew what I had at age 17 and wasn’t going to let him go:)

At this time, with his condition declining, I’m only allowing close family to visit in order to protect Jeff.

Thank you our sweet friends and family who have followed Jeff’s journey for the past 20 months.

The Lord has been faithful, loving, and comforting and I will continue to lean on Him.

I love you-Julie

Jeff gave us a big scare when we were on vacation at our cabin in Diamond Lake Washington. On 8/15 Sunday night Jeff had 3 seizures, he was transported by ambulance to a local hospital where they did a CT scan of his brain and found a subarachnoid hemmorhage (bleeding in his brain). The ER doctor then proceeded to tell me he needed to be helicoptered to Spokane’s Sacred Heart Medeical Center. That is only a 20 minute flight, and for me it was an hour drive to finally get to him. Initially they thought the bleeding was from an anurism, however after further testing it does not look like that is the case. Basically they don’t know why his brain had a bleed (could be from the chemo treatments), but thankfully the bleeding did not contiunue. The seizures and the bleeding do not seem to be related either.

Jeff was not himself for 4 days (mentally and of course physically too), and I truly thought I had lost my Jeff. Wednesday I flew the girls and our dog home, then turned around and flew back to Jeff the next morning so I could then stay with him at the hospital 24hours a day. On Thursday Jeff began to think clearer, and wasn’t hallucinating anymore, and when he remembered I still needed to find a job, I knew he was getting better!

The doctor did not want him traveling home for a week because when there is blood in the brain tissue it is very iritating and there was a risk of vasospasms. By Friday 8/20, I was able to help him to the restroom all by myself, as well as take him for walks down the hall. He is just very unstable and weak. Thankfully my friend Debbie (who is also an RN) flew out Sat night to help me fly Jeff home on Sunday morning. Jeff was such a trooper because we had to leave the hospital at 4am, fly to Portland, change planes, then fly to LA. Then Debbie and I took him to UCLA ER because I needed a doctor to tell me  it was safe for me to take care of him at home, which it was.

The plan is, we transfered all of his medical records to UCLA (from USC, because USC no longer has a neuro oncologist, and UCLA has a team of neuro oncologists). Jeff is doing physical therapy (with our good friend Andrea at out home), and is getting stronger everyday – he is truly amazing and I am so darn proud of him. I am just so thankful for all the the prayers (thank you thank you thank you), and answers to the prayer because I have him home and I have Jeff back. The Lord is so good and faithful.

XO Julie

Hi everyone – remember me?

Ok now that school is done I will be able to keep the posts updated more frequesntly so thank you for your continued support and checking up on Jeff.

Lots of changes have been happening. Last Friday I got the BEST news – I found out I am a registered nurse!!!!!!!!! Finally after 5 1/2 years I can actually sign my name “Julie Goodrich, RN”! So thankful the Lord helped me pass that test because it was brutal (5 hours).

After we found out the good news we were off to see the doctor because Jeff had been suffering from severe headaches and vision problems in his right eye (poor guy – totally hung in there while I was consumed with studying for my board exam- I felt so bad). I had been in touch with the doctor who kept prescribing different medication but unfortunately the pain meds either were not working or made him sick. So I finally told them I’m bringing him in because something is just not right. His eye was worse now and his symptoms were debilitating and not getting better.

He ended up being admitted on Friday 7/16 and he just got home on Wednesday 7/21. In a nut shell his right eye has damage to cranial nerve #3 which causes his eyelid to droop (stay closed actually), his pupil does not constrict, and his eye does not move to the left. The good news is all of the tests they ran at the hopsital were negative. They did another MRI (still no cancer growth-great news), a CT scan (no bleeding), and a lumbar puncture to check for cancer cells in his cerebral spinal fluid (also negative). The headaches have gone away with morphine and steriods which in itself is a huge blessing.

Now we are left with tough decisions because it seems that his eye problems are caused from the chemo. BUT the chemo is keeping him alive. No one can tell us if his eye will get better because his symptoms have not benn seen before and there isn’t any published literature on his specific side effects.

We did have a consult at UCLA to check with their extensive neuro-oncology team last Wed, they just want a boat load of his records which I need to gather now so we can see what their plan would be and compare it to USC’s plan.

Please pray for complete healing for Jeff. I know the Lord WILL help us through this because He is a faithful God and we continue to put our trust in Him and love Him.

Kayla and Natalie are doing great – we have such awesome daughters – they make our job so incredibly easy. Kayla decided on her own to take summer school for 8 weeks to get geometry out of the way so she can go to a higher math level which looks great for college. Natalie is doing excellent at beach volleybal. She has my height and Jeff’s athletic ability (thank goodness!), and loves doing puzzles.

As for me, I’m looking for a job. These days there are not many opportunities for new grads  because there are so many of us now. I know God will put me where He wants me, when He wants me there (although it would be great to be bringing in some money about now!)

Jeff and I just  want to thank you for caring and supporting us, knowing you are reading this truly helps Jeffs spirits.

XO Julie

Just a quick post. Today’s MRI results were great. No changes from last one and no new cancer. My doc thinks the headaches and dizziness are probably side effects from my chemo treatments. So we just move forward with treatment and if the headaches and/or dizziness get worse he said we can treat that too. So for now all is well and next chemo is this Thurs 7/1/10. Thanks again for all the calls and text messages with all your thoughts and prayers. PRAISE GOD! He is awesome! In His Love, Jeff

Thank you all so much for all the comments you all leave on this site. I do read them and they put a smile on my face every time. Julie is now studying hard for her state nursing exam coming in July and applying to many different hospitals too. She continues to pour herself into her studies, but somehow still manages to take care of all of us too. Shes amazing. I have been experiencing headaches and some balance problems for the last few weeks so we moved my MRI up. I was scheduled for the end of July but my doctors felt we should move it up due to the headaches and balance issues. So its tomorrow 6/28/10 at 10am with a follow up at 1pm same day. All my other treatments have gone well and we continue with chemo every other Thursday (next one this week 7/1/10). I should have MRI results tomorrow and I will post them as soon as I can. No matter what the results, Julie and I continue to trust God and know that He is in control of everything. While getting MRIs is always a little unnerving, I just give it all to Him and believe in His faithfulness.

Still in His hands, Jeff

SHE DID IT!!!!! Julie graduated on Monday night and gave the grad speech to over 1200 people. She knocked it out of the park and gave a great speech. She is so happy to be done with school after 5 years of hard work. You can already see it on her face, the weight has been lifted from her shoulders and she cant wait to begin the next chapter. Thank you to all who prayed for her, encouraged her, and supported her through her challenges that seemed to be endless as she continued and persevered through probably the toughest thing she has ever done.

I had an MRI and lab work done yesterday as well as a follow up with my oncologist. The MRI looked the same as my last one which is exactly what we pray for. No recurrence and no new cancer showing up somewhere else up there. Lab work also returned with good results and all my counts are staying strong. I will continue on this same chemo regemin indefinately if necessary as long as we continue to get these results. We continue to see Gods blessings on our life every day. The continued support of our family and friends is one of the many we see daily. Never put limits on what He can do because He has no limits. Pray for the miracle because the miracle is possible. In His hands, Jeff

Sorry for the long delay. Had a small prob with logging onto the website. Things are going very well since my last post. My last two MRI’s have been great with no signs of recurrence and most of the swelling gone. Chemo is going well every other Thursday. My body seems to be tolerating it well and usually after a few days I’m feeling better and ready to work. My next MRI will be soon, prob within the next two weeks. We have all adjusted to my new life of  chemo and lab work every other week. It just seems normal now. We will continue on this same chemo regimen as long as we continue to see positive results on my MRI’s. We are so blessed to be getting results like this. Once again God is carrying me through this and blessing me and my family every step of the way.

Julie will be graduating from nursing school next week! She has worked so hard for over 4 years and she has made us so proud. She was selected by her class to give the speech at graduation which is a huge honor.

In His love, Jeff

Greetings! The last few weeks have thrown a few challenges at us. About 2 weeks ago Julie got a call from her family in Arizona that her mom Linda was dying. Less than an hour later we had Julie on a plane to Arizona. She spent the night with her mom who has been battling alzheimers for years. Julie flew home the next day knowing the next phone call from AZ would probably be “the” call and it was. The next morning her sister called to let her know her mom had passed away. Even though the call was not a surprise it was still hard for her to hear the news. As if Julie doesn’t have enough on her plate, she took it all in stride continued in her studies and waited to hear from her family when the services would be held. One week later (last weekend) we all flew out to AZ for one night to attend the memorial services for Linda.  The day after we got home, I spiked a fever that didn’t want to go down. Julie not wanting to take any chances due to my compromised immune system, took me to the ER where we stayed till 3:30 am. After running labs on my blood,a chest x ray, and talking to my oncologist they released me. My fever is gone and I seem to be getting better just some congestion and a nagging cough. Julie however decided to get sick too cause she didn’t want to be the only one. My next chemo is scheduled for this week on Thursday and my oncologist wants to do an MRI on the same day. So Tuesday blood work and Thursday MRI and Chemo. I will be updating as soon as I feel up to it. As always thank you so much for all your prayers and support.

I continue to rely on God through these challenges and I still believe He will only give us what we can handle. In His love, Jeff