Amber's Journey with Cancer

06/19/2024

Praise God! Pastor David was able to make it up to officiate Amber's funeral.It was a beautiful service. To God be the glory!

06/16/2024

Calling all prayer warrior to pray that pastor David's back would heal and that he would be able to come and give a message at Amber's funeral.

06/14/2024

We want to thank everyone for your support and prayers over the last few years. They have been a great comfort to Amber and her family. On Wednesday, after a long, strong fight Amber passed away peacefully with her loved ones at her side. She was able to say all of her goodbyes and she was ready to rest. Amber was such a strong woman of faith, and she truly leaves a legacy of strong faith in God and a love for everyone that will never be forgotten.

Josh has requested we thank everyone for their donations. He also wanted to express that instead of donating to big cancer societies, help out a family and show your love on an individual level. It has meant so very much to them.

Amber Renee Willems, 38, of Lakeville, OH passed away on Wednesday, June 12, 2024 at Akron General Medical Center.

She was born in Phoenix, AZ on October 21, 1985 and married Joshua Willems on February 24, 2007. She was known for her entrepreneurial and industrious spirit, running her own Color Street business and authoring a full-length novel. From gardening, to baking, to spending time with her children, she truly was a real-life Wonder Woman, whom her family and friends looked up to and admired greatly. Her kind and gentle strength blessed those she came in contact with, and she was always looking out to make people feel invited, included, and loved. She was fiercely loyal and devoted to her friends and family. Her life was marked by both deep devotion to God and her loved ones, and she will be very dearly missed.

She is survived by her husband, Joshua; 5 sons, Daniel, Benjamin, Nathaniel, Jason, and Ethan; her mother, Debra (Charles) Miller; her father, Thomas Gregoire; and sisters, Kimberly Brown, Danielle Gregoire, and Carol Gregoire.

https://www.spidellfuneralhomemounteaton.com/obituaries/Amber-R-Willems?obId=31812573&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2PXehY86Y7Qbx-eK78njBKWHW9-JNdWFFSjfnuaiq9ruZW_FPWSrULo5s_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw #/obituaryInfo

View Amber R. Willems's obituary, contribute to their memorial, see their funeral service details, and more.

06/12/2024

Please pray!!! Doctor said he's running out of options. Liver is likely damaged/dying. He's sending up an oncologist and they will probably run an ultrasound on the liver.

06/11/2024

Calling my prayer warriors!

I'm back in the hospital. Actually, I was back almost all last week and went home just to turn around AGAIN. 😞 I kept trying to put it off because I had a big treatment in IN coming up, but I knew enough was enough and I needed to go in.

This time, I'm not leaving until we get to the bottom of this!!! While my lung did have some liquid on it, it wasn't a ton. My heart looked great.

My guess and my oncologist's guess is that this terrible out-of-breath stuff is because of my very low and troubled red blood count and anemia.

This morning, this hypothesis was confirmed. I was feeling absolutely awful- like I was doing to pass out. My hemoglobin was also really low. They hurried to get a transfusion ordered and hooked up asap.

Within minutes, I was feeling much better and even breathing better. It was crazy how quickly I started feeling better!!

Please pray that we have wisdom and continue to figure this out! I definitely don't want to go home this time without fixing the problem. 😖

05/26/2024

Latest update:
Doing well at home! So, so glad to be back with all my boys. 😊

My lung is MUCH better than before my hospital stays. I don't even cough very often, and more just a clearing my throat type stuff- which I'll probably have for a while while my lung heals.

My heart rate continues to be high, but it's steady (very rarely racing and no panicky feeling like before).

All my swelling from surgery, etc, is down/gone.

My energy is still very low due to my very low hemoglobin. To put it in perspective, I have about half of what I should have. 😖 So, I have to be very patient with myself and learn to not push it. I get tuckered out very easily. Most days, I can just hold down the fort with the boys, do my treatments, and maybe do some small, easy projects and that is it for me for the day. 🫤

I will be planning to get a transfusion soon. We are hoping to be able to use Josh's blood (for safety reasons, but more importantly, because we need my blood to stay consistent for my gene therapy- I'll share about the treatments I'm doing another day!). But there's a ton of confusion on being a designated donor for a transfusion 🙄, so I may have to get my first one as a regular one from the hospital.

Some HUGE praise reports I had to share with you all:

-I had a red patch of skin that my oncologist took one look at and told me it was cancer. He said once I lost the estrogen (in my o***y removal surgery), that might clear up. Well, that patch is at least 2/3 cleared already!!! 😭🙏

-I also had a suspicious bump on the skin of the b**b that had the mastectomy. I asked my plastic surgeon about it, but it was still there even after the reconstruction surgery. Now, it is completely GONE!!! After almost 2 years of having it!!!

-I've also had several groups of weird lymph nodes. My doctor wasn't too worried about them and did think they were just swollen lymph nodes, but they were definitely unsettling- especially the ones you could easily see. Strange bumps take on a whole different meaning once you've had cancer. 😣 Anyway, almost all of those bumps have disappeared completely! The rest of the ones I can still find are now much, much smaller.

So, we seem to definitely be heading in the right direction!!! So, so grateful! 😭🙏 I'm still shocked how quickly things seem to be healing!! My surgery was only a month ago!

So thankful for all the prayers you all have covered us with!!!😭🙏😭❤️

05/12/2024

The one thing I was REALLY hoping to be home in time for was Daniel's induction into the National Honor Society. I was starting to think I wasn't going to make it, but -thank God!- I got discharged the very day of his ceremony! I took my oxygen off just for the pic and had to take it very slow, but I was THERE!!! 😭💙😭💙
Thank you all for your prayers!!! I felt so covered in prayer throughout this ordeal! I KNOW they were heard!! It was so crazy how my fluid around my heart just suddenly stopped!
Being able to attend this was such a sweet added blessing!! 💙💙💙

05/09/2024

On our way home!!!
🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

05/08/2024

Praise God!!! Drain is out!!! Almost left today, but cardiac doctor prefers to monitor me overnight just to be safe. Everyone is planning on me leaving tomorrow morning!!! 🥳🥳🥳🥳

05/07/2024

Hoping to go home tomorrow!!! 🙏🙏🙏😁😁😁

05/07/2024

Today's updates:

- Lung doctor said my lung fluid is stable. Same or slightly better than it was 3 days ago, definitely better than it was 5 days ago. He said at this point, he wouldn't put a new drain in. So, that was great news!

- This morning, I could tell that my heart drain was clogged again. 🙄 This was frustrating because I don't go home until my fluid out-put is at a certain level in a 24 hr period. When it gets clogged, we really don't know how much it was. The doctors were starting to talk about doing surgery to put in a permanent stint, but we were very uncomfortable with that idea. The last thing my body needs right now is to go under surgery again!! Especially when a drain may clear it up with a little time. Before the clogging issues, it was lessening each day. We just needed to be patient.
So, that was discouraging news this morning, realizing I might be here for quite a while longer.😔
The cardiac surgeon came to unclog my drain. He worked on it for a while, got it unclogged and tried to get out some fluid. Very little came out.
"I think that might be it on your fluid," he said.
What?!?!?
That was this afternoon. My drain still has very, very little fluid that has come out. It really might be done!!!! What a HUGE answer to prayer!!!!!!
We'll be doing an echo-cardiogram in the morning to make sure that there are no pockets of fluid left. If not, I should be good to go home!!!! That seems unbelievable!😭 Especially when this morning I was bracing for a lot longer stay.

Please keep praying!!!! I KNOW He is hearing us!!!! ❤️🙏❤️🙏❤️