A Loss Hits Close
Caring Bridge - June 30, 2019:
As we close in on what appears to be our last week in Memphis, things have been a little more difficult all around. For nearly three days last week, Asher’s blood pressure started to get out of control, leading to some of the worst headaches he’s had in recent memory. He’s currently on some medication to help control it, but he hasn’t bounced back fully from this. We’re seeing symptoms that were in the rise when the cyst was growing: fatigue, shortness of breath, difficulty speaking, elevated heart rate, etc. Asher has also been very emotional, and sometimes, he’s inconsolable. Pray that we can comfort him, and that his symptoms would ease. Please pray for him.
Leah and I have also been a little under the weather, and that certainly doesn’t help. Please pray that no one else gets sick.
The first half of the week is full of appointments and exams, including an MRI. Pray they would go smoothly.
This weekend will be spent with family in Memphis as sort of a “last hurrah” while we’re here. Pray that our family would make good memories.
Finally, we’ve had some tough reminders of what we’re up against, but few are as heavy as hearing news that a couple of kids that we met and interacted with earlier in the year at St. Jude have passed. One young lady, just 13 years old, spent considerable time with us at Ronald McDonald house. She would even come to our room and play with our kids. Our hearts grieve with those families. As I’ve been told many times, there are no words for this. Childhood cancer is something that should not be. Join us in praying for and grieving with those families.
Annalise Kathleen Ireland was a funny, outgoing teenage girl who gave Asher a run for his money in the “never met a stranger” department. Sharing a unique name with our own daughter, we first met her in one of the common areas at Ronald McDonald House when we were calling to our own daughter. She was friendly, talkative, and really seemed to just want to enjoy being a kid. She would come talk to us any time we saw her, she had jokingly branded our daughter the “name thief,” and occasionally dropped by our room at RMH to play a game with our kids.
When we arrived, Annalise was in the last few weeks of her current stage of treatment. She had spent several months in Memphis. She missed her brothers, and she was ready to go. I’ll never forget the last time we saw her. We were on our way out of the facility when she caught our attention excitedly told us that she was getting to go home. We were so happy for her. The look on her face was like Christmas was just around the corner.
Less than three months after coming home, her cancer came back so aggressively, and spread so quickly that nothing could be done, and passed before Asher had even started the clinical trial. She had a different type of cancer altogether (a type of melanoma), so Leah and I were shocked by both the loss, and how quickly it happened.
Where death was once just a threat looming in the cloudy future, it had now become very real. The fact that death takes even children was tangible, and it was an awful thing to behold.
https://www.ericmdbellfuneralhome.com/obituary/Annalise-Ireland