INDY Children began as a way for me to play Jeopardy with my children. I would supply the answers via blog posts, recipes, old photos and stories. You know, categories. When I am gone and they can’t call their mom and ask, “How do you do that?” The answers would be available digitally. Or at least I hope so.
It seemed like a good idea at the time. I don’t think they ever read a single one of my posts. The blog lay dormant for a few years, and then 2023 happened. The year that changed our lives with bad news nearly every month.
Sickness, the death of my brother, dad, uncle, sister, and step-son, despair. It all started with my lung cancer.
During sleepless nights during daily radiation, I sat on the corner of my couch and wrote my heart out. I did not break down and cry in front of the Cancer Center staff at any of my appointments. I cried silently in the darkness of the morning before I started my day. I do remember coming out of the MRI tube with salty streaks running towards my ears, but no one noticed my red eyes.
After surviving radiation and chemo and all that goes with it, I found my stagnant blog site called I’m Not Dead Yet Children.
While recovering from the extreme fatigue and sore esophagus making it difficult to eat, the title took on a new meaning. I navigated my way through my new reality. A reality of doctors, appointments, scans, tests, radiation, chemo, fatigue and all that follows.
It took a bit of courage to want to put my story out there, but I kept thinking, “Until this moment in my life, I had no idea what people with chronic illnesses have to go through.”
Maybe people need to know. And here we are, three years into lung cancer with mets to the brain. And you all care about what happens next.
There are many more of you than me who are interested in my well-being, and I could have spent my whole day on the phone telling and retelling my story. I decided I could keep in touch with more folks through the blog site.
So it began. And, it was well received. The gifts of people’s support and prayers generated from my journey story are cherished.
It’s been almost three years since the initial diagnosis. It’s been almost two years since my brain tumors have all but disappeared. (Thank you, God). After my recent visit to Mayo, we discovered that one of the five tumors is acting up.
It’s complicated.
There is a spot in the right side of my brain, near or about ear level, that could be this, or it could be that. We know it is growing. It does not have a hard edge. There is some swelling around the area. It could be radiation scars. It could be regrowth. It is in an area of the brain that does not affect hearing or sight, mostly a quiet zone. (Thank God for that small favor.)
It could mean seizures. It could mean surgery because you cannot perform gamma knife surgery on the same area twice.
I have to return to Rochester in two months for surveillance. One more MRI. One more unidentified mass in my brain.
To target my prayers, this unknown thing in my brain has been named Wilbur. If anything, “let’s pray Wilbur away.” The thought of surgery in the new year is unsettling for two reasons. One, I think it would be the slice-open-the-head type of surgery this time, and two, our home will be going live on the market today.
Circumstances beyond my control have developed over the course of three years, and I am forced to leave my beloved Garden of Weedin’ for whatever lies ahead.
It’s scary and unavoidable because my husband has moved on to a new life without me. I will be trying to find a comfortable place for me and my disease to live out my final days in peace. Of course, there’s always the healing power of Jesus. I am banking on it. Without your prayers, cards and words of support, among other things, such as help with packing my precious things and moving them to a storage shed, I would never have made it this far.
If you know anyone searching for a new home, please share the link to our listing (https://my.flexmls.com/AMYDHULLET1/search/shared_links/D29Fn/listings/20250619213634224031000000). Your help in getting the word out could make a real difference for me right now.
As always, your kind words and support of the past three years have shed a different sort of light on my life. It has been a true blessing at this time of my life.
Today, I want many things: a cute house for my hobbies, a garden, a wash line and some quiet. It’s going to be a timing thing, as we need to sell the house for me to move on.
More than anything, I need your prayers right now. Please keep me and Wilbur close in your thoughts. Every prayer helps more than you know.
If you wish to help, please share the real estate listing. As you are able, share the social media campaign so we don’t forget about Wilbur for the next two months.
Today, my friends, I’m excited for you to join me in the next two months of eliminating that pesky ghost of a tumor. God’s got this.
“Let’s pray Wilbur away.”
INDYchildrendotme 
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