Jerad Bitner

Jenney was diagnosed in February of 2020 with stage 4 metastatic melanoma which had spread to her brain. The survival rate of stage 4 metastatic melanoma is about 25%. After 2 brain surgeries, a C-section operation to deliver our son Marcus, an extensive recovery from encephalitis caused by the immune therapy, and hives from a reaction to an antibiotic… there are now no signs of the cancer. We had a Pet scan and an MRI of her brain and they found no signs of the cancer or growth. The visible lumps under her skin in 5 different places are gone. The spot on her lung is gone. The spots in her brain are gone. There is still scar tissue from the surgeries in her brain but they show no signs of growth. 9 months after what could have been a death sentence, Jenney is healed!

It’s been a full three weeks since I last wrote. In that time Jenney was

• in the hospital for a total of 10 days,
• returned home on the 21st,
• spent time recovering at home,
• developed insomnia; and
• had an alergic reaction to one of her medications resulting in hives.

I believe that Jenney will be healed, fully and completely, and by the grace of God will see her children grow and meet her grandchildren.

This past month has been a blessing. It reminds me of April which was a calm in the eye of the storm as Jenney recovered from her first brain surgery. We knew there would be the other side of the storm to go through, knowing Marcus was going to be born and that we would have to start treatments, but we didn’t know it was going to be so extremely harrowing with the additional brain surgery. But this last half of June and first half of July have been like April, with not only Jenney recovering again, but also with Marcus growing so big and so strong.

Looking for words to describe the past couple of weeks; stressful, joyful at times, peaceful, some frustrations, a lot of gratitude. Overall Jenney continues to recover from her second craniotomy remarkably well.