Marriage and Beyond

July 15th rolled around beautiful at 100 degrees and sunny. Friends and Family from all over made the sweet trip on 3 weeks notice to celebrate the joining of the two. It was a sweet time and made for the perfect beginning of their lives now as one. If any of you grew up in the 80's then you will know where the quote 'Mawage, Mawage is what bwings us togever today.." is from. Marriage is what brought so many sweet people together to bless Will and Ruth on a day where she really did feel like a princess bride! They do say that the wedding kiss rates as one of the best/ longest in history.
Mom, Dad, and Gail Schroeder had to return to the other side of the ocean and Ruth and Will settled into their duplex in Lenexa, Kansas. Being close to all the KC Renos provided a wonderful support group for Will and Ruth alike as they began their lives together.


Will continued with his radiation and chemo for the next five weeks as the couple learned how to live and love together. Ruth was orienting to a new position at the VA and Will undergoing therapy in attempts to get his arm back to baseline strength for hunting elk in September. Will was starting to drive again and mow the grass. Both were entertaining thoughts of a real honey moon and trying to buy a house.

Will felt tired but no other real health concerns arose while he was having treatment. He was even able to keep his thick black hair until after the wedding. From then on he started sporting the shiny look which Ruth has grown to prefer. He finished 33 radiation sessions and six weeks of oral chemo to complete the first phase. All was going well.

On August 16th Will was at home watching a football game when he experienced a small seizure. He was able to call his parents after it was over and they rushed him to the ER. A CT of his head was completed and we were told their was a large mass noted in the surgical cavity. Figuring there must be some mistake Will and Ruth headed home to get some sleep. An MRI was not scheduled until 3 days later and unfortunately revealed a tumor larger than the size of the first which was causing a significant amount of swelling. This may have been the cause of the seizure and consequently was the Lord’s way of telling us something was not right. After many tears a more than a bit of disbelief, it was back to the square one to figure out the next plan of action. True to their word Will was immediately taken off of the clinical trial at St. Lukes and other options were explored. We were presented with either the option to do surgery or an experimental chemo. What a terrific decision to face after all that had transpired in the past few weeks. Again after many prayers and tears Will and Ruth decided to go with the surgery. It seemed like the most aggressive option to provided them with some more time.