Thank you so much to everyone who came to the prayer rally tonight. It was so encouraging and moving. It was such a beautiful picture of the body of Christ. We are so blessed to have such amazing family and friends!
Thank you Kosters and Konings for organizing it!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Indiana bound.
We are heading to Indianapolis this Friday. We have an appointment with Dr. Foster from Indiana University on Friday afternoon. We are thankful for getting in to see him so quickly (we believe that was a God thing). We are also so thankful that we have someone who is so talented within driving range. This will be just a consultation to go over the surgery and schedule it. I called Dr. Foster's office this afternoon for an idea of when surgery would be scheduled and they are thinking the week of the 17th. We are hoping that when we see him he will have a opening as soon as possible, we would like to get it done and behind us.
Thank you so much for all the notes and emails, they are so incredibly uplifting.
Thank you to everyone who is praying for us, we believe we can feel the arms of God surrounding us.
Thank you so much for all the notes and emails, they are so incredibly uplifting.
Thank you to everyone who is praying for us, we believe we can feel the arms of God surrounding us.
Monday, January 3, 2011
information.
Alright. I have more information. I'll start at the doctors office this morning.
We went to the doctors office wishing hoping and praying that everything would turn up clean. It was not the case. The doctor informed us that the tumor in Drew's abdomen that was originally 6cm is now 5.2cm. Not a huge decrease after all that chemo. Then he proceeded to tell us that there are 2 new nodules in his lungs. We were crushed. How could after all that time and chemo with all the tumor markers dropping to almost nothing could we have not gained more ground and then to see 2 new spots on the scan. It is not fair. The doctor wasn't sure what the next step should be so he decided to call the doctor that we had met with at the beginning of all of this- Dr. Foster in Indiana. He said that we should go home and he would give us a call after he had gotten hold of him and see what he thought would be the best plan of attack- either chemo or surgery.
Many hours and tears later- the doctor called us with an update. He said that he had talked with Dr. Foster and he believes that surgery is the way to go. He is also very concerned with the nodules in the lungs. He hasn't ever really seen someone have the cancer spread while in chemo. He believes that either the nodules are cancer and they were there before the chemo started and they were missed on the original CT scan or they may be something entirely different. He wants to be able to go in and take a look around and take the entire tumor out of his abdomen to be able to biopsy the entire thing so we know for SURE what we are looking at. It is a pretty intensive surgery so we are apprehensive about the recovery time but know that this is what needs to be done to get the cancer out. Both offices are working together to schedule surgery and when we will be able to get down there. They are hoping either this week or next. We are hoping as soon as possible.
It was a day of overwhelming emotions. We are exhausted.
I will update again as soon as we know anything more or find out the surgery time.
We went to the doctors office wishing hoping and praying that everything would turn up clean. It was not the case. The doctor informed us that the tumor in Drew's abdomen that was originally 6cm is now 5.2cm. Not a huge decrease after all that chemo. Then he proceeded to tell us that there are 2 new nodules in his lungs. We were crushed. How could after all that time and chemo with all the tumor markers dropping to almost nothing could we have not gained more ground and then to see 2 new spots on the scan. It is not fair. The doctor wasn't sure what the next step should be so he decided to call the doctor that we had met with at the beginning of all of this- Dr. Foster in Indiana. He said that we should go home and he would give us a call after he had gotten hold of him and see what he thought would be the best plan of attack- either chemo or surgery.
Many hours and tears later- the doctor called us with an update. He said that he had talked with Dr. Foster and he believes that surgery is the way to go. He is also very concerned with the nodules in the lungs. He hasn't ever really seen someone have the cancer spread while in chemo. He believes that either the nodules are cancer and they were there before the chemo started and they were missed on the original CT scan or they may be something entirely different. He wants to be able to go in and take a look around and take the entire tumor out of his abdomen to be able to biopsy the entire thing so we know for SURE what we are looking at. It is a pretty intensive surgery so we are apprehensive about the recovery time but know that this is what needs to be done to get the cancer out. Both offices are working together to schedule surgery and when we will be able to get down there. They are hoping either this week or next. We are hoping as soon as possible.
It was a day of overwhelming emotions. We are exhausted.
I will update again as soon as we know anything more or find out the surgery time.
update.
We met with the doctor this morning, unfortunatly it wasn't exactly what we wanted to hear. We don't know all of the information yet and what the plan is going to be but we just wanted to put it out there that we did have the meeting. We are asking for prayers for calmness/decreased anxiety and wisdom/dircection for the doctors as they make decisions on the next steps and for prayers that that information comes to us quickly.
I will update again as soon as we hear more information.
I will update again as soon as we hear more information.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Finally...
We are done with chemo. Its a really weird and good feeling to be able to say that. It's been something that we have been driving towards for the last 4 months. It doesn't quite seem real at this point, that hopefully it will be the last time that we enter that little chemo room. It was a little anti-climatic. The nurse unhooked Drew's port and we said our thanks to the nurse for everything that she had done for us and left. No whistles, no bells but we did give each other a high five as we left the building. :) It felt good to be able to say that its our last one.
His labs this week were the lowest they have been since the beginning. His white count, hemoglobin and platelets were very low which again means he needs to be very careful about infection, bleeding and more fatigue.
At this point we are taking this time to hopefully have Drew gain some weight, and regaining his strength. Drew will be getting another CT scan and labs on Dec 30 and then meet with the Dr again on Jan 3 and see what the next step will be. We are praying that everything look like it should and we will just get to be on surveillance and get check ups every 3 months. Its a little difficult to wait until January 3 to hear what the next step will be but luckily its a great time to get lost in the Christmas spirit and remembering why we celebrate Christmas. We will have to ask for a little patience for Christmas this year!
I hope everyone has a blessed holiday season and has a wonderful time with family and friends!
His labs this week were the lowest they have been since the beginning. His white count, hemoglobin and platelets were very low which again means he needs to be very careful about infection, bleeding and more fatigue.
At this point we are taking this time to hopefully have Drew gain some weight, and regaining his strength. Drew will be getting another CT scan and labs on Dec 30 and then meet with the Dr again on Jan 3 and see what the next step will be. We are praying that everything look like it should and we will just get to be on surveillance and get check ups every 3 months. Its a little difficult to wait until January 3 to hear what the next step will be but luckily its a great time to get lost in the Christmas spirit and remembering why we celebrate Christmas. We will have to ask for a little patience for Christmas this year!
I hope everyone has a blessed holiday season and has a wonderful time with family and friends!
Friday, December 3, 2010
Last long day!
We are sitting at Lemmen-Holton cancer cancer for our last long day of chemo! Yay! It is super exciting to think the next two treatments will only be about an hour long and then we will be done! As excited as we are it is a bit difficult to be completely happy since drew has been feeling pretty terrible. Starting last night, drew has been feeling constantly nauseated. We are asking for prayers that this Drew will start feeling better and that the nausea will subside. We are very thankful for nausea medication but it can only stop so much. We are excited for the day that Drew will be able to go back to eating and drinking normally.
Thank you to all those prayer warriors out there!
Thank you to all those prayer warriors out there!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Last round!
I have to apologize for waiting so long to update! With the holiday weekend and work I have been a bit busy! I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving and great family time!
We have officially started the last round of chemo! We started the last crazy intense on Monday and we are already over half way done! Only 2 more days this week, and then 2 more shorter appointments on the next 2 Mondays! Drew was doing pretty well the first two days this week but today he is starting to feel it more. We got his labs back from Monday and things are looking great! His AFP is down to 13 (from 59) and his bHCG is the same at <0.1, basically nondetectable! We will finish this round of chemo and then a week or so after the last day we will get another CT scan and tumor markers ( they are working on what day this will be) then we will meet with the oncologist again on Jan 3 to get the results and see what we will do from there. If everything looks good, we will follow up with CT scans and labs every 3 months for a year and then go from there.
A couple special thanks...
My family for coming over and making it look like Christmas in our house!
Everyone who made us a meal!
Nate for snowblowing our driveway today!
Our lovely neighbor who raked our lawn TWICE!
Everyone who has been praying for us!
We have officially started the last round of chemo! We started the last crazy intense on Monday and we are already over half way done! Only 2 more days this week, and then 2 more shorter appointments on the next 2 Mondays! Drew was doing pretty well the first two days this week but today he is starting to feel it more. We got his labs back from Monday and things are looking great! His AFP is down to 13 (from 59) and his bHCG is the same at <0.1, basically nondetectable! We will finish this round of chemo and then a week or so after the last day we will get another CT scan and tumor markers ( they are working on what day this will be) then we will meet with the oncologist again on Jan 3 to get the results and see what we will do from there. If everything looks good, we will follow up with CT scans and labs every 3 months for a year and then go from there.
A couple special thanks...
My family for coming over and making it look like Christmas in our house!
Everyone who made us a meal!
Nate for snowblowing our driveway today!
Our lovely neighbor who raked our lawn TWICE!
Everyone who has been praying for us!
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