Joyful, Joyful!!!

We had a good visit with Dr. Reardon at Duke. Dan's scans both showed no cancer activity!!! The emotional boost from that was HUGE. Dan is starting a new program to deal with the chemo fall-out. I believe that Dan has suffered the worst of the side-effects of his chemo and that he should feel a little better every day. I cannot wait for him to feel well. We are going to start doing a lot of things to help with peace and memory (yoga, massage, new diet, etc.).

We cannot thank you enough for your prayers. There is no way that we would be able to face this cancer without God. I know that He is with us every step of the way. There were hard moments over the past 2 weeks that I was so overwhelmed with the task at hand that I could not even find words to pray. In my heart I knew that you were there praying for Dan when I could not...and all I needed to say was, "Amen." Thank you so much.

Love,
Leah

P.S. I have been reading, The Problem of Pain, written by one of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis. In it he writes about many aspects of pain and suffering. One of my favorite ideas is the thought that pain, "When it is over, it is over, and the natural sequel is joy." We all understand joy more deeply when we have experienced its counterpart, pain.

Prayers Needed

We are in real need of prayer this week. Dan's having a lot of confusion and he is not able to stay awake. His doctors changed his steroid in an effort to get him on a less damaging one, but it has sent him into a major set back. We started his old steroid back at a high dose last night in an effort to "re-boot" his brain. He will have a fast taper to get him to a more tolerable dose as quickly as possible.

From what I understand the brain needs 2 main things to function (glucose and steroid). Apparently, Dan's body no longer makes a natural form of steroid due to his chemo and radiation. So he requires the medication to keep everything working. We are in hopes that this will do the trick.

As I mentioned in my last post Dan will have his 2 scans (PET and MRI) this week. We are very anxious to get a clean report. Until then, please continue to hold Dan up to the Lord in prayer. We surrender this situation to Jesus and look forward to the revelation of God's plan for us (in the knowledge that He loves us perfectly).

Thank you for your continued support.

Love,
Leah