Update #13

Dear family and friends,

Praise God for His wondrous works! We received wonderful and encouraging news this week! Rob had a CT scan done on Tuesday, the first one of the tumour in his abdomen since being diagnosed with cancer. We were a little apprehensive of the results but we hoping and praying for positive results. Our doctor came in on Wednesday and told us that the scan shows that the tumour is reduced by more than 50%! Wow! We didn't know what to expect, but this again reminds us of the power of prayer and even more so the power of our Almighty God!

Chemo is scheduled for Monday again and it makes us happy to continue on with that. Rob did so well with his last treatment and it is our prayer that this time too the side effects will be minimal.  The doctors are really pushing now for Rob to increase his mobility and strength so they can send him home. There is no target date yet as Rob still has the chest tubes in, and we are all hoping that with this next chemo treatment his lung drainage function may improve and the tubes be removed. The medical team thinks this is a realistic expectation as it did improve after the last treatment, but there is no guarantees. We ask for your prayers in that regard as this will greatly help Robs mobility too.

Rob is feeling much better these last two weeks, which we are all so thankful for! There are still so many unknowns but God has been so faithful and merciful to us and we continue to trust in Him as we go forward day by day. 

Psalm 118: 28-29: 

You are my God, and I will praise you;  you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,   his love endures forever.

Update 12

Good morning,

Just a little update or news about my health we thought we would share with you.

On December 31st, a few days after my last round of chemo I began to have trouble breathing and had to be put on quite a lot of oxygen. After some X-rays were done its was determined that I had accumulated a substantial amount of fluid around my left lung causing it to collapse, thankfully in my right side the fluid around my lung had drained to the point where it was almost back to normal. Yesterday morning (Tuesday) at 8:00 I was shipped off for some more chest X-rays that my doctor ordered. The goal was to try and get to the bottom of why I had fluid around my lungs. What the X-rays showed is that on my right side the fluid is completely gone and on the left side there is still a little bit of fluid at the bottom and side around my lung but "significantly better" then before. So now the Doctor's plan of action is to clamp both chest tubes for the next 48 hours and deal with any symptoms as they come (shortness of breath, need for more oxygen...) and then send me for follow up X-rays on Thursday to see if the fluid has accumulated again and if it hasn't they might look at removing the chest tubes. In the words of the Doctor "it looks like the chemo might be doing its job". I am most likely to go for a CT scan later this week and that will show for if the chemo is doing its job.

Well this is great news to hear and we give thanks to our Heavenly Father that we also will not know anything for certain until the results of the CT scans are in and we pray that God will have blessed the work of the doctors and allowed the chemo to have its desired effect. When we first started this blog I wrote about God leading us down different paths in life and how those paths are not free from pain and suffering but yet how through it all He gives us the comfort of His word that He is always near us, that He can sympathize with us in every way because He has suffered in every way. That truly has been such a comfort for us, we live day by day in that knowledge and look forward to the next day knowing that we are in the palm of His eternal fatherly hand.

Rob and Felicia