Update #26

Good evening all,

I can’t speak for the parts of the family living in other parts of the country or continent but here in Manitoba we had a beautiful pre-fall/almost end of summer day. It definitely feels like fall is on the way though. Anyway, I’m sure you all know that we met with Dr. Wong today to get and discuss the results of the PET scan I had on Friday. I think most of you have heard the news in some form or shape by now but we figured we should just send out an email anyway. I’ll try keep to what the good doctor told us, it won’t be a verbatim quote but here it is: Basically with the type of cancer I have or that it has grown into it “lights up a PET scan like a Christmas tree” but my PET scan didn’t show that. Where the cancer originated it shows up really good on the scan but the tumor in my abdomen doesn’t show what he expected, “I thought I would see something much worse than this.” He really doesn’t know what is going on inside of me, “when he looks at my CT scans he sees a very large tumor and that doesn’t look good at but then he looks at my “clinical presentation” (how well I look and feel and how well I am doing) and that just doesn’t fit with he would expect looking at my scan so he “somehow has to put the two together.” He is not sure where to go from here simply for the fact that he really doesn’t know if the tumor is cancerous or not. So his plan for now is do nothing at all until December and then have a CT scan, see where things are at then and go from there. We asked him to clarify what nothing meant and by nothing he means no chemo till after the CT scan. If the CT scan in December shows that the tumor has grown chemo will most likely be the way to go again. If it shows the tumor is still the same size as the last CT I had in July another scan will probably be scheduled for in another three months and the same also for if the tumor has shrunk. Also, if it is about the same size or shrunk, the doctors will most likely look at removing the original tumor. As you can see/read, there is so much to be thankful for. Dr Wong said today “you were desperately sick when I first saw, I didn’t think you make it but now you are doing so much better” God has been so good to us, He has granted so much, he has given me more days on this earth then I thought I would have. There are times when I thought I was not going to be able to celebrate our 2^nd wedding anniversary together with my wife but he was granted that. There was days that the doctors told Felicia and family that I might not pull through, days that I don’t and can’t remember. There was nights in the hospital when I would wake up struggling for every breath and praying to God that I would make it through the night. So thanks be to God and Him alone that I am where I now am! I am not out of the woods yet, the doctors can’t and won’t make any promises, there are many unknowns and as Dr. Wong agreed with today, “this is now a wait and see game.” We know though that God does know what is going on and what the future holds for Felicia and myself and we also know and confess that God hears and uses the prayers of His people so we ask you all to continue to pray with us and for us that God may continue to use the doctors and whatever other means He so desires to heal me. We don’t know what God’s full purpose is in all of this but we pray that He will accomplish His plan through my sickness. We do know that God has drawn us closer to Him in all of this and that He has made us realize our complete dependency on Him and that no matter what He is bringing glory to His name and that He is furthering His kingdom.

Rob and Felicia