Oncology Consult 12/26

Good evening friends & fam!

Thank you all for your constant love, support, and prayers.  I am so grateful to have each and every one of you.  What a precious gift from God that you all are to me.

My consultation with the oncologist went well today.  By God’s grace the cancer did not spread to any of my 28 lymph nodes.  My doctor explained that the inflammation surrounded the cancer in my colon in such a way that it couldn’t spread anywhere.  I’ve never heard of that before, so either it’s a God ordained miracle, or it’s the way God created our bodies to protect us.  I am grateful for this and amazed by it.  God was already taking care of me before I was even aware of the existence of any cancer in my body.

My oncologist will determine whether or not I need chemo or other treatment based on several tests: they are running a couple tests on the cancer they removed, which will take a couple weeks; they did blood work this afternoon to run a couple specialized tests on my blood; once I have fully healed from surgery they will do a pet scan to check on any cancer cells (they will probably find Wookie and Hans on that one - dumb joke haha).

During this appointment I found out that I’m currently anemic.  I was never anemic before, so I’m not clear on whether or not this came about because of the cancer, the surgery, or what.  The doctor recommended that I reduce my walking to 5 minutes at a time and take it easy due to the anemia.  I wish I had known because then I wouldn’t have been pushing my body so much to walk more and more.  Everyone kept saying “you’re young - you’ll heal fast”, but this certainly doesn’t feel fast.  It’s kind of a two steps forward, one step back cha cha.

Thank you to my Schmid work fam for the kudoboard and get well cards - they were so sweet, and I was so thankful to hear from you all!  You sure know how to make a gal feel loved.  I can’t wait to see you all once I’m feeling better.

I’ve been reading along in Psalms on my audio Bible - the Scriptures are encouraging and meet me right where I am at this moment.  I am so grateful for God’s Word, and I sure am thankful it’s long because this journey is going to take a while.  They told me I won’t be able to resume a normal diet until 4 - 6 weeks out from surgery.  I’ve tried to eat some normal foods here and there, but it doesn’t work out very well for me.  The oncologist put in a referral to a dietician to help me figure out what foods will help me.  Sadly I need to stay away from sugar and red meat as both of those aren’t good for cancer.

Some ways you might pray for me:

~ for my CEA marker to drop from 51 to 2, which is the normal range (the oncologist said it can take up to 6 weeks post-surgery for this number to drop); this marker indicates the body’s propensity to generate tumors

~ for Trevor to get deep sleep at night

~ for God’s direction regarding treatment moving forward

~ for God to resolve my anemia and increase my strength

~ for my digestion to improve and my ability to tolerate more normal foods

~ for God to grant me complete remission

God bless you all!  Love and miss you!

Laura

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Unexpected Journey

Image
  Hey everyone,  This is Trevor. We figure this was easier to keep everyone updated on what’s going on with Laura’s journey. Please have grace with me and my lack in my writing abilities. On Monday at 1am Laura began having abdominal pains that were promptly blamed on El Farolito. As the day progressed we knew that something wasn’t right and we decided to call the nurse hotline.  After discussing the symptoms with them we were urged to go to the ER. After checking in Laura’s blood pressure tanked and she felt faint which caused the nurses to rush her to a bed. They began a battery of tests in which they found a mass / abscess that was infected.  After a a few rounds of antibiotics it seemed to help Laura’s pain but didn’t address the main issue. After talking with several doctors they decided that it was best for to have colon surgery to remove part of her colon. She will be in surgery tomorrow in the afternoon. Please continue to pray for my sweet woman. Pray for the doctors and nurse
Read more

6:53am

Image
  She is finally asleep. After one very short nap and 12 long hours of fighting pain she is finally asleep. We have been chasing medicine all night trying to figure out what will work.  Laura’s sister was here for a long while with me trying to help comfort Laura in her pain. We thought got it right for about 20min until Laura woke up in just as much pain as before. After that the nurses and eventually doctor decided to just super dose her to put her out so she can rest.  We have a meeting with the surgeon in a couple hours on which it looks like her team will be taking over pain management.  Keep this little warrior in your prayers. She needs it. Prayer requests: pain management plan to be successful, wisdom for hospital staff, joy in suffering, sleep for Laura, blessings for Laura’s sister for being such a champion this last week, my aunt and uncle (and the rest of my family) as we grieve the loss of my cousin.  We’re not of the woods yet.  James 1:2-4 Consider it all joy, my brethre
Read more

Great is Thy faithfulness.

Image
  This morning we met with the surgeon to cover any final questions or concerns that we might have before Laura goes into surgery. We were told they did what’s called a tumor marker which is something they send in all cases of colon cancer, which in all likely hood is what Laura has. They wont know with certainty until they get in there, but the surgeon was pretty sure of her prognosis.  While this news hits us like a hammer, we know that Romans 8 states that :..we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Laura and I were able to spend time in prayer rejoicing in the providence of God. Proverbs states “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. We have been able to look back into the last 48 hours and see how God has orchestrated all things so that Laura received the care that enabled the doctors to catch this cancer early on. How faithful is our God? Very. They are planning on rem
Read more