Praise & Prayers

Hi everyone,

I hope your summer has been enjoyable so far!

I recently received some test results back for cancer monitoring, and they are all reasons to praise the Lord Jesus Christ: my CEA marker has remained within the normal range, and my in depth Signatera blood test came back negative for any trace of cancer!  I still need to complete a CT scan to further confirm these results, but this is a solid start.  Please join me in thanking and praising God for His grace over me!  I know there are many who do not receive this type of news, including my friend Sarah's father who has been undergoing chemo and radiation for many months.  I deserve hell for my sins, and yet in Christ I am blessed with so much good news.  The gospel itself is good news.  I'd like to thank my precious Maria for reminding me that the gospel is all the good news I need in this life: that Jesus came, lived a life of perfect obedience to God, resulting in His death on the cross to pay for the sins of humanity, and rose again to life three days later.  He now lives in heaven above to continually intercede on behalf of those who believe in Him and turn from their sins.  He has faithfully seen me through so much over the past 7 months.  I am tired, and I am weak, but I'm thankful that my strength doesn't come from me.

In terms of prayer requests, my recent bloodwork showed that my liver has been in overdrive, most likely due to all the Tylenol and ibuprofen I took after surgery on my arm.  I had continually been taking ibuprofen as needed to help with the pain from physical therapy.  I've tried to scale back on the ibuprofen significantly since discovering it was impacting my liver bloodwork.

My physical therapy is going great in terms of the function of my fingers and wrist; however, my forearm is struggling to rotate to where I can turn my palm upwards as if I was holding a tray in front of me.  This motion has been the most difficult since I first started physical therapy and continues to give me significant trouble.  I have yet to make a full, normal rotation, and the exercises to get it to that point have been painful.  I'm wearing a brace three times a day for 20 minutes each time.  I have other exercises to do as well.  This has been incredibly discouraging to put so much work in with minimal results.  I'm concerned that I won't be able to get this motion back.

In summary I would truly appreciate your prayers for these concerns:

  • That the near full rotation of my arm would be restored by God's grace
  • That my muscles in my arm would loosen to ease the discomfort I'm experiencing
  • That any stiff tendons/ligaments and tight joints would loosen to enable my right arm to function as normal
  • That my CT scan would come back free from any mass
  • That my liver bloodwork would return to the normal range
  • That my friend Sarah's father would recover from his chemo treatment that has left him unresponsive and in unstable condition (he is currently in the hospital and could use your prayers!)

Thank you for continually reading these updates and praying.  I have been so blessed by the love and prayers poured out from each of you.  Your love and support continually lifted my burden as I recovered from my cancer surgery.  I am grateful for your faithful friendship.

God bless you precious friends!

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