Hope that your Christmas was wonderful and that you are looking forward to a relaxing and enjoyable new year's celebration. Clint and I love to enjoy New Year's at home -- guess it's a sign of our "homebodiness" -- is there such a word? We enjoyed a quick trip to Nashville to be with my sister and her family for Christmas day and then hurried back to Frederick to make an appointment with my oncologist.
My news from the oncologist visit wasn't what we had hoped for. This visit was a review of the PET scan from December 21 as well as the recent problems I've been having with my blood pressure (resulting from the chemo drug Avastin). Unfortunately, the tumors are growing on my liver -- there are two definite ones, and another new spot on the liver that looks like an additional "area of concern." Also, the CA-125 has started going up again -- it's at 64. It seems to indicate some activity in my abdomen. Dr. Hudhud isn't quite sure of the treatment he will go for... possible cyberknife or some other radiology. He also mentioned cistoplatin and something I can't pronounce or even begin to spell. There is also a clinical trial at Hopkins that my sister, Martha, read about on the ovarian cancer site. Between last Friday's appointment and next Friday's appointment (January 4), Dr. Hudhud will talk to the doctor at Hopkins and the cyberknife doctor at Sinai (both hospitals in Baltimore) and determine what is the best treatment for me at this time.
Certainly, this disappointment has been another bump in the road. It's just so important to stay positive and keep on "keeping on." Please be in prayer that my doctor, Dr. Hudhud, will be given God's wisdom as he determines the next step in my treatment.
When I was first diagnosed with cancer, I sat reading my Bible one of those nights that I could not sleep, and found a passage which Clint and I have both held tightly to throughout these two years. It's Isaiah 30:18-21... "The Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. How gracious He will be when you cry for help! As soon as He hears, He will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'" For this reason, we have trusted our doctors completely as they have suggested specific treatments. So, we pray continually for those doctors who make decisions about medication, surgery, and treatment. Please join us this week in praying heartedly for Dr. Hudhud, my oncologist here in Frederick; Dr. Chu, cyberknife doctor at Sinai Hospital; Dr. Armstrong, clinical trial doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital; and Dr. Yu, cardiologist in Frederick. I hope and pray that our Lord God "whispers in their ears, telling them the way that we should walk."
Thank you for your continued prayers. Your hope and support is a great encourager to me and to Clint!
