This Just In From Dad
"Well, the final phase of my second round of chemotherapy is upon me. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (January 15-17) I go to the Saskatoon Cancer Clinic at 8:00 am for chemo. Two of those days will be an all day thing ... not that they are giving me a lot but just administering it in small amounts over a whole day. (Makes it easier on my body). I should mention that a CT scan done before Christmas showed no sign of the tumour in the lymph nodes or spot on my lungs. So in this final phase they are after what may be there but not capable of detection.
The chemo will lower my blood counts which makes me very susceptible to infections/disease. So they will administer what is called GCSF the following week which stimulates the bone to rapidly produce white blood cells to get my counts back up quickly. This has always resulted in excruciating pain for me. Last time just before Christmas I had to go to Battleford's hospital emergency to get some morphine to deal with the pain. Basically, it took the edge off the pain but it was still bad enough to keep me awake for a good part of that evening. Hopefully they can find something to deal with this problem this time.
On January 30th and possibly the 31st they will do a stem cell harvest. This will take the better part of the day and is similar to dialysis. The stem cells are collected from the blood, counted and analyzed for viability and the good ones are packaged and frozen for later transfusion. The next step after this is hospitalization. Further chemo is administered after which the collected stem cells are infused back into my body (like a blood transfusion). These stem cells then go about repairing the damage done to good cells by the chemo.
My hospital stay will involve at least two weeks and possibly as long as four depending on how quickly my body recovers from this final bout of chemo. The end result is, hopefully, that the cancer will have been completely eradicated from my body. While we have always had good hospital care and good, emphathetic care from our physicians and nurses (which is amazing because they are so very busy with many, many patients), yet our hope is not in what man can do but what God will do to give the "increase" that only He can give. Ps. 20:7 was given to me at the start of this whole process one year ago: "Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but we will trust in the Lord our God." We are very grateful for all that our doctors have been able to do for us as we see this as God's provision and we continue to look to Him for His healing touch, making up whatever is needed so that my health can be completely restored.
As you can well imagine, after a year I am "chompin' at the bit" ... longing to get back into church ministry. It's been so long and I have many sermons created during my time "off" that I would like to share. We appreciate your prayers as we go through this final phase and are very grateful for your ministry in this way. It is such a blessing and we know that it makes a difference in terms of the final outcome that is experienced. God bless each of you and thank you for your interest in our progress."
- Lyle
The chemo will lower my blood counts which makes me very susceptible to infections/disease. So they will administer what is called GCSF the following week which stimulates the bone to rapidly produce white blood cells to get my counts back up quickly. This has always resulted in excruciating pain for me. Last time just before Christmas I had to go to Battleford's hospital emergency to get some morphine to deal with the pain. Basically, it took the edge off the pain but it was still bad enough to keep me awake for a good part of that evening. Hopefully they can find something to deal with this problem this time.
On January 30th and possibly the 31st they will do a stem cell harvest. This will take the better part of the day and is similar to dialysis. The stem cells are collected from the blood, counted and analyzed for viability and the good ones are packaged and frozen for later transfusion. The next step after this is hospitalization. Further chemo is administered after which the collected stem cells are infused back into my body (like a blood transfusion). These stem cells then go about repairing the damage done to good cells by the chemo.
My hospital stay will involve at least two weeks and possibly as long as four depending on how quickly my body recovers from this final bout of chemo. The end result is, hopefully, that the cancer will have been completely eradicated from my body. While we have always had good hospital care and good, emphathetic care from our physicians and nurses (which is amazing because they are so very busy with many, many patients), yet our hope is not in what man can do but what God will do to give the "increase" that only He can give. Ps. 20:7 was given to me at the start of this whole process one year ago: "Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but we will trust in the Lord our God." We are very grateful for all that our doctors have been able to do for us as we see this as God's provision and we continue to look to Him for His healing touch, making up whatever is needed so that my health can be completely restored.
As you can well imagine, after a year I am "chompin' at the bit" ... longing to get back into church ministry. It's been so long and I have many sermons created during my time "off" that I would like to share. We appreciate your prayers as we go through this final phase and are very grateful for your ministry in this way. It is such a blessing and we know that it makes a difference in terms of the final outcome that is experienced. God bless each of you and thank you for your interest in our progress."
- Lyle
posted by Kevin @ 4:38 p.m.
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