September 18, 2007

"I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart;
I will tell of all Your marvelous works.
I will be glad and rejoice in You;
I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High"

This will likely be a long post since there is so much to tell.

It was an early morning. We had to be at DUMC at 6am for David's exam. This was the most exciting part of the day since we got great news. David's tumor has shrunk to about 25% of its original size! Everyone seemed to marvel at this since he has only had one treatment of chemo. But we know that prayer is more potent than any chemo drug.

Here is the picture that the Doctor gave to us. The top section is the tumor from a month ago, and the bottom is the tumor currently.

The remaining tumor is located right over the section of the retina that you see best with, so the doctor didn't give us much hope for good sight in this eye, but David is probably seeing better than he did before, so that is still great news. If the tumor shrinks more, he could still regain some sight in that eye.

We went straight from the exam to have his next treatment. Due to new recommendations of how to administer one of the drugs that he is getting, the actual administration of the drugs now takes 4 hours instead of 1 hour. We didn't leave the hospital until 6pm last night, so the day was very very long.

While the lab was processing David's blood count, we met a woman, Kylee, and her son, Milo.
Milo was diagnosed in June with a very rare brain tumor. The doctors say that the cure rate for this kind of tumor is only 10%. Kylee has had to move to Durham to be near Duke. She is unable to work since caring for Milo is a full time job. She has no family, and knows no one. She really can't get out of the house to meet people since Milo is so sick. She has no car, and Milo's dad has left them since he can't handle the stress of the illness. Kylee's mom comes in on the weekend, but then has to go back home to her job. Milo has come down with pneumonia. Rob and I sat with her and tried our best to show her love. It made us both understand our blessing even in this tough time. We aren't alone, David is not as sick, and we have hope - even in death. We are hoping to be able to keep in contact with Kylee.

My mom was able to stay with the kids and drive them to and from school. It was really nice to not have to think about whether or not they were being taken good care of during the day. Hannah and Isaac had a wonderful time.

The next chemo treatment is scheduled for October 15. We won't have an exam before that treatment. The next exam will be before the chemo treatment in November.

Thank you to all who have been praying. It is clear to us that it has been effective. Thank you also to everyone who has been generous to our family with time, money, meals, babysitting, and etc. I have no doubt that because of your generosity, my mind was free enough from worry yesterday to be able to conect with Kylee and her son. God has used you all in such a mighty way. Thank you for parnering with us and helping to bear our burden.

-Kim