God is still on the throne no matter what happens!! Evan had his MRI yesterday at Children's Hospital in Seattle. The results weren't exactly what we were looking for, but it doesn't change anything in our trust in God! If anything, it even draws us closer to our Lord to trust Him in a still deeper way.
The MRI results stated that there was about 1-2mm growth in Evan's tumor. His oncologist told us that this was not real alarming to him, at this point, but it is definitely going to be something to watch when he has his next MRI in 3 months. He said that is there is continued growth then we will have to look at doing something different; meaning a change in doing a different, more aggressive chemo and/or radiation.
God's peace surrounds us in a magnificent way that words could never express! We are so thankful for the many prayers on Evan's behalf, and not to mention, our behalf! Thank you so much!
We will start Evan's oral Chemo tonight. His next IV treatments are already set up in Richland, Kadlec Hospital, for the middle and end of this month.....2 weeks apart.
Our continued prayer is that God would be mightily glorified in all that we do, say and think in our home and through our lives!
Blessings,
David and Trena
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Jan/Feb Update 2010
Evan had his 1st IV Chemotherapy in Richland this last Monday, the 15th. It went well and he is scheduled to do all future IV Chemo treatments at Kadlec Hospital in Richland, rather than Seattle. We have appointments set up in Seattle on March 5 for an MRI and blood work. We will then pick up Evan's oral chemo meds for the 2nd round of chemo. The oral meds is the worst part of each 6 week round for Evan. He gets really sick and last time he spent those 3 plus days vomiting and sleeping excessively.
His Chemo routine is based on a 6 week schedule with Days 1 - 2 - 3 and part of 4th day being given oral chemo every 6 hrs round the clock. Day 14 is the IV Chemo and it is administered at Kadlec after routine blood work is drawn. Day 28 is the last IV Chemo at Kadlec Hospital after routine blood work. The end of this round is on Day 42 and then another round starts with Day 1....etc....At the beginning of each round we make an overnight trip to Seattle to see his oncologist, do blood work and pick up his oral chemo meds for the next round. Every other time we will be scheduled for an MRI. The plan is to do this for one year.
We are getting copies of Evan's blood work results each time and quite truthfully, it is distressing to see his blood counts decrease and also his weight dropping little by little. The dr. and nurses don't seem to be too overly concerned with these stats, but they do concern me.
I would be putting up a front if I said, "All is well.....Evan and we are doing great." Peace of heart and mind have been a struggle, so I ask that you continue to remember us in your thoughts and prayers. God's got a plan - it's just that right now I don't understand it and/or may even be in denial that this might be the path we are to walk down. I do know that my heart aches like it probably never has before. Words cannot describe the waves of emotion as our son is being given such powerful chemicals/meds knowing that our hands are tied. It's a helpless feeling of not knowing how to comfort your child and feeling guilty for allowing this to happen.
But I have to remember God has a plan and sees the bigger picture. So hard to do, but a walk/journey that takes a lot of faith. Ultimately, we know we serve an AWESOME God that does love and care for us. I do know that, although sometimes my emotions tell me differently. (Maybe kind of like a child that gets into trouble and may not feel like his parents love him or maybe like a child that wants to do one thing and the parent tells him, "No, we are going to do this.")
So.....it's not about us but about bringing Glory to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Sometimes (actually, a lot of times) we get so wrapped up in our lives here on earth that we forget this life here on earth is just a layover, and that our final destination is HEAVEN. I need to remind myself of this more often.
Despite all the chemo, Evan continues his natural vitamins and herbs. Thank you for your continued support in prayers, donations, friendship, love and encouragement. May God glorify Himself in and through our lives and home!
Blessings,
David and Trena
His Chemo routine is based on a 6 week schedule with Days 1 - 2 - 3 and part of 4th day being given oral chemo every 6 hrs round the clock. Day 14 is the IV Chemo and it is administered at Kadlec after routine blood work is drawn. Day 28 is the last IV Chemo at Kadlec Hospital after routine blood work. The end of this round is on Day 42 and then another round starts with Day 1....etc....At the beginning of each round we make an overnight trip to Seattle to see his oncologist, do blood work and pick up his oral chemo meds for the next round. Every other time we will be scheduled for an MRI. The plan is to do this for one year.
We are getting copies of Evan's blood work results each time and quite truthfully, it is distressing to see his blood counts decrease and also his weight dropping little by little. The dr. and nurses don't seem to be too overly concerned with these stats, but they do concern me.
I would be putting up a front if I said, "All is well.....Evan and we are doing great." Peace of heart and mind have been a struggle, so I ask that you continue to remember us in your thoughts and prayers. God's got a plan - it's just that right now I don't understand it and/or may even be in denial that this might be the path we are to walk down. I do know that my heart aches like it probably never has before. Words cannot describe the waves of emotion as our son is being given such powerful chemicals/meds knowing that our hands are tied. It's a helpless feeling of not knowing how to comfort your child and feeling guilty for allowing this to happen.
But I have to remember God has a plan and sees the bigger picture. So hard to do, but a walk/journey that takes a lot of faith. Ultimately, we know we serve an AWESOME God that does love and care for us. I do know that, although sometimes my emotions tell me differently. (Maybe kind of like a child that gets into trouble and may not feel like his parents love him or maybe like a child that wants to do one thing and the parent tells him, "No, we are going to do this.")
So.....it's not about us but about bringing Glory to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Sometimes (actually, a lot of times) we get so wrapped up in our lives here on earth that we forget this life here on earth is just a layover, and that our final destination is HEAVEN. I need to remind myself of this more often.
Despite all the chemo, Evan continues his natural vitamins and herbs. Thank you for your continued support in prayers, donations, friendship, love and encouragement. May God glorify Himself in and through our lives and home!
Blessings,
David and Trena
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
January 18, 2010
Spoke with Trena last night...here is the latest on Evan in a nutshell:
He is in the comfort of his own home! Mom has to administer 4 different chemotherapy medications to him orally every 6 hours. This regimen began on Saturday night, and will continue until Wednesday morning. So far, he is tolerating the medications well.
Tentatively, they will go back to Seattle on February 1 for his first IV chemotherapy treatment. On February 15, he will have another round of IV chemotherapy, prayerfully at the Children's Hospital in Tri-Cities.
That is the news for now. I will keep you updated as I can. Trena is currently without computer.
Please continue to keep the family in your prayers.
He is in the comfort of his own home! Mom has to administer 4 different chemotherapy medications to him orally every 6 hours. This regimen began on Saturday night, and will continue until Wednesday morning. So far, he is tolerating the medications well.
Tentatively, they will go back to Seattle on February 1 for his first IV chemotherapy treatment. On February 15, he will have another round of IV chemotherapy, prayerfully at the Children's Hospital in Tri-Cities.
That is the news for now. I will keep you updated as I can. Trena is currently without computer.
Please continue to keep the family in your prayers.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Prayers for Evan
Evan is having the port placed today for his future chemo treatments. Please keep him in your prayers.
Friday, January 8, 2010
January 8, 2010
Dearest Family and Friends~
Just thought I would give a brief update concerning Evan. We went over to Seattle for an appointment with Evan's oncologist today. The prognosis is that we will be starting chemo on Evan next week. David and I plan to go over on Wednesday afternoon as Evan has an out-patient surgery to put in a port for the chemo. Then on Friday afternoon, the plan is to have labs drawn, see his oncologist and then have his first chemo treatment. After Evan is stable, we will plan to head back home. These chemo treatments will take a period of 1 year. I don't have the complete schedule, but that will all be made known and written down next week when we get started.
Seattle Children's hospital is starting a pediatric cancer treatment wing at Kadlec Hospital in Richland. AND, Evan's oncologist is the one that is going to be supervising this new addition to Kadlec Hospital. So, when Evan needs to go in for his IV chemo, we will be able to go to Richland, rather than Seattle! But, his oncologist still wants us to return to Seattle Children's Hospital for his MRI's and the special eye test that he will have to have every 3 months. We are thankful that a majority of Evan's chemo treatments can be in Richland, rather than having to drive over to Seattle.
Evan's medical insurance will cover all the medical expenses, but will not cover the "outside" expenses, so to speak. He will continue his herbs and nutritional supplements from his natureopath, also.
As you can see, lots going on and we continue to trust God, even though we don't understand or even know why..............we are not called to understand or even know why, just to walk close to God and completely trust Him with everything that we have and everyone that we know and love.................This is something that one can talk about, but where the "rubber meets the road" is when something or someone is threatened or even taken away from you and you have to ask yourself, "Am I living what I am preaching?" We pray that our lives are doing just that.
With all that said, we still don't hesitate to ask you for your continued prayers and support.
We appreciate your thoughts, prayers, encouragement and support. We thank God for the network of people that he has placed in our lives! God's richest blessings to you all!
Blessings,
David and Trena
Just thought I would give a brief update concerning Evan. We went over to Seattle for an appointment with Evan's oncologist today. The prognosis is that we will be starting chemo on Evan next week. David and I plan to go over on Wednesday afternoon as Evan has an out-patient surgery to put in a port for the chemo. Then on Friday afternoon, the plan is to have labs drawn, see his oncologist and then have his first chemo treatment. After Evan is stable, we will plan to head back home. These chemo treatments will take a period of 1 year. I don't have the complete schedule, but that will all be made known and written down next week when we get started.
Seattle Children's hospital is starting a pediatric cancer treatment wing at Kadlec Hospital in Richland. AND, Evan's oncologist is the one that is going to be supervising this new addition to Kadlec Hospital. So, when Evan needs to go in for his IV chemo, we will be able to go to Richland, rather than Seattle! But, his oncologist still wants us to return to Seattle Children's Hospital for his MRI's and the special eye test that he will have to have every 3 months. We are thankful that a majority of Evan's chemo treatments can be in Richland, rather than having to drive over to Seattle.
Evan's medical insurance will cover all the medical expenses, but will not cover the "outside" expenses, so to speak. He will continue his herbs and nutritional supplements from his natureopath, also.
As you can see, lots going on and we continue to trust God, even though we don't understand or even know why..............we are not called to understand or even know why, just to walk close to God and completely trust Him with everything that we have and everyone that we know and love.................This is something that one can talk about, but where the "rubber meets the road" is when something or someone is threatened or even taken away from you and you have to ask yourself, "Am I living what I am preaching?" We pray that our lives are doing just that.
With all that said, we still don't hesitate to ask you for your continued prayers and support.
We appreciate your thoughts, prayers, encouragement and support. We thank God for the network of people that he has placed in our lives! God's richest blessings to you all!
Blessings,
David and Trena
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
January 6, 2010
Please pray for David, Trena, and Evan as they travel to Seattle today for another appointment with the oncologist, which will be on Thursday. Pray for safe travels, and that all would go according to God's awesome plan.
Thanks much!
Thanks much!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
December 2009 Update
Evan's last appointment in Seattle was on December 2. Brently, Evan and I all went over the day before as his appointment day at Children's Hospital consisted of 6 different appointments. It was a very long day and I am thankful that Brently was there to help me and keep me company.
The day started with an appointment at the Opthalmology Clinic at 9 a.m. for an Electroretinogram. This was to get a more accurate measure of Evan's vision. His exam entailed the doctor putting several electrodes on his head to get a reading when he looked at a screen for contrasting and I think, perefial (sp?) vision. This doctor did not talk alot of details but did say that he even doubted that Evan even had counting fingers vision in his left eye, if any vision at all. His right eye, as we found out later from the test results, showed that there are also concerns with his "good" eye. Either the tumor or his surgery from 2 1/2 yrs. ago has probably done permanent damage to his good eye. His acuity vision is about 20/30 but the contrasting and perefial (sp?) vision is almost non-existant.
Evan's 2nd appointment was with the opthalmologist where they dialated his eyes for more vision tests. The diagnosis was pretty much the same as was in August. The doctor would like to follow up with another electroretinogram the next time we return.
Evan's 3rd and 4th appointments was Radiology Anesthesia and his MRI. He wasn't real co-operative as he was so hungry. His MRI was at 11:30 and he wasn't able to have any food since 6:30 a.m. I am going to insist on a morning MRI the next time we have to do this. It took him a long time to wake up from the anesthesia, making him a bit late for his last two appointments. So, the nurses called the Neurosurgery Clinic to send someone down to where he was waking up from his MRI so that they could program his shunt. They have to do this every time he has an MRI.
Evan's last appointment was with his oncologist. He stated that there were not any significant changes that showed up on the MRI, so his recommendation would be to do another MRI in 6 months. But, he said that he would have to put this before the TUMOR BOARD and see if everyone was in agreement with this.
We left with pretty high spirits and headed home from Seattle.
On December 11 I received a phone call from the oncologist telling me that the TUMOR BOARD along with himself had a change of plans and wanted to get Evan in soon to start chemotherapy. I was totally not expecting this, so needless to say, I was in tears. It was explained to me that because of the concern of the bad results from the eye tests that something needed to be done.
So, here we are, today, waiting on things to get set up for another out-patient surgery for a port to be put in Evan's chest where they will be able to administer the chemotherapy as needed. Our hearts are heavy and we feel like our faith is weak.
We will try to keep better postings concerning Evan's appointments and such. Until then, we would truly appreciate your prayers, support, encouragement and hugs. We know that God has a plan, but right now, we don't have a clue what it really is. We thank God for each moment of each day we have been given.
Blessings,
David and Trena
The day started with an appointment at the Opthalmology Clinic at 9 a.m. for an Electroretinogram. This was to get a more accurate measure of Evan's vision. His exam entailed the doctor putting several electrodes on his head to get a reading when he looked at a screen for contrasting and I think, perefial (sp?) vision. This doctor did not talk alot of details but did say that he even doubted that Evan even had counting fingers vision in his left eye, if any vision at all. His right eye, as we found out later from the test results, showed that there are also concerns with his "good" eye. Either the tumor or his surgery from 2 1/2 yrs. ago has probably done permanent damage to his good eye. His acuity vision is about 20/30 but the contrasting and perefial (sp?) vision is almost non-existant.
Evan's 2nd appointment was with the opthalmologist where they dialated his eyes for more vision tests. The diagnosis was pretty much the same as was in August. The doctor would like to follow up with another electroretinogram the next time we return.
Evan's 3rd and 4th appointments was Radiology Anesthesia and his MRI. He wasn't real co-operative as he was so hungry. His MRI was at 11:30 and he wasn't able to have any food since 6:30 a.m. I am going to insist on a morning MRI the next time we have to do this. It took him a long time to wake up from the anesthesia, making him a bit late for his last two appointments. So, the nurses called the Neurosurgery Clinic to send someone down to where he was waking up from his MRI so that they could program his shunt. They have to do this every time he has an MRI.
Evan's last appointment was with his oncologist. He stated that there were not any significant changes that showed up on the MRI, so his recommendation would be to do another MRI in 6 months. But, he said that he would have to put this before the TUMOR BOARD and see if everyone was in agreement with this.
We left with pretty high spirits and headed home from Seattle.
On December 11 I received a phone call from the oncologist telling me that the TUMOR BOARD along with himself had a change of plans and wanted to get Evan in soon to start chemotherapy. I was totally not expecting this, so needless to say, I was in tears. It was explained to me that because of the concern of the bad results from the eye tests that something needed to be done.
So, here we are, today, waiting on things to get set up for another out-patient surgery for a port to be put in Evan's chest where they will be able to administer the chemotherapy as needed. Our hearts are heavy and we feel like our faith is weak.
We will try to keep better postings concerning Evan's appointments and such. Until then, we would truly appreciate your prayers, support, encouragement and hugs. We know that God has a plan, but right now, we don't have a clue what it really is. We thank God for each moment of each day we have been given.
Blessings,
David and Trena
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