More Chemo Today

Since Christen's blood count numbers were good yesterday she will be returning to UVA for the next round of chemotherapy this morning. She will be having cisplatin, which is the one most difficult for her, so prayer will most certainly be needed and appreciated.

Thanks!
Steve & Debbie for the family

Back on Thursday?

Christen is scheduled to return for chemo on Thursday, but since her blood counts are low it is uncertain whether she will actually go. If not she will likely go in next Tuesday. Christen seems to be taking everything in stride at this point, though the trips back to the hospital are not easy. Knowing what is coming is difficult. There is not much to look forward to. She and Debbie have made a number of good friends there which helps a great deal to ease the pain of the chemo, and being away from home.

Christen's leg continues to strengthen everyday. We are hopeful that she will start walking without her crutches within the next couple of weeks!

Steve and Debbie for the family.

Home!

God gave us an unexpected gift of being able to go home a day earlier than we'd thought. Christen's counts are on the downward swing, so whether or not we go back on Thursday for chemo will depend on what the counts are on Wednesday morning. It's so good to be home! Thank you all for the MANY meals that you have so graciously and continuously provided. What a HUGE help!

Debbie for the family

All is Well

It's Saturday night and Christen and I have had a pretty uneventful day except that is for a wonderful breakfast complete with REAL dishes -plates, silverware and glasses brought to us by the "Chenette Catering Service"
:-)

We've enjoyed flowers freshly picked from our nurse's yard which she set up in the window across the hall from us so that Christen could see and enjoy them without bringing them into our room - beautiful, fragrant pink peonies.
Another dear friend here also brought us fresh fruit plates. Yesterday Jane, Anette and baby Jacqueline stopped in. We enjoyed baby Jacky's entertainment - she has quite the personality! Christen has enjoyed feeling special as she gets daily text messages from her older brother giving her updates on his travels, even got a picture of a beautiful park out in Colorado via cell phone. She hasn't felt great, but also hasn't felt horrible either -hasn't thrown up yet. She is so thankful that God has provided her with medicines for pain and nausea. Her leg is getting noticeably stronger each day which is a great encouragement to her.
Thank
you for your prayers. We know that God is with us and is answering.

Resting in Him,
Debbie

One more step forward...

Christen's chemo started at 5:30 pm. We arrived here at 8:00 am for an MRI, but as is so much of life, things always take more time than you expect.
She was nauseous and threw up on the way here - maybe what is called "anticipatory nausea" because she hadn't thrown up for some time. We are always glad though to see our friends when we come to UVA. God has allowed us to come to know so many precious people here.

Christen's leg has healed beautifully. She has to do exercises to strengthen it, and hasn't ditched her crutches yet - still working towards that. We have a wonderful physical therapist who comes to our house to help her. It's tough making yourself do exercises that bring you pain - "No pain, no gain," so they say. Pray that she will have the drive to be able to continue diligently exercising in the midst of feeling sick and tired and sick and tired of being sick. She can't wait to be able to just stand up and walk! It's a bit of a slow process. She is handling this entire ordeal very well and has an attitude of peaceful surrender to God, willing for whatever course He has planned for her life. She said, "Mom, if God wants me to die, it's ok." She has become soft clay in the Potter's hands. She has expressed interest in helping others understand themselves and their feelings, etc. better (studying psychology) and considers this experience to be a part of her training.

God is beautiful. Today after the MRI, we were heading down the hall and met up with one of the MRI techs - a middle aged man. He told Christen he hoped she would be feeling better, etc. I noticed a bible tucked under his arm along with some other stuff so asked him, "You're a believer?" He said, "You bet," and held up his hand on which was a yellow sticky note with Christen's name on it. He said, "I keep a list, and at night before I go to bed, I pray for all of the patients I've helped that day." What a blessing to meet a new brother and what a oneness we have because of Christ! He stopped and prayed a beautiful prayer for Christen right then and there.

God has surrounded us with His love and kindness shown to us in so many ways, namely the outpouring of love we have received from each one of you.
God says that it is more blessed to give than to receive. From the magnitude of receiving we have done, you all must be buried in blessings!
Each word and deed, so undeserved, can't be weighed for it's worth to us.
God knows each of you and won't forget your sacrifices for us.

Debbie for the family

Christen is Home

Christen did come home Monday afternoon, thankfully. She is not feeling well. However, nothing unusual or unexpected is happening so we are thankful for that. Please continue to pray for her spirits as well as the physical aspects of this trial. She has been through so much over the last 5 1/2 months.

She returns to UVA this Thursday for the next round of chemo.

Also, thanks for praying for us regarding which course of chemo to take. We did make a final decision not to continue on the study but rather to do the standard treatment. This means Christen should be done chemotherapy by the end of August.

Thanks!
Steve & Debbie

More Chemo

Christen is at UVA having received another dose of chemo this past Thursday. We are hoping that she will be able to come home tomorrow, but one never knows. We have to wait for the chemo concentration in her blood to drop below a certain level, and we have learned that it is hard to gauge when that will happen. She is doing as well as might be expected, chemo being what it is.

We have to make a final decision by Tuesday of this week on whether to continue with the study. We would appreciate continued prayer for wisdom.

Christen will hopefully come home tomorrow, and will return to UVA for the next dose of chemo on Thursday.

Thanks to all of you for the prayer and support.

Steve & Debbie

Get Ready, Get Set....

Here we go again---tomorrow morning early to UVA, our 2nd "home." We've had a wonderful break. Thank you, God. It's hard to get back into the chemo mode, but I know God has His blessings there for us as well. I just read recently in a book, Though I Walk Through the Valley, "Darkness brings out the stars and trouble brings out friends old and new and blessings never possible in sunnier times." How true. The stars don't come out until it's dark. Yes, it seems very dark sometimes, but there really are a lot of beautiful stars. Thank you, God, and thank you everyone. Pray that we will each go in God's strength. It looks like we will be going to UVA for the next three Thursdays for about five days each time. It's really rough on Christen, so I hate to even mention the much smaller "sacrifices" of the rest of us. God's grace has been more than sufficient for every day.

Debbie for the family

Grateful for Each Day

Christen has been home since last Tuesday evening!!! It has been wonderful to be home. I don't believe I've ever been so thankful to be able to just wash dishes and fold laundry--amazing how things can really change one's perspective.

THANK YOU ALL for your continued support and prayers. We feel God's answers to them. Christen was much better last Wednesday evening through Sunday.
One morning I was delightfully surprised to see her up and in the kitchen fixing her own breakfast and eating at the table---perhaps only the second time she's been up to doing that this year! She enjoyed reading a magazine, a little card making, and with the nurse's permission even made it out to the store (what girl doesn't want to shop?!) and to church on Sunday!
All of these were very special treats, not usually something she'd be up for or able to do.

Today, she wasn't feeling great at all and was very tired. Her labs this morning showed that levels had dropped over the weekend (as expected) thus bringing fatigue and a more careful check for fevers. She had to have lab work done twice today as the morning labs came back with alerts. We thought we might be headed back to UVA hospital this evening, but the 4:00 labs were ok. Thank you, God, for the gift of remaining at home another evening!

We still have to nail down a final decision for the remaining course of treatment. Christen returns for chemo on Thursday which likely runs back to back with the following treatments thus putting us in the hospital from the 15th of May through possibly June 2nd or 3rd with only a few days off.
It's been wonderful to have a little break. Pray for strength for Christen especially and for each of us.

As you think of Christen, would you also pray for another girl, Nicole, the same age in Philadelphia with the same cancer as Christen's and her family.
Her femur broke necessitating being bedridden. She'd just lost her father to cancer about a month ago, only a few weeks after being diagnosed herself.
I can't imagine...

"For You are my hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth." Psalm
71:5


Debbie

Which Path to Take?

We are faced with making a decision about how to proceed with Christen's chemo treatment in light of the results of the pathology report regarding the tumor which was removed from her leg. The path forward is not clear, so we pray that God will help make a wise decision.

To bring everyone up to date, we did, thankfully, return home Tuesday after Christen received 2 units of blood and one of platelets. Christen has been struggling this week with a headache of the migraine sort, so pray that she will get some relief from that soon. Her next chemo treatment is scheduled to start the 15th. We have been so glad that she has been able to avoid an infection this time around. Please continue to pray that will be the case.

Steve & Debbie

Monday Evening

Thank you, all, for your prayers. God has allowed us to remain at home today so far. We will head to UVA early tomorrow morning for blood transfusions to help give Christen a boost to get through this tough time.
Hopefully this will only be an outpatient ordeal. This is a really great trial, but we know that God is far greater still. He has raised up an army of support for us in prayer and encouragement through you all. You are all on my heart, even though I've not responded to so many of you personally and yet have received so much from you. Please know that we've not forgotten your MANY kindnesses. Thank you for hanging in there with us for the long haul.

Steve & Debbie

Please Pray!

Christen has a fever this morning. Please pray specifically that it will stay below 100.4 degrees F. If it goes above that then we will likely have to take her back to UVA. We all very much want Christen to be able to stay at home until her next scheduled chemo treatment on 5/15/08. The days after receiving cisplatin are usually very difficult on her because her white blood cell count drops so low which greatly reduces her ability to fight infection.

Steve & Debbie

Saturday

I neglected to mention in the last post that Christen and Debbie had to spend one night at UVA Thursday because her electrolytes were low. She returned home Friday. It turns out that she also has another cdiff infection but thankfully they are letting her be at home with antibiotics rather than staying at the hospital to get over it.

We are very likely going to be doing the longer course of chemo which will run until the middle of November.

Our trust is that God is working His glorious and loving will in this situation and are so thankful that we can view this situation through the lens of the cross of Jesus. What might we be thinking if we had no Savior to deliver us from the guilt of sin? What if we didn't have the very Son of God interceding on our behalf before the throne of the Father, pleading that He has made us just before the Father because He paid our debt of sin and has given us His record of righteousness? The good news of Jesus dying to save sinners such as each of us makes a dramatic difference in the way in which we think about cancer. If God through Jesus has demonstrated such incredible love for us by giving His own Son to save us from the guilt of sin and make it so that we can spend eternity with Him, what can these terrible difficulties be but His loving Hand at work in us for our good? How can we think that He could be against us? Sometimes we are tempted to think it. We are sinful people, far from perfect. But His truth remains regardless of how we might feel. Adversity has a way of shaking us loose from placing our happiness in anything on this earth, and causing us to look up to Him. I suspect that He knows that we need that. Please continue to pray that we will keep our eyes on Jesus, the only One who is worthy of our trust, and is our only hope. This world is not our home. We are just passing through, and we are looking forward to what is to come.

Steve & Debbie for the family

Pathology Report

We met with Christen's oncologist today and received the report. The end result is that less than 10% of the tumor was killed by the pre-surgery course of chemo. Please pray for Christen and all of us as we absorb what this means and make decisions on how to proceed based on this result. And pray that we will rest in the will of our loving Father who always does that which is best for His children (Romans 8:28).

Steve & Debbie for the family

Meeting with Oncologist Today

We are scheduled to meet with Christen's oncologist at UVA today at 1:30 PM. He will give us the results of the pathology report on the tumor which was removed during her knee surgery and discuss the treatment plan from here out. We have two possible options, the standard treatment and the study treatment. The standard treatment will have Christen doing chemo through sometime in August, and the study treatment plan would mean chemo until October, along with some new chemo drugs. Pray for wisdom for all of us, and that God would be glorified whatever path He has for us to take.

Please continue to pray that Christen will not have a return of the intestinal infection that she has suffered with twice before, or a line infection, or any other type especially as we approach the days when her white blood cell counts go very low. Pray that we all will remember to be very sensitive to her need for everyone around her to practice good hygiene (clean hands, etc). This time around she is receiving GCSF shots which should be a big help to her white blood cell count, so we are hopeful that we can avoid a premature return to the hospital because of infection.

Thank you all so much for the continued prayers and encouragement. We are truly learning that we can do nothing without Jesus and that we must trust Him as our only true Hope. What other hope could a sinful, fallen, finite person have? None. But with Jesus we have all things! It is a wonderful thought beyond all description to think that the very God of heaven is looking down upon us with a wonderful Fatherly love, working all these things in each of our lives for our good.

For His Glory!
Steve & Debbie for the family