Back @ UVA

Christen is back in the hospital today, and has just finished receiving the next round of chemotherapy. Now she spends the next several days in the hospital waiting for the concentration of the chemo drug in her bloodstream to come down to a safe level. She is feeling very nauseated tonight and would appreciate prayer. I can't imagine what it must be like to be sick to one extent or another for months on end. Tonight has been one of her more difficult times. Pray that she will be able to get to sleep soon.

Thanks!!
Steve & Debbie

@ Home

A quick update: Christen and Debbie came home yesterday. We are glad to be together for the weekend. Christen starts another chemo treatment Monday morning and will likely be in the hospital until Thursday or Friday. She is very tired right now.

Steve & Debbie

Endurance

Christen is still at UVA recovering from her last dose of chemotherapy. Hopefully she will come home today. Please pray that God would give her the strength to endure as the length of this trial is getting more and more difficult. It is hard to imagine what it must be like for her. We know that God gives strength, so that is our prayer for her right now.

Christen's most recent x-ray of her knee and femur showed no tumor recurrence, for which we are extremely grateful to God. Please continue to pray that the cancer will not return, and that we will all have wisdom in making decisions regarding the remaining part of her treatment.

Steve & Debbie for the family

Faith

Christen and I are sitting here in the clinic at UVA awaiting the start of her next round of chemotherapy. She is spending the time doing some artwork. She is doing well today all things considered. She is in good spirits, and is feeling much better physically. Progress has been made in understanding the source of her headaches, and the antibiotic is doing a good job taking care of the cdiff. It looks like we will probably switch to Monday as the regular chemotherapy "start day" rather than Thursday. Switching back to Thursday would put another delay in the overall schedule which would result in her missing the first week or two of school in the fall. She is really looking forward to returning to normal life, even though that means schoolwork. :-)

Debbie stayed home today with Lori who is quite sick with a stomach bug. I'm sure all of you mothers reading this can appreciate how Debbie felt at the thought of leaving her baby girl sick at home, all the while wanting to be with Christen in the hospital for the start of more chemo. Alas, since she can't be in two places at once, Dad had to fill in. I'm not as good a nurse as Mom is, but I think Christen will be OK. :-)

Thank you all so much for the prayers. We are feeling them, and we would be lost without the grace and presence of our loving Savior. We are constantly reminded these days, in much deeper ways than normal, how helpless we are without God. Life is so fragile, and the time so short, and our flesh so weak. But, "I can do all things through Christ who stengthens me."

May He receive all the glory. His loving hand is an amazing, awesome, and sometimes fearful thing to see. Yet, we know by faith that even though He is "not a safe lion", He is good. He will do whatever He wills. For a person who loves to be in control that can be a very unsettling thing. Yet, by faith we know that He will always do what is best for us, and it is comforting to know that He has not sent us somewhere that He hasn't been before, and indeed He has promised to be with us every step of the way. He is walking with Christen, and all of us. He takes his children by the hand and leads them through. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me..." What more do we need? What need we fear? Sometimes we do fear just like the disciples in the boat during the storm, and His loving question to the disciples, "why are you afraid..." rings in our ears.

Pray that our faith would be strengthened and that He would be glorified through all that happens to us.

Steve & Debbie for the family.

P.S. Michelle, Christen says that it would be fun to go to Oxford. I think you would find her a willing captive if it meant the opportunity to visit you and Ben. :-)

Plans Changed!

Christen and Debbie went to UVA this morning to start her next round of chemotherapy, but since she is having intestinal trouble they decided to delay this round until next Monday, pending results of a test for cdiff. Christen is excited to get to spend the weekend at home. Thank you all the prayers. God is proving Himself (once again) to be worthy of our complete trust!

Steve & Debbie for the family

@Home

Christen was able to come home on Saturday, thankfully. She is struggling with migraine headaches and nausea, however. Please pray that we will be able to figure out what is triggering these, as they add yet another struggle for her to deal with.

Steve & Debbie for the family

Saturday Update

Thank you for the prayers! Christens neutrophil count jumped way up today so the Dr. is planning to let Christen come home today. Praise God for that. This unplanned stay in the hospital has been especially hard on her emotionally, so we are all _very_ glad that she should get home today.

Christen's last x-ray of her knee taken earlier this month had some potentially concerning spots regarding tumor recurrence, but the doctors all think that most likely the spots are actually not tumor but a non-cancerous growth caused by the trauma of the surgery. Please pray that will indeed be the case.

Regardless, we know that our loving Father has Christen in His hand and He will do whatever is best for her and all of us. Please pray that our faith and hope would be in Him, and not in anything else.


Steve & Debbie for the family

Quick Update

Please pray that Christen's neutrophil count will rise soon. It has been at zero for the last several days, and she can't leave the hospital until it has risen on two consecutive days. She is discouraged about being in the hospital and would really love to get out of there soon.

Steve

One Week at Home

We enjoyed spending one whole week at home! What a treat that was! It's great to see Christen hobbling along on only one crutch for balance/support. As always, there are ups and downs day to day in her progress, and she struggles with headaches and nausea. Early this morning we returned to UVA for needed transfusions and Christen also woke up with a fever, so she will need to stay in the hospital for several days. She would much rather be home but is such a trooper through all of this. We have to wait for blood cultures to come back determining if there is any kind of infection causing the fever, her blood pressure needs to stay stable, and her blood counts need to be increasing on their own before she can return home. We are scheduled to be back at UVA on the 19th for the first of three weeks in a row of chemo, so it would be nice to get back home before then. As of today, we have spent 92 days in the hospital and 70 days at home so far this year. We are very grateful for all of the support we have received from all of you in SO MANY ways making our lives much more bearable. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Please continue to pray that the cancer be totally eradicated from her body.
Pray, too, that we will all keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. It is sometimes hard to see the beauty of life when death keeps shaking it's ugly fists tauntingly at you, yet we do have so much to be thankful for. Praise God we have a future and a hope in Him, and that He is victorious even over death.
I am continually reminded that this life is but a brief moment, then comes eternity.

Blessings to each one of you out there :-).

Debbie, for all of us

Visit @ CHOP

Christen had a good appointment with the orthopedic surgeon on Monday. He was very pleased with her progress and gave her approval to beginning working on walking without her crutches under the supervision of the physical therapist. We are very happy for her.

She is very wiped out from the effects of the last chemo treatment, however. She is such a trooper though. She didn't feel well the whole trip up and back yesterday, but she didn't complain.

Thank you so much for all the prayers. God is continuing to answer them.

Steve & Debbie for the family.

Home Today

Christen has received her last dose of cisplatin!!! She is very happy to have that behind her. She is scheduled to have chemo through the end of August, but at least she won't have any more doses of the worst of the chemo drugs.

She is doing reasonably well in the hospital. Nausea is the ever present struggle, but it hasn't been as bad as at times in the past. They are planning to let her go home today barring any unexpected events.

Tomorrow the three of us will drive up to Philadelphia for a follow-up appointment with the orthopedic surgeon. Her knee seems to be healing nicely and we are very much looking forward to her being able to walk on it without crutches soon.

We give praise to Jesus for sustaining us thus far. His grace is truly amazing.

Steve & Debbie for the family.