Christen is now settled in her hospital room and sleeping nicely. She has been having trouble with pain because of the knee immobilizer which they put on her to keep her knee stable. Because of the tumor, 2 incisions, and the bone samples they removed, her knee is extremely sore. They had to significantly increase her pain medication in order to manage it, and she is now sleeping. Keeping her knee straight was very painful before the surgery, so I can only imagine what it must be like now. We asked the doctor about letting her bend the knee. They would rather not do that since her knee is more stable straight than bent.
We give praise to God that it appears the cancer has not spread. We can't begin to tell you how deeply grateful to our God we are and what an awesome thing it is to see answered prayer. I (Steve) am so thankful that Debbie was so quick to get her to the doctor, and that Dr. Dart did such an excellent job reading the x-ray and was able to detect that something was wrong. The radiologist told him that she was surprised that he saw enough on the x-ray to prompt him to order an MRI. Dr. Dart told us that was the "hand of providence." Well... we say AMEN to that. The doctor told us today that he feels certain that Christen will be fine once she is through all the treatment that she will receive this year. It will be a difficult year, but he thinks the end result is that she will be fine. She will have some limitations in the use of her knee (most sports will be out for instance) but other than that she will be able to function normally in life.
Christen still has significant hurdles in the future. 3 months of chemo-therapy. Knee and partial femur replacement. 6 more months of chemo after that. No small set of things to face in ones life at the age of 15. In fact it will be very difficult.
However, we are very grateful, and trust that Jesus will be with her in the future as He has been with her up to this point.
Scott and Patty drove up and stayed with us today. They brought Hannah with them. It was wonderful to have them with us to help pass the time and provide encouragement while Christen was in surgery. Louie also drove up today. Louie, Hannah, and Ruth will all stay with me at the Ronald McDonald House tonight.
Christen needs to have a special x-ray taken tomorrow in order to prepare for the upcoming knee surgery.
We will hopefully leave the hospital tomorrow afternoon if everything goes well.
Steve & Debbie for the family
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6 comments:
Thank you again for the update. Please greet Christen for us. We are so very grateful for all of the encouraging news. I am glad that Hannah and Louie are there tonight. Praying for everyone to get some good rest tonight.
We love you,
Kurt and Jennifer
i'm glad that taking action was prompt and christen is fine. may God be with her always. mom and i have been praying since we got the sad news. we're glad everything's going to be over. i'm glad for the great prognosis. love you all, miss you al
sima and family
We are so thankful for the good news! Thank you for keeping us informed, Steve. God is so faithful! You all are constantly in our prayers and thoughts.
We love you!
G
Please give Christen a BIG hug from the Johnson's. We are looking forward to seeing you all when you return. May the Lord give you peace and traveling mercies. We love you.
Kathy : )
othr'n the fact that it's mildly ironic to call all that treatment "good news"...That's amazing. God really is great. I'm sure he'll do great things through the rest of trials during the treatment period.
hooray! i can't wait to see you all when you get back. can't wait to hug ya christen! i love you =D
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