Home Tomorrow?

Christen has done well through this last round of chemo treatment, which they administered on Friday. She is still in the hospital, though we are hopeful that she will be able to come home sometime tomorrow. Tomorrow morning will make 2 weeks straight that she and Debbie have been in the hospital. If Christen is able to come home tomorrow then we will have 3 full days together as a family before she goes back in for her next chemo (methotrexate) on Friday. We have 3 birthdays to celebrate (Isaac, Hannah, and Jordan) and an egg-hunt, which was missed over Easter, to fit in. Should be fun! :-)

April will be a big month for Christen. The tentative date for the knee surgery (in which the tumor will be removed and an endoprosthesis will be put in her leg) is April 15th. We will be in Philadelphia for probably 7 days. She will also go back for another round of the cisplatin, which is the "difficult" (they are all difficult, but some more so than others) chemo treatment. After the April cisplatin treatment she will have only one more of those left. The other chemo drugs she has received are difficult but not nearly so as the cisplatin, so we hope that the worst will be over once the cisplatin is completed.

Her tumor will be evaluated after the surgery to determine how much of it was killed by the chemo treatments. We are hoping that more than 90% of the tumor will have been killed since that is considered a good response, and indicates a much better long-term prognosis. The tumor response will also potentially determine how much more chemo she will receive after the surgery, and what kinds of chemo drugs they will administer.

So many folks have given us encouragement and support. Please know that we are so very thankful for all of it, and God has indeed used it to encourage us. He has shown Himself (and often through you guys) to be the ever-present and loving God through these days of trial and tears. They haven't been easy, but He has never forsaken us, or left us alone. We certainly have deserved to be forsaken, but His grace through Jesus is greater still than all our sin. What an amazing foundation we can rest on.

Steve & Debbie

PICC Line

Christen will be staying in the hospital to start her next round of chemotherapy on Friday. This means that she will in the hospital until at least this Sunday, and likely Monday.

She is doing well, all things considered. She had a PICC line inserted today in preparation for the next round of chemo since they had to remove her central line. The doctors are being very careful with bacteria, so they actually plan to remove the PICC line before she goes up to Philadelphia for the knee surgery. She slept most of the day as a result of the sedation they gave her for PICC line insertion procedure.

Please continue to pray for Christen and the family. This is the longest time we have all be separated, and there isn't much easy about this. We are so thankful, however, for the wonderful support we have received throughout.


Thanks!
Steve & Debbie

Easter

Thanks for the continued prayer for Christen. She is still in the hospital, hoping to come home Wednesday, but with the very real possibility that she will go right back on Thursday, depending on how her liver is doing. If her liver hasn't recovered enough then she could go on our church retreat this weekend, but on the other hand that would put another week delay in getting the chemo finished. Having said that, she REALLY REALLY would love to go on the retreat.

We had a very nice visit today as a family in Christen's hospital room. Everyone was there which I believe is the first time that we have all visited Christen at the same time. Louie(18), William(6), and Jordan(7) all traded punches with one another in their arms for a little entertainment. I felt bad for Louie since William's fist is so small and he was putting everything he had into the punch. :-) I think Louie will be OK though.

Please pray for Christen's spirits this evening. It is very hard for someone in her situation not to be discouraged.


Steve & Debbie for the family

Better

Christen is finally feeling better. She had her central line removed on Friday which they think was the source of the infection. She is on strong antibiotics and we hope they will re-place the line later this coming week. The bone pain is thankfully gone. It is simply incredible the number of side-effects that Christen has to fight with between the chemo drugs themselves, and all the other drugs they give her to fight the side-effects of the chemo.

We are so very thankful for God's presence with us, and for all the ways that He has encouraged us through your prayers and support. We can't begin to tell you how much it means to us.


Tomorrow the kids and I will go to see Christen and Debbie in the hospital tomorrow after church.

Steve for the family

Out of ICU, but not the Woods

Thankfully Christen is out of the ICU this evening and into a regular room. However she is really struggling with severe bone pain (a side effect of the medicine they are giving her to bring up her white blood cell count), and she is running another fever. :-(

Tomorrow they will remove her central line as they suspect that is the source of the recent infections. She will be in the hospital through at least Thursday of next week, and probably longer than that. :-(

Please pray for her. These are tall mountains for her to climb.

Steve & Debbie for the family

Still in ICU

Christen is still in the ICU this evening. They will hopefully let her go out onto the "floor" sometime tomorrow if her potassium level comes up. She will likely be in the hospital for the rest of this week. She is anxious to get out of ICU and to a normal room where she can have visitors. They thought for a while that she may have the flu but thankfully that turned out not to be the case. She has had wonderful nursing care in the ICU, for we which we are all thankful.

Please continue to be in prayer for her emotions and spirit as well as the physical issues. It is very hard to be in the hospital.

Thanks!
Steve & Debbie for the family

Oxygen

Christen was so much better today. Her temperature and blood pressure have returned to normal and she was able to eat a little food. She is still in the ICU and will remain there until at least tomorrow. Unfortunately she just this evening started having trouble with her oxygen level and a cough. They did an x-ray of her chest almost immediately, and it came back clear. So please pray that the doctors will be able to figure out what is causing this new difficulty. She just had a CT scan this evening so it might an allergic to the contrast.


Steve & Debbie for the family