Well…here goes…I wrote on Facebook two
or three nights ago that I was going to try to update and continue the blog
that our daughter, Claire started when Thomas was first diagnosed with multiple
myeloma in 2009. In order to do that, I
decided to read back over the 33 or so posts that Claire made starting four
months after his diagnosis in November of 2009.
WOW! I wasn’t prepared for the
emotions that I was going to feel reading those precious heart-felt snap shots
of our lives written by our precious child!
But by far, the most overwhelming response that I felt over and over and
over was the pure awesomeness of our wonderful Lord and Savior. He NEVER let us down, and I know He NEVER
will, no matter what happens on this earth!
Claire wrote in her first entry that
blogs were a lifesaver for her when her daddy was first diagnosed, and lately I
have found the same to be true. Not only
do they help connect us with real people fighting this very real battle as Claire
said, but they also give us HOPE. I have found that writing about what is going
on is very therapeutic for me as I try to express our daily struggles, fears,
successes, and disappointments, because as I write I am ALWAYS reminded that
GOD has CONTROL of all of this and He LOVES US SO much that He gave His
Son! Hopefully, as I am reminded of this
and write about it, I can give others hope too! I subscribe to a couple of
Multiple Myeloma Support Groups online and plan to share this blog with them as
well, so some of what I share may be of no interest whatsoever to you unless
you are walking a similar journey! A
dear, dear friend reminded me on Facebook today that you can always skip what
you don’t want to read or not read it at all! HOW true! At first I thought I might sound rude saying
that, but it is just true. I just pray
that someone will be helped or glean something that might be useful in whatever
journey their lives are taking!
OK…now that all that’s said, I want to
give a brief update on what has been going on recently in Thomas’s walk with
MM. Around the end of November, the
decision was made for Thomas to stop the chemotherapy treatments that he had
been taking for about a year. There were
several reasons for this, but I think the main one in our minds, or at least
mine and the children’s, was just to give Thomas a break and let him feel
really good for Christmas and the last part of his favorite season of
all…HUNTING! Well, he did have a couple
of great weeks! He loved being able to
hunt and not have to worry about treatments and such. But you know what y’all, we sometimes forget
that Satan is just looking and waiting for his chance to jump in and try to
wreak havoc in our lives and try to make us doubt God. Thomas began to have low back pain and
shooting pains down his legs that progressively got worse and worse until he
finally conceded that he needed to see Dr. Adams sooner rather than later in
the hunting season. (I just want to stop here for a minute and say that
everyone has their own personal heroes, and we all choose differently, but Dr.
Betsy Adams ranks at the very top of our list!
She is Thomas’s oncologist, but our family’s anchor as we fight this
battle with him. She is brilliant in her
field, and is always consulting with specialists all over and looking for what
is the very best for her patients, even if she needs to send them elsewhere for
treatment. But that is not the best
thing about her…she is SO kind and compassionate, but even more than that, she
knows that we all need God to guide us and we can feel His presence with her as
she treats Thomas.) While Thomas was taking a break from chemo, a tumor or mass
of myeloma cells formed at the base of his spine and was causing him lots of
pain and trouble walking and it got to where he couldn’t lie down in the
bed. He began radiation treatments to
dissolve or break up the tumor, but just when things started getting better, he
developed pneumonia in both lungs and had to be hospitalized a week or so
before Christmas. For those with MM
reading this, he says pneumonia was MUCH worse than either stem cell
transplant, so if you a facing a SCT, take heart...Thomas has had two, and he
really never complained when he was hospitalized those two times. Once he was released from the hospital and
started back on radiation for his back, he realized that he had not only broken
a small bone in his right forearm, but also his clavicle on the same
side…that’s a story for another day though.
THEN he continued to run a low grade fever that slowly and progressively
got higher and higher. He was admitted to the hospital, had all kinds of tests
done and nothing proved conclusive; fever stopped. SO he went as out-patient and had his
medi-port removed since doctors thought that might be the source of the
fever. Came home for ONE day and began
running fever AGAIN!!! Hospitalized Saturday with fever and a determined Dr.
Adams to find out once and for all and for sure that he fever was coming from
the port. Turns out it was! He stayed in the hospital through Tuesday and
we came home with ME being the nurse! I
actually JUST gave him his last dosage of antibiotic and removed the IV
line! GO me! (Obviously, I have been
writing this post for several days!) SO we are scheduled to have a port
reinserted at 6:30 Monday morning and then meet with Dr. Adams Tuesday to
hopefully resume chemotherapy!
I am telling you all of this as I said
for many reasons…common information for other going through treatment, to
update friends and family, therapy for me, but MOSTLY to give PRAISE and honor
to our Lord! Even through the scary
times in our physical lives (and we all have them), HE proves over and over
that this too shall pass and we will all come out so much for the better on the
other side! Gonna stop now, but will
post again later! Can’t wait to tell you about the broken clavicle! Much love and prayers for all who read!
