No Cocktail

That's right - Mom's oncologist told us yesterday that because the pathology report on the entire tumor was so great that she won't need a cocktail of chemo; it'll just be one drug. He wants to begin the treatments in 3 weeks, as long as she's gained some weight and her recovery has progressed a bit more. She'll go every other week for 4 months (for a total of 8 treatments) and be infused at the hospital for about 30 minutes. She'll remain hooked up to a machine that will coninue to infuse the chemo for 48 hours. The machine is similar to what she had before with the TPN.

The oncologist has been along the ride (for the most part) so is completely aware of how sick my mom was just a couple of months ago as a result of the treatments. He has been awesome and reassured us about the whole thing. He said that with these infusions, he'll be able to better monitor the side effects of the chemo and will keep a very close eye on her. She'll have smaller doses than what she had before, and if at any point she begins to get sick, we can just stop the treatments, hopefully having completed at least 4.

Sure, it kinda stinks that she has to undergo more treatments, but it's an understatement to say how highly they recommend the post-op chemo. Her cancer was advanced, and they want there to be the smallest possibility of reoccurrence as they can get to. Okay, so yeah it may stink, but we got some pretty incredible news. Now, we already knew about the pathology report - there was zero cancer left when the surgeon went into cut. What he cut out was scar tissue and what they call complete treatment effect. The 18 lymph nodes that were removed had zero cancer. No margin of what was cut had cancer. It was all zero, negative for cancer. That was awesome news to us. Here's what we didn't know - that kind of pathology report is almost unheard of in these scenarios (the location, size, and stage of cancer). They attempt to bring it down to 10, sometimes even 5% cancer, meaning that there is still cancer in part of what they remove. The surgeon's PA had told us how great of news it was to have 0%, but I guess we didn't know really how to compare that. We just assumed it was normal to have that kind of report. Not so, friends. In fact, the oncologist's PA told us this kind of report is very rare. AMAZING!!!

I'm smiling as I type this because I'm just in awe of God's goodness. Yes, my mom still has a ways to go, but we're seeing miracles in the process of this mess. A beautiful mess.

Thinking about it almost makes me speechless. Notice I say almost. Yeah, that's because I want to thank you for not only reading my rambling blog after blog, but also thank you for praying so faithfully for my mom. I believe that these miracles we see are in direct relation to all of the prayers on behalf of my mom. As I've said before, God knows ahead of time what we need, but He asks us to ask Him anway, and I know it works. HE works. He works it out according to His will, and though we don't know what that is sometimes nor do I completely understand it, I do know prayer works. THANK YOU!

With that, I ask that you pray for:
-Continued physical healing from the cuts, movements, everything that took place during surgery
-Strength & energy - my mom gets super tired very easily. Please pray that she regains her strength more and more every day so that she can feel a bit more normal.
-Appetite & weight - since the surgery, she has been hungry only twice, and though that's normal, it's be so much easier if she had an appetite. Yes, she's eating because she has to, but Mom said today that it's really hard when you can't enjoy what you're eating because you're just not hungry. She's lost a couple of pounds since last week, and that's not so good. She's eating more and more, so we aren't completely sure why the weight loss. She needs to gain it in order to be able to heal better and more quickly.
-Ileostomy - well, the pouch that she has to wear isn't the easiest to live with. Don't get me wrong, we're incredibly grateful that technology has given her the opportunity to really heal from the surgery, and we're super thankful that this is temporary. BUT that doesn't negate the fact that this is a huge adjustment. Pray that the frustrating part of it wouldn't be so frustrating.
-House - last but not least, my mom and her husband are trying to sell their house so that they can live in Lake Jackson (rather than El Campo). Her husband's business in now solely in Lake Jackson (he commutes over an hour twice every day), and the family is there as well. It'll be way more convenient there. Please pray that the house would sell soon!

Okay, I know, lots of stuff, and I tend to ramble on and on. Again, I do appreciate your prayers more than I can say.