Happy Thanksgiving, friends!
We trust you are all having a great week. Just a few things the He family is thankful for this year...
*We didn't buy turkey for $5 a pound this year. A first for us in a few years.
*On a related note, I'm thankful that my house is not cold enough to brine said turkey outside of the refrigerator.
*We are thankful that James seems to be improving every few days or so. He slept for 8 hours without waking from coughing fits last night, a first in a long, long time. He said that once in the night he coughed a couple times, but not enough to really wake him, and he immediately returned to sleep. Amazing. Hopefully the first of many more to come...
*James has also been having weird sounds coming from his lungs. Like squeaks. Or pinched wheezes. The last time we heard those sounds, it sounded to us like his lung reinflating. (And then his lung did in fact reinflate.) [And no, I will not tell you about how the doctor looked at us when we described what we were hearing. But I think he might have been thinking something like, "All those years of school. And I am still completely unprepared to deal with crazy people."] Whether or not that is what we are hearing, James is breathing deeper and easier. Maybe the sounds we are now hearing are tumors dying.
*This last weekend we got an unexpected visit from some dear friends of ours. We went out to lunch and they took our picture. It's surprisingly good. (Though James says he looks fat - thank you, Prednisone.)
*We are so thankful for all of you! For all of our American friends, we hope you get all of your old favorites this weekend and that you eat too many of them. Celebrate. Indulge. Take a nap. And in the midst of all the ruckus, give thanks.
Hello, dear friends. Sorry for the bit of quiet around here lately. (It's not you, it's me.)
First, the good news - James is done with both radiation and chemo! We are so thankful to have made it thus far, thankful for God's grace that carried us through such an intense treatment regimen, thankful that now our days do not automatically include things such as a 40 minute commute to the hospital, getting prescriptions filled, or getting poked with a spring-loaded needle.
Also, we didn't realize this at the beginning (because the doctor can't say "we hope you will be strong enough for treatment, but we'll wait and see"), but James actually got an "extra" round of chemo that is a one-in-a-million kind of deal. Basically, when the doctor saw how well he was doing, he was scheduled for the third round. Something the doctor hopes for but can't guarantee or promise. Very rarely do any of his patients hold up for round three. So we are indeed very, very thankful.
On the other hand, events over the last three weeks have meant that we really just needed to persevere, to ask for strength to endure to the end. As James's body weakened, finishing treatment definitely felt like we were crawling to the finish line rather than sprinting through the home stretch.
For the last three weeks, James's body has rapidly declined and weakened. (Even as we hope that the present wasting away is leading us to health and healing, it is a genuinely strange reality that it difficult for me to deal with.) Imagine, if you will, James at 90 - he no longer has energy to play with the girls, leans on shopping carts to make it through shopping trips, tires easily and fills his afternoons with naps, and even lacks the strength to consistently shoot a basketball to rim height. This is the James that we now know.
The effects of chemo are often felt two to three weeks after the last dose, and radiation keeps working for six to eight weeks after the last treatment. So it may be awhile yet before James actually starts to feel better. His cough is getting better, but also keeps him from sleeping much past 4 a.m. Also, James's blood counts were all quite low last week (yes, again, and yes, totally normal), which means he is susceptible to infection and fatigue. (Because of how chemo works, they will likely dip down even lower than the previous low over the next couple weeks.)
Having cancer is a rip-roaring good time, eh?! =)
The next "thing" on the horizon for us is a CT scan that James will do at the end of the year. (December 29th, if you want to mark your calendars. =) ) We'll get the results from that the following day. Hopefully, hopefully, we'll see good, great, downright awesome results from that. The CT is kind of basic as far as scans go, and can show new growth (boo!) and decreased tumor size (yeah!) but can't differentiate between tumors and scar tissue (a common side effect of radiation). So we are praying for, once again, awesome results that are better than the doctors expect.
And then we go from there - more waiting, more days of recovering, and then a PET scan at the end of March.
In the meantime, thank you for continuing to pray for us, support us, and keep us encouraged. If you all keep doing that, we should be able to post again sooner rather than later. Thanks! You all are awesome. =)
