Thursday, May 28, 2009

today...

...dad will be starting chemo treatments again, after 6 months of clean health. the large mass on the side of his neck is MCC, growing every day. his oncologist, dr. p, got him into chemo treatments early this morning. praise God for great caring doctors.

please be praying for healing, peace, calm, no pain, no counteraction with his leukemia. our God is greater than cancer and his healing power is deeper still.

mom continues with physical therapy and is making great strides. she has an appointment today.

just taking care of business...

Sunday, May 17, 2009

6 months have passed....

...and Dad has had a relatively clean bill of health during this time, often going a month or two with no dr's appts... praise God! we had a wonderful Christmas together and he has been enjoying time with the grandkids and friends.

after his radiation, though, he found out that the treatment had killed a salivary gland in his mouth, causing two teeth to rot and become a bit abscess. this swelling extended into his jaw and his dentist referred him to Loma Linda Hospital in Riverside County. after 2 months of waiting [it's a teaching hospital so they are very busy] and oncoming pain, he was finally seen. he will be having those teeth removed at the end of May. it will have been almost another month and a half of waiting to have them removed.

meanwhile, this swelling has increased and is now a noticeable size [about the size of my dad's hand extending under his ear toward the back of his neck]. the Kaiser doctors are concerned, not only about the fact that he has not had those teeth pulled yet [this is surprising to them, actually], but that the swelling has increased and is causing pain, so they are running some tests. we will know more about what exactly is happening this week. please be praying with us that it is not MCC [merkel cell carcinoma]. we will keep you posted.

[as a side note, we lost our dear friend Sam to stomach cancer in March. we miss him so very much. our friend Judy had surgery to remove the tumor on her lung and is recovering well. Mike will find out more this week about how his treatment has been working for the cancer in his bladder].