Honey, I shrunk my lymph nodes!

And Nate passes GO! We had a good appointment with Dr. H, Nate's oncologist, today. The scans taken on Tuesday showed a big improvement in Nate's lymph nodes in all areas that were affected by cancer. In Dr. H's words: "the disease has responded well." And if you knew Dr. H, that's as happy and excited with words as he gets. Praise God! So this means NO MORE CHEMO! That is such a huge relief. Thank you all for your kind words, thoughts and prayers.

So what's next? Radiation. Sometime soon (maybe next week?) we will meet again with the radiological oncologist, Dr. M. to set up Nate's radiation schedule and do more scans if necessary as well as other prep work. For now, the expectation is to do radiation Monday-Friday, for a month. That's a lot. So please pray for Nate's stamina and patience and health through this time.

Other things that we learned today are as follows:

• Nate will retain the awesome port in his chest until all treatment has concluded and there is basically no trace of cancer in his system. That means that he needs to go into get it "flushed" every month so it does get clogged or something.
• There will be another PET scan done after radiation is complete to make sure all cancer cells have been destroyed and then the lymphoma will be re-staged. We definitely vote that the stage is "cured" (maybe that's stage 0?)
• Nate's hair will continue to fall out for another 4-6 weeks at which time his hair follicles will recover and he will have a awesomely full head of hair again.
• We also learned that since Nate is doing chemo as well as radiation, the amount of chemo given, though an effective amount, should not cause problems down the line...that is a HUGE relief!

Things to pray for:

• First, join us in thanking God for his grace and kindness. Even though the road hasn't been easy (and is still looking rough for a time), we have learned a lot, grown stronger in our faith and relationships.
• Please pray for patience, energy and grace for our little family as the doctor's appointment schedule becomes crazy again right as the holiday/birthday season gears up.
• Please pray for the side effects of radiation; that there won't be any :)
• Please pray contentment during this next phase of treatment and life

We love you all!


 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:11-13