Doing Battle, Week 4

Last Monday kicked off the week with an answer to prayer.  We'd been trying to get the NY and CT oncologists to talk and we were not sure if the CT oncologist would go for the change in treatment plan, set forth by Sloan.  But finally on Monday Shaun spoke to the CT oncologist who said "no problem".  He said Sloan just needed to fax over the treatment, then he needed a couple days to get it set up and we'd be ready to roll.  That was our best case scenario and we were relieved to have it resolved!

Cancer life and real life weaving together in strange ways.

Sloan must have sent it over because on Wednesday we were sitting in a doctor's office doing a consult for a port placement and on Friday I had the surgery to implant it.  My first surgery, my first stitches.

On Thursday we had a lengthy consult with an oncology nurse, who went over the specifics of how the treatment would be administered and the possible side effects.  We also got a quick peek into the treatment room.  It was an intense meeting and we were both spent after.  Shaun went to play basketball and ended up re-injuring a muscle bruise he'd gotten the week before.  It was bad enough he had to be carried off the court and driven home.

The next morning he tried to power through, but his leg was too swollen to cooperate.  At the last minute he conceded that he would not be able to bring me to the hospital for the surgery, which I'm sure is one of the harder things he's ever had to do.

Thankfully, my sister flew out of her house in five minutes time and was able to sit with me pre and post op.  Several nurses asked us if we were sisters or friends.  What a gift to be able to say "both!"

The surgery was easier than I could have imagined and from the time we were in the billing office until the time we were in the car headed home was only about four hours.  I've had very little pain, just an awareness that there is a foreign object under my skin and a feeling like I did way too many push-ups (I wish!).  I was happy to be able to report to Amanda that the device is purple.  In case you were curious...

The night of the surgery, Shaun slept across the hall in the spare room so we would not accidentally hurt each other in our sleep.  The spare room, that we've used to house many foster kids for respite care.  I wondered to God about His plan in all of this.  To my human thinking, it would make so much more sense for a foster kid who need some love and care and safety to be sleeping in that room and for my husband to be by my side, working together to pour into other people.

I was reminded of the verse:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

I do trust He has a plan and that someday, or maybe piece by piece, I will have an "aha!" moment when it will make sense.

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 1 Cor 13:12

This morning we go for my first of eight treatments, which we'll do every two weeks.  I'll sit with an IV for two hours, then we go home with a pack I'll carry around for 46 hours.

My uncle, operating in the Western Branch of Team Lisa, as he says, texts me most mornings with a verse in the Uncle Lee Standard Version.  This morning my aunt sent her own version:

This is the day that the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and kill cancer in it!  :)

Amen!  Let's do this!

I am flooded with peace and my mind is steadfast.

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Is 26:3