Let me begin by thanking everyone for your prayers, emails, and cards. It is a constant source of strength; that enables us to face the challenges of each day. It also helps us to remember the blessings we receive each day.

Mary has received four chemo treatments since the middle of August, when this round started. The side effects have not been the worst we have seen. (I think the first rounds, 8 years ago, were worse.) They have been a challenge. Perhaps the most troubling is the renewed build up of fluid around her lungs. They did a surgical intervention, just a year ago to alleviate this problem. While it did help for a time; she has never regained full lung capacity.

So what did the chemo do? On the plus side her liver enzymes have come down. Six weeks ago her bilirubin was in the 20’s. Now it is down near 6; normal is under 1.2. So we have seen some improvement. Mary is no longer so yellow but she continues to retain fluids. Her appetite has decreased considerably over the last few months. The chemo did nothing to help, as it wipes out taste buds and made swallowing hard. Scans of the liver do not show any significant change from August, before the chemo started.

So our question now is do we continue the chemo treatments; are we gaining ground? Side effects and overall wear on the body make this a legitimate question. Our decision for the week was to wait and give her body a little more time to recover some needed strength. Then we will decide on the next steps. These are not easy decisions. We rely on your support, the wisdom of the doctors and the grace of God has we continue on this journey.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,   ~~ Hebrews 12:1

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