Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Hello,

  On Monday Michele had her third RCHOP treatment. Once again, everything went very well. Thanks for praying! Michele had a hamburger for lunch during the treatment, a small serving of ice cream on the way home, and ate grilled chicken with a sweet potato and salad for supper. Yesterday we went back for her Nulasta shot and she had enough energy for a stop at the mall to buy a new pair of shoes.

  This morning she was very excited by renewed neural activity in her left hand and arm. She was having sharp pains in her hand before bedtime and was worried that she might not be able to sleep, but she did sleep pretty well, and had this new increase in feeling when she awoke. Our opinion is that the chemo is doing what it's supposed to, and shrinkage of the tumors means more return of function. We'll know more after the results come in from her Lumbar puncture on the 27th.

  Some of you may know that we are members of Samaritan Ministries, a Christian healthcare association, through which we are paying the medical bills. When you have a medical need to be paid, Samaritan Ministries assigns a portion to other members, who write a check directly to you. Likewise, each month we send a check to someone who needs help paying their medical bill. Well, this month S.M. assigned our need to 345 members, so our mailbox has been pretty full lately! I've been making deposits at the bank almost daily. I'd like to know what the tellers think :-) If you'd like to know more about Samaritan Ministries, visit  their website at: www.samaritanministries.org

  Tomorrow a person from the home therapy company is coming to evaluate Michele's progress and make a recommendation as to whether or not we should continue therapy. We would appreciate your prayers on our behalf regarding this decision. Since we are self-pay clients, there is no insurance company to mandate how many treatments she is 'allowed', but we don't want to abuse the system, since the visits aren't exactly cheap. Obviously, we don't want to stop them prematurely, either.

Many thanks for your love, concern, gifts, and prayers.

Tim and Michele