The New Game Plan

Dr. Stadtmauer has started Dad on a new course of chemo. It's a combination of two new drugs, which, if they work, will start to show results in two or three months, and another, which Dad has taken before and which should start working sooner. The doctor chose this particular chemo cocktail from several options, any of which he feels has a 50-50 chance of being effective. At this stage, the options are fewer. There is still the possibility of a second stem-cell transplant; this would depend on whether or not the current chemo is effective, and whether Dad is healthy enough to withstand it.

There's been some further elevation in Dad's protein levels (.8), but still nowhere near the highly elevated numbers of last winter/spring, so it's not as bad as it's been before. One prominent side effect of this new chemo regimen is lowered blood counts, both red and white. This means that Dad will be weaker and subject to infection. Please pray that he will be protected from the many outside pathogens as these drugs fight the cancer. Please continue to pray that the radiation would show good results with the tumors in his back. Pray for Dad's energy and spirits, as he continues to deal with the weakness in his foot and and intense fatigue.

Both Mom and Dad are grateful for all your prayers and acts of kindness, even though they are unable to respond personally to every one of you, as they wish they could. Both say they feel upheld by the prayers of the saints, and that God has been close to them in yet a new and deeper way over the past couple of months. They continue to wrestle with the Lord to find and accept his will for them in this, and to find the right way to live through this passage, one way or another, honestly and faithfully.