Tuesday,

Another update on our ongoing journey that commenced on May 12th. First the numbers on Bonnie. Normally the process is to draw labs on Bonnie once each day early in the morning, so the numbers I report on the blog post at night are from that morning’s lab results. Today they did a draw at both 6:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The results of the 6:00 a.m. draw were WBC at 7,700 (of which the disease fighting ones -Neutrophils were 81%) and no sign of leukemia cells. Her platelet count was down to 11,000 and her hemoglobin was 8.2. The doctors ordered two platelet transfusions because of how low she was (11,000) and redid the labs at 1:30 this afternoon. Her WBC jumped to 9,400 and the platelets increased to 54,000. Her hemoglobin dropped to 7.9 so she is getting a unit of red blood as I (Steve) type. She also received a third transfusion of platelets in preparation of a colonoscopy. Bonnie actually has more WBC than I do based on my most recent lab draw Saturday where I was at 6,600 with 54% Neutrophils. My numbers are within the normal range, but find it interesting that she blew right by me.

The colonoscopy is scheduled for at 10:15 tomorrow (Wednesday) so Bonnie has started the “wonderful” prep process to clear out whatever is in her (which isn’t much because of being on a food IV bag). Please pray that she won’t have anxiety anticipating this procedure and will be able to handle the up and down this evening of the prep results.

On Thursday she will have her third bone marrow biopsy to confirm that she is in remission. The doctors are confident that is the case because there have been no signs of blast cells in her blood work. With her numbers high, they would like to see Bonnie preparing herself to go home shortly, but she needs to get off the food IV bag and get up around walking (which she did a little today).

Please pray that the colonoscopy shows she is clear of any infection or colitis, that she will find enough inner strength to get out of bed to walk so her muscles continued to be strengthened and she can go home soon.

As for me (Steve), I had my second day of radiation and will continue to do so tomorrow and Thursday. I met with my oncologist today to discuss the results of the two key tests: bone marrow biopsy and the PET Scan. I have a praise for both. The biopsy shows my bone marrow is clear! The PET Scan shows that the only location for my lymphoma is in my sacrum, so no other locations in my torso. The PET Scan did show though that the mass in my sacrum is also in the tissue, so I am classified as a Stage 1 E. My treatment will be (as previously stated) 3 cycles of chemo and 1 cycle of radiation. This is considered a very treatable disease, just in a difficult location. Please pray that the radiation will quickly shrink the mass so the pain and numbing is lessened and ultimately eliminated.

I am scheduled for a permanent port to be surgically implanted on Monday at 4:00. Interestingly, the surgeon I met with today is the very first doctor Bonnie and I met the following morning after she was admitted on May 12th. He was the surgeon who installed the triple lumen IV port in Bonnie’s chest. I will caution you to be careful what you wish for. As I watched him surgically put this IV port in Bonnie, I was so impressed with both his tactical approach to surgery as well as his bedside manner, I mentioned to several people that same day and a few days following, “If I ever had to have surgery, I would want Dr. McKenna doing it! I’m very impressed by how efficient he is!” Well, Dr. McKenna is my surgeon, and I didn’t even have to ask for him.

The statement “Be careful for what you wish for” made me think of hoping for the best outcomes of our prayers and making promises and vows. With the amount of prayers that we have poured out to God regarding our situation, I think sometimes it’s easy to fall into a trap of putting conditions on our prayers that we’ll do something different with our lives if God performs a certain way. God may be trying to get our attention and reform our lives and use our situation for a hundred different reasons, but at the same time I don’t think He is interested in a prayer from me that is conditional.

I recall reading a story a few weeks back from the Old Testament that causes me to pause every time I read it. It is from the Book of Judges 11: 29-40 and the story of a man named Jephthah and a vow he made that he didn’t think through very well when he made it. Many reading this blog may be familiar with the story of Jephthah, but others may not be aware it at all. Jephthah was a mighty warrior that God used to show Israel God’s strength in attacking neighboring countries. The Ammonites were one of those thorns in Israel’s side and Jephthah said to God, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” God gave Jephthah great victory and when Jephthah returned home the first thing that came out of his house was his only daughter. I can’t imagine the grief Jephthah experienced instead of the euphoria of a great victory.

This story has a sobering ending to it. I always wondered why Jephthah wouldn’t plead to God and ask for an alternative solution to the vow. I’m not a biblical/history major, but I do know that in those days vows were taken very seriously and never broken. If I put a condition on a prayer to God, what are the chances I’ll keep that vow? God doesn’t want me to put a promise or condition on my prayer no matter how strong I might feel about that promise at the time, instead He desires that I commit my whole self to Him on a daily basis and this is done through putting my faith and trust in His son Jesus, who kept the commitment of living a sinless life, who suffered and died and rose again so I didn’t have to suffer the consequences of not keeping the only promise a holy God expects from me and that is a life free of sin. I am thankful to God that He keeps His promises and never changes. As long as we have put our faith and trust in Christ, we can rest in the fact that we will have eternal life and don’t need to make any promises to God in our prayers. And that in and of itself is the overabundant peace we have been drawing from throughout this trial.

Again, Thank you for your prayers!