Hi Everyone - It's Meg again. Well, these last 2 weeks have been quite an unexpected whirlwind to say the least. But we are Praising God that we received good news today!
To quickly recap the past 2 weeks... Jas was in the hospital for 5 days, and has had nothing to eat or drink orally since Wednesday, February 29th. Since coming home, they increased the number of "liquid food" cans that he pumps through his feeding tube at night, however he still continued to lose an additional 10 lbs. On Friday, March 9th he headed back to the hospital to take the "leak test" to see if the tear had healed in his esophagus and we were very discouraged when we were told that it hadn't healed yet. So, that meant another week of "waiting" for it to heal before he could retake the "leak test" and another week of not eating/drinking anything. Wheeew! So, that leads us up to today. Jas went in for the "retake" and Praise the Lord he passed this time! YAHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! We can't even begin to tell you how awesome it was to hear that he passed! So, he'll be on clear liquids today and tomorrow, moving to smoothie status on Saturday and hoping to move to food on Monday. Time to get some pounds back on the poor guy! We thought you would enjoy the video of Jas and Taylor celebrating daddy's first drink of apple juice together : ) Again, you'll have to go to wilestrials.blogspot.com to view the video.
I also wanted to share with you all how God revealed ever so clearly his answer to all of our prayer requests on whether or not to do mop up chemo. As a reminder, we've been asking for your prayers and been praying daily for clarity on whether or not to do it. Well, I know we continue to be amazed with how clearly God has answered our prayers this past year and I'm sure you all have been in awe with what we've shared with you also! So, here is yet another awesome story to share with you on how God answered our prayer in a way that we never anticipated! Now I have to explain that our "clear answer" was revealed to us on Monday, March 5 - the day Jas was released from the hospital. I made sure that as soon as it happened that I typed it up - while it was still so vivid in my mind. I'll warn you it's a long one, but I know you will understand why after reading through it. I keep crying as I think about how AMAZING God is and his compassion for us through this trial! Probably not what you expected to hear from us after being in the hospital another 5 days right and through the ringer with Jas not being able to eat/drink for 2 weeks right? Well, God continues to keep us on our toes!
On the morning of Monday, March 5th the story gets really AWESOME and makes these past couple weeks of suffering, much more bearable now that we're seeing them in a whole new light. In the morning I headed down to the cafeteria at the hospital to grab breakfast. Since we've been to the hospital so much, I know the back ways to get places that typically the public doesn't use as often but the Dr's do. So of course I'm taking the back way : ) As I head down the hallway I recognize that I'm about to pass our oncologist. Hooray, as I was wanting to bring her in the loop about the chain of events that took place and was really curious to hear what she would say about mop up chemo now...
After realizing that she hadn't heard of any of the events this past week, I quickly brought her up to speed. She looked at me and said, "I've NEVER heard of that happening." You know, our Dr. who performed the procedure had also said that to us numerous times/numerous ways, but after hearing it yet again but from her, I realized it was God smacking me over the head (ever so lovingly lol) for me to hear multiple Dr's say, this has never happened to them before - referring to the tear taking place during a "stretching procedure." Hmmmmm.... interesting don't you think? She was shocked - really! So, I proceeded to talk to her about how we continued to go back and forth about whether to do mop up chemo, understanding that if we got to May, it wouldn't be worth it, as we would have passed that "critical window of effectiveness." I shared with her that with Jas not being able to eat food for another couple weeks, I just didn't even know if chemo would be an option.
Now, it really gets good - don't miss this! I proceeded to tell her that we've really been praying hard for God to make it clear to us whether or not to do mop up chemo since January and that by this "event that the Dr's have never heard of happening" taking place, I believe that this was God's way of making it clear not to do the mop up chemo. (As a reminder, this decision has been so incredibly heavy on our hearts about what to do since the surgery in January.) She didn't flinch when she looked at me with her reply, and typically the minute I mention God she almost runs in the other direction, changing the topic of conversation, fidgeting uncomfortably, not being willing to think about miracles, etc. She replied with, "You may be right. This may be His way of making it clear to you guys. Jas's first priority is to focus on his wound healing and if he were to throw chemo at him next month, that would regress the healing that needs to take place. We can talk more when things settle down and Jas gets back up to par with eating/stints/etc. however that is going to be awhile. And yes, once we hit May it wouldn't be worthwhile to go through chemo." It may not seem that eye opening to you all, but to those who have met our oncologist understand that for her to say the above without flinching, looking uncomfortable, etc. and to not continue to "push chemo" was a miracle in itself lol!
Wow! So random (well not random, God was all over this) that I ran into her in the back hallway this morning. And, while I had been starting to see God through this mess over the past week about this possibly being why this was happening, it was MUCH clearer now. I walked back up to Jas' room and shared with him what had just happened. Holy cow! God allowed this craziness to happen, that we didn't view as being a positive thing on March 1, in order to answer our urgent prayer requests that we've been lifting up to him daily these past couple months. All the Dr's are telling us that what happens to Jason doesn't happen coupled with our oncologist is thinking chemo probably isn't the best at this point - WOW. This may not seem big to you all, but it's HUGE to us! We were in tears as we digested the past 4 days together in our hospital room and so THANKFUL that once again, God didn't just answer our prayer request, he went over and beyond and took the decision out of our hands! PRAISE GOD! Can we just tell you what a huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders? It made the past 2 weeks seem so minimal compared to having to go through another 3 months of chemo. Holy Smokes! While we understand this doesn't guarantee anything about the future in terms of cancer, all we wanted to do was follow God's lead on what to do at this point. And He blew us away again, our compassionate Father, by making it very easy to see that it's not what is best for Jas at this time based on how far he has regressed due to this last snafu! We are so incredibly grateful that He more or less made the decision for us, taking the pressure off our shoulders and knowing that based on where Jas is at today, neither of us will ever have a regret about our decision not to do chemo at this time.
After that I went to go visit our Scope Dr's Assistant, Jackie. Now I don't recall if I ever shared much with you about Jackie, however from day 1 she's been amazing to us! I had called her when Jas was first diagnosed with esophageal cancer and begged her to help get us in quickly to move forward in the process for treatment, as it's common that you have to wait a handful of weeks after diagnosis before anyone will see you to get the ball moving. She had such a sweet heart for us and helped squeeze us in before we headed off on our vacation in October. So, each time we came back for a scope, etc. we've always made a point to see her and give her a great big hug to say thanks!
So, I hadn't yet seen Jackie this past trip for the esophagus stretching. So I went up to see her and give her my routine hug of thanks. Low and behold, she ended up taking me to lunch at PotBelly's! Bless her heart! As we sat down together to start eating, I had no idea whether she had a relationship with Christ or where she stood, so there was a bit of funny awkwardness about whether to pray silently to myself or to pray out loud with her (just being honest). But as I saw her start to fold her hands before eating I realized that she was going to pray to herself, so I asked if I could pray with her. It was wonderful to be able to Thank God for her and her help to our family with her there next to me!
I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch with her and it was so neat to see even more clarity through this all. She had shared that our scope Dr. really had been upset about what had happened to Jason on 3/1, and we ourselves knew that he was also taking it hard. I explained to her the story of what happened on Monday 3/5 to us and how what took place on Thursday was God's perfect plan to answer our urgent prayer request for clarity on next steps. It was so neat to be able to share that with her and all of the other ways God has been loving on us through this trial also. She was amazed! Now mind you, I have hugged her a few times in person, had a couple phone calls to schedule appts and a few emails with her, but that was it before today. And those of you who knew me even a year ago understand that I never had the boldness or willingness to talk about God the way that he is giving me the ability to do so now. We've been praying for boldness and wisdom to use these cancer trials to glorify Him and share with others how loving God is. Look how far God has brought me this past year. It's been such an honor to bear fruit in this way to further His kingdom and get others excited about what He is doing in our lives
Through all this we know that you've continued to pray for Jason and our family and we again want to Thank You for your commitment to us through this trial! There's a verse in Revelation (5:8) that I studied this past fall that has been so comforting to me through all this. Revelation 5:8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. To sum it up, all of our prayers have been and will continue to be held by the 24 elders before Jesus in heaven in golden bowls in the form of incense. Isn't that cool to be able to visualize Jesus being surrounded in heaven by our prayer requests in this way? And so comforting! THANK YOU!!!
We sure are praying this next week is less eventful other than the numbers on the scale to move up for Jas! Boring is good right lol? Looking back on these past couple weeks, while it was one of the toughest couple of weeks we've had in a long time, it's very cool to see how it was all part of our Heavenly Father's perfect plan to bring to us clarity that we were so desperately praying for. What a perfect gift he gave us at the end of these crazy 2 weeks! Now with that being said, we continue to pray for our hearts to be open and softened to God if he reveals something new or different over the next month regarding mop up chemo. We believe he's been very clear, however we want to make sure we continue to give it over to Him and make it about what he wants us to do vs. what sounds best to us. Well, that's it for now!
With Much Love in His Healing Name,
Meg
