Hi Everyone - Man these past few weeks have flown by! We wanted to give everyone a quick update since the last post only covered Jason’s 1st round of chemo. Since then, he had a 2nd round of chemo and is currently receiving the 3rd round today.
The plan for now is to do chemo every other week on Monday-Wednesdays for as long as he can tolerate AND we see that the side effects from the cancer are improving as a result. Round 2 of chemo we pushed out to the following Monday to give Jas 5 extra days to put some weight back on and get him on a better schedule with the kids going back to school soon. Thankfully this was successful from a weight management perspective. However, right at the 2 week mark from round 1 his neck/shoulder pain came back and we had to manage that for an extra 5 days.
THANKFULLY, round 2 of chemo went MUCH SMOOTHER than the 1st time around. PRAISE JESUS! They decreased his dosage of the various chemos by 10%, changed up his support for nausea and we had a good supply of the pain med that works best for him, so nothing needed to be changed up this time around mid treatment. Still a rough week, but nowhere near as bad as round 1. They explained to us that when they start the treatment, they start off with the max dosage, see how you tolerate and then adjust accordingly. Now we know, full dosage is too much. With round 2 starting on a Monday, he was able to turn a corner by about Thursday and then food started to sound good again by Saturday. So, we hope this trend continues so that he will at least feel decent by the weekends when the kids aren’t in school and the worst of it will take place while they are in school.
Have we continued to see improvement in the side effects of the cancer?
We have for now, which is a BIG PRAISE! The neck/shoulder pain went away again within a day of round 2. This allows him to sit in a wider variety of chairs without pain and sleep in multiple positions at night vs. just 1 position. The edema slowed down for maybe 1.5 weeks. And we now are only draining his lung catheter 1 time a week and less than 100ml is coming out. Such a HUGE change from 500ml every other day! So we are CELEBRATING the wins!
Does he still have side effects from the cancer?
Yes. He still has constant pain in the abdominal band area which gets worse when he eats or drinks. This is a battle because he continues to struggle with keeping weight on, but it has been manageable with the pain meds. He has very little energy. He maybe has about 30-45 minutes in him to do something physical each day and after that there is nothing left. But, this is a huge change from a month ago when all he could do was move from the bed to our downstairs couch and back. Is this anywhere near his norm for the worker bee/busy body that he is? No, but after being flatlined to zero, he is able to find joy in getting to do one small task a day. Amazing how God can help us reset our perspective. And he continues to have random pop ups of nausea even with a constant patch on and pills for breakthrough for no rhyme or reason. Could be the cancer progression, meds, etc. We may never know. We will continue to pray that the chemo allows him good quality time with us and for continued clarity on the next right step, one day at a time.
Have we continued to see God’s hand throughout the hard times and be encouraged that he sees us, hears us and loves us?
YES! A BIG YES! Last week I was working on bills and within a few hours I received a call from a friend telling me that our next month’s rent was again being taken care of by an anonymous donor. HOLY MOLY! I just had written in my checkbook a few hours earlier the amount to start taking out again for rent after having a breather this past month from an extremely generous anonymous donor. And now another month is being taken off our plate. WOW, WOW, WOW! So INCDREDIBLY generous and we are so grateful! And in texting with our landlord to ensure he knew about this, our landlord then shared that he and his wife would be waiving our rent the month after that. WOW, WOW, WOW! THANK YOU JESUS! Getting to share this with Jas and then the kids was so incredibly special! To show them how the Lord is faithful in so many ways in meeting so many needs during these hard times has been so impactful to us all. And I pray by us sharing, it can encourage each of you also to see how God continues to work and provide!
There have been so many other blessings as well through this all that we have gotten to experience! Jas has felt well enough to spend time with friends/family that we haven’t had a chance to spend with in a long time! The weather this past week has been gorgeous here to where he is able to be outside more which he loves! He has been able to make a few adventures out of the house to go to church these past few weeks, sit with Ty to fish for a couple hours at a neighbor’s, run to the grocery store, attend a team/family kick off soccer party for Ty, etc. All things that may seem little to others, but are HUGE for us because he wasn’t able to do these things a month ago. Additional blessings of continued prayers for our family, meals, gift cards, checks, help around the house, help with the kids, special gifts for the kids, specialized medical care for free, check ins, you name it… they have ALL been so appreciated and we feel so loved! THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts!
I wanted to end with sharing a special moment for our family that took place 2 Sundays ago. Jas was asked (since he is an Elder at our church) to commission a new Pastor and his wife at our church during the service. Through the course of that, our Pastor ended up praying over Jas as well, which was unexpected yet very touching. If you scroll to about 1 hr and 4 minutes into the video you will catch this part of it. I’m sure for some who haven’t gotten a chance to see Jason, it will help getting to see and hear him in this video. https://www.youtube.com/live/JAwBcL2-New?si=6dVqPJLLh7C8bqOU
We ask for your continued prayers for Jas to experience significant improvement from the side effects of the cancer and a smooth week as he goes through round 3 of chemo knowing it usually is a tough week! And for good quality time with our family and other loved ones!
With Much Love,
Meg
