Round 2

Last week was Warren's 2nd round of this treatment. I was hoping it would be a lot better, but it wasn't. It wasn't as bad in his throat, but the sores are all through his mouth and down the throat once again. He has been down all weekend with pain in his mouth and throat and is not able to keep anything down. He is hungry though, which is a good sign, but eating is very difficult and his body doesn't seem to want to keep it down. The doctor reduced the strength of both chemo's, but the side affects are still very much there. It took almost the entire 2 weeks after treatment before he felt good again and then it started all over again. Life just keeps going on around him here at home, the children are used to it all and that is sometimes sad. I know it is hard for him sometimes to know days go by that he cannot spend much time with the kids. His spirits are good although I know he gets frustrated being cooped up day after day. We just keep in the forefront of our minds that God's purpose is so much greater than this cancer. Psalm 23 has been on my mind alot lately. It is such a simple passage that we learn as children and have at funerals, but there is so much in those small verses and the picture God creates is so beautiful...He leadeth me beside the still waters, He restoreth my soul. What comfort and encouragement!! Our God is good and we have seen his work 1st hand. WOW! Keep us in your prayers!!

Change in Chemo

Warren had a very rough weekend with sore's all through his mouth and down into his throat. They have given him medication to combat the sore's and blisters, but it takes time. We are thankful that he did run any fever or become so dehydrated that we would have had to take a hospital visit. He has not been able to talk much at all. Dr. Huh has taken him off of the trial medication until his mouth heals. On Friday and today they administered fluids as he was a bit dehydrated. He is not able to eat or drink much because anything placed in his mouth is very painful. He is in and out of sleep most of the time. I know his body needs the rest, but I check on him often to make sure he is OK. Thank you for all your prayers and notes, they are so encouraging and knowing how many are praying is bringing us through many hard days. Thank you so much for keeping us all in your prayers!!

Back to Chemo

Chemo has started again. The treatments are 72 hours of chemo every 3 weeks. Warren is also taking the new trial chemo which is in pill form. He takes 1 pill a day for 4 weeks and then 2 weeks off. This is the best mixture to have with the trial chemo. This week was his first round and he is exausted. He has been nauseated on and off, and has also had a terrible soar throat. They have given him more medication to combat the throat problems, but that won't take affect for another 24 hours. They also gave him fluids today, because of dehydration. He constantly sleeps and can barely talk. Please be in prayer as one of the nurses told me it could be a very rough weekend. We also found out that the tumor marker went up to 288, but has dropped to 144!! Praise the Lord!! We knew it was climbing, but didn't know how high. It is still high, but we are thankful God gave us a little ray of sunshine and the nurses and Dr. Huh seem encouraged.
After he was released from the hospital and several tests later, we have discovered that Warren's gallbladder is only working about 5%. He also has 4 stones in there as well. The specialist said it is too big of a risk right now to do surgery on the gallbladder and it is better to focus on the tumor. Most of the pain is from the tumor on the liver, so it would not eliviate the pain. The surgery on the gallbladder would be a major surgery and right now that is out of the question unless there would be serious infection. God has taken such good care of us and we have been blessed above what we deserve. School has started and we have sent Spencer to K-4 this year. He and Chloe (1st grade)go to a christian school, and Maddie (3rd grade) is homeschooled. Spencer goes 1/2 day, so it gives Maddie and I all morning to do school. Please continue to pray, we covet them daily!!

Hospital Visit

Today brought another challenge. Warren's day starting with vomiting. When he called the office to let them know he would not be in today, Dr. Huh said he wanted Warren to go to the ER, because there could be an obstruction. So we drove to the ER (stopping along the way to bond with the side of the road). After an x-ray and fluids, the ER Dr. said the vomiting could be caused from some chemo left in his system or maybe a virus of some sort, but there was NO OBSTRUCTION!!! Praise the Lord!! It is not easy to determine what the vomiting is from because Warren has also received his first IV iron yesterday because his iron is low, that is due to some kidney stone problems he has had for a week or two. He has been off of all chemo until his iron count goes back up and there is some change in the kidney stone issues. So the ER Dr. thought it best to keep him overnight for observation and to make sure he does not continue getting sick through the night. When I left tonight he was doing much better and eating solid food. He was not feeling sick anymore, so that was a wonderful blessing. We are thanking the Lord that this was not a bad situation, but still continue to pray that Warren will be healed!! Thank you for your prayers, on days like this it helps to get you through knowing there are many prayers going out for us!!!!

Need your prayers

Hey all!

I had some x-rays taken yesterday to see why my breathing is so labored. It came up negative for any breathing problems, but I think it revealed something that rose a red flag in Dr. Huh's mind. I'm not for sure about it because he didn't say anything specific, but he did put a hold on treatments for a month and ordered a CT scan in 3 weeks. Whenever he does things like this I know something may be up so pray that God will reveal to him the problem and the solution.

While I'm on this month break he says he will be monitoring my cancer marker and my pain level. Both have elevated in the past few weeks. This will give him a chance to see if the marker will rise aggressively or not and if my pain will continue to elevate as well. Of course the scan will reveal any of the causes or results of a growing marker and elevation of pain.

So to some up the prayer request remember the rising marker, pain, a bad cough (hurts my liver pain when I cough) and my very labored breathing. Thanks so much for praying. We need it desperately every day.

God bless,
Warren and the fam.

Answers to prayer

Hey all,

I just wanted to drop a quick note to tell you that I have been approved for funding to recieve the clinical trial medicine. I am eligible for at least 6 months worth of the medicine and maybe another 6 months if needed. I will have a co-pay and I'm not sure how much that will be, but we pray that the Lord will provide. I will also continue to take my Xeloda (a pill form of 5fu chemotherapy) through the trial and I will have a co-pay on that as well. The Lord knows.

This is all the information I have as of now. Dr. Huh has not spoken of the details of this trial as of yet, but I'm sure he will now knowing it's available. I will update the info as soon as I know what we're doing and when. Until then keep us in your prayers and believe that God is able.

God bless,
Warren and fam.

In Limbo

I wanted to let you all know that I'm now on the full doses of the regimen that Dr. Huh had me on when my marker started to rise. My blood pressure is better allowing me to start up the Avastin again and the funding came through for the Xeloda. So, I'm up and running again with a full regimen of treatments. For a couple of weeks I was only taking one of the 3 components of the regimen. This is good for now.

You may wonder why I'm still on a regimen that allows my marker to go up. Well, I'm
glad you asked. We are sill trying to get funding for the clinical trial medicines. We can't change until the trial is completely set up so we stick with this treatment until we find out if we can do the trial or not. In other words, this regimen is better than no regimen at all while we wait. The prayer request is for God to reveal the next step, whether a trial or already proven and known regimen.

For now you can pray for some struggles that have surfaced since my marker has risen. I have very labored breathing. The simplest task can tax my breathing. Now how am I supposed to keep up with the little boy in this condition? I also have pain in my side (the liver). If I over do it I'll become very uncomfortable and it takes some pain medicine and a lot of rest to get past it. Spencer thinks it's his superior boxing skills that causes the pain. I can't have him growing up believing this. Also, today I stayed home from work because of all of this and then some. I found it hard to keep my food down today. This could be a passing thing for today or something I'll have to deal with in the days to come until we figure out our new course of action. Pray for these things to subside so I can continue to funtion.

Well, I just wanted to update you all on these things so you could be praying for us. We appreciate all that you do for us in you prayer efforts. I'll update you when I know more.

God bless,
Warren and family.