Yesterday, Kurt reached a milestone in Induction: he received his last PICC line chemo drugs for this phase! The photo above shows him getting the Daunorubicin. As you can see, this med is a red/pink color. We are now in the home stretch! Baring infection or any hiccups, Kurt should be discharged on Wednesday (9/9) after a bone marrow biopsy and spinal Methotrexate.
On Sunday, September 6th, we will be having a day of prayer for Kurt, as we approach that important biopsy day. People from our church small group and church staff have committed to pray from 8AM-8PM on Sunday. We would love to have as many people involved in this as possible. You can commit to pray on our Facebook group. I know it will be such an encouragement to our family to see prayer times being shared there.
We are praying for two things specifically:
-The biopsy on September 9th will show that Kurt is in remission with no minimal residual disease shown.
-That Kurt will stay in remission permanently!
Our family had a bit of a rough start to the week, but we saw God work mightily through these situations to bring comfort and care. On Sunday, our sweet poodle, Mattie, passed away. She was 17 years old and, while we expected her life to end sooner than later, her passing came at a hard time for each of us. We lost our westie, Alistair, in June. He battled lymphoma for 1.5 years. The day after Kurt was admitted to the hospital, Mattie saw the vet and they suspected she had some type of cancer. The vet gave her about a month to live. While we hoped she would make it until Kurt got home, her condition worsened rapidly. I cannot yet divulge all the details of the day, but God worked out each moment for us in such a loving way. Mattie passed peacefully at home with the help of Lap of Love and Dr. Kendra Healy (as Alistair did) and is now resting beside her brother at my parents' farm. We will miss her greatly. She was the most lovable dog and had the biggest personality. For her gravestone, we chose to write this: "She found the family who needed her the most." She found us as a stray 14 years ago, and we are thankful for each day we had with her.
On Tuesday afternoon, we got a call from Kurt's parents saying that Max had fallen and cut his forehead on a table in our house. While the cut wasn't large, it did looked deep. Our immediate fear was that we would be forced to take him to the ER for care and be exposed to all those germs right before Kurt was scheduled to be discharged. After about an hour spent on the phone talking with nurse and doctor friends, we were able to make some arrangements so that Max got three beautiful stitches at home! What a huge answer to prayer! Because of this, I was able to continue to stay with Kurt at the hospital, grandparents and our children didn't have to risk COVID exposure and potentially compromise Kurt's care at home, and Max was taken care of. He was very brave and only cried out once when the wound was cleaned. He is doing well and I think he enjoyed all the attention and fuss from his sisters too!
Iron Man pjs and 3 stitches above the left eyebrow
God sees our needs, knows our prayers before we can even utter them, and it has been amazing to see how He is continually working for our good, even when a fallen world threatens us with all sorts of problems. It seems as though we have had "one hard thing after another" but on the flip side, we have also had one good thing after another. When I have an eternal, gospel perspective, I am able to see all the blessings and God's goodness more clearly, then when I turn inward and focus on my own discomfort and woes. God is with us in our grief. Having experienced grief and physical discomfort more fully than anyone else, Jesus is able to meet us and comfort us as we walk these tough valleys of life. Each day really is filled with His mercies and grace anew. It is a powerful thing when He moves mountains and we can see Him working. We know He always is, but the glimpses we get into that work spur us on for the days ahead. In the midst of all the hard things over the last few months, He has also filled us up with joy and peace that cannot be disturbed. Today, we pick up our weary and dusty feet and continue onward with renewed strength and hope in Him.
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