God continues to challenge us to focus on him , and rely on him for all of our needs. Our God is faithful, and continues to answer many prayers.
Things are moving very quickly now that they have a donor match. The cord blood is coming from Germany and is a 5 out of 6 match. He will have the surgery to place the broviac in on Tuesday or Wednesday. The chemo could start as early as next week. They found a certain type of cells, Natural Killer (NK cells), are present and functioning, so he will need more chemo than originally thought. The point of the chemo is to literally wipe out his bone marrow, so the new immune system can graft. There is a fine line, they want enough chemo to eliminate certain cells, but not harm any other organs. He is very vulnerable in this time as he has no immune system. There will be 8-10 days of chemo, followed by a day of rest. Then they will do the transplant, which is an IV that takes 30 minutes. From there it should take 30 days to engraft. There are phases of engraftment, we should be released from the hospital at day 100 after the transplant, provided there are no complications. We will stay at my parent's house to complete the follow on out patient treatments for an additional 3 to 6 months. We are still working out details.
Answered prayers:
Insurance issues are partially resolved, at least we wont have to change hospitals. Still negotiating how much we will have to pay.
Isaac is doing great, he has transitioned really well.
My family has been helping out a lot.
The staff at the hospital has been amazing!!! This has been an incredible blessing.
Prayer requests:
Pray for Shawn and I to rely on God, and for God's strength
Pray for Nathan
1. To not get too ill from the chemo
2. To protect the other parts of his body from the chemo
3. That he remain healthy, no infections
4. For the transplant to engraft quickly
5. For his body to not reject the transplant
Pray for God to be glorified
Pray for our focus to be on Him, and to not get distracted
Pray to protect Isaac during this time as well, and his spirit be protected
Shawn and Beth,
ReplyDeleteContinued prayers, as well as thoughts, about your family and this journey that you have embarked upon. Thank you for including your prayer requests with this update! Know that there are lots of people praying and thinking of you and your family constantly.
"He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak."
Isaiah 40:29
God's Strength,
Thera