Father, thank you for your continued blessings. We have grateful for the time you have given us, what you are teaching us, and for your continued presence. Thank you all for walking with us in this journey.

Life got so busy this past week that I didn’t get to update the blog and for that I am sorry.

Theresa has had two relatively good weeks. She doesn’t feel the cancer is winning anymore. Early on before she started chemo in March, she felt consumed by the cancer, unable to get enough sleep and no energy to do anything. Then about the time she was admitted for the infected port, she felt her struggle was more with the side effects of the chemo and didn’t feel the cancer had the upper hand. Then on coming home from the hospital, her fight was a slow and up hill battle from being knocked down by the infection. But in July she was beginning to fight the cancer again. She felt it pulling her down again and her cough became more and more frequent. Since starting the two prostate cancer medications, she feels that her fight is not as much the cancer now, but the inflammation around her heart and lymph nodes and the fluid in her lungs. So the best we can say is that she is stable.

She has been frustrated with the prednisone. We tried to go down on the dose, but her chest pain becomes unbearable, so we are stuck at a pretty high dose for now. Her face is swollen, as is the area around her eyes. The fluid around her lungs cause irritation to her diaphragm which is probably part of the reason for the cough, but she also has some fluid in the lungs. I think the lymph nodes draining the lungs are clogged with cancer, as we saw in the PET scan, so the production of the fluid by the cancer is faster than the ability to drain it. We have had more than a few nights of limited sleep from all the coughing. We would ask for prayer to reduce the cough.

Theresa had her Echo on Thursday. the fluid around her heart hasn’t returned, which is good. Though now it looks like part of the pericardium is scarred to the heart from the pericarditis she has been struggling with. So she is cleared to go on our trip to Disney. One more milestone God has allowed us to get to.

God is at work teaching us and molding us in this process. We have no choice but to learn perseverance, endurance, learning how to survive the ups and downs of the cancer roller coaster. He has taught us to enjoy today. Plan for tomorrow but live for today. Though the plans are always “if the Lord allows it in His will for us”. He is teaching us to rest in Him. He is showing us how His church, His children, support, encourage and lift each other up; how we do this Love. We have been blessed, amazed, humbled by the outpouring of love from you and from our LORD.

Psalms 91:14-16 MSG
“If you’ll hold on to me for dear life,” says God,
“I’ll get you out of any trouble.
I’ll give you the best of care
if you’ll only get to know and trust me.
Call me and I’ll answer, be at your side in bad times;
I’ll rescue you, then throw you a party.
I’ll give you a long life,
give you a long drink of salvation!”