the Saturday evening post

Okay, first of all, I'd like to note that the previous two posts were written very late at night, by a very exhausted, worried, sleep-deprived, non-proof-reading version of myself. Please disregard the typos or anything else that might not have made sense. :)

Now for the real reason you came here . . . the Trish update! Trish is doing much better. She has actually eaten three meals a day for the last three days, which is a major improvement over the last couple of weeks. She's still pretty weak, but doing better than she was a couple days ago. Tonight she made her first non-doctors-office outing in over 2 weeks! Tekia's show night for cheerleading was tonight, and since Mom won't be able to go to their competition in Orlando next week, she was determined to watch them cheer tonight. She went, did great (both Tekia and Mom), and is now back in her chair and exhausted. She's got a big day planned for tomorrow, too . . . church and a mother-daughter "pinterest party" with Tekia.

Kia (mid-handstand) & Mom at Kia's show night tonight

Mom's done with IV fluids for now, so it's up to her to stay hydrated. The plan is to spend most of next week getting stronger and then have chemo on Friday (provided her blood counts are good). Hopefully she'll get some iron that day, too. Her iron's been low for a few weeks, and I'm sure that's not helping anything else going on. Her chemo dose will be reduced this time, and she'll also get a couple of new anti-nausea meds with it/following it. The day after chemo, she'll get a shot to help prevent her white blood count from dropping too low. And of course she'll get fluids as needed. Hopefully, all these changes will make this round of chemo much more tolerable than the first one.

Mom will have another CT scan about 2 weeks after this next round of chemo. If it's good (meaning the cancer is smaller/unchanged and in no other organs) and if she's strong enough, we'll be ready to schedule surgery in Louisville. We could be looking at surgery in 4-6 weeks if everything goes perfectly . . . and that "perfectly" thing hasn't been working out for us so far. 

Here are our prayer needs for the week . . .

• Our favorite oncologist, Dr. Tauer, is having surgery on Tuesday and will be out of commission for a few weeks. Pray everything goes well for him! As far as Trish and his other patients go, his nurse practitioner Marcus is in charge and has several other doctors there to back him up if he needs it. 
• Tekia is leaving on Wednesday for a national cheerleading competition in Orlando, FL. Mom would normally go with her, and it's killing both of them that she's unable to. Pray for safe travels/cheerleading for Tekia, for her to have a great time with her friends, and for her not to miss her mama too much. 
• Pray for more strength and stamina for Trish! And of course for no stomach trouble or pain. Pray that she will be able to stay hydrated without IV fluids and that she'll be able to eat enough to gain some weight.
• Pray that Mom will be able to get chemo next Friday, that she will tolerate it much better than the first round, and that God will use it to kill cancer cells! Pray also that her tumor will not grow or spread to any other parts of her body. 
• Pray for God to continue to reveal His glory every step of the way.