Exclamation Points

I hardly know where to begin, there are so many great things to tell you about! First, on May 22nd, John and I went to the Chicago Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where John received his endowment. And there we were sealed to each other and to our children for time and all eternity! For those reading this who are not members of our Church, a quick explanation: Marriage partners who come to the house of the Lord are joined not only for the period of their mortal lives, but for all eternity. They are bound together under authority not only of the law of the land that joins them until death, but also through the eternal priesthood of God, which binds in heaven that which is bound on earth. A couple married in the temple has the assurance of divine revelation that their relationship will not end with death but will continue in eternity. The sacred ordinances of the temple provide for this. And what a joyful day it was! We were joined by our children and sons-in-law and many, many friends, both from our new Church ward in Madison and our old ward in Appleton. We feel so blessed to be sealed to each other and to our children for all eternity. The covenants we made in the temple that day comfort us, strengthen us, and lift us up. With this, our cares and worries pale in significance.

Our prayers, and the prayers of so many of you in John's behalf, are being answered! Last month he was seen again by the retina specialist, who found that there has been a "pretty dramatic" and "amazing" (his words) improvement in the metastases in both eyes! The spots have shrunken and atrophied and clearly diminished in size as a result of the radiation therapy that he finished on March 6th. And the effects of the radiation will continue for another couple of months! (I do NOT apologize for using so many exclamation points; all this exciting news calls for the almost constant use of exclamation points!!) John's vision is improving a bit, too.

Last week John had a CT scan of his chest, and the next day we met with our oncologist, who gave us the great news that the lung tumor has responded well to the Tarceva, and so has the tumor on his sternum. The lung tumor is only 10% of what it was originally! That's "pretty dramatic" (the oncologist's words again). There are some new spots in the spine, but he said the spine is hard to evaluate, and he doesn't like to use it for comparisons; bones are unreliable. Other spots in the bone are responding and shrinking, so it would be unusual that other areas of bone would not be. He said a possibility might be that it could be some sclerosis. Overall, he thinks it's "really good news", and will scan him again in two months.

John will continue on Tarceva, the daily chemotherapy pill. His appetite is a little better, and he's been feeling better in general. And yesterday when he got up, he gave me quite a start! I thought he had strange dark bruises over his eyes. Then I realized his eyebrows were starting to grow back! It was sort of an eyebrow five o'clock shadow, if you can imagine such a thing. I loved it! He also has two small round dark funny-looking patches on the back of his head. They're little areas of short black stubbly hair, starting to grow back in! They kind of look like dark bruises, too. I love them! The oncologist had said that after losing your hair from radiation to the eyes and brain you may never grow hair again. It looks like John may be defying all the odds. Stay tuned to see what happens!