Trusting in the Lord

I know many of you check this blog periodically and must be wondering what's going on. I wish I had better news. John's July chest CT scan wasn't good. The largest lesion in his lung is now about 1" x 2", with multiple smaller nodules; there's also progression in the bone metastases of the thoracic spine. There's no impingement of the spinal cord, thank goodness.

The oncologist said we're at the point to make a plan for what to do next. Tarceva, which has been such an amazing, side effect-free drug for John for the past 18 months, is losing its effectiveness; the tumors are becoming resistant to it. Our three main options are:
1. No anti-cancer therapy.
2. Standard I.V. chemotherapy, which is generally not very effective in lung cancer; the chance the tumor shrinks 20% is 1 in 3. It also, of course, has very unpleasant side effects.
3. A clinical trial: John and his oncologist are considering the options.

John's been having some mild bone, back, and chest discomfort, and hip numbness, for the past month or so, and sometimes has difficulty finding a comfortable position for sleeping. He has a lot of fatigue, but his appetite remains good, his weight is unchanged, and he's physically active, for which I'm grateful.

This has all been disappointing, but our summer has been too busy and full for us to dwell on the negatives. We feel very fortunate, in the current terrible real estate market in northern Wisconsin, to have sold our summer home up there! The closing was last week. We were very busy packing and getting ready for moving out of that big house that we'd had for 16 years. Letting it go was a pretty emotional experience. Everywhere I looked, there was a memory. We did buy a small vacation condo closer to Madison, and we closed on that last week too. The new place will be much easier for us to take care of, and a much shorter drive.

But the best thing that's happened is that our daughter, Allison, our son-in-law, Nate, and our beautiful little granddaughters, Jane and Elsie, are now living in Wisconsin! Nate will start his new job teaching art at one of the UW campuses this fall. We helped them move into their new house earlier this month. What a joy to be able to see them more often, and to have all of our kids nearby!

We choose to focus on our many blessings. I know that God is in His heaven and He is our Heavenly Father and He knows that we are here and that He loves us. We continue to pray for a miracle! We are trusting in our Lord Jesus Christ and exercising faith in Him.