Every day is a gift from God \u2013 life itself is a gift.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I still have more to learn about this truth He is teaching me. And I certainly have more to learn about suffering!<\/p>\n\n\n\n While writing part of this post on the airplane, my right leg and hip pulsed with pain and fire. My physical pain has mostly been manageable with increasingly higher doses of gabapentin and other pain killers \u2013 but plane travel and lack of sleep exacerbates my pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Much more than my current physical suffering, the past 4 days have been punctuated by both our intense grief and loss and wonderful moments of love, friendship and encouragement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s hard to quantify the magnitude of our grief and loss of our home and life, but I now realize it is exceeded by the depth of the love and support we have felt from our friends near and far. Love is so worth it, and I have seen it overcome the darkness and grief we are in the midst of.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n After saying goodbye to my family in our home, I headed to the Chiang Mai airport where I was greeting by a crowd of friends wanting to pray over me as I left. In the middle of airline check-in area, this group of 30+ surrounded me and broke into 3 verses of Amazing Grace before I said goodbye. This is God’s love and light bubbling over into our darkness!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Upon arrival in Chicago I was greeted by my brother Brian and my parents. They then drove me directly to Grand Rapids where I was admitted into the hospital to begin further testing and treatment. My thanks to our friend, Craig, for being my escort on the journey, dropping all his plans at a moment’s notice and loving our family in this way. There have been so many God moments, I need to write them all down (another post?) One of them is that my oncologist happened to be on call this weekend, exactly at the time that I arrived at the hospital. I was admitted through the ER in order to expedite testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From midnight through 2am I underwent 4 MRIs (3 spine and brain) as well as several CT scans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let me just say right now that God is answering our prayers for peace, for healing, for less pain. All of these things are actually unfolding, and I am witness to them!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The MRI results came back 12 hours later – they cannot find any cancer! My case of recurring CNS lymphoma seems to have gotten more interesting, more unusual, but in a good way. So the current plan as I understand it (this changes daily) is to have a first lumbar puncture for analysis of the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF), followed by another lumbar puncture to deliver chemo, after the doctors have had a chance to decide what the best type of chemo should be given the results of the CSF analysis. This is a different approach than what I was told upon arrival at the ER – which was basically that I will get chemo as soon as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n Today, Tuesday at 1pm I will have a CT\/PET full body scan to look for “hot spots” in my body where cancer may be hiding that doesn’t show up on other scans. Once we have all the data that can be gathered the doctors will settle on a treatment plan. I think the plan is to then have a round of chemo and steroids to help his body be in a better place to start the extensive treatment that I will need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pray for me, Becca, as I continue to gather information that the Lord would help me to make the best decisions for travel and schooling transition for the kids. Pray for the kids as they finish out the last two weeks of school and say all of the goodbyes and see-you-laters. We have had a good meeting with their school and have a great support system in place to help transition the kids to a school in America. Pray also for Chris’s parents and brother who is supporting Chris in the hospital until I can get there. There are many pieces to figure out, but we are so thankful for the many offers of help with logistics here and in America to prepare for our return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prayer Points: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Praise God for no masses to be found, yes, thank you Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pray that the results for all the tests are promptly processed, prayers for the doctors and medical staff<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pray against further traumatic incidents in Grand Rapids (those will delay his testing)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pray for clarity for ticket purchasing for me and the kids <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pray specifically for Luis as he has some big decisions to make in this transition<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Anyone who\u2019s ever crossed the international date line knows what “time travel” feels like. 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