{"id":466,"date":"2024-12-01T16:59:49","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T21:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/?p=466"},"modified":"2024-12-01T16:59:49","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T21:59:49","slug":"hope-in-the-face-of-hard-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/2024\/12\/01\/hope-in-the-face-of-hard-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope in the face of hard news"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>God gave us snow for our kids this past week, a beautiful gift in contrast to how hard this past week has been.\u00a0 It\u2019s been hard to know how to write when I\u2019ve been grieving the disappointment of not-so-great scans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The meeting this past Tuesday to review the results of my scans was not what we hoped for. One cancer site shrunk while the main spot in\/on my lumbar spine, which causes my leg pain, sort of changed or grew slightly. The consensus is that the methotrexate chemo regimen will not be continued. Stem cell therapy is off the table. The results of the CSF analysis still show lymphoma cells floating around in my spinal fluid.\u00a0 Weighing these things together, the doctors have decided on a different chemo regimen called TEDDI-R which is planned to start on Monday, Dec 9.\u00a0 I started on Brukinsa, an immunotherapy\/chemo pill that targets my type of cancer, and it sounds like I&#8217;ll be on that for a while.\u00a0 TEDDI-R is a Monday-Friday outpatient infusion clinic regimen that includes 2 lumbar punctures with chemo injected into the spine.\u00a0 I expect to do 3 cycles (21 days per cycle) before getting more scans to measure progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A matter of prayer: Tomorrow, Monday Dec 2 at 9:45am I have a meeting with Dr. Sochacki to solidify the plan for the TEDDI-R regimen and learn more about potential radiation therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The end goal is now CAR-T therapy (more about that in another update) probably in February if TEDDI-R goes better and I qualify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My doctors still communicated their hope that my disease is curable. I went into the Tuesday meetings (we were there 5 and a half hours) discouraged by what I had seen myself in the scans. I left feeling hopeful and optimistic that, while I don&#8217;t understand what God is doing, there are still good treatment options that we are moving swiftly towards, and my Northwestern doctors weren&#8217;t phased by the lackluster scan results. They emphasized that it was a very good thing that there is no evidence of further cancer spread, and we thank God for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking of Hope, this Sunday I was asked to record a video about Hope during the advent season for Thornapple Covenant Church where we attend regularly.\u00a0 The following video is the first in a four-part series during advent, and the other three will be featured the next 3 Sundays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Advent 2024 HOPE by Chris Hirt\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BoM-dC4Q3NU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The service today on Hope really spoke to me.&nbsp; In the face of hard news, I find myself waiting while Jesus is holding me on the journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>For You, O Lord our souls in stillness wait<br>Truly our hope is in You<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>O Lord of life, our only hope<br>Your radiance shines<br>On all who look to You in the dark<br>Emmanuel come, come light our hearts<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For You, O Lord our souls in stillness wait<br>Truly our hope is in You<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh Joy above, all other loves<br>In You we find, more than enough<br>We come as we are, O heal and restore<br>Come light our hearts<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For You, O Lord our souls in stillness wait<br>Truly our hope is in You<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Come Light our Hearts<\/em> by <em>Rain for Roots<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>God gave us snow for our kids this past week, a beautiful gift in contrast to how hard this past [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":470,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions\/470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hirtfamily.net\/chris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}