Yay!!! Billy was discharged from Duke this morning! We are so very happy just to be at home. He is very tired and has napped most of the day. I also took advantage of the beep-free environment and slept for a solid, uninterupted hour and a half today! Woo Hoo!!! The challenge now will be to find food that tastes good to Billy. So far, the only two things he has been able to eat that tastes right to him are a cheeseburger and a ham and cheese on a sun-dried tomato wrap. Time will tell...
As I look back on this past week, I am so very grateful for everyone's calls, cards, texts, and emails. You all have been a great source of encouragement! We thank our Lord for our family and friends! God has been so gracious in giving Billy strength and health through this intense week of chemo. We thank Him above all for being our portion this week!
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Day Five of Round One
Today is day five of round one. Billy's fever reached 102.5 last night, which had me concerned. The doctors were sure it was just from them doubling the rate of his bleomycin, so they did not do any testing for infections. Each day I gain a new appreciation for the specialists that work here. They work here for a reason-they know their stuff! One hour after the bleomycin was finished dripping, Billy's fever began to drop. By 1:30am it was normal again! Praise God!!! He was actually able to sleep well in between bathroom runs so he woke up feeling better today. He is still extremely tired and hasn't left his room though. He has spent much of the day napping, as he should! He isn't feeling like eating much either. Nothing tastes good to him. The only thing he has eaten consistently is my homemade banana pudding. He couldn't eat the marange (sp?) last night, but has eaten two full helpings today. I'm not sure if it really still tastes good to him or if he is just eating it to make me feel good??? The doctors say he will be able to go home tomorrow. YAY!!! He will have two weeks at home to rest and then we'll be back here for Round Two. We are so very thankful for all of your prayers and continue to covet them.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Day Four of Round One
Today is day four of Billy's first round of chemo. This is the first day that he has shown any side effects. He has been very tired, so tired that he hasn't been down to get one cup of Starbuck's. He hasn't even had one sip of coffee today. Those of you who know him well, know how bad he is feeling to not have had any coffee. Around 3:30, he started running a fever and having cold chills. A little while later a headache was added to the mix. The nurse paged the doctor and when he called back, he said he is positive that this is a result of the increased rate of Bleomycin. This is the chemo that they have been dripping into his IV over a 24 hour period for the last two days. He was suppose to start the third bag at 5am this morning, but due to some delays yesterday and last night, they had to alter this chemo. They are now dripping at twice the rate so that it will be done in 12 hours. Getting this chemo twice as fast as usual is causing his body to react. (You think?!) They gave him some tylenol and it helped the headache some, but he is still running a fever. Please join us in telling Satan that he will not discourage our hearts- "If God is for us, who can be against us?~Romans 8:31!!!!!!!".
As I sit here reading God's word for something to write in this post that will express how we are feeling, God is pouring out His wisdom and encouragement.
We will continue to lean on the Lord for our strength and trust Him for Billy's healing. "We lift our eyes to the hills, where does our help come from? Our help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." ~Psalm 121:1-2
We will praise God in this storm. "Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. We will praise the Lord all our life. We will sing praise to our God as long as we live." ~Psalm 146:1-2
We will hold firm to the fact that "we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." ~Romans 8:28
And we will thank God and praise Him in advance for what is yet to come. "We consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." ~Romans 8:18 and "And the God of all grace, who called Billy to His eternal glory in Christ, after he has suffered a little while, will Himself restore Billy and make him strong, firm and steadfast. To Him be the power forever and ever. Amen." ~1Peter 5:10-11 and finally, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." ~James 1:2-4
I am so thankful for God's word, especially in a time like this when His is the only voice that can truly calm me.
As I sit here reading God's word for something to write in this post that will express how we are feeling, God is pouring out His wisdom and encouragement.
We will continue to lean on the Lord for our strength and trust Him for Billy's healing. "We lift our eyes to the hills, where does our help come from? Our help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth." ~Psalm 121:1-2
We will praise God in this storm. "Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. We will praise the Lord all our life. We will sing praise to our God as long as we live." ~Psalm 146:1-2
We will hold firm to the fact that "we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." ~Romans 8:28
And we will thank God and praise Him in advance for what is yet to come. "We consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." ~Romans 8:18 and "And the God of all grace, who called Billy to His eternal glory in Christ, after he has suffered a little while, will Himself restore Billy and make him strong, firm and steadfast. To Him be the power forever and ever. Amen." ~1Peter 5:10-11 and finally, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." ~James 1:2-4
I am so thankful for God's word, especially in a time like this when His is the only voice that can truly calm me.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Day Three of Round One
Today is Day Three of round one! I have been battling technical problems so I have had to do all three posts today. Billy has his little buddy with him today. This has made both of my boys very happy! He is able to lay here in his bed and get his chemo while cuddling with AJ. What a blessing! He is still feeling well despite sleep deprivation. We are so thankful God is keeping him well during his chemo. We know it could be a lot worse. It is still very difficult for me to watch them hang those bags of chemo and hook them into his port. The logical side of me cringes at the thought of poison being pumped through his veins, but we have to look at it as God using even something so toxic as chemo to heal Billy. I have to remind myself that God knows Billy's body better than anyone and can protect him from the dangers of chemo while allowing it to kill the cancer. Billy remains in good spirits and praises our God for everything, even this vey disease that has us here.
Day Two of Round One
Day Two and, although we aren't getting any sleep at night, Billy is still feeling fine. They have him on a tremendous amount of IV fluids as well as a diuretic to cause him to flush his kidneys quite regularly. This , along with those sweet little girls that come in all night to get vitals, is keeping us both from getting any real sleep. Each time he wakes to go to the restroom, I awake with a start, fearful that this will be the time he gets sick. So far, God is blessing him with a strong stomach. The lack of sleep is not bringing out the best in either of us so we were a bit touchy with each other in the morning. We realized that Satan was trying to attack the weak spots, prayed, and moved on. The day went by quickly and before we knew it, it was time for his second dose of chemo. He handled the second day just as well as the first! God is faithful!!! The picture is of Billy while on one if his "walkabouts", as he calls them. As a chemo patient, he is allowed to go wherever he wants-even outside! He just pulls his little IV pole with him. This has helped with the cabin fever. All of you know how very restless he is when he is made to stay inside. Getting out and about really lifts his spirits. We went outside last night to get some fresh air and on the way back in, the security guard asked us if we had an overnight pass. Ha! Billy and I pointed at the IV pole and he said to the security guard, "Does this count?" This cracked us up!
Day One of Round One
On Monday, Aug. 25, 2008, Billy was admitted to Duke University Medical Center for his first round of chemotherapy. The picture on the far right is Billy's little buddy telling him goodbye before he left. The picture on the left is of Billy the moment they began his first dose of chemo on Day one. Yes, that is a Starbuck's cup in his hand! The cafeteria here brews Starbuck's coffee so that has made his time here a bit more bearable. We waited anxiously to see if he would be as sick as the doctors had warned. Prior to the first dose, they gave him massive amounts of two anti-nausea meds. They worked! He went through the first day with no problems-Praise God!!! Thank you all for your prayers!!
A Challenging Season
As most of you know, on July 22, 2008, Billy was diagnosed with Testicular Cancer. Right away, the doctors assured us that this type of cancer has a 95% cure rate. His doctor is the Chief of Surgical Oncology at Duke Medical Center so he was in the best hands. He and his team of specialists agreed that immediate surgery was necessary. They planned to remove one testicle and would try to save the other. There was also a lymph node in his groin that was enlarged so they planned to biopsy that. They planned to do surgery as an outpatient surgery on the 24th of July, just two days later. That first day was very emotional as we went from one test to the next test unable to be alone and deal with the flood of emotions we were experiencing. We finally were able to seek the quiet and solitude of our home late that evening.
As scary as the word cancer is, we knew from the beginning that we were going to have to trust that God was in control and had a purpose for even this. And from the very beginning, God has spoken to us through His word. The scriptures breathed hope and promises to us daily. We have been holding onto John 11:4 where Jesus says, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it."
We had an unbelievable amount of love and support the day of the surgery. While Billy was in surgery I was surrounded by family and family in Christ. We camped out in the various waiting rooms and cafeterias at Duke for most of the day. The doctors ended up having to take both testicles because they were both "a mess." They also removed the enlarged lymph node in the groin. They did a freeze biopsy on each testicle right as they removed them and they were both cancerous. One was non-seminomatous germ cell, and the other was seminomatous germ cell. Due to the non-seminoma (a faster spreading cancer), they decided not to let him go home that night, but to keep him for furhter testing. They wanted to do a CT scan to determine whether or not the cancer had already spread to other organs or lymph systems.
The CT scan was done around 2 am Friday morning and we got the results from a resident the next morning. There was no signs of metasticism. Oh how we rejoiced at that news! Our relief was short-lived though. Dr. Moul called Billy on Monday to check on him and said that he had reviewed the CT scan and found a lymph node in his abdomen that was enlarged, but not enough to be considered pathological. It was large enough to raise his suspisions so he wanted to do chemo. Words we did not want to hear! We held on to the hope that the chemo would just be minimal.
Three weeks later, on Aug. 19, Billy went in for his follow-up. They did the labs and his cancer markers were not zero. This indicated that the cancer was still present somewhere, most likely in that questionable lymph node in his abdomen. They explained that Billy's case was "rare" because he had cancer in both testicles at the same time (it usually only occurs in one at a time), and his case was "freaky" because each testicle had a different kind of cancer (seminoma and non-seminoma). This means that the cancer didn't spread from one to the other but occured independently. This information along with the enlarged lymph node and elevated cancer markers resulted in the decision to attack with aggressive chemotherapy. Definitely words we didn't want to hear.
His chemotherapy schedule will be as follows: One week in the hospital being infused with three different chemos while having 24-hour hydration via IV in order to protect his kidneys from being fried. He'll then have a two-week break and repeat the cycle two more times. A total of three 21-day cycles. Two days later, on Aug. 21, 2008, Billy underwent a second surgery to implant a port in his chest.
We ask for your prayers during this uncertain and scary time. We feel God's peace on us and pray that He will use us and this situation during our extended time at Duke. We truly feel like we are just His vessels and this too will pass. We don't look forward to going through it, but know that He will go through it with us. Please pray for His work to be done in us and through us!
As scary as the word cancer is, we knew from the beginning that we were going to have to trust that God was in control and had a purpose for even this. And from the very beginning, God has spoken to us through His word. The scriptures breathed hope and promises to us daily. We have been holding onto John 11:4 where Jesus says, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it."
We had an unbelievable amount of love and support the day of the surgery. While Billy was in surgery I was surrounded by family and family in Christ. We camped out in the various waiting rooms and cafeterias at Duke for most of the day. The doctors ended up having to take both testicles because they were both "a mess." They also removed the enlarged lymph node in the groin. They did a freeze biopsy on each testicle right as they removed them and they were both cancerous. One was non-seminomatous germ cell, and the other was seminomatous germ cell. Due to the non-seminoma (a faster spreading cancer), they decided not to let him go home that night, but to keep him for furhter testing. They wanted to do a CT scan to determine whether or not the cancer had already spread to other organs or lymph systems.
The CT scan was done around 2 am Friday morning and we got the results from a resident the next morning. There was no signs of metasticism. Oh how we rejoiced at that news! Our relief was short-lived though. Dr. Moul called Billy on Monday to check on him and said that he had reviewed the CT scan and found a lymph node in his abdomen that was enlarged, but not enough to be considered pathological. It was large enough to raise his suspisions so he wanted to do chemo. Words we did not want to hear! We held on to the hope that the chemo would just be minimal.
Three weeks later, on Aug. 19, Billy went in for his follow-up. They did the labs and his cancer markers were not zero. This indicated that the cancer was still present somewhere, most likely in that questionable lymph node in his abdomen. They explained that Billy's case was "rare" because he had cancer in both testicles at the same time (it usually only occurs in one at a time), and his case was "freaky" because each testicle had a different kind of cancer (seminoma and non-seminoma). This means that the cancer didn't spread from one to the other but occured independently. This information along with the enlarged lymph node and elevated cancer markers resulted in the decision to attack with aggressive chemotherapy. Definitely words we didn't want to hear.
His chemotherapy schedule will be as follows: One week in the hospital being infused with three different chemos while having 24-hour hydration via IV in order to protect his kidneys from being fried. He'll then have a two-week break and repeat the cycle two more times. A total of three 21-day cycles. Two days later, on Aug. 21, 2008, Billy underwent a second surgery to implant a port in his chest.
We ask for your prayers during this uncertain and scary time. We feel God's peace on us and pray that He will use us and this situation during our extended time at Duke. We truly feel like we are just His vessels and this too will pass. We don't look forward to going through it, but know that He will go through it with us. Please pray for His work to be done in us and through us!
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