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!