It’s starting to feel like the chemo is really wearing Allison’s body down, and it’s getting harder for her to bounce back each time. Last round, we ended up staying an extra two days in the hospital just to get her nausea under control. Eventually, she was able to come home, and we’ve been aggressively managing her nausea here. At the same time, we’re working on weaning off some pain medications and introducing others to better manage her post-op pain long term. This means giving medications every 2-3 hours throughout the day and night, but she has been getting some good rest in between. 

Her phantom pain has improved slightly, and she’s able to get around fairly well on her own most of the time. That said, she is still very much looking forward to getting a prosthetic in the future. Constantly using a walker or crutches and bearing weight on one side has led to a lot of muscle strain and soreness, which we’re continuing to work through. Her counts have dropped significantly, including her platelets, but once they recover, she’s hoping to get some massages to help relieve some of that built-up tension. 

Her ANC (the measure of her immune system), which was 3500 last Friday 4/17, had dropped to 7 this Friday 4/24, so we are being extremely careful to keep her healthy and out of the hospital. She received a platelet transfusion at her appointment this week, along with fluids, as mouth sores are starting to return. 

So far, she has completed two cycles of chemo (with three rounds in each cycle), along with surgery. She still has four more cycles of chemo ahead (including the one we started a week and a half ago) before treatment is complete. Each cycle is 3 rounds where we are admitted inpatient for each round. It’s daunting to realize we’re not even halfway through yet. I’ve had several people ask why chemo continues after the cancer has been removed, and we’ve been told it’s to address any possible spread from surgery and to reduce the risk of recurrence. The good news is after 2 cycles the protocol changes and one of the chemo treatments can be done in the clinic instead of being done in patient! So we are excited about that. 

Allison is understandably discouraged knowing chemo will continue through the summer, but we’re trying to keep our focus forward. She has been so encouraged by the way our community has shown up for her. Recently, a local frisbee golf team held a raffle on her behalf and donated an electric wheelchair, which has given her such a sense of freedom being able to control her pace and move independently when we’re out has meant so much. She is excited to take a trip to the mall when she is feeling up to it! 

We are incredibly grateful for everyone who has supported her through prayers, time, financial help, and thoughtful gifts. Allison and I were talking this week about how God not only allows hard things to happen, like a passive thing, but how He actively CHOOSES us specifically for certain trials. He entrusts the difficulties to us. We were talking about why God chose Allison to go through this, and one of the things we have seen is how God has lifted her up through the community and made her feel so loved and seen, when before this she felt the opposite. Each person following along is truly a blessing to her and to us. We trust that in the future we will continue to see more reasons why God has entrusted this journey to Allison. 

Right now, we’re praying she (and everyone else in the family) stays healthy over this next week, starts feeling better before the next round of chemo, and is able to feel well enough between treatments to avoid delays. Those delays can make the road ahead feel even longer, and we’re hoping for steady progress forward. 

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“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28 

 

“We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” Romans 5:3-5