Immu-no-fun

Well, we are still in the hospital and we are expected to stay at least until Sunday. To catch you all up, here’s a rundown of what’s been going on:
So Wednesday David was admitted and we got into a room late Wednesday night. They were still running cultures and they had done some CT scans to see what was going on in David’s lungs, and if any of that could explain his high fevers.
Thursday was full of waiting on doctors and David getting pumped full of antibiotics. His symptoms didn’t change too much, but we finally got a little bit of answers. He does have a small case of pneumonia in his upper left lobe of his lung. The hospital oncologist came in and discussed with David all of his symptoms he had been experiencing and said that the session of immunotherapy that David did two weeks ago would explain everything that he is experiencing. It can take a couple of weeks to see these side effects because immunotherapy isn’t an instant kind of therapy. It takes time to work. Just because he’s having these reactions isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It means the body is starting to wake up and attack. It’s just attacking other parts of his body in the process. So our prayer is that along with all the side effects David is feeling, that the cancer is at least under attack right now too.
David has been having a lot of problems with his veins lately, so it was also decided that while he’s in the hospital, he might as well have a port placed in his chest. So they scheduled that for Friday afternoon.
Friday morning brought a whole new set of symptoms. David noticed a burning sensation in his right leg. Upon closer inspection, around his knee was swollen, a little red and warm to the touch. The nurse was concerned and called the doctor to make sure it wasn’t a clot. The doctor ordered an ultrasound. We sat around waiting for that, and also waiting for the port placement. While waiting, David started experiencing pain in his right chest, off and on. Between these new symptoms and the fact that David continues to run a fever off and on, we were getting hesitant with going through with the port placement. An oncology nurse came in and agreed and said she would speak to the doctors, but we never got the official word one way or another. David went down for his ultrasound and they found a small amount of fluid around both of his knees. The technician said that our doctor would come in and speak with us about that. Finally, one hour past when David was supposed to have his port placed, the doctor came in to tell us the surgery was officially cancelled. With everything David has going on, we don’t want to add one more thing into the mix. It is an easy enough procedure that they can do it next week, outpatient. He also addressed the fluid in David’s knees. Apparently that can also be a side effect of immunotherapy. Again, these symptoms are good signs that the immunotherapy is working, however, we still don’t want David to be this sick. So the plan for now, is for David to stay in the hospital until at least Sunday, so he can continue getting IV antibiotics and a high steroid dose to combat the other issues. The doctor would like to see his fevers go away before he’s released as well. David once again started running a high fever again Friday night, so that doesn’t help. Also, David has had to stop his brain radiation, because we did not go the the hospital next to his radiation, instead we went to the one next to his oncologist. So until he is out of here, he won’t be able to continue that. He was scheduled for his next round of immunotherapy this upcoming week, which is now canceled. They won’t do immunotherapy if you’re on antibiotics, so we will be having an appointment with his oncologist this upcoming week to discuss when he can reschedule his immunotherapy.
I’m glad that we have some answers (although we are still waiting to hear on his chest pain, which isn’t happening a whole lot any more anyways).
I’m grateful to the friends that have come to visit while we’ve been here. I’m grateful for the continued support from all of you. I’m grateful for opportunities to share the hope we have in Christ with the nurses. We pray that what we share, can help encourage others in their own, difficult journey.
Prayer requests:
-For complete healing of David’s body
-For the fevers and digestive issues to go away completely
-For the doctors to have clear answers on all the problems David is experiencing
-For the immunotherapy- that it is helping David’s body fight the cancer and not just causing all these side effects.
-For family that is helping take care of our kids. That God gives them patience, joy and an over-abundance of energy
-For everything that is going on in the world right now. That God can give us all a spirit of hope and peace, not fear and that we can all see opportunities to love on one another

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your continued support! Thank you for your words of encouragement that God uses to continually lift us up. We love you all and treasure you so much!