Pray for Dr. Eden!

Hello everyone.

Today has been a pretty calm day.  Ryan hasn't really had any procedures done except for another blood transfusion.  A slight downturn in both hemoglobin (darn) and bilirubin (yay!).  Bili will probably go up again tomorrow as a result of the transfusion but it's trending in the right direction.  It's important for it to go down so that we can do chemo.

Ryan met briefly with Dr. Eden (incredible, Christian radiation oncologist) today to talk about the upcoming IMRT treatments that he will start.  Good news: scans are first thing tomorrow morning and he can probably start radiation Monday, Tuesday or - HOLY COW, that was expedited.  Dr. Eden specifically asked for us to galvanize prayer support on our blog for him and his team.  A LOT hinges on these radiation treatments.  The outcomes that he is hoping for: stop/shrink new tumors and stop the exudative "leaking".  This is an extremely critical piece for Ryan to be able to continue treatment.  Please pray that Dr. Eden's hands will be guided by the Lord - that his team will be able to correctly map the radiation treatments and that the treatments will be effective.

Next steps

Oy.  This has been quite a day for Ryan, talking with lots of nurses and doctors.  As per usual, I am going to be doing bullet points because they help me keep my thoughts straight. :)

• His bleeding has picked back up again slightly. Although there have been some changes and abnormalities in the last 24 hours. It is very important to keep praying that direction, but it hasn't yet happened completely.
• He has another bleeding scan today at 1:30 CST to determine whether or not they will see any active bleeding.
• Doctors are conjecturing that he is having "exudative" bleeding, which would be a tiny leak of bloody fluid seeping from minuscule capillaries.  That type of bleeding would not be picked up on any scan, angiogram, or laparascopic surgery but would still produce a noticeable amount of drainage.  It is not nearly as serious as "active" internal bleeding would be - Ryan's whole system would be shutting down and he would be in a lot worse shape if that were the case.
• His hemoglobin went down a tiny bit and then stabilized and his bilirubin went up a tiny bit (from yesterday).  Although those are not the correct directions, they're minor changes and no one is alarmed. They're both still generally heading in the correct direction.
• So, that brings me to the next steps.  His primary oncologist has consulted with radiation, interventional radiology, and surgery.  The best course of action - Ryan is going to have targeted radiation to specific tumors that will last for five days. After that, the hope is that the new growths will be slowed/killed and then he can start chemo asap.  Everyone is in agreement that chemo needs to happen as fast as possible, but radiation could be the first step to gain some momentum against the cancer's growth.
• Consult for radiation (scans, mapping) should happen tomorrow or Friday.  Please pray for that to happen expeditiously - we are riding them to try to get it done as fast as possible.  He could possibly start radiation in the middle of next week.
• We are all relieved that there are some courses of action, but some hurdles need to be jumped.  Good thing we're all athletic. ;)  And pushy.  No one with the last name of Prudhomme sits back on their laurels.
• We know that many people would like to come and visit.  We have a lot going on right now, and Ryan only has so much energy.  Please direct your inquiries about visiting through Kendra - text me if you have my number, or email me through the form above and I'll get back with you shortly. If circumstances worsen and it becomes necessary for friends and family to travel, we will change our stance on this.  For now, though, it seems best to hold off.

Thank you so, so very much for your prayers.  I cannot reiterate enough how much they are sustaining us.  Today I'd ask you to pray for our sweet little boy.  We are doing our darndest to make sure that his needs are met, but obviously he's so little and he can sense something is up, yet he doesn't understand.  He does know that Daddy has "owies" but we are trying very hard to not alarm him and to keep him feeling safe and sheltered and loved.

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

How to pray for us tonight

Hi there, friends.

I know that a lot of you are getting ready to spend a part of your evening in prayer for us, so we thought we would let you know what we learned today, and how to specifically pray.  There are some IMPORTANT prayer requests here.

• Ryan's bleeding scan showed no active bleeding.  Whether it's because the bleeding stopped (can you say MIRACLE!) or whether it had just stopped momentarily and will start up again, remains to be seen.  (I say - the sky is the limit; let's ask for the miracle.)
• We are going to take a "wait and see" approach for the next few days.  Doctors will be monitoring his hemoglobin, blood pressure, and the output of the paracentesis.  The drainage seems to have slowed down considerably, another good sign.  Blood pressure and hemoglobin have been steady today - yeah!
• If it appears like the bleeding is picking up again, the options are: more bleeding scans, laparascopic surgery to determine where the bleeding is, or the aforementioned angiogram to determine where the bleeding is and try to stop it.
• Ryan is comfortable, and with Steve, Cathey, Ryan, myself, Corey, and Jeremy - we have enough people for three Euchre teams so the competition is heating up and a lot of trash talk is going on.  Okay, in all seriousness, we are praising God for Ryan being able to be surrounded by all of the members of his immediate family.

So, we are certainly not out of the woods yet.  But we so trust in the power of prayer, and we know that our God is listening to the rising multitudes.  We are confident in Him, and we continue to pray that His will would be done.

ROMANS 8: 31-32

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Prayer session

Hi friends, just wanted to make you aware of this, whether you can join virtually or actually in person, our friend is hosting a prayer session at a church in Hudsonville:

Hudsonville Reformed Church
3950 Highland Dr, 
Hudsonville, Michigan 49426-1955
7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Here is the link to the Facebook event, which is public.

Another day in Zion

Hello everyone! We are very grateful for your prayer overnight. It helped sustain us.

Jeremy is here. He arrived this morning at O'Hare. We are so glad that he was able to leave work and be here with his brother. Corey was here yesterday but has an internship today. Colton is pumped to be with his uncles and his daddy and Papa. Mama and Grandma are okay in a pinch. Colton's morning has largely consisted of playing games on his iPad and running sprints up and down a quiet hallway.

We still don't know what this day brings. The angiogram has not been scheduled yet. We will update again when we know a specific time and we are asking for a prayer assault when that is scheduled. Stay tuned.

Give thanks to the Lord , for he is good; his love endures forever. Let Israel say: “His love endures forever.” Let the house of Aaron say: “His love endures forever.” Let those who fear the Lord say: “His love endures forever.” When hard pressed, I cried to the Lord ; he brought me into a spacious place. The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. (Psalm 118:1-6a NIV)

Update #3

Here we are. So happy to be together.

The good piece of news tonight: there is no bleeding in the GI tract. The bleeding is likely from the tumor sites. We will know more information tomorrow. So grateful for your prayers and your overwhelming support. We feel your prayers and are much encouraged by your emails, comments, and Facebook messages.

We love you all!

Update 2 from Monday March 4th

I now have a bleeding scan scheduled for today! This is good news as it is the first step towards the angiogram. They will use nuclear Medicine to determine the source of the bleeding.

Please pray for the Dr's to find an obvious easy to access easy to treat tumor!

We will keep you posted with updates as they come. I don't thinks its an accident that 10 minutes after I asked for prayer the first step started to happen.

My biggest prayer request for you ever!

It has been a very tough morning. I met with a couple of doctors this morning, mine and the gastroenterologist. Their consensus was things were a lot more serious. The bleeding seems to be come from one of the small newer tumors on the lobe of the liver. It is still probably "seeping" fluid.

The real problem is they HAVE to identify the source of the fluid. They think they know. They're talking with other Dr's about whether to do an angiogram to discover the source and then hopefully coagulate the tumor. The instrument has to get far enough up into the tumor in order to do that. 

THOSE THINGS HAVE TO HAPPEN, FIND THE BLOOD SOURCE, COAGULATE IT!

There are not strong odds for a successful procedure. 

Once the doctors decide to move forward, then there are still no guarantees. 

If they can stop the blood we're back in business. Work on getting my counts right and pursue treatment again. If they can't complete the procedure there are no more options. The blood will continue to leak into my body and after a while my organs will slowly start to shut down. 

This is the scary option. The Dr's said the don't honestly expect me to leave this hospital, and once the organs start to go it will be "sooner than later". 

Another slim but possible scenario is the tumor clots up on its own. This probably would've happened it it was going to but that's man's timing not God's. 

I won't lie and say I'm not scared. I was doing fine as I found out and was able to ask questions and keep it together. However once I started calling family members it became much more difficult. I felt like I was the one inflicting their pain. I know it wasn't me, but I felt like it was my fault.

I love God passionately and unashamedly. He is my all in all. My redeemer. This is still no more out of his hands than anything else I've faced so far. 

How can you help?

Kendra and Colton and my mom are headed down tonight to be together with us. Pray for safe travels. 

There are so many types of people grieving this right now, mother, father, wife, son, brothers, introverts, extroverts, .etc. Please pray we would have the Grace from God to deal with whatever news comes our way. That we would all lean on him in obedience and find our peace and joy and hope in him.

Pray for the Angiogram!!! That it would happen. That doctor's hands would be guided by Holy Angels to direct them. That they would find the source, get where they need to go, and stop the bleeding of this tumor!

Pray for Kendra and I as we may be living in two worlds more dramatically sooner than we expected. A foot in the strong possibility of fate, and a foot in the eternal and guaranteed promise of hope.

Pray for God's will to be done above all. Not my selfish will to be alive, but God's will regardless of how it affects me. He is Lord of Lord.

Please forward this blog to as many people as you can. The more people calling on God's name for His will to be done, the more please our Father will be. 

I and we are going to choose to glorify God no matter what happens. We have done that since April 1st, 2011. God is sovereign and we will live every moment purposefully trying to serve him. 

Day three of my internment... I mean being admitted...

Oh, where to begin?

I'll try to give you a succinct update but there have been so many things that have arisen, changed, are very detailed, or are still up in the air that it is hard for me to remember all the details and the timeline. What else is new right? I've been on a steady stream of Dilaudid as well so that my have something to do with it. But I'm very happy. :-)

We were discharged on Thursday from CTCA to go home and immediately get admitted on Friday. Doctors at CTCA were worried about some of my blood count numbers, liver enzymes and proteins, and a few other medical indicators. They were also concerned about the source of the fluid that has been draining consistently from my abdomen since Thursday. If you saw me in Pennsylvania while I was teaching Monday through Tuesday I probably looked pretty "puffy" in the belly region. No I don't have a beer belly, it was just a lot of fluid accumulating.

So we tried to get admitted back home and long story short the hospital wouldn't admit us with out checking us through ER first. Once in ER they determined they were underqualified to deal with my case. I could have transferred to Grand Rapids a much larger hospital but we felt more comfortable just heading back to Chicago, where my doctors who know me, know my case, and have all the experience you could imagine with complicated cancers.

My dad and I got into Chicago around 8:00 EST. After checking in (they were waiting for me) it was a matter of 20-30 minutes before I was admitted. The gave me two units of blood Friday night. However they didn't start until around midnight and at about 2.5 hours per unit. I spent a lot of my night getting woken up by nurses who were just doing their job, so I hold no grudges, it was just a long night.

Yesterday and today the focus has been on getting my counts back higher which they appear to be doing. My hemoglobin has risen by 2 points, and my biliruben has dropped by 1.5 points. Other liver enzymes and proteins appear to be normal or close to normal. The fluid draining has seemed to slow down a little bit, however there is still a lot of blood in it which is concerning for the Dr.'s.

One of the priorities for the Dr.'s tomorrow is going to be trying to discern the source of the leaking. They seem to think it might be the tumor close to the colon. If this is true that colon is "weeping" or "seeping" fluid which is not abnormal. The good news is the chemo we're looking at starting if effective should really attack the fluid discharge from the tumor. So treatment might start soon!

Really I don't know much more at this time other than my counts seem to be improving and there are many doctors coordinating on my case. They will all meet tomorrow sometime to put the plan together. Once we have that information, hopefully we'll know rough timeframes for how long we might be here, what the severity is, and how we're going to attack it.

Kendra and I are doing relatively well. The medical part is very difficult for Kendra, however the separation might be the most difficult. I'm staying very positive about my prognosis, and view this as a speed bump. However, an indefinite stay at a hospital (no matter how amazing and incredible it is) is not my idea of how to spend my time. I've had to cancel a couple speaking engagements that I was really excited about. They were, of course, very gracious.

Please pray for my family and my extended family. There are many, many unknowns and as we've experienced things can change so fast either to the good or to the bad. What we take peace, confidence, and joy in, is that my God, the God who created me for His purposes is running the show and calling the shots. I've had a number of opportunities to share my faith, encourage others, and be a light to those around me. Pray for more opportunities.

Feel free to send notes of encouragement and scripture. It is such a blessing to hear from others. Just as an FYI, you can comment below (you do not have to have a google account), or you can click "Contact Us" up above and that goes straight to our email.

On the road again

Headed back to Chicago. Many different questions still unanswered. Felt like Chicago was our best option. They are the best and know me the best. Please pray for answers. Pray specifically we can find the source of the fluid building in my stomach. This is very important. We will keep you posted. Right now it's my dad and I headed down. Pray for my whole family for peace wisdom and grace. Thank you.