Update on Mom

Mama is doing as well as she can be considering! The good news is that her tumours in her lymph nodes are shrinking! We are so thankful that she is responding to the treatments. This is very encouraging to all of us, especially Mama. She quit smoking a week from this past Sunday! YES! This is something I honestly thought she'd never do but I am SO glad she has. A bonus is that my Dad has too! He quit last Tuesday. YES, again! Today should make it a week for him. They are both using the patch but, hey, whatever works is what is best. They are going to wean onto lower and lower doses until completely off the patch.

More good news is that Mama has had 19 doses of radiation and had 14 more to go. She is over halfway done. I am not sure how many more chemo sessions she will have. Hopefully we'll find this out soon.

What do we need prayer for? Please pray that the Lord will find favour in Mama's white blood cells to stay up. If they go down much farther she will have to discontinue chemo until they go back up. Normally they give you a shot for this but since Mama is taking both chemo and radiation at the same time, they cannot.
Also, please pray for her pain to be at a minimum as much as possible. The pain from radiation can be worse than you could ever imagine, especially in the throat/mouth area. She is not eating anymore and she is using her peg tube all the time.

This brings me to another prayer request. Please pray that she can keep her weight up. She is tiny (105 pounds) and needs every ounce to stay on. With the pain from radiation and chemo side affects, she doesn't even feel like using her peg tube. Putting anything in her stomache makes her so sick feeling and when she does get sick, the stomache acids burn like fire in her throat.

Okay, so that's it for Mama right now! She is doing as good as anyone could in the situation and for this I am so thankful for God's mercy.