Day 5 chemo

Jon just started his Day 5 chemo treatments.  He is WIPED.  After yesterday, he just could not recover. He is extremely fatigued, somewhat nauseated, and has indigestion.  But at the same time, I am SO proud of him.  He has kept a very positive attitude and been a champ this week.  The doctor and nurses told us that this weekend would be the worst and probably Monday/Tuesday.  That is when all his numbers  will dip to their lowest point.  Then they will start coming back up and he should start feeling a little bit better before the next round.  Please pray that Jon will be able to get through this!  No doubt, the toughest thing he has ever had to endure but I know God will give him the strength he needs!  Pray that as we go back home and do not have the nurses here to take care of him, that nothing significant will happen to his body that I will have to freak out about (because I am really good at that):o)

We will go back to Hilton Head today so pray for our ride home that it will go smoothly and the kids will not cry or whine!!  It will take 4 hours from Piedmont with no stops.  Thanks for being our prayer warriors.

1st day down

Jon made it through his first day. The nurses are wonderful and the facility is very nice. He is well taken care of here! He tolerated everything great and no side effects yet. They said it would be a couple of days before he would really start feeling effects.

We met with the oncologist today. He looked at the pathologist report and confirmed that the cancer in his lungs most likely came from the TINY tumor they found hidden in the testicle they removed. The doc said that out of 100 men with testicular cancer (which is rare-8,000 cases in the US a year) 1 1/2 of them would have it in both testicles. So Jon is 1 out of maybe 100 people this year in the US with this condition. Isn't he special? HE IS SPECIAL!!! Please continue to pray for him. The doc said the chemo should "melt away" the cancer. Please pray it does! The doc is very optimistic and reminded us that Jon has the best prognosis you can have with this cancer even though it is Stage 3.

I've been leaving out my funny stories because I've been writing this at midnight. But yesterday Marcus looked on the monitor at the babies attempting to take a nap. They were right beside each other in their pack and plays. Emma Kate initiated a prayer with Ryan and they were holding hands and she was praying. She told me later she was praying with brother for her baby. Very cute!!

Pray for Jon at 10AM Monday!

Jon will start his chemo at 10AM Monday morning.  Please pray for him as we both are anxious!  I will update Monday night to tell you how it goes.

I also wanted to point out that you can now get email updates.  If you look to the right of the screen you just add your email and it will send you an update every time I write a new post and that way you won't have to keep checking back.

"God works in mysterious ways"

I have tried to respect Jon's privacy and avoid writing about some of the details of this process.  But Jon is completely on board with me sharing some specific details of how God has TOTALLY worked in this entire process.


Initially, when Jon went for his routine MRI and chest x-ray and the tumors on his lungs were found, the doctor also ordered an ultrasound of the remaining testicle.  He has always told us that Jon was at a higher risk for having testicular cancer in both testicles although that is very rare.  Jon has all along during these 6.5 years had routine ultrasounds of that remaining testicle. During the most recent ultrasound they found a tumor.  Although very small, they felt like it needed to be removed.  So the plan was for the doctor to go in and remove the tumor and have it examined during surgery.  If the results showed cancer, the doctor would perform a complete orchiectomy (removal of the testicle).  If the results showed no cancer, he would perform a partial orchiectomy removing only the tumor.


When it came back as "suspicious" it was a little tougher decision.  When the doctor and I had our meeting in the middle of surgery on Monday, he said the decision could go either way, there wasn't a clear, right or wrong answer with what to do.  The risk was that the doctor would do a complete orchiectomy and we find out later it wasn't cancer.  Or, we decide to do a partial orchiectomy and we find out it is cancer, and he would have to go back in at some point and do a complete orchiectomy.  And if you remember my story, at the end of the conversation the doctor felt like God had showed him what to do, I agreed that he would perform a complete orchiectomy (which is obviously not ideal for a 36 year old).


Fast forward to Friday night (5 days later).  Dr. Ritenour calls us.  He had just read the pathology report from Monday's surgery.  He says to us, "God works in mysterious ways!"  The original tumor that he went in to remove (that was found on the ultrasound) came back as seminoma (the same type of testicular cancer Jon had the first time in 2006).  The pathologist also examines every part of the tissue from the testicle that is removed.  The surprising part is hidden in the tissue they found a TINY, TINY tumor.   So small, it did not show up on the ultrasound.  And the pathology report on this TINY tumor came back as embryonal carcinoma which is the very same malignant germ cell that was found on the path report for his lungs (a mixture of non-seminoma and seminoma).  Amazingly, God had literally led Dr. Ritenour to remove that testicle not having a CLUE they would find hidden in there most likely the source of this cancer in his lungs!  I don't know why I am, but I am AMAZED at how God led and orchestrated the surgery and how HE is the one that led the doctor to remove the testicle.


I think the doctor was more relieved than us to find out the news:o).  He did not make this decision lightly and I know it has weighed on his mind since Monday anticipating whether the path results would come back cancer or not cancer.  I told him tonight that we appreciate him more than he could ever know.


We also found out some other news from our oncologist.  Because there is non-seminoma in his lungs, there was some disappointing news but something all of us can pray for.  SOMETIMES, the non-seminoma is not quite as responsive to the chemotherapy as the seminoma.  There is a small possibility that when the chemo is finished, there would still be some non-seminoma cells left in the lungs.  Jon would then have to have surgery to "scoop" out the remaining malignant cells.  Please pray that through the chemo drugs, God would remove every malignant cell in Jon's body!


Jon will start chemo at 10AM Monday morning.  Please pray with us that a miracle will happen in Jon's body!  We see so clearly that God's hand is in this and we know that He will continue to work miracles!


We made a decision to come back to Hilton Head on Thursday after Jon's oncology appointment for the weekend.  It has been very refreshing for all of us to get much needed rest and to enjoy the gorgeous weather here.  The kids played outside for about 3 hours today in the beautiful 58 degrees while Atlanta was enjoying high of 39 degrees!:o)  Jon was also able to work Friday and he did GREAT!  He did get a little tired, but I am amazed at how well he has recovered from this surgery.

Surgery update

Jon did very well during and after surgery.  He had NO nausea.  They gave him LOTS of anti-nausea medication during and after surgery and a good dose in his IV to go home with.  Without going into too many details, I want to share something really neat.  During the surgery, decisions had to be made.  So the doctor came in to talk to me in a little meeting room.  Please do understand we have a pretty close relationship with Jon's urologist.  The answers weren't as clear cut as he would have hoped for.  He walks in and says "I have been asking God for answers on the way over here."  Then we sit and talk about options for about 15 minutes.  We pretty much knew what way we were leaning but still had a tiny doubt that we were doing the best thing for Jon.  He then said, "Ok, God just showed me something."  And he shared it with me, I said, "God, has spoken, you know what to go do."  We both got up and he walked back to the OR.  The answer became so clear to both of us and it was so reassuring that God was a part of this decision.


Some of you may not know this, but Jon is a very RARE guy:o)   So far, almost everything that they have found  about his cancer case is RARE!  The cancer that they found in his lungs is actually 2 types, non-seminoma and seminoma.  This is very RARE for them to find both kinds especially when the first time they found this 6.5 years ago it was only seminoma.  Also, they cannot find any in his abdomen area.  It is very RARE to skip the belly area and move to the lungs.  It is very RARE to find it in both testicles.  It is very RARE that the cancer would come back after 6 1/2 years.  We are calling Jon a 1-2% chance guy because so far those are about the percentages of all these RARE things.


Please pray for Jon as I know tomorrow (Tuesday) will be a more painful day.   Hopefully we can manage the pain, and with him being able to eat and not get to nauseated he will feel better quicker.


We will meet with the oncology nurse on Thursday and go over all the ins and outs of chemotherapy.  They will do a little education seminar with us.  And the plan is to start chemo on Monday, Feb. 4th. He will get a port but not until after he starts.  He will have to get it on one of his weeks off.

Thanks for your prayers!  We really appreciate it!  Here is a fun video to enjoy.

Lung biopsy results update

We heard from the pulmonary doctor today.  Yes, we are VERY thankful these doctor go above and beyond the call of duty and work on Saturday and take the time to call their patients.  The PRELIMINARY biopsy results came back as a "similar cancer cell that Jon had last time."  The doctor said that we will have to talk about the details with Jon's urologist.  We are actually relieved to know that it is the same kind of cancer Jon had last time because the cure rate is high and we already have the chemo regimen set in place.  Jon will have an outpatient surgery Monday, and we will go from there.  The oncologist will have to get the FINAL path results before he will schedule anything on his end.  It could be Wednesday or Thursday before we know about the date chemo will start.  We will keep you updated as we know.  Thanks for praying for Jon on Monday.  Pray that we will be able to control the nausea better this time that results from the anesthesia.

Jon's lung biopsy a success!!!

Jon went in for his biopsy this morning and they felt like they got plenty of tissue sample. They should know results at the end of the week. Jon did very well during the procedure. Unfortunately, the anesthesia makes Jon very nauseous so when we got in the car to come home, he only made it 30 min in the car before he was throwing up. So we will head home Thursday. We are living and learning with Jon and his very sensitive stomach. He was super disappointed because he wanted to work on Wednesday. Hopefully he will feel much better after a nights rest!