Medical Update

Greetings in Jesus.

​We want to thank you for your prayers.  

We have decided to keep family, friends and prayer partners updated through our normal eUpdate list.  We are very grateful for the many who have expressed their blessings and prayers and we are trusting in our Lord that He is preparing to teach us many lessons in the next months.  

This next phase of the cancer treatment is going to take several weeks to get everything organized.   Today we met with the IR doctor (Interventional Radiology).  They were very clear in their explanations and of course talked about several outcomes and ways the treatment may progress.  However, for the most part we felt that that the IR doctor was very encouraging and felt that things would progress positively.  The next steps and time frames are:

• Getting approvals for the Y90 treatments from insurance. This can take 1 to 3 weeks, but we hope it will be the shorter time frame. 
• Once insurance approves, they will do a procedure to map the blood vessels of the cancer and through that process will be able to calculate the dose of the radiation needed.  This is an outpatient procedure.
• About two weeks after the mapping procedure, they would do the actual procedure to implant the Y90 / Radioactive pellets into the cancer.  Also an outpatient procedure. 
• The following two weeks after the implantation, they would expect that there is some limited side effects the most common being tiredness, so they usually suggest a schedule that takes that into account.
• One month after the treatment, there would be an appointment to check on general wellness and to talk about any issues that have come up because of the treatment and this will include blood tests checking on liver functions and other indicators. 
• Then, at three months after the one month appointment, there would be another CT Scan to analyze how the radiation is affecting the cancer.   We are projecting out that this would bring us to about the end of June, when we would be getting some idea of how effective the treatment has been and rework options going forward from there.

During the three months while the treatment is in the liver, the doctor said that there is not normally any limitations.  He also indicated that the treatment can be repeated and most likely will be in Eric's case.

We are waiting on reworking plans and schedules related to ministry in Mexico and we will plan to remain in Indy until the treatment is done and we are sure there is no significant side effects. 

Again, we are grateful to so many who have expressed their blessings and are keeping us bathed in prayer.  

Love always,

Eric & Dee