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I cannot believe that it’s been two days since our last visit to the oncology clinic and I have yet to write anything about it. Time to resolve that….
It was a little bit stressful getting everyone out of the house, but I wanted to have us all go and spend the time together. We took Josiah up to the cardiology floor first so they could do an echocardiogram. They’ve been doing them periodically throughout his treatment to make sure that his heart isn’t showing any damage from the strain of the tumor, the chemotherapy or the radiation. The tech was so friendly and interactive with Josiah, which is always nice. Everything looked good in the EKG, thankfully.
Then, we headed up to the oncology floor. It was so neat and wonderful to have all of the staff commenting on how big and strong Josiah looks… and how big the other kids were getting. The nurse took Josiah’s vitals. He’s up to 33 pounds – we have now surpassed his pre-diagnosis weight! Josiah also is now 37 1/4 inches tall, a full half-inch taller than he was in July.
The oncologist gave us the “schedule” for Josiah’s follow-up care. In general, Josiah will be getting a CT scan every 3 months or so, meeting with the oncologist the week after each scan and blood work every 6 months or so for the next two years.
They went ahead and did his blood work this week, which he was NOT happy about. I know he’s gotten used to not being messed with, but the doctor wanted to go ahead with it since Josiah still has his port in. Yes, they will be scheduling for his port to be removed within the next month!
This, of course, is so welcome and feels wonderful to know that he is done with treatments. It brings up some nervousness in regards to his upcoming scans because they will have to use a normal IV for his sedation. Not sure how that will go. The nurse did tell me that we could put the same numbing cream on his veins, so hopefully that will help.
Before the doctor left, we asked what his official word was on Josiah’s status. He said that there is no active cancer and is in remission. PRAISE GOD!! We are so thankful and humbled by Jesus’ healing of our little boy. It still feels a little unreal and I think that Tony and I are still a bit nervous about what lies ahead. We’re trying to rest in the peace of God and the truth of where we are right now.
It also makes my heart ache knowing that there are so many other children (and adults) that are in the midst of a longer, more intense battle. I heard this week that September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month. Our family is now “aware” of this sad fact year round. Thank God that He is our Protector, Provider and our Peace.
Please continue to pray for our transition into normal life, as well as those families who are in the heat of the battle – for rest, peace, understanding and healing.
August has been quite a month for the Zapatas. It started off still “stuck” in hospital mode. I went through a really hard emotional time afterward, but have thankfully moved out of that… with God’s help.
The last couple of weeks have been a joyous time of normal life for us. I have heard that the number “8” symbolizes new beginnings and that’s what the end of this month has felt like.
It started with the realization that Luca is starting Kindergarten! I can’t believe how it has snuck up on us. 
We prayed through the options and have decided to teach Luca at home this year, starting tomorrow. Wow! It’s a big deal to have your oldest child start Kindergarten. We are so excited about entering this new phase with him. He has already started teaching himself to read and is eagerly looking through all of his school books. Hopefully, the enthusiasm will continue for both Luca and myself.
Two weeks ago, I decided to attempt potty training Josiah again. We started on a Tuesday with his little potty and a chart that he could put fish stickers on whenever he tried to go. 
He started filling up that chart really quickly. We had to go to Target after 48 hours to let him pick out a Dollar Spot toy because he had filled up half of his chart. It was amazing to have him wake up dry after his naps… and after bedtime! Within a week, he was completely trained through the day AND night, with less than 6 accidents. Tony and I are so proud of him and so thankful that it went quickly and smoothly. Josiah has moved into a new stage of confidence and playfulness. What a sweet, wonderful thing to watch.
In the midst of his potty training, my mom got to come out for a visit over Anastasia’s first birthday. It had been almost 6 months since we had gotten to see her, so it was wonderful to have her come out to help us celebrate our little girl. Yes, Anastasia is now one and almost completely weaned! That’s so hard to believe in a way. I think back on her year of life and am amazed at all that our family has gone through. Thankfully, I have been able to treasure her infancy within the depths of my heart (and through photos). It is a tremendous blessing to not feel like I’ve lost the year with her. She is such a precious little doll that is developing her own personality, vibrancy and sense of humor. 
We had a wonderful garden party in her honor at our friends’ house. Anastasia enjoyed her cake and then really enjoyed opening her presents. Most of them were in gift bags. She would take the paper out and peer inside. Once she saw the gift, she would look up at us with big eyes, a big smile and then almost dive into the bag trying to pull out the gift. It was so fun to see her point, touch, kiss, hug and “try on” the gifts that people brought for her.
The following day, we had the honor of dedicating her back to God in church. We were humbled to be a part of the actual sermon, which was on 1 Corinthians 13. That was the same passage that was used during our wedding. It was amazing how God orchestrated it all to encourage Tony & me… and hopefully the others that were in attendance that morning. Love truly does endure.
We’re going on three weeks without visiting the hospital. Josiah has an appointment with the oncologist this coming Thursday. It will be the first time Josiah has seen him since the hospital stay at the beginning of the month. They have scheduled a CT scan for October 23rd. So, there is obviously no extreme concern for Josiah’s health at this point since we’ve moved into monitoring mode. I told a friend yesterday that we haven’t heard the “he’s in remission” speech, but we are saying and believing that he has been healed. That’s way better than remission.
Here’s to August 2009: the “end” of Josiah’s battle with cancer, the beginning of Luca’s school adventure, one less child in diapers, one more child weaned and walking… the beginning of a new season filled with hope, joy, thankfulness, peace and lots and lots of love.
Life has been really crazy and overwhelming the last couple of weeks. Hence the delay in writing.
Today was Josiah’s follow-up appointment with the surgeon. We started off going to get x-rays of his chest/lungs. Then, we went upstairs to meet with Dr. Lovvorn. We chatted a little about his vacation in Ocean City, NJ. It turns out that his in-laws are from Haddonfield, NJ – the same town my mom grew up in. ”It’s a small world, after all.”
So, the x-rays show that nothing has changed in Josiah’s lungs, which is great! He still has the air-filled cyst (pneumatocele). It had filled back up with air right after the surgery, but it hasn’t changed since then. The surgeon is a bit irritated with it, but isn’t worried at this point because it isn’t causing any problems for Josiah. Ideally (and what we’re praying for), the pneumatocele will eventually just go away. The possible risks would be if the pneumatocele got infected or burst somehow. We are believing that there will be no problems.
Regarding the tumors, there is still no sign of any growth. The surgeon is very pleased with how good Josiah looks and how active he is. It seems, as far as he is concerned, Josiah is free and clear. Praise God! We have still not had a meeting with the oncologist, but the surgeon said that he would expect that they will move into a monitoring mode. He mentioned that just by watching Josiah, you can tell that he’s doing and feeling better.
I could write a lot more, but it’s getting late. Please be praying for us. We are so thankful for the things that God has done, how He has carried us through and how He has healed Josiah. It is proving to be a hard and challenging transition back into “real” life. Yet again, God is helping me navigate through it all, but it’s not a quick road. I guess it’s sort of like the last part of a marathon. You don’t feel like you can keep going; but if you want to finish the race, you have to push through even when your body is screaming at you the whole time. The joy of the Lord has to be our strength… and I’m so thankful that He holds us in His strong arms.
Today has been a very relaxing day so far, which I’m thankful for after a bit of a hectic evening yesterday.
Our friend, Mary, brought Luca and Anastasia up for dinner. It was wonderful to have all of the children together… even though it was a bit chaotic. Josiah had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Then, he got to eat some of the yummy chocolate ice cream that Mary brought up for him.
Around 7:30, Josiah started really complaining about his arm hurting, crying and grabbing at it – extremely uncomfortable and in pain. It got so bad at one point, that I asked Mary to take the other kids for a walk so we could get the nurse/doctor in to check on Josiah. I was definitely scared and worried… having images of his tube pulling out on it’s own or some other random thing. I don’t have a lot of time right now, so to make a long story short, it seems that he was having “referred” pain in his arm from his incisions. They prescribed some additional pain medicine, but we didn’t end up needing to use any of it. Thank God!!
We got a pretty good night’s sleep last night. Josiah slept better than me, which is good at this point. He actually slept until about 7:30 this morning. During rounds at 6:30, the surgical team told me that they would be taking Josiah’s chest tube out at some point today. If it went well afterwards, we could possibly go home later today or first thing in the morning.
So, I spent this morning hanging out with my warrior – eating breakfast, playing with puzzles and, of course, watching some movies. They came in about 11:15 to get the tube out. Josiah got an extra dose of morphine that made him pretty oblivious to what was going on. (Wish I could take some of that home with us.) He did cry some when they actually took it out, but it’s done so quickly that it didn’t turn into any real struggle. Praise God! Josiah got to indulge in some more of his ice cream afterwards… even though it was before lunch.
Now, his port “tuby” will be taken out around 12:30 and he’ll move to all oral pain medicine. Then, we wait for them to do an x-ray at 1:50 to double check his lungs, now that the tube is out. Once they get his x-ray back around 3, if his pain seems to be under control, then we’ll be getting discharged! Yay! I’m so thrilled to be able to see the close end to this hospital stay.
Thank you for all of your continued prayers and support. I know I keep saying that, but there’s really no way to truly express our gratitude. I’m looking forward to writing more tonight… from home!
I can’t believe that I didn’t write yesterday… and yet, I can totally believe that. Things are always a bit crazy in a hospital, but thankfully, our craziness came from a 3-year old’s wants/desires – not medical issues.
I had Luca and Anastasia in the morning, which was nice. We didn’t have a lot of time to spend together, but it was good to have a little bit. I dropped them off at a friend’s around 10 and headed up to relieve Tony at the hospital so he could go to work. Such a wonderful husband & father – willing to be at the hospital and still working to provide for our family.
Tony met with the surgeon briefly in the morning. The doctor said that they heard a bit of raspiness in Josiah’s chest. So, they wanted to give him some physical therapy to get him to blow & cough. Obviously, it’s not a good thing if the fluid and gunk from surgery settles in Josiah’s lung.
Once I got to the room, one of the Child Life Specialists came by with some “toys” (a.k.a. therapy tools). Josiah got a bottle of bubbles, a party blower and some contraption that looks like a coke bottle with string that shoots up in the air when you blow into it. He LOVES the blower and string bottle! He’s picking them up to blow them totally on his own. That’s the kind of physical therapy you like to have.
Josiah and I had the whole day to ourselves. It was nice to have that one on one time with him, even though it may spoil him a bit for when we get home & my responsibilities are tripled. We had fun watching movies, reading books, playing games and playing with some of his toys.
I got really tired in the afternoon, but Josiah didn’t seem to be interested in a nap. A couple of people started praying that he would rest… and, boy, did he rest! It wasn’t until 2:30 or so, but he slept for about 3 hours! I was able to sleep about an hour before my body said no more. My body was done mostly because of the position I was in. These twin beds are not made for two people! However, I was SO thankful for the nap I had. The nurses were great about leaving us alone to sleep, which was a blessing too.
While Josiah slept, I did some reading and found Isaiah 45:3. ”I will give you the treasure of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.” There are so many people that I know of who are facing “dark” times – whether it’s illness, job situations, relationships or whatever. This verse was amazing to me how God refers to darkness as a “treasure”! The hard things (darkness) are a gift to us with the purpose of showing His love for us. He has stored riches for us (in character, revelation, etc.) in these hard times and we can find those riches when we seek Him with our whole heart. Wow!
When Josiah woke up, we got some dinner. He actually ate pretty good all day. Then, we had some visitors, a little ice cream treat and more movie time before going to bed around midnight. That’s what a late 3 hour nap will get you. We slept pretty good last night. He only woke up once, I think. So, we had about 6 hours of sleep before he was up and ready to watch more movies.
The surgical team came by early this morning. After checking his chest tube, one of the team members said that there still needed to be more drainage before they would let Josiah go home. So, we will be here through today at least.
We got through breakfast and he ate very good, even though he’s being a bit high maintenance today… and changing his mind a bit more than I would like for him to. We played CandyLand again & blew some bubbles. He actually blew some bubbles on his own, which was a big accomplishment in general.
Around 10:00, the surgeon came in to check on Josiah. He seemed pleased with the drainage and said that they would be starting a water seal on the chest tube. Basically, it’s the next step to getting the tube out. They’ll do another x-ray around the time that they take the tube out. So, it seems we’ll be able to go home Thursday… even though it may be later in the day. Then, he referenced the pathology results not realizing that he spoke with them after he talked with Tony yesterday. I know how that feels. Anyway, all five nodules came back as scar tissue & skeletal muscle… NO VIABLE TUMOR CELLS!!! Praise God!!! I am beyond thrilled to hear how God has worked on healing our little warrior.
The surgeon is recommending that we move into a time of observation for Josiah. That includes a CT scan about every three months with no more therapies at this point. He’s unsure what the oncology team will determine or recommend, though.
What a whirlwind couple of days. I am continually amazed at God’s faithfulness and Jesus’ healing of our little boy. We are so thankful to Him and all of you for lifting us up in prayer so faithfully. I feel somewhat speechless right now. Thank You, Heavenly Father, for loving Josiah more than we do & for taking such good care of him. Thank You for healing him and making him a sign and a wonder to all who see him. Everyone that comes by talks about how good Josiah looks and how well he’s doing. Praise You, Lord!
What a day! We were up before the sun today getting things ready for Josiah’s surgery & stay at the hospital – showered, dressed, snacks prepped for him, breakfast prepped for us and supplies gathered for the day. The sunrise was beautiful. Not quiet enough to make me want to get up that early every day, but it was a good reminder that God’s mercies are new every morning. I need His mercy every day, that’s for sure!
Our wait at the hospital went very quickly and smoothly. No insurance issues, no melt downs from lack of food (from Josiah or me & Tony) and no weird wait times. We had an amazing nurse, Carol, to take us back to pre-op and Josiah warmed up to her very quickly. It probably helped that she let him push the buttons on the scale. 
We met with the surgeon and he went over his plans for the procedure. He said that his main objective was to get some of the nodules out and then, since he would already be in there, to deflate the air pocket. We chatted for a few minutes. Then, we answered some of the same questions over and over to the many nurses, doctors, residents, etc. that came over.
They took Josiah back in a Little Tykes car a little after 7:30 a.m. Tony & I went out to the waiting room to eat breakfast… and wait… and believe. Our friend, Becki came up to sit with us while we waited. It was such a blessing to have someone there with us. We were able to visit for a couple of hours before we got word that Josiah was doing well. Then, about 30 minutes later, the surgeon came out to get us because they were done!
He said that they didn’t even start the surgery until a little after 9, due to all of the prep work they have with anesthesia, IVs, etc. So, his surgery took about an hour and a half. The whole surgery was able to be done laproscopically – Praise God! No large incision! They removed a total of 5 nodules from Josiah’s right lung (1 from top lobe, 2 from middle lobe and 2 from bottom lobe). Then, he decided to test his plan for deflating the air cyst on a smaller cyst to make sure that it worked. It did. He moved on to the large cyst, but he couldn’t get to it due to lung tissue that was tightly wrapped around it. Instead, he took a needle and ended up drawing out about 2 ounces of oxygen out of the cyst. It then became pliable enough that he was able to use the previous procedure to further deflate it and close it off. The surgeon was very pleased with how it went. They did an initial test on a frozen cross-section of the largest mass that they took out and it came back with no viable cancer cells! Praise God! So, if five out of five nodules come back with no viable cells, then they will consider all of the nodules to be dead. Josiah would move into a 3 month monitoring process at that point. This is what we’re praying for!
At one point in our conversation, the surgeon told us he had said a prayer before starting the surgery because he knows he’s not the one to cure Josiah. What a blessing to hear that our son was being taken care of by someone who understands his human limitations and, apparently, God’s unlimited ability. That was wonderful.
We didn’t have to wait much to go back with Josiah in recovery. He had another great nurse, Sara, which was nice because we spent about 6-7 hours with her today. Yes, we had to wait a long time to get a room, but it doesn’t seem that it was that long. Anyway, at one point, Tony went down to get our Chick-fil-A delivery (Thanks Jeff & Nina!). While he was gone, Josiah’s eyes popped open and tried to focus on what was going on. I talked with him a little bit to see how he was doing. One of the first things that he asked was for me to pray for God. So, I did. I prayed for God to help him feel better and take care of him. He had a drink of water and we started a movie. When he started getting irritated again, I asked him what I could do and he asked to pray again. I asked him if I should pray for him to not hurt and he said he wanted me to pray for God. So, this time, I prayed that God would comfort Josiah and give him peace. As I was praying, Josiah closed his eyes and rested. It was so amazing to see his understanding in the midst of trauma… and it was such a gift from God to me because I had just told Tony how much I desire for Josiah’s heart to stay tender to the things of God. Wow! In the midst of his pain, Josiah reached out to our heavenly Father. Thank you, Lord! He ended up asking Tony or I a few more times to “pray for God”… and we happily obliged.
We moved up to our room around 5:00. Tony had gone home to get Luca and Anastasia. So, they made their way back up to the hospital with dinner in tow. We had a little dinner, watched a little Cars and enjoyed being together. After I brought Luca & Anastasia back home for bed, my good friend Dana came by for a visit. It was wonderful to have time with her since she moved away almost two years ago. So, all in all, it was a GOOD day.
I do have a few prayer requests. The anesthesiologist noticed some “secretions” in Josiah’s lungs during the surgery. He said that it’s probably because Josiah is fighting some cold virus. We obviously are praying that he won’t get sick, AT ALL – especially with any respiratory illness.
They took an x-ray of Josiah’s lung after the surgery. It showed that the large air cyst had filled back up with some air. The surgeon said that he wasn’t really worried about it, but it just adds to the mystery of the whole thing. Please pray that the work they did with it won’t add any complications to Josiah’s recovery, now that it has filled up again.
Also, please be praying for protection from infection. Josiah has a chest tube coming out of his right side for drainage purposes. That always increases risk for infection. And then, of course, please pray for peace, rest and comfort for Josiah and our family.
We are all resting in our Father’s hands.
I felt today like I needed to share promises & truths from our heavenly Father. In the midst of being overwhelmed with surgery, risks, scheduling, finances and emotions… God remains steadfast and true, faithful and merciful, loving and strong.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5
“Jesus said to him, ‘I will go and heal him.’” Matthew 8:7
“I waited patiently for the Lord and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth – Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord.” Psalm 40:1-3
“He gives power to those who are tired & worn out; He offers strength to the weak.” Isaiah 40:29
“Oh what a wonderful God we have! How great are His riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand His decisions and His methods!” Romans 11:33
“I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them & make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.” Isaiah 42:16
“And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Romans 5:2b-5
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13
Tony spoke with the surgeon on Friday evening and we finally had a moment to talk about it late Saturday night. (That’s how crazy our house & heads are.)
Anyway, PRAISE GOD, all the tumors seem to be dead!!
So, the surgery tomorrow will be mainly to go in laproscopically (not sure on spelling) to deflate that one large air-filled cyst in Josiah’s right lung. Since they will be in there and since the PET scan isn’t 100% accurate, he is going to completely take out a few of the tumor masses that are on the perimeter of Josiah’s lung. They will be able to test those masses and confirm the PET scan results. In essence, if the tumors they take out are dead, they will assume that all that is left in his lungs on both sides are dead. That equals no more chemo and just regular monitoring. The risks of surgery/procedure are the need for a larger incision, air leaks, excessive bleeding and infection.
Please join us in praying that the surgeon won’t be able to find anything; but if he does, that he will be able to smoothly deflate the air pocket and easily “pluck out” the tumors that he needs to. Please pray also for no complications, peace and rest for our whole family and provision in every way. We are beyond thankful for having support from so many friends and family. THANK YOU!
Today has been a full day. We got up early to take Josiah in for his PET scan. It was in the main hospital, but thankfully they had a room with some kid movies in it for us to hang out in. We had to wait about an hour for the radioactive glucose to go through Josiah’s system to be detected during the scan. One of our favorite anesthesiologists was there this morning, which was nice to have the familiar face. Josiah definitely had a bit of a hard time grasping the different location & the fact that they were having to put his tuby in. It must be hard to understand when he’s been out of that mode for a couple of weeks and then to get thrown back into it.
When they took Josiah in for the scan, they told us that they would be sending him over to the Children’s Hospital to recover. That made me nervous because sometimes he wakes up pretty quickly from his sedation and isn’t always very happy, as some of you have heard about. So, we had to get the car from the Main Hospital valet so Tony could drop me off at Children’s on his way to get to work. Then, I went into Radiology recovery… which it turns out is not where they were sending him. So, I had to go from the first to the third floor where the surgery recovery is. They sent him there because of the anesthesia. The lady in the main lobby couldn’t find Josiah’s name on her charts, so it took about ten minutes to figure out where my child was. All the while, I was thinking that he was going to be screaming his head off somewhere in the caverns of recovery. Apparently not, though, because once we got it all squared away, I had to wait about 30 minutes before they called for me. I could hear him calling for me when I got close to him, but he actually did really good waking up. The first thing he told me was that he wanted to go home. Then, in the process of getting him checked out and leaving the hospital, he ate two bananas.
We had a hard afternoon when I tried to get the children down for naps. Josiah did not want to lay down and threw one of the biggest fits I’ve seen from him. Anastasia felt the same way, it seems. So, I finally got Josiah to lay down quietly and had to take Anastasia downstairs so she wouldn’t wake up the boys. She finally went to sleep when Josiah woke up. That has to be one of the most hard challenges of a mom because it equals no quiet down time during the day.
In the meantime, I was also getting messages from the surgeon’s office and from Tony about the plans for Monday. In the surgeon’s mind, he would be doing surgery no matter what the scan results showed. However, Tony & I really wanted to hear the report before they did any surgery on Josiah. They said that the surgeon would go over it with us on Monday morning before surgery, but that they probably wouldn’t hear anything today.
A little before 5:00, they did call us with a preliminary report that the tumors are still in his lungs. They didn’t say whether or not it showed that they were viable or scar tissue. Tony & I discussed the option of postponing the surgery, but it didn’t seem to have many guaranteed benefits. So, here we go.
Monday morning, we have to be at the hospital at 6 a.m. for a 7:30 surgery time. I know some of this will be a little repetitive, but I want to make sure I get it all down. The surgeon will make a small incision on Josiah’s right side (the only side without a scar at this point) and use some type of scope/tool to shrink the air cyst and to remove some of the tumor masses that are close to the edge of Josiah’s lungs. We are praying that the surgeon won’t find anything when he gets in there or that what he does find will be simple to deal with… and NO complications (need for larger incision, bleeding, lung collapse, etc.).
Please pray for peace over our family. Anastasia is having a hard week of teething and separation anxiety. Luca is feeling shuffled around and needs some Mommy & Papi time. Josiah isn’t too thrilled about doing more hospital stuff, even though it’s hard for him to verbalize all of that… it’s showing in his actions. Tony & I are feeling the weight of caring for each child, taking care of work & child care details, fighting off allergy/cold symptoms and trying to move forward with faith that God is truly in control and we can trust Him with our lives & the lives of our children.
I did have a wonderful evening out with friends at SATCO, one of my favorite Nashville hang-outs. I’m up way too late, but I wanted to get this all out while I had a quiet house. On that note, please be praying for rest for all of us as well.
“Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6
Tomorrow, we take Josiah into Vanderbilt Hospital to get his PET scan at 8:30. We are still praying for miraculous healing to be reveal God’s glory to all of the medical staff that have a part in Josiah’s life. Matthew 8:7 is the verse that we have been standing on. It’s wonderful to have covenant comrades who are walking through this with us and lifting our arms in battle.
The surgeon called us yesterday and mentioned that he wants to do a biopsy/surgery on Josiah’s right lung. Tony was able to speak with the surgeon today and heard his full plan. First of all, he wants to shrink the large air cavity. He has a procedure that he has used in something similar in the past. Also, he is planning on taking out some of the tumors in order to test them. Apparently, the PET scans aren’t highly accurate. So, they have determined that they want to pair the scan with the biopsy for the most accurate results in deciding what treatments to proceed with. Ideally, the surgery would be done with a minimal incision and a scope, but there is always the risk of there needing to be more involved surgical procedures and/or incisions.
After Tony & I talked about all of this, we felt like we needed to ask the surgeon to give us the initial report of the scan results before they move forward with surgery. So, Tony called and left a message for the surgeon with that request.
Tomorrow should be an eventful day… hopefully full of wonderful news. Thankfully, we have our friend Nicole from California here for a few days and she is willing to help us with Luca & Anastasia this week. God’s timing is wonderful.
I also realized that I never updated from our “pre-op” appointment yesterday. Tony & I took Josiah up yesterday afternoon. We met with one of the anesthesia nurses. He asked some questions, listened to Josiah’s lungs and then said, “Ok, that’s it.” I was shocked and asked him if he needed to do any blood work. That was probably silly to ask him, but we were so prepared for it. Josiah even had his numbing cream on. We met up with one of the anesthesiologists outside of our room. He was one that has helped with Josiah during surgery & radiation, so it was nice to see a familiar face. He explained that they needed to do the “pre-op” route because the PET scan is in the main hospital & the anesthesiologists administer the sedation/anesthesia instead of the nurses in the children’s hospital. That is the simplest way to explain why we had the extra trip. We were so thrilled to be able to tell Josiah that they weren’t going to have to put his tuby in that day. Praise God for simple, truly painless hospital visits!
I was so blessed this last weekend to join some ladies from my church at a lake house about an hour & a half away from Nashville. 
God gave me such a wonderful gift of rest & relaxation. The other ladies were kind enough to let me have my own room. So, I had the ability to be completely on my own. Tony took on all three children on his own, too. It’s wonderful to know that my husband loves me & my children so much to serve us in that way.
It was the perfect setting for me… in the middle of the foothills overlooking a lake. What an amazing gift from them & my heavenly Father. I was truly refreshed by His words and the ability to completely rest.
This morning back at home was wonderful. I enjoyed my time with all of the children in different ways. Poor Anastasia is teething with her top front two teeth so her face is a bit puffy with a runny nose. But, she has been super cuddly and looks up at me with amazing smiles. The boys haven’t been far behind in wanting to be next to me… or on me.
Then, this afternoon, I got a call from the oncologist’s office saying that they had moved the PET scan to this coming Friday (24th). Josiah also has to go into pre-op on Wednesday for blood tests before they do the sedation. I couldn’t understand why he needed to do the pre-op since he’s never had that done before a CT scan. The secretary couldn’t really give an answer, but as I thought about it, I realized that Josiah’s been in to the oncology clinic for bloodwork everytime before a scan. So, I was a bit surprised that they had moved it, but at least they called before Wednesday.
Nap time was a challenge, so I finally ended up laying down with Josiah. While we were resting, Tony called & left a message that the surgeon’s office had called him to find out when we could talk with the surgeon about possible surgery. The surgeon did call last Friday & mentioned possibly doing a exploratory scope of Josiah’s lungs. As we talked then, it sounded like it made sense to do the PET scan first. So, I’m not sure if he’s still on that same train of thought or not.
Obviously, it’s sort of crazy having all of this happen right after my weekend away. However, I totally trust that God is in control of it all. Please pray for clarity, wisdom and good communication between the doctors and us… and that Josiah wouldn’t need to go through anything more than really needs to.
I’m also a bit disappointed because I was planning on potty training Josiah this week, but I guess we’ll wait another week.
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