July 3
Happy 4th of July! It is so nice to have real summer weather! Sometimes those rainy, cooler days of spring make me feel like better weather will never come. But thankfully, just like the promise of our Lord's love and comfort, better days come!
We have 90% great, wonderful, prayer answering news and 10% not-that-great, but not unexpected news. First the good news, of course! Chance continues to be cancer-free! He had x-rays of his chest (lungs) and leg and there is no change in regard to a new tumor growing. His blood work came back fine as well as other lab tests.
Besides reccurence of cancer, the docs are also making sure that his kidneys are still working as they should. As life saving as chemotherapy is, and was in our case, it can still cause a multitude of life changing problems. So far, Chance's hearing is the only thing that chemo affected adversely. We had an audiology appointment with the ever-chipper Kristen (she is so sweet!) and discovered that his hearing had dimished a little more in his left ear. Chance mentioned to Kristen that he noticed he could hear better with his right ear. Of course, she recommended continuing to use the hearing aids (its like trying to get him to do homework - he doesn't think it's that necessary!) and to be careful about not listening to his MP3 player too loud. This was part of the not-so-great news (not the MP3 player part, but the additional loss of hearing!)
We saw Dr. Hayden on Tuesday and he was really pleased with the amount of bone growth (finally) at the top of Chance's femur where the donor bone is attached with his existing bone. However, he was very disappointed that Chance's growth plate hasn't shown any signs of growing. He had been optimistic at the time of surgery and after that the growth plate was saved and an artificial knee replacement would be unnecessary. But, it seems that eventually we will be looking at the knee replacement. To use Dr. Hayden's words, it is a "strong possiblity". But we are still going to wait and see about that. First Chance is going to have another surgery to help get his knee to mobilize. It is built up with a lot of scar tissue and will not let him bend it more than 45 degrees. It has been this way for several months. During the surgery, they will remove the scar tissue, stretch the muscles, remove the 2 remaining pins and reinforce the attachement with screws if necessary. Then Chance will stay in the hospital for 2 - 3 days with a PCM machine helping do physical therapy. The PCM is a passive continuous movement machine. His knee will be moving non-stop after the surgery. I'm sure that he will be quite sore too!
The next available opening was a week from today, but we opted for the next available appointment in early September. Next week seems like to much of a rush and it would pretty much ruin his summer.
So, that is the latest for now. I'd like Chance to update next and tell you all about Camp and his friend John from school that is battling AML up at Doernbecher right now. (www.caringbridge.org/visit/johnclehman)
God Bless and thank you for caring so much to read our updates!
Love -
Jennifer
