Dear Family and Friends,

After having a month of 60’s and 70’s (October) we were beginning to think that winter was not coming. But alas, the cold blast of November has arrived with all it’s glory (so to speak-ha!). The temperature this morning was a balmy 17 F. No more walks in shorts or my PJ’s!

We heard back from Dr. Norden with regards to being seen at the NIH. This is what he said:

Hi Jim,

I was in touch with the NP at NIH today. They have many, many requests to participate in this program and a small staff of only 3 providers. They will try to prioritize your case, but they can't make any promises. If you end up being selected, they are scheduling visits for several months in the future.

Their goal is to identify rare or previously unknown diseases.

Please take care, keep me posted, and I will see you soon. Happy holidays.

Andrew

I also spoke with Dr. Norden about the NIH. There is one Dr. from the NCI (National Cancer Institute) that might be interested in seeing me for further evaluation, but that is a 50/50 chance.

We are not discourage by this, but encouraged; glass half full view I suppose. We feel at least we’re being considered. So that is a good thing. Ultimately our hope does not lie in being seen at the NIH, but in God (Romans 8:31—32). I must admit I was somewhat saddened to hear how many people have been referred to this program at the NIH. The shear number of people, ages, that have rare or undiagnosed diseases is immense. Each person, a life story and although I don’t know them I found myself praying for them. Hoping that they to would find peace and hope beyond their circumstances in life.

The steroids are helping. The bigger tumors/lesions are shrinking; but there are still new ones showing up. We are treating the symptoms; we don’t understand the etiology (the cause or origin of a disease or disorder as determined by medical diagnosis). So for now we’ll keep moving forward with this plan of action and take it one day at a time.

Thanksgiving is almost here (YEAH!). We’ll be at my oldest brother’s house (thank you Karen and Mark). My brother Peter is flying up (from warmer Florida); so we’ll all be together (we’ll miss you Joan). We’ll be having wild turkey with all the fixings and pies galore (sugar free of course). Who knows we might even have a skeet shoot.

We want to say how thankful we are for each of you reading this, praying for us, and being an encouragement to our family. Our hearts are full with gratitude for God’s love and grace. We are blessed to have each of you in our lives. Thank you!! When we know more we’ll send out another update.

We love you,

Jim, Diana, Ruth, Rebekah, James & Ian