Erik Dienberg Erik L Dienberg

About 3 weeks ago, we headed to the ER one evening for what we thought was a routine gall bladder that would be removed. The ER doctor was not convinced it was his gall bladder, and admitted him overnight. These next 3 weeks have completely turned our world upside down, and it is still spinning.

Erik has been diagnosed with a very rare, aggressive, and widespread T-cell lymphoma. We have been told the road ahead will be tough. He did the first round of chemo last week. He has needed several blood transfusions, his kidneys have stopped working, and there have been lots of other issues. He has been in critical condition in the ICU for a few days.

Various doctors seem to believe that his current condition is due to the impacts from chemo, blood transfusions, and amount of fluids he has needed (in contrast to disease progression).  They think if he can pull through these issues in the ICU, we could be ready for the next round of chemo in about 2 more weeks. However, they are clear to say that he is very sick, and this is a day-by-day situation. The last 2 days there have been tiny snippits of good news in some of his lab numbers, which are encouraging to the doctor that means the cancer is shrinking, but we are cautioned every conversation about how sick he is.   

As you can imagine, our lives have been turned upside down. We have been in-patient for the past three weeks, and have been told to expect another month in the hospital as a starting point.  My (Brooke) mother and Erik’s mother have come and are helping immensely with the girls, school and my long days at the hospital. There is no way I can take the time to fill in all the details of all that has transpired the past three weeks, but this is an attempt to keep people updated from here on out.

At the moment, visitors to the hospital are extremely limited. They have extended some grace to us on a few days, for which we are so thankful. We have a meal train started by our church. We have been asked how people can help...at this time I'm not sure how people can help. The longer this goes, our needs will increase, and we will be sure to reach out and make those needs known. 

We would ask for lots of prayer…for healing, for grace for each day, to see God in this journey, for hope, for our daughters, for wisdom, for discernment, for understanding... Our girls are scared and sad and miss daddy.  We are all in shock, scared and our hearts are broken.