TEARS OF JOY (Tuesday, May 14th, 2024)

In this battle for Asher’s life, there have been deep subcutaneous valleys of grief and fear… 

… but there have also been altitudinous mountain peaks of victory.

Not only have we shed tears of joy over the extravagant generosity of so many of you who have given your time, money, food, and energy in the place of prayer for Asher and our family…

… today, Nicole and I (and our family) cried tears of joy as we summited two mountains needing to be conquered on this journey toward Asher’s full healing and recovery:

NO METASTASIS IN THE SPINE!

NO HIGH RISK CATEGORY!

1. The results of this second lumbar puncture (spinal tap) came back negative! His CNS cells appear to be normal and do not indicate metastasis. 

2. The molecular characterization of Asher’s particular type of medulloblastoma (which is defined as classic histology, WHO grade 4 medulloblastoma, non WNT/non SSH, group 4) did not put him in the higher risk category! There was a loss of chromosome 8 and 11 and a pattern suggestive of isochromosome 17q. These are all positive benchmarks in lowering the risk profile and out of any molecular characterization in group 4 medulloblastoma, this one has the best 5-year survival rate. 

That being said, Asher’s type of medulloblastoma is not considered “low risk” but “standard risk,” simply because medulloblastoma is a grade 4 cancer. In other words, there is a 70% 5-year survival rate for this type of brain cancer. 

We are not out of the woods yet (because even 30% of all irradiated medulloblastoma patients relapse) and there are many more mountains and valleys to be traversed, but we are continuing to climb the mountain of faith for Asher’s healing all while casting mountains of cancer and ataxia into the sea. 

GILLETTE CHILDREN’S “REHAB” HOSPITAL IN ST. PAUL

We transferred from Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis to Gillette Children’s Hospital in St. Paul in order to take advantage of their amazing rehabilitation work with children like Asher. He will be going through “rehab boot camp” starting tomorrow here where he will be doing occupational, physical, and speech therapy twice per day. Then they will throw in some psychological and music therapy as well. We are so grateful for this opportunity to maximize Asher’s rehab before he comes home for a short stint before we launch into treatment.

TREATMENT

We are praying and seeking God’s heart and wisdom for the best course of treatment for Asher. Thank you to those of you who are sharing your insights with us. Continue to pray with Nicole and I as we need to be making some difficult decisions here in the next few weeks.

PRAYER POINTS

• Pray that all ataxia leaves Asher’s body

• Pray that any cancer cells in Asher’s CNS or body will not grow and metastasize

• Pray that God opens the right doors and closes the wrong doors related to Asher’s treatment plan

• Pray that the zealous spirit that empowered Jehu to throw down Jezebel would be ignited in all our hearts as we contend for purity, holiness, and righteousness in our own hearts and nation

In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Christ.

We know He is able to keep what we’ve committed to Him.

We know in whom we’ve believed. 

We know He is faithful.

          continuing to climb,

                   Joey & Nicole