Last Night In Amarillo

Josh was happy to spend yesterday in Amarillo as he got to spend some more time with his cousins, aunts and grandma. The cousins threw a surprise birthday party for Sarah and the 50 year old man. They managed to round up a cake, party hats and party favors. They decided against lighting the candles (probably out or fear that the fire engines would roll out to a 50 candle lighting service).

Although mom and dad were hoping for a transfer to Amarillo, we know that God chose to bless Josh with a day with family. The cousins, aunts and grandma left early this morning to head back to California, Keep them in your prayers as they have a 15-16 hour drive home.

They have been a blessing and encouragement to Josh and Ilene, Sarah and I. We have had visitors every day who are such an encouragement and blessing to us. We feel blessed by our church family and know that God will walk with us during this challenge.

Patience for Patients

We are waiting again. This morning MD Anderson told us that they don't have a bed for Josh yet. They anticipate some openings as surgery patients go home throughout the day. Keep him in your prayers as his blood count numbers are starting to degrade. We are seeing this in his tiredness. The doctor said they are not bad enough to warrant another blood transfusion, but we will be watching them closely.

Josh's sister Sarah has started a blog from a siblings perspective. We are all learning that our lives have begun a journey in a new direction that will teach us patience. We are also learning that friends and family are fun to be with even in the hospital. 

We have had some great times laughing and having fun with so many visitors. The latest event is playing Mad Gab with cousins, sister, aunts and grandma, which is even more hysterical with hospital masks on.

The Next Step of Our Journey

Saturday morning we will call down to MD Anderson to see if they have an open bed for Josh. Although he has been accepted into the Clinical Trial, there is not a bed available yet for him. If one opens up tonight, the in the morning an ambulance will transport him to MD Anderson.

We are looking forward to getting started with Josh's treatment. Please pray that Josh will remain healthy and that the long trip to Houston will not tire him out to much.

Josh has had a good day, but he is tired. We had a lot of visitors today. Kurtis and Dana (the Youth Minister at FBC) along with some of the youth were coming back from camp and stopped in to see him. Kurt and Rachel M from Dalhart also stopped in. We were all encouraged to have people that we know and love stop in to visit and encourage us. We know that God is doing amazing things and are privileged to be His children.

We continue to be blessed by your comments, prayers and encouragement. We are praying that all of you reading this blog and praying with us will also become bold about sharing what Christ is doing in your lives as well as what God is doing through our family.

This morning we met with the oncologist who is covering for Dr. Sharp. He was able to answer many of the questions that we have about AML, its prognosis, progression and treatment. Most importantly he is working at getting Josh accepted into a Clinical Trial at MD Anderson (for those of you that want to know more, here is a link to the Clinical Trial) in Houston. Josh meets all of the criteria for the trial, so it is just a matter of getting a phone call back with an appointment for him to be evaluated for the program.

What we can tell so far about the clinical trial is that the initial treatment protocol (big words for how long he will be there) will be seven days of in-patient chemo treatment followed by once a month treatments as needed.

Some encouraging news is that Josh's blood count levels are improving. Both his white blood cell (WBC) and platelets (PLT) have improved since yesterday. The doctor said that this improvement was not anticipated as there was an expectation that his levels would start to degrade. This improvement is great news. He said the improvement could be a result of the B12 shots that he gets each day. We of course know that we have a God that answers prayer.

We had the opportunity to talk with the doctor about our expectation that God will open door for Josh's benefit. He is watching with interest as we express a faith in a God who will work on or behalf. Keep him in your prayers. He was intrigued by our statements of faith and reliance on God to both be involved in the healing process and to be divinely instrumental in involving people in this journey that we are on.

We of course realize that Dr. Agarwal has strategically been put in our relational world so that we can influence him for Christ. Pray that we have the opportunity to share Christ with him in tangible ways. Pray also that God will begin to soften his heart to be receptive to the gospel.

Thank ya'll for the many responses. Josh is very encouraged to know that people are praying and loves to read your comments, so please post comments to him.

Josh will add another blogg later once we upload some new pictures of his cousins, aunts and grandma.

Hello from Josh!

Hello everyone! This is Josh! First I'd like to thank you all for your prayers and visits! I appreciate it so much! I'm very thankful that I have such a great family and friends and fellow Christians!

I thought I would give everyone a little bit of information from my POV as to what hospital life has been like so far! Ok, so far being a patient, takes patience which is not one of my strong suits but is something I am going to have to get used to so that is a work in progress. My Nurses and Doctors have been absolutely amazing and have been very gracious and gentle and most importantly supportive.

When I was diagnosed with AML, which I cannot pronounce, my greatest fear was that I would no longer be able to do the things I enjoy most such as working with my dear friends the Duenez's, Rick and the office staff, as well as my friends and volleyball team. When the Doctor was describing (very scientifically) I was confused and did not understand. Then it hit me. I am a cancer patient now. I felt terrible. Like my whole world was turned upside down. I informed my family and friends and my cousin Katie made me realize that right now I am a Leukemia patient, but soon I will be a Leukemia survivor!

Since then I have maintained a mentality of, "everything will be OK." And it will be. Someday I will run that marathon for cancer survivors and at the end I'll know I've finished the race! I'm very much looking forward to that experience!

As far as everything else about the hospital and the life I'm living in it, it really isn't so terrible. It is a little hard to shower with an IV port in my arm but the most important thing is that I am getting well and I have so many people who are supportive both physically and spiritually! It really has made a difference! And I thank the Lord for Mrs. Turner for bringing me sushi! It was a wonderful blessing!

Today has been wonderful! My family from California left their homes at 3:00 AM to come visit me today! Seeing them was amazing! I will try to upload some pictures very soon so you all can see them! I have been very well taken care of and it is comforting to know that in this journey, I have people like you all behind me!

Thank you so much for your love towards me and my family!

God bless!

Josh