Just a note to let everyone know the latest on my cousin Michael! I will copy and paste the email from my Aunt Dianne below! Thanks so much for praying for him and the family as well! Like she said, cancer affects the entire family. Pray for strength and grace for each day, and for the LORD to heal him and get the glory! :) Romans 8:28
Big hugs and many thanks! Thanks also to those of you who have left sweet comments and sent personal emails to me! These have been a source of refreshing encouragement to my heart!! <3 Big hugs!!! :)
Tammi
Hello, Michael's Team!
We are amazed at how well things went yesterday for Michael. We give the glory and praise to God. Every where we go with Michael and his team of doctors and nurses in Charlottesville ,we see God's hand at work for Michael. In the beginning someone told me that God was using Michael as a witness for others and I believe it. Sometimes we have to walk in the valley to be able to be on the mountain when God needs us for his service. As we have always heard from the televisions that cancer doesn't just affect the person, but the whole family. How true.
We arrived at Charlottesville at 8:30 yesterday. Our older son went with us and to drive us "old people "right up to the door. We were getting out of the car at the Emily Couric Cancer Center and this nice gentleman walked up and wanted to help us get our things from the car and be on the way to our appointments. I guess my son told him about Michael and to our surprise , this nice man whom we have never seen was a Liver Cancer survivor. He came inside and asked if he could talk with Michael. Of course, he wanted to share his story with Michael who was there for his first chemo treatment. This man did not know us and we didn't know him, except for the fact that he worked for UVA and he was the first person we saw at the cancer center. Back in 1996, he battled liver cancer and survived. He was telling Michael that it was hard , but worth all that you go through. He has been cancer free 14 years. What a blessing and uplifting to Michael.
We saw the cancer doctor and she had good news for Michael. She told him that the only differences in his Cat Scan from the 4th of November was the lymph node in the middle of his chest has grown a little, still not worried , chemo will take care of it. The tumor hasn't grown and therefore a slow growing tumor will be a slow shrinking tumor. We were told the pros and cons of his treatment and one thing that the doctor and nurse pushed was that right away, he would not be able to eat or drink anything cold, even to the fact of cold wind blowing in his face would feel like cracked glass. So far as of today, Wednesday the 18th at 1:30 p.m., he has not had this to happen. He is feeling great for now and seems to be in a good mood.
He ate breakfast this morning and everything has stayed down. He wants to go to Walmart, guess this is another good sign. Don't know what tomorrow will bring. For now , we are thankful for what has happened.
Also Michael's blood work was super. it has stayed the same as when he left the hospital on the 2nd of January.
Michael had a wonderful nurse and upbeat people in his circle of patients yesterday that were getting chemo treatments. The ladies who volunteer were always coming around and asking him if he wanted anything to eat or drink, a warm blanket, anything they could do for him. After five hours of treatment and watching T.V. or being on facebook, he got up out of his chair and danced and smiled his way out of the cancer center.
Thanks for all of the prayers and concern for Michael and his family. We will be returning on the 1st of February for his second treatment.
