December 17th,

We went to the Oncologist today and found out that Joe has stage 4 terminal cancer. It has spread to his lungs and liver. They have scheduled the Gamma Knife Radiation for the 2 brain tumours for January 8th. They will begin chemotherapy on January 14th. It will be a 4 month cycle, giving chemo every 3 weeks. Once the 4 months if up the they will scan again to see if the cancer has responded well to the treatment. There are no guarantees that the treatment will work. If after the 4 months the cancer is not responding they will need to change the drugs and try again. In the mean time another brain tumour could come up because the chemo does not penetrate to the brain so any existing tumours can still grow.

They have not made the direct connection between the brain tumours and the tonsil cancer. They have requested the original biopsy samples from Brookwood Hospital to compare with the brain tumour samples. We should find something out about this on December 26th.

They also told us today that normal head and neck cancers don't spread to the brain. If cancer goes to the brain it usually flows from the lungs. They will not do any other scans to locate the primary location if it does not match the tonsil cancer. They said it would not matter anyway since it has already spread. The oncologist, ENT and Neurosurgeon have never seen a head & neck primary spread to the brain so if Joe's did spread from the neck primary then he will be the first one.

They would not give an exact life expectancy time frame because they don't want us to dwell on a date. We are expecting a Mega Miracle as Bill would say! We know it can happen and also know that we are not promised tomorrow. The Lord will deliver us in perfect peace when he is ready. We will see the neurosurgeon tomorrow and I will give another update.

God Bless,
Crystal

Joe has been doing very well the last few days. He has lots of energy and is eager to get moving with radiation and next steps with the third tumor. We still don't have the plan from the doctors but our next appointment is on Monday December 17th with the chemotherapy doctor. Then Tuesday with the Neurosurgeon to discuss Gamma Knife Radiation on January 8th. Joe has some blurred vi son in his left eye but the doctor said it could be from the brain swelling. They gave him 2 extra days of steroids to see if it clears up. He has not taken any pain medicine in the last 2 days and feels good. He has some cramping in his neck still but not enough pain to take meds. Looks like Monday is when we will have more answers and will update again then. Have a great weekend and I am looking forward to decorating the house for Christmas tomorrow.



In Christ,

Crystal



"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith" 1 Peter 5:8-9

December 10th, 2007

As most of you know Joe's cancer has returned. Please know that Joe is and has been from the beginning in good spirits. He knows that God will be working in amazing ways during this....

For the past few months I have been telling him that I thought something was wrong and that he didn't seem himself. He has had a headache off and on for about a month and it had progressively got worse over the last week. On Sunday Dec. 2nd he was slurring his words and told me that he was just tired and went to bed. The next day he only worked about 4 hours then went home and fell asleep. When I got home from work he was asleep on the couch so I woke him up and he said he still had a headache and took some Advil. Even though he was slurring his words he insisted that he was just dehydrated and would be fine. I went to pick the kids up and then Joe went with us to pick out a Christmas tree for the house. We went to bed early that night and he was going to help with the kids the next morning, Tuesday Dec 3rd. When morning came Joe still had his headache but was convinced again he was just dehydrated and took some more Advil and went back to bed. I tried several time to call him to see how he was doing be could not reach him until about 1:00.

When I talked to Joe at 1:00 he said he was having a bad day and should have stayed home. I asked what he meant by that - he said he could not tie his shoes. He looked at the shoes - knew that he should know how to tie them, but couldn't remember how. Then he tried to drive to a customers house a couple blocks away and got lost. He said that red lights, stop signs, etc... were confusing him. He was stopping at green lights, running red lights, yielding at stop signs, and pulling out in front of people. He knew he was doing it wrong but just felt confused. It was so hard to understand what he was saying because he was slurring his words so much. He said he was trying to hang a picture and couldn't tell me where exactly where he was.

I left work and found him about 2 miles from the house and he was fixing a fence. He was having a hard time talking and I could see that he could not use a hammer. He walked to the side yard and walked around a tree about three times and the just stood there. I asked he what he was doing and he relied "I forgot." He did not drink anything that day because could not remember how to remove the lid from the cooler in his van. I told him that I was taking him to the emergency room but he really didn't want to go.

I picked the kids up from school and we went home so I could change clothes. While changing Joe began vomiting outside in the yard so we rushed to UAB emergency. 6 hours later we saw a doctor and Joe was taken for a CT scan after a long series of questions and hands on tests. He did not want to wait at the ER but I told him that we were going to find out what was wrong before leaving. It was very hard to keep Joe waiting for 6 hours sitting up in a chair with his head pounding. He kept insisting we just go home so he could go to bed and that he was just dehydrated.

The main ER doctor came in the room just minutes after Joe returned from CT and told us that the it showed 2 large brain tumors so he called a neurologist to speak with us. The neurologist said there was a lot of swelling on his brain and Joe would have to be admitted to the hospital immediately. They began to give him steroids to attempt to reduce the swelling and morphine to reduce the pain.

After being admitted to the hospital the neurologist made the decision they would not due surgery on Wednesday in an effort to keep the steroids pumping to reduce the swelling by Friday. The surgery was scheduled for 7:oo on Friday December 7th and took about 6 hours to complete both tumors. We don't know how much of the tumors they were able to remove but the surgeon said the surgery was very successful in her opinion. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) she scored it a 10. His speech cleared up, strength back, dexterity was back, etc was back. Joe spent half the day Saturday in the NICU but was doing so well that Saturday about 1:00 they put him in a regular room again. He was doing even better on Sunday and Joe was able to come home about 5:00 Sunday night. God is so good and continues to look out for us. Joe is a true Shepherd and allows God to guide his path.

Now we are waiting to hear what the next plan will be because a third tumor has been found behind his ear. I will keep this blog updated as we find out more information from the Doctors.

We love you all and this is just a brief update of the events. I tried to keep it as short as possible but it was very hard. Several people have asked how they can help us and several things are being coordinated through our Church, Mountaintop Community Church. You can reach Patrice Williams at splowill4@yahoo.com or Stephanie Barnes at rbarnes9551@charter.net if you would like to help. We appreciate the everyone praying for us and it truly means a lot.

God Bless,
Crystal Lent

Wes, Thank you for this verse:
James 1:2-4
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith developes perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.