Next Steps: Radiation
Friends and Family,
Thank you for your many prayers for us! Since our last blog post, Sawyer has received another dose of chemotherapy, completed all four prescribed radiation treatments to the lung nodule that had grown, and will begin 28 treatments of radiation to his esophagus starting tomorrow, 3/2. These treatments will be every weekday, for 28 treatments. Sawyer will take a lower dose of oral chemo while undergoing radiation, instead of the bi-weekly IV chemo. We are very thankful to be at this point and that so far Sawyer has not had any problems with the treatments. We are also thankful to have great doctors who advocate for their patients and work overtime to ensure they get the right treatments. Our radiation oncologist had multiple reviews and appeals with our insurance company to get things sorted and we are thankful that he worked so hard for us. We see the Lord’s hand very clearly in putting us under the care of really great doctors, both at MD Anderson and back home. As we said previously, our radiation oncologist is hopeful that the lung nodule has a greater than 95% chance of being eradicated after these four treatments. Lord willing, we will be here in Houston until mid-April, and then Sawyer will have 8 weeks off of treatment before his next scan to assess the response to radiation. Please join us in praying that the Lord will bless and magnify these treatments to be as effective as possible, even beyond the statistical expectations if that be His will. Please pray for protection against side effects caused by the radiation and chemo. The radiation to the esophagus can cause inflammation which could be painful, and would make it difficult for Sawyer to eat. The chemotherapy pills often make patients nauseated, so we are praying against that as well.
Please also pray for us, we are thrilled to be doing radiation and feel in high spirits because it feels like we are doing something every day that actively attacks the cancer. We knew that his previous chemo treatments the last 7 months were working against the cancer, but there’s just something about Sawyer getting in a machine that literally shoots his cancer that feels good. A saying we’ve been throwing around very often lately is, “Every day is a winding road” while singing to the tune of a song with the same lyrics. We feel sometimes week to week or day to day we swing from very high highs to very low lows. We had a late talk a few nights ago and what we were able to realize together is that we are weary. Cancer is big. It’s been a long road with more to go. I feel by the Lord’s grace that more days than not we are in a good head space and spurring one another on to trust the Lord even as we are encouraged by our brothers and sisters in Christ to do the same thing. But some days that’s harder than others, some days the constant stress of the cancer weighs on us more heavily, and some days our frailty shows blatantly and we do not trust the Lord and instead flounder in anxiety and doubt and anger and waste time wondering what if. One thing that gives us hope in these moments of doubt is that we do not believe this cancer happened by chance. Isaiah 46:9-10 says, “remember the former things of old; for I am God and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose”. In Matthew 10:29 Jesus tells us that a sparrow can’t fall to the ground apart from God our Father. Even the worst thing that happened in history, the death of Jesus, God’s own son, was providential. Acts 2:23-24 says, “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” -Underlines added. If God would plan on sending his Son to die in the place of sinners like us and a bird can’t fall out of the sky apart from Him knowing, there’s no way stage 4 cancer took Him off guard. What God’s word teaches and we try to remind each other of often, is that none of this is meaningless, there is purpose in all the pain, no matter how deep. He is working in the waiting.
“But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the Lord, and He answered me from His holy hill. I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.” Psalm 3:3-5
May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus be upon you,
- Sawyer + Amy
