Liver Bling

Metisha and Mark had a very long day but a successful one and her liver now has some bling! They were able to BEADazzle 50% of her liver with this first treatment which is great news. The doctor said they will treat the remaining 50% with a scond treatment in a few weeks and may need to do a third treatment for "clean up".

She still in the hospital tonight because she is having some abdomen pain and her stomach is upset but over all she is doing very well. They are hopeful they will be able to go home early tomorrow morning.

Praise God for such good results today and pray that Metisha will be back 100% tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

Beadazzled Tomorrow

Metisha gets her first round of chemo beads on New Year’s Eve so her liver will be beadazzled for the New Years! It will take most of the day between blood work, mixing the beads and chemo, lots of waiting, and then the actual procedure. They will monitor her after the procedure and she may have to stay in the hospital overnight for continued monitoring.

Metisha is excited to ring in the New Year (and a new decade) with a new treatment. There is a theme of new beginnings and we eagerly anticipate that God will turn her cancerous liver into a beadazzled liver, and then into a healed liver!

We are praying for several things:

• Metisha will have no side effects from the chemo beads or the procedure.
• The doctors will be able to treat a large portion of her liver in this first treatment.
• She will be able to go home tomorrow night so she can rest. She usually does a good job of talking her way out of the hospital!
• A BEADazzled liver will lead to a cancer free liver!

Sometimes I find myself asking where God is in all of this. Why did God allow this to happen to Metisha? Why hasn’t God cured her yet? Where is God when we are devastated from bad news and feeling hopeless? The truth is he is here and more than we will ever know or understand. He was here when Mom and Dad moved back to Fairview over 30 years ago, placing our family in the middle of a community that has shown us an immeasurable amount of love and support. He was here when he placed Mark in Metisha’s life decades ago to be her constant rock. He was here when He allowed Metisha to see the victory of heaven when our grandfather passed away. He was here when He lead Metisha to the Life Church giving Mark and Metisha a wonderful church family. He was here in his perfect timing when he blessed our family with the pending arrival of a baby while we fight alongside Metisha for her life. He was here when Dad was watching a TV program that lead him to send an email to a doctor that lead Metisha to the chemo bead treatment therapy. He was always here orchestrating events but most importantly he was and is ALWAYS here loving her. And oh how he loves her! We cannot fathom this love or begin to understand its vastness but we can know that he is constantly engulfing her in love. It is a love that is passionate, peaceful, fierce, endless, and so much more. Because he loves her, he hurts when she hurts but he is also fighting for her. No matter what, no matter the day, no matter the circumstance, he is here loving her with an endless capacity. That is where God is in all of this.

Psalm 103:11 – For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him

Fancy Liver for New Year’s

Metisha will get her beadazzled liver on New Year’s Eve so she will be ringing the New Year with some fancy bling in the hospital! We are very thankful to finally have a date set for the first round of treatment!

Metisha is having some Disney withdraws but is enjoying her Christmas break. We were absolutely blown away by how well her feet did in Disney and know that is a direct result of your prayers! On one of the rare occasions when she actually used the scooter (or more appropriately called “crash cart”), she was driving figure eights around some posts at our hotel and almost rolled then thing over! I wish I had caught it on video!

Good Preliminary Scan Results!

Metisha had her PET scan this morning and her oncologist already called with the preliminary results. He said everything looked good! They did not detect cancer anywhere besides the liver and thought it might even look a little better! They did see a shadow on her rib, but feel like it is just a shadow. We are praying that the final report confirms the cancer is only in the liver!

Metisha is still trying to get her TheraSphere treatment scheduled. Please pray that the TheraSphere center can get the surgery scheduled ASAP.

No Beads Today

We got back from Disney last night and had a great trip! There was a lot of laughter and funny moments. Tisha’s feet were pretty bad the first two days but after that they felt great and she abandoned the scooter for the rest of the trip!

Metisha’s first TheraSphere treatment has been moved to the 29th or the 30th. There are not any issues causing the delay it just took longer than expected to get it scheduled. She does have a PET (full body) scan on the 21st. Please pray that this scan shows no cancer outside her liver.

A BEADazzled Liver

It looks like Tisha’s liver is going to be BEADazzled! Her appointment with the TheraSphere clinic in Dallas went very well! Mark and Metisha really liked the doctors and the clinic and believe this is the best treatment option. If everything goes as planned, she will receive her first round of liver bling (beads) next Friday (12/18/09)! So here is what this treatment will include:

• TheraSphere uses glass beads to target radiation or chemo directly to tumors.
• They will be using chemo with Metisha’s beads.
• The beads are designed to block the blood flow to the tumor while the chemo directly attacks the tumor.
• The beads are inserted directly into main arteries feeding the liver.
• They cannot treat the entire liver at one time so they treat one section at a time. They anticipate they will divide her liver into 2 to 3 sections.
• They will treat one section, wait about 3 weeks and then treat the next section.
• She will have an overnight hospital stay with each treatment.
• The side effects are much less than traditional chemo. They said she may have some discomfort in her abdomen and may experience some light hair loss. They have only had one patient lose all of her hair.
• After they have blinged out all of her liver with beads, they will wait 3 months and then do another scan to see how well the beads have worked.
• Typically the goal is to control or reduce the cancer in the liver; it will not necessarily kill all of the cancer in her liver.

Even though the doctors do not say this can kill all of the cancer in the liver, our pray is that Tisha will be the all star and God will use this treatment to completely cure her liver. We believe this can and will happen!

We are so thankful to have a plan again! Mark and Metisha are extremely thankful to be able to get her treatments in the DFW area and stay close to home. All of her doctors are discussing restarting her on her oral chemo again. She stopped taking the oral chemo after the scan showed growth in the liver, but the doctors think she may need to keep on that drug because it was causing her cancer markers to go down. Pray for wisdom for the doctors in this decision and also pray for protection over Metisha from the side effects of the drugs. She did fine on low doses but developed very painful blisters on her feet and hands on higher doses.

The doctors that met Tisha on Tuesday could not believe how well she is feeling and the few side effects she has from the cancer in her liver. We know that is a direct result of the millions of prayers that have been said for her and we thank you for constantly praying with us through this battle!

So as Tisha starts the next round of treatment you can pray that:

• Metisha will respond better than expected and God will use this treatment to kill the cancer in her liver.
• Metisha will not experience any side effects.
• They can treat her entire liver with just 2 treatments and that both treatments can be given while she is on Christmas break from school.
• Insurance will cover the treatment without any issue or fight.
• The doctors will come to the right decision about the oral chemo drugs.

Metisha is leaving this weekend for a well deserved cancer survivor celebration with Mickey Mouse! There are six of us going and we are VERY excited and thankful to get to celebrate another year with Metisha! We have rented a scooter for her to use at the parks because of the blisters on her feet. I’m sure that will provide for multiple entertaining moments, especially since she is taking one of those key ties that you use on a wave runner to pull the key out of the ignition if you fall off! So if you are in Disney next week, watch out for a wild woman on a scooter!

TheraSphere Consultation

Metisha will have a consultation next Tuesday with a facility in Dallas for TheraSphere treatment. This treatment inserts TheraSphere beads directly in the main artery which feeds the liver. The beads are radioactive glass microspheres that feed high levels or radiation directly into the tumors.

Pray that her records can get over to this treatment facility quickly and that she will be a candidate for TheraSphere. Pray that this will be the treatment that finally rids her liver of all cancer and pray that there will be no insurance coverage issues.

Metisha is doing well and is ready to fight with new treatments! Oh and I know all those medical terms made me sound really smart, but I’m still just a nerd who knows how to use Wikipedia :)