Thursday, February 3, 2011

Update and info about Josh - Please continue to pray

Many of you have already heard the news about Josh via twitter and texts and possibly phone calls.  This is the first time I have been able to sit down at the computer and gather my thoughts to all of you.

To cut to the chase, it looks like at this point Josh has lymphoma.  (cancer, leukemia, to tell you the truth, I am not really sure).  How did we get here.  Last night, Josh called us to come get him from College as he believed he had the flu and needed to go to the doctor and felt too bad to drive himself and deal with it.

Regina was at church at the time, so she took off to get him last night about 9pm.  We decided to bring him home to the ER here in case they need to keep him, etc....  They checked in the ER at 11pm and was sent home at 3:30am with the diagnosis of the flu.  (Josh did not take the flu shot much to mine and Regina's displeasure, but what can you do with a stubborn 21 yr old)

As I was going to work this morning about 8:30am today, the ER called and wanted him back up there asap for a CT scan.  They found an abnormality in his upper left chest cavity.  We all went back to the hospital ER and by 11am they took him back for the CT scan.  Shortly after that, the ER doctor was back in our room with a possibility of what it was.  He told is it was most likely lymphoma. (I think he said leukemia, and blood cancer as well, to be honest, I don't remember). 

They immediately began trying to get him in to an oncologist.  The soonest was Feb 11th.  To be honest, we found it hard to get him into any oncologist in the area.   Thanks to Kendra seeing our tweets, she got right on it, pulling strings and got us in a very good oncologist tomorrow.

The next steps are vague.  What we do know is, he will have a biopsy via his bronchial tube.  Regina has had this done before.  They will also do many scans of his entire body to be sure there are no other masses.  We are praying and believing there are no other masses!  I believe Chemo and possibly radiation would be next if needed.  Again, all this is way too early to tell.

As Regina said, God is not stunned nor surprised.  We are, but He is not.   We are trusting God and placing all our faith in Him.  Last night before all this happened Luke and I were talking about another issue and happiness in life.  It was totally unrelated to us but someone else we were discussing.  We both agreed, God doesn't promise us we will be happy all the time.  There will be joys and sorrows, physical pleasure and pain, but through it all, He is in control and what He wants from us is to be faithful to Him and trust Him and praise Him through the good times and the bad times and through that God will be glorified.  God is going to be glorified no matter what.......  we should be part of that.  Are we afraid, scared, still stunned?  Yes, but we are human  and God knows that.... but in the deepest part of our soul God knows our heart and knows we are believing and trusting in Him.

Thank you in advance for your prayers for our son.  Both our children mean so much to us, just as anyones would.  The last several months have been difficult, but God has and is seeing us through it all.

We love you all.  Our church family and Sunday school class mean so much to us.  I cannot imagine life without you all being a part of us.

Love

Lee



1 comment:

Eric and Jae Shumate said...

Josh will be in my prayers and I know that through your familys faith and the strength that all of you have, God will answer the many prayers and help him pull through. If ya'll need anything at all please let me know what my family can do to help. Again your entire family will be in our prayers.