Friday, April 17, 2009

No Words

No words will ever capture the depths of despair that a person can sink to when they hear that their child has cancer. Similarly, there is no greater joy than hearing “Your child is cured” after an illness, whether an earache or chicken pox. But there is a time spent in purgatory for those who have undergone treatment for cancer and are given a ‘clean bill of health’. There is no way to guarantee that every last cell has been killed or removed and so for the next 5 years there will be regular scans to establish a baseline and seek to determine and changes by comparing one scan to another.
Evan is recovering well from his surgeries. He is returning to school, participating in the Science Fair and learning that the PT after his mom’s name is not for Phyiscal Therapist, but rather Pain & Torture or perhaps Physical Terrorist. The latter is a result of the work being done to regain full use of his left shoulder that was held immobile for a couple of weeks after the removal of the lymph node network in his left arm pit (21 nodes removed, 2 with metastases at level 1, no metastases to level 2 or 3).
The mass was removed with negative margins (no tumor present at the border of the piece that was removed) leaving a defect (medical term for crater) that is ~3-4” in diameter and ~1” deep. The defect was covered with a skin graft from his left thigh. Both the donor site, and the excision site are healing well.
Thank you for your prayers, support, meals and other ways you have reached out to help us through this part of this journey. It is in God’s hand now (That’s what a doctor might say), we believe it has always been in His hands. Now we just have to deal with the realities of bill for surgery and hospital stay. As we contemplate how that will come to pass, please enjoy some pictures of Evan post surgery.

2 comments:

wfeick said...

Val & I are praying for the Coleman family. We talk about you often.

Wilson

Anonymous said...

My son had surgery with Dr van Aulst April 13.. when I was sitting in the waiting room ( the surgery was 5 hours) watching a youngster play with that magnetic type table I thought of your son... and prayed for him.... there were so many connections going through my mind...both of our sons with the same dr..... I have a port wine stain birthmark on my face and neck.... I battled cervical cancer last year and by God's grace had clear margins and am in my 5 years of purgatory you write of...I 'll continue to check back from time to time....when we're in the big waiting room looking at the musical mural Ill say a prayer things are going well... and check with the blog from time to time... hoping for no posts because you are off having fun... throwing back your head wiht laughter... and enjoying life...

God's peace be with you