Starting Chemo On Thursday

Well - here we are again:) asking for your prayers that you are always so faithful to offer up on our behalf - we love you all for sticking with us on this journey. Ryan will be admitted on Thursday (1/18) to begin his "big" chemo. Our prayer is that the healing effects of these powerful drugs would be increased to cleanse and purify his body of any cancer cells that may remain, and that his little body would be protected from the negative side effects that these drugs can cause.

They have prepared us to expect him to feel pretty lousy - we would love for him NOT to experience the nausea, etc, but we feel very comforted by the fact that they have many medicines that they can relieve those side effects with - Praise Him for that!! Specifically, we would ask that you pray for:

1)*Protection of his kidneys* - these drugs are very powerful and can be very damaging to them. Again - we are thankful that they have the ability to hydrate him well with IV fluids and will be giving him a drug to increase his going to the bathroom which decreases this risk.

2)*Protection of his ears -* hearing loss which ranges from mild to severe.

3)*Protection from infection -* decrease in the red and white blood cells and platelets can make him more at risk for getting sick.

Some of the more rare side effects include lung damage, liver damage, and new cancers resulting from the treatment - normally I probably wouldn't mention those, but we have now been the 1 out of 1,000 with Addie having DS, the 2.4 out of 100,000 ( I think that's right) with Ryan having a brain tumor, and then our neurosurgeon has never had a patient who had facial palsy after this type of surgery - so, I guess you can see why even these "rare" side effects make me nervous. Rob said last night that his middle name is "Israel" right now - it is so true and honestly we do vascilate from one moment being completely confident and filled with hope - then the next we are filled with fear.

Please pray that we can learn to "Fear Not."

I love how a precious lady at our church who has been diagnosed with breast cancer looks at each step of her treatment - "One step closer to healing" - that is our prayer for this weekend - may it bring Ryan one step closer to his healing.

We sang the song "In Christ Alone" in church yesterday - powerful beyond words for me. It is so very true that all we long for or could ever hope for is found in Christ. He longs to be our all in all, our comforter, and He will remain firm through this storm.

Mary Lee Carrigan