I truly believe......You will Heal Marcus.........

I am attaching a video of a song that we have sung several times at church-it is very special to me-it was one of the songs they were singing during the Wednesday night service where everyone prayed on Marcus....the words truly say it all...and Jesus is all we need.....end of story.....

Marcus completed his last day of chemo today...and it was rough. He woke up this morning feeling very nauseated...and really didn't feel like getting out of bed-but he did and made it through his last infusion.....he pretty much stayed nauseated all day and has been resting since he got home around 4pm....I just keep praying he will feel better this weekend...he hates feeling like this and I hate to see him feeling like this-it makes me sad....I can't do anything, but I wish I could take it all away from him....please pray he can feel better over the next few weeks so he can enjoy Christmas...I just want him to be able to enjoy Christmas............

Speaking of Christmas...I was able to get a big chunk of shopping done today and I am glad-but I am still not finished...hopefully over the next few days I can knock it out :)

Nothing else really to say-just asking prayer warriors to keep sending the prayers-the devil is really getting that chemo to make Marcus sick-and we need it to make the cancer go away, but keep Marcus feeling good!!! Nothing is impossible through Christ....so help me pray for it!

Love you all and thank you so much again for your prayers and support of our family.

We will praise you in our storm......

So today we heard some good news and some not so good news. Good news: there are no new mets in Marcus' liver, spleen, pancreas, etc...THANK YOU JESUS!!! Not so good news: the tumors in his lungs have grown and do not appear to be responding to IL-2.

So, Dr. Kim has suggested he begin a chemo cocktail called CVD (Cisplatin, Vinblastine, & Dacarbazine)......he can possibly do this locally with Dr. Lavalais (Marcus loves her and hopes she will take this on) if she feels comfortable with it. If not, we will go to MD Anderson to get this treatment. He will go 4 days-all outpatient, have treatments for about 4 hrs each day, then get 17 day break, repeat 4 days, then 17 day break, then scan again. In the meantime, they are going to try again for BRAF testing on the cells from his biopsy in Sept..and see if they can test the cells from the fluid they removed from his lung over the weekend.

Some of you may be disappointed and feel your prayers are not working-please do not feel this way. We know that God is in control and we are waiting patiently for Him to heal Marcus-and we will continue to "praise Him in this storm"-our faith is not shaken-and we pray neither is yours. Marcus and I have felt drawn to Jesus, more than ever and we are ready to battle! So the devil better get ready-we are not letting this slow us down!

If Dr. Lavalais is on board, Marcus could start this treatment by wed or thurs-so we need all prayers to continue-this treatment is 3 different chemos all at once and it will be rough...but Marcus is ready-willing to do whatever God offers him to fight this monster called Melanoma.

So please watch/listen to the video above and do not let the devil shake your faith-Marcus isn't, and neither am I.....So stand strong with us and PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!!!!!

We love you all so very much and thank you for all the text messages, emails and phone calls to check on us!!!

Home, but not for long

well, we spent black friday in the ER at MD Anderson...not our first choice of places to be-but, Marcus was really feeling short of breath and called Dr. Kim-and of course he wanted him to come in-and i am SO thankful that Marcus agreed-he ended up having pleural effusion and they had to remove 1900ml (half gallon) of fluid from his pleural cavity!!!! i told him i didn't even see how he could breathe at all !!! anyways, good news is, since they saw he was already scheduled for CT today, they would do it all then...so about midnight friday, he got the full CT of chest/abdomen/pelvis! of course, the ER drs would not give us any insight-they want us to wait and get the word from Dr. Kim today....so today we will visit MD Anderson again and see what's going on-we are still faithfully believing that God will heal Marcus and we will not accept any bad news today! we are patiently waiting, trusting God and know in our hearts that Marcus will get through this-it is just a little mountain he has to ask God to move for him-but not impossible-nothing is impossible through Christ!!

if tumors are responding, Marcus will admit for another round of IL-2...if not, he will discuss with Dr. Kim a new plan of attack! he is NOT giving up and will NOT let melanoma win! so all you faithful prayer warriors, keep praying!!!! we love you all and thank you for your continued support of our little family. more posts to come.....

TOTALLY THANKFUL

 

So, we have been home a few days now and trying to get back to normal life-whatever that is ;) Marcus is doing good-still pretty tired and coughing some-but he is just trying to enjoy every second he has home-before we go back nov. 30 for another week of IL-2. Things are going well with the girls, but it is still a struggle to get Sela to discuss her feelings-her teachers told me today that she had a rough day today-and I talked to her this afternoon-she is just so worried about her daddy. Marcus and I will talk to her again together, but I simply reassured her that God is in control and we just have to pray for strength and peace to accept whatever comes. Her main worry is about losing her daddy. Which I completely understand, because of course, that is my main worry too. But I explained to her how I pray daily (sometimes several times a day) for God to grant me the strength to get through all this and the peace to accept whatever happens-even if that means God needs daddy in heaven more than we need daddy down here. I explained to her that God doesn't always answer our prayers the way we pray them, but He always has a plan and He will always take care of us. No matter what, we will be ok. Sounds like I have it all together, huh? NOT REALLY-you should have seen me saturday when I had a mini-meltdown on the way home! BUT, it doesn't mean I don't completely trust God in His plan-because I do-I just keep prayin for the strength to accept whatever plan that is. And, like I told Sela, none of us is guaranteed one second on earth. We all need to enjoy each other and the time we have because cancer, or no cancer, we could all be gone from here tomorrow. I am so thankful for my sweet girls. God truly blessed us with some angels. So I am attaching a few shots of Sela & Sloane from this afternoon, being silly girls, like normal! Thank you God for letting me enjoy them on earth-however long that is....

What faith can do

Click and enjoy!

This morning has been rough. Marcus had 6th dose at 2am and all was well until 4am. Nurse came in to get vitals and made him stand up for weight check. Afterwards-everything went downhill fast!! All at once chills/rigors started and at the same time he got nauseaous-vomitted and nose started bleeding-BAD scene in room P1004. He has totally had enough! Says when doc comes in this morning he is telling her he is done-that last dose really worked him
over. This whole round over all hasn't been too bad, but his swelling started sooner
and it just seems his body is done.He is finally peacefully resting-thank God. So I decided to share the video above because it helped me so much this morning. Real hard to see the man you love suffer like this. But I know God is working-I have complete and total FAITH!

Moving all the while

5th dose down! Marcus had 5th dose of IL-2 around 6:30 and as of 8 no chills/rigors.  
He even ate supper and is watching
the world series now-he is super swollen with 
all the fluids and feels like crap-but he is hanging on and not 
complaining one bit! He is such a fighter-I admire his strength 
so much. So next dose scheduled for 2am-then see doc in morning-
and will let him know if he'll go more-or not-keep the prayers coming!!!!!
So far they have helped him so much-so please don't stop!! God is "Moving all the while"-listen to this song by sidewalk prophets and u will know what I mean ;). Love u all!!!!

Restin and rocking along!

Sorry I have been bad about posting today-BUT it is only because we have nothing to post-THANK GOD-Marcus has been resting all day after his 1st dose this morning around 9:40-he will receive his 2nd dose about 6pm.  Just need tons of prayers-we know the tumors aren't gone yet-BUT- they WILL be soon because God is running this show-not IL-2, not the docs and not MD Anderson-ONLY God has the power to heal-and we are patiently waiting for Him to do His great work!!!!!!!  We love u all and thank u so much for every prayer u send our way! 

Happy-but not

Well we are finally settled in our room-thank you Lord for getting us into P1004 and not ICU!!!!! Tonight Marcus will get fluids and antibiotics but won't start treatments until tomorrow morning. We met with Dr. Kim today and found out some news that fustrated us a little-Dr. Kim wants him to do 4 rounds of IL-2 no matter what. We are scheduled to come back Nov 30 for scans and then admit again for 3rd round-then, even if tumors are
gone, he still wants him to come back for 4th round-if tumors are not gone, but responding, then he will go 6 rounds. We totally misunderstood all his before-but now we know the full game plan-4 rounds of IL-2 no matter what-possibly 6! We were so happy to get this room-but then not when we found out about the additional treatments-BUT Marcus says he will do whatever it takes to get all this melanoma out of his lungs!!!! So keep the prayers coming prayer warriors-Marcus needs them!!!!!!!!

keepin our heads up and smiles on our faces!!!-Marcus scheduled to start IL-2

well, yesterday we met with dr. kim to discuss the plan of action!  marcus has to go back thursday to do several more baseline tests, before he will be admitted into the hospital for 7 days-starting Oct. 5 to begin his 1st round of IL-2.  he has to make sure his heart and lungs are strong enough (doing stress tests and pulmonary test) and then another CT of the chest to have the most recent images of the tumors in his lungs.  he will be admitted monday after they insert a catheter into his chest for easier dosing.  he will begin the IL-2 treatments around 9am tuesday morning and they will give him up to 3 doses a day for 5 days, or until his body cannot handle it anymore.  that is why he has to stay admitted, so they can monitor his heart and all other organs-they will constantly being doing blood tests and checking on everything.  if anything starts to go south, they will reduce or stop the treatments.  he has to stay in the hospital 2 days after his last dose is administered, so they can make sure he is recovering properly-hence the 7 day admission.  then after he is released, he will get about a 14 day break and start back again Oct. 26-for 7 more days.  after that 2nd round, they will redo all the scans again and see if there is change (stable, shrinkage of tumors, growth, etc)...if it seems to be working, either by stabilizing or shrinking, they will schedule him for a 3rd and final round....if it is not working, then they will go back to the results from the gene mutations tests (they are actually testing for 3-B-RAF, C-KIT and NRAIS)-please excuse me if i labeled those wrong, i haven't researched the other 2 mutations, i only knew about the B-RAF.....and look into clinical trials...pretty much every trial marcus looked into that he was interested in, required him to at least have tried the IL-2 first...so he was ready to get this under his belt.  but we are praying and trusting that God will heal him with IL-2 and we won't even have to look at those trials!!!!!


meanwhile, we are trying to get everything in line for us to be gone for 7 days...thank God for my mother-in-law Debbie who will be taking care of the girls for us !!  this makes me less stressed and more capable of taking care of marcus while he goes through this....we have discussed with the girls what daddy has to go do, and i guess in their own ways they understand.  i just pray this works and we don't have to deal with this anymore!!  i know marcus is ready to be DONE with melanoma!!!!!

so, as you see in the picture of us from last week's lamar lady cards soccer game-we are keeping smiles on our faces-we know God has a plan for our lives and we are holding on strong and following His great lead!  we believe that God is the only one that can get marcus through this rough treatment and heal him-and we expect nothing less.

and as gary allan sings it, "life ain't always beautiful, but it's a beautiful ride"

thank you all for your continued prayers and support-we love you all!!