A Road to Recovery

When Jonathan was first diagnosed with a brain tumor, a good friend gave me a Scripture verses calendar that has encouraged us many times during the last five months. I don’t look at the verses every day, but unfailingly, the verse that I read has been appropriate for whatever we are going through that day – mostly reminders of God’s promises.

This past Sunday, as Jonathan and I were rejoicing in his recovery, I read the verse for the day: “For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come”. Song of Solomon 2:11-12.

We have been back home for over ten days now. Last Friday and Monday we had three follow up appointments; the reports from the doctors where very encouraging. We first went to see the Infectious Disease doctor that is treating Jonathan’s bone infection or osteomyelitis. He was pleased to see the results of the labs and told us that he just needs to finish the course of antibiotics – 9 more days. After that Jonathan should be DONE with antibiotics. The head MRI originally scheduled for July 11 should confirm that the infection is totally clear. On Friday, we also met with the internist to follow up with the blood clots that formed around Jonathan’s PICC line in his right arm. She was very thorough and carefully looked at Jonathan’s overall health. She helped us understand that Jonathan is coming out of a very acute stage and now most of his levels are going back to normal. There are some levels that are still temporary off due to medication, but she will be following those closely until they normalize. Jonathan will continue on blood thinners to complete 3 months of treatment and the internist will monitor blood work every week for dosage adjustments. Thankfully for both of us, I no longer have to give Jonathan blood thinner shots in his stomach twice per day. We are both glad to be past that treatment.

On Monday, we went to the dermatologist who is taking care of the DRESS syndrome. She was also very pleased to see Jonathan’s labs. Once more, she explained that this reaction (DRESS) is very severe and could potentially flare back up in the next few months involving other organs (heart, lungs, kidneys, etc), even without being exposed to the medication that caused the original reaction. For this reason, she won’t release Jonathan until he has completed six months of monitoring without any problems. She encouraged Jonathan to gradually resume normal activity, but to take any unusual symptoms very seriously.

So, after these visits, you can see why we were so encouraged by the words in Song of Solomon. We feel like we are moving towards a more steady recovery now. Jonathan is feeling so much better and his energy level is also improving every day.

We want you to know that we not only appreciate your prayers, we trust that your prayers have been a pleasing sacrifice to the Lord. We pray that He is revealing Himself to you as He is to us. We pray you will proclaim his faithfulness and His powerful deeds continuously every opportunity you have. He has intervened in this situation and He is using it for His glory. His goodness is the same, in sickness or health. But today we celebrate the healing process and we know you celebrate with us. “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love and His kindness go on forever” – 1 Chronicles 16:34.

Please continue to pray for what is ahead.
– Pray that the DRESS syndrome won’t come back and that Jonathan’s body will continue to get stronger.
– Pray that Jonathan’s MRI on July 11 (originally scheduled as the follow up for the brain tumor resection) will clearly show NO TUMOR and no sign of infection left in Jonathan’s brain.
– Pray that he will resume normal activities at the pace he needs to and that God will multiply the work of his hands for His glory.