Hey,
Firstly, my apologies for there being a three-week gap between posts. Since round 5 of treatment, I have found myself not having a lot of steam at the end of some long workdays to write an update.
I’m finding Murphy’s journey similar to reading a novel, every page turned creates a new possibility for what could be. I am a horrible reader, because I manage to only get a handful of pages read before my eyelids give up at night. But I still enjoy reading because there’s a satisfaction that comes with starting each new chapter, there’s a freshness of scene change and a closure to last chapter’s problems. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared about the next phase of treatment. The daunting nature of this next phase will be horrific, and I’ll share more about that later. Entering the next phase, it means we have finished the last chapter of treatment, praise God! As I write, Murphy has successfully completed five rounds of chemotherapy and done so with a smile and a joyful spirit. According to the national protocol for treating stage 4 neuroblastoma…
Murphy has completed the induction phase!
Looking back…
For Murphy, we have seen God’s goodness come through for round 5 of chemotherapy. This is not to say he hasn’t been sick and has not had a great deal of suffering, but as we read through the opening chapters of Job in the Bible, through great suffering and trials it is still possible to praise God. If you recall, round 3 and round 5 were the same drugs, and Murphy’s reaction to round 3 was very difficult because his body was in a neutropenic state for close to 4 weeks, as well as Murphy suffering from nausea for nearly a month. We are 3 weeks on from round 5, and Murphy’s body has recovered extremely well. This week Murphy’s blood results show that his body has produced new neutrophils at a rate that we would have dreamed of after round 3.
Looking ahead… (But not looking forward to)
Within the next few days Murphy will have some tests to check on how the overall cancer cells are tracking. The MIBG test is a test that is specific to Neuroblastoma that will highlight the microscopic disease right throughout Murphy’s body and bone marrow, the disease that is not visible through a CT scan. This will be what doctors call a ‘prognostic’ scan, as it will measure the effectiveness of 5 rounds of chemo by comparing the scans to the diagnostic MIBG. Please pray that this test will reveal how powerful God’s healing hand has been, and let it reveal a drastic reduction in the overall cancer levels.
Late next week Murphy (and Nat) go in for what will be their longest single hospital stint. We have been informed that we need to prepare for up to 42 days/nights in hospital. This round will see Murphy have the highest possible chemotherapy. After this high dose chemotherapy, Murphy’s body will go into ‘shut-down’ mode. Murphy would have had so much chemotherapy by this point that his body cannot recover on its own. This is when the Stem cell transplant will begin. Murphy will need to be rescued with his own stem cells through a transplant to recover. (See earlier blog posts about the harvesting of these cells). This procedure that you prayed for months ago only NOW comes into play. These stem cells that were harvested in October, will be given to him to potentially save his life, because his own stores of bone marrow will be severely depleted. The doctors have run through all the side effects of next week’s procedures, and it is heartbreaking knowing how sick he will be. The most devastating reality is that once Murphy recovers from this harvesting process, he will then need to do the entire high dose chemotherapy process again. He has a huge 12 weeks ahead.
Please pray for:
His strength.
His character.
His hope.
His spirit.
When you pray, can you pray and visualise God wrapping His arms around our boy. Let God’s comfort be the warmth that floods through Murphy’s aching bones.
Nat and I have had some long conversations of late around the concept of suffering, and they have not been the easiest conversations to have because we know the suffering that has been, and that there is more to come. Nat and I don’t want Murphy to suffer, we want this cancer gone. We know though that God has gifted us one very special boy who has a tremendous amount of determination, fight, resilience and will power. All of this is because God has gifted us you, our prayer warriors. You’re the army that fights when Murphy, and us, are weak.
Finally, I need to share this picture that God gave me the other day. Last week I found myself overcome with sadness picturing Murphy’s hospital file/case notes. A silly thing to think about, I know, but this mundane manila folder of his contains every file detailing every doctor note, reports from tests, information about Murphy and much more. I was left thinking about how this folder is growing rapidly, and the clip they use to bind it together just keeps getting bigger because it needs to now hold hundreds of pieces of paper. But, in this moment of sadness God showed me the concept of perspective. God said that this folder contains God’s fingerprint of healing. In each of those pages there’s evidence of God turning this out for good. Where instead of seeing them as evidence of suffering and pain, I was encouraged to see them as a fingerprint of God’s mighty hand.
