August 30, 2004

Well, today was a VERY eventful day! Yesterday the fuel pump went out on our van for the 5th time! Mickey decided that maybe it was time to break down and look at a different vehicle so he got up early and went to the car dealership to look at a new van. Now really isn’t a good time for car shopping but God will provide. Michael slept until a little later until around 9:30 a.m. so Tammy told him to jump into the shower to get ready to go to his clinic appointment scheduled for later in the day. When Michael got out of the shower, Mickey was driving in with our new 2005 Chrysler mini van! It is black with gray interior and boy does it look sharp! With the extra discounts available we were able to get it about $7000 cheaper than we had originally thought. God has taken special care of us so far, and we know that he is able to provide the finances it will take to pay for this vehicle so we are not going to try to sweat it too much. The van is very comfortable and will make it nice to take Michael back and forth to his appointments. Our clinic appointment was at 1:30 p.m. and we were to see Michael’s “main” oncology doctor today. Of course, the boys had to try out every gadget on the van they could find on our way to the appointment. They thought it was really funny to sound the panic alarm in the parking garage. ~grin~ Mom was slightly embarrassed but she’s getting used to it; after all, she lives with 1 husband and 2 boys that are into everything !!!They checked Michael’s counts and they were up from last week and he has also gained 2 pounds. Dr. Wilkinson said that Michael is amazing. She said that 9 out of 10 children who undergo the intense radiation that Michael has gone thru end up with tremendous mouth sores and a lot of trouble swallowing. The only discomfort Michael has is the mucous in his mouth and much of that could be avoided if he would drink more water. The doctor made sure that Michael understood this and we are hoping that he will take the advise and drink more water. She also said she couldn’t feel even a lymph node in his neck and all she really could feel was scar tissue from the biopsy scars !! She is overjoyed with his progress and commented that Michael is NOT reading her rule book and going by it! More proof that we serve a God that is still in the healing business !! Michael is a tough cookie and he refuses to let this get him down. We are at week 9 in his protocol and we will be doing scans around week 12 to see where the tumor is at. She told us that Michael’s scans will never look “normal” because of the extent of the tumor and the scar tissue that would be left. Then she commented that Michael is refusing to go by the medical books, so there is always that possibility that scans will look normal! Praise The Lord !!! We told her that we have been doing a lot of praying and she told us to keep it up, because that is what seems to be working for him. Basically there is no medical explanation as to why Michael is doing so well. Some may say that it is just the great technology or medicines that are available, but we know who is ultimately in control of this situation, and we will continue to give God honor and glory for the work that has been accomplished in Michael’s life, both physically and spiritually. We serve a risen Saviour that is bigger than any medical procedure !!!