another crazy month

Gosh, so its been another crazy month…
Mike went to MD to visit his family in the middle of April in between his last few chemo treatments. I was really starting to feel like we were coming down the home stretch of the worst of this journey…boy was I wrong. 5 days into Mike’s trip he started experiencing flu-like symptoms and was admitted to Johns Hopkins with pneumonia. Every day, it seemed like the doctors pushed his release date a little further as he was not getting better and his fevers were just getting higher. I became increasingly concerned that he had relapsed with the leukemia, so I got on a plane and flew up to be with him. I know we had so many people praying and I attribute the good test results to a very gracious God. He was released within a few more days and we returned to FL just in time for me to get pneumonia. My family really pulled together to help us get through that week, because I was completely wiped out. Mike was scheduled to start chemo again when we got back, but it took a while longer for his body to kick the cold he was fighting, so he just started his final week yesterday.
We took some time to meet with the Bone Marrow Transplant Team at Moffitt yesterday. We had pretty much decided that Mike was not going to go through with the procedure but we wanted to hear what they had to say. What a nightmare… as they reviewed the statistics we were extremely overwhelmed. Basically… if Mike were to continue with the chemo as planned and not get the transplant, he only has a 20% chance that the leukemia will not return and be worse than it was the first time. If he does the transplant now (in his first remission) his survival chances are 45% over the next 3-5 years with the highest risk of death being within the first 3 months of the transplant. If he waits and the leukemia comes back and they are able to get him into a second remission, the chances of survival are only 25%. If he goes through with the transplant, he is at a 90% risk for developing “graft-host disease” which could affect his body in extremely negative ways for the rest of his life – including vital organ failure. Needless to say, that doctor’s office felt like a tiny box with no windows. They were sitting there telling us that with the VERY BEST they can do, Mike is looking at a 20-45% chance of being alive in 3-5 years.
I am thankful for my faith. I am grateful to know a God that is bigger than statistics and medicine and doctor’s offices. I may not be perfect and I may not even deserve His blessings, but I am still going to believe for them. I believe that my husband is in that 20% that will never be sick again. I am going to pray it and speak it every day over his life. Mike deserves to be well. He deserves to see his son graduate and walk his daughter down the aisle. He deserves a full, happy life full of love, success and good health. He is the most amazing, compassionate, unselfish and caring person I have ever met. Please join me in believing for the best! <3