August Begins and Tests Continue

We praised the Lord all weekend for the stomach results but were still haunted in the quiet moments with the uncertainty of where Sam's cancer is. While we've ruled out stomach and liver and probably large intestine there are still a lot of places where his cancer could be. We continue to need your prayers for peace and for wisdom for the doctors.

We had a wonderful weekend at our daughter Kristi's lake house with Kevin and his family as well. What fun to watch our two grand daughters interact and get to know each other better. Sam's cousin Paul brought his family for Saturday afternoon boat rides and swimming. Sam felt well and we forgot our problems for three days.

Tuesday Aug. 2nd it was back to the hospital for more tests. We had a CAT scan and a Bone scan. Sam gagged down what they called a vanilla smoothie and went in and out of a machine they affectionately called a donut. It was nothing like the smoothies and donuts that you and I enjoy. They put some sort of radioative "stuff" in his viens and told us to wait 2 hrs. Then the put him on a slab and told him to lie still while they slowly ran him through some other machine. I tried to entertain him by reading a magazine to him.

We won't know the offical readings on these tests for at least 24 hours but the technician leaked out to us that we shouldn't lose any sleep over the bone scan. Whew!

Tomorrow, Wed. the 3rd we will go back to the hospital to have some sort of test called an MRCP of the abdomen to evalute the pancreas and biliary tree. I don't think that's like any tree we've got in our yard :o) Poor Sam has to miss another meal fasting for yet another test.

The family doctor called today and said that the biopsy samples that were sent to TX for further evaluation did not reveal anything. So another big question mark.

We hope all this gives our medical friends some insight because we sure don't know what to make of all this. The bottom line is to keep praying for the doctors to find out where the cancer is located so that they can treat it and begin to work on shrinking the large mass on Sam's liver.

Today a dear friend texted Zeph 3:17 to us as we sat in the radiology waiting room. It's so encouraging to know:
"The Lord your God has arrived to live among you. He is a mighty Savior. He will give you victory. He will rejoice over you in great gladness. He will love you."