Day - 5

Happy Friday Night from Room 3206!

First, we are praising God for an answered prayer! We had a peace filled, restful, no GI issues night!!

We are also celebrating that today was Elena's last day of radiation.  While we are thankful these treatments have come to an end, we will miss the two wonderful men who have taken such great care of Elena the past four days.  Kevin and Colton are amazing radiation technicians. They are experts in their field, kind, compassionate, and fun. Who would ever think you would associate the word radiation with the word fun!?  During each session, Kevin and Colton made Elena feel at ease and less nervous.  Elena looked forward to seeing them each day.  Kevin took care of us each morning and Colton took care of us in the evening.  We are thankful that God placed them in our lives and we look forward to seeing them again when we are able to visit and celebrate Elena leaving the hospital.

Elena and Kevin

Colton and Elena

In between our early morning, late evening radiology appointments, Elena had physical therapy, two doctor visits, rested, dealt with a few side effects, visited with her nurses, listened to music, and enjoyed a surprise visit from our friends, Shannon and Dave.  They are in town for a wedding.  It made Elena happy to be able to hang out with them. They even escorted her to her last radiation appointment.

Thank you for continuing to pray for Elena.  Please pray for her current side effects to subside. They are dry mouth, headaches, stomach aches, not being able to really taste anything, and fatigue.  Despite dealing with all of this, once again Elena completed all of her daily jobs and walked to each radiation appointment.  Praise God for her strength and determination!

What's next?
Tomorrow, Elena will receive the first of three high dose chemo treatments.  She will receive two different chemo drugs over the next three days. She will also receive a drug that will help protect her bladder while receiving the chemo.  All drugs will be administered through her central line.

The next three days of treatment are designed to do the same thing the radiation was used for - to kill any cancer cells remaining in Elena's body and to help prepare Elena's body to receive the new, healthy blood stem cells. It will also destroy Elena's own bone marrow cells so that they will not fight off or reject the new, healthy cells. By killing these cells, there will also be more room in the bone for the new cells.

As always, please pray that these drugs will do the job they are designed to do and that any side effects will be kept to a minimum.

In Him,
The Tates

"In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name.
May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you."
Psalm 33:21-22