PRAISE🙌🏼❤️🙌🏼
Just a short update… Praise the Lord Mike was only in the hospital overnight and his bloodwork is improving slightly. He is still fatigued due to being anemic but his stomach issues seem to be resolving and we really have no idea what caused it!?! He is scheduled for a colonoscopy and endoscopy Oct. 2nd to see if there is any cause for internal bleeding or if his systemic medication (Gavreto) is causing the low hemoglobin.. We spent the week at home with Mike resting/recuperating but had a lot going on. Julia gave birth at home to out 12th grand child and her 5th… Tallulah Bloom weighed 9lb. 2 oz at 21.5 inches long. She is perfect and we can’t wait to hold her! Jackson officially moved into an apartment in Dubuque for his final year of college and basketball at Loras. We were going to help with the move but… obviously couldn’t. Mike felt good enough to attend one of Jaeda’s 8th grade volleyball game on Tuesday so that was a plus.
Now the real PRAISE part… we have literally had people from all over the country praying for Mike. We’ve had people call to pray for him over the phone, we’ve had people pray in person, and people getting their friends who don’t even know us to pray, and obviously, we have been praying big bold prayers as well. Prayers were answered because Mike’s brain MRI yesterday (9/21/23) at Mayo was really good! Usually the radiology report comes across his portal before the actual consultation, which can be scary because you don’t know what exactly they mean. The radiologist report said there was very slight growth in the two “lesions”in his brain. But… the neurology physicians assistant that we saw said the growth was ever so slight, if at all. We got an even more awesome report this morning that the neurosurgeon is not sure that the two spots they see are even metastasis! He says they could be blood vessels from where they are located in the brain and he is comfortable with scheduling the next MRI in three months!!! Praise, praise, praise! fYI… on the image below it looks like a spot has grown but that is a MET that was treated with Games Knife surgery and it is dead in the middle🙌🏼
I said this would be short, and it’s longer than I thought it would be, but we want to thank everyone who has been thinking of us and praying for us, and we ask you to continue, because it really is working! We truly appreciate all the encouraging words!
I’ve love the song “You’re Gonna Be OK” by Jenn Johnson and have had it on repeat lately. The words are so encouraging to me: “I know it’s all you’ve got to just be strong…and it’s a fight just to keep it together, together… I know you think that you are too far gone… But Hope is never lost, hope is never lost… Hold on, don’t let go… Hey, hold on, don’t let go… Just take one step closer… Put 1 foot in front of the other… You’ll get through this… Just follow the light in the darkness… You’re going to be OK… I know your heart is heavy from those nights… But just remember that you are a fighter, a fighter… You never know what tomorrow holds… And you’re stronger than you know… Oh, you’re stronger than you know… When the night is closing in… Don’t give up and don’t give in… This won’t last , it’s not the end… It’s not the end… You’re going to be OK “
Romans 5:3&4 … “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, produces character, and character produces hope.”
Have hope, don’t give up and don’t give in!!!
🙌🏼💜🫶🏼 Paula