Amy had her first visit with the oncologist yesterday and the short version is that things are looking favorable. Amy will be starting chemo next Thursday (the 11th). The time table is dictated more by our calendar than any sense of urgency in the treatment, so things still hold at stage one with a very solid treatment plan. Our desire to keep our plans for a full family trip for Xander's team's First Lego League world championships in three weeks made chemo prior to surgery the preferential route to take and sets Amy up to finish chemo in late July, undergoing surgery in mid-August, and hopefully being fairly healed as the fall semester starts up at USF in September. The visit with Dr. Krie (her oncologist) was very reassuring and helped to fill in a lot of the gaps in our understanding of the process and gave us a timeline to focus on.
Prayers would be appreciated for her healing (always first and foremost), for the nausea associated with the chemo to be minimal (she is fairly sensitive in this area), that the chemo would prove effective against her type of cancer, and for her peace as we navigate through the other physical effects of the chemo.
She is doing incredibly well, given the circumstances, and I couldn't be prouder of her strength and how she continues to use this to point to God as her source, center, and light. We have the greatest support team we could hope for and believe that God will use this to strengthen and shape our family and to draw people closer to Himself as well.
If you'd like to read about all of this from her perspective (i.e. "the full story"), go check out her latest blog entry here.
