Joshua

I have permission to fill you in on the details so here goes.....

Josh has Burkitt's lymphoma, a non-Hodkins lymphoma

Monday night he was taken to Phoenix Children's Hospital

After many consultations and second opinions, surgery was performed on Tuesday and the doctors found a 2 inch tumor in, on, or around his intestines. They removed a few inches of his intestines and the whole tumor. It was determined while he was in surgery that the tumor was malignant and the cancer had affected his lymphnodes in the abdomen.

You can read all about Burkitt's here, but I will tell you that it is a very aggressive cancer and must be treated aggressively and quickly.

Now the good news!!

The cancer has NOT SPREAD to any other part of his body. Praise the Lord!! This poor boy has had every test known to man and no cancer has been found except in the local area it originally affected. The doctor said that this only occurs in 25% of the cases. In other words, the doctors were expecting to find it in the bone marrow or spinal fluid. No way, Doc, not when you have a gazillion people praying for this precious boy.

Josh had a central line surgically placed on Thursday. (for chemo treatments)

Saturday he received a mild chemo treatment and began taking his medicines.

Today, Sunday, Josh is resting peacefully at home. He gets to stay home until a week from Monday. It is then that Josh will be admitted back in to Children's for a week of intense chemotherapy. He will be treated for about 4 months.

Because his immune system is not yet compromised we are all going to to see 'Pirates' tomorrow. Stacey will keep him down all day and then we'll go to the movies in the afternoon. He is looking forward to getting out a little bit.

We have so much to be thankful for!! God's mercy and grace abounds. The cancer was caught very early (doc thinks the tumor was about 2 weeks old).

Josh has a long road ahead so please pray for him diligently. Please pray that this cancer will go in to remission and also pray for us to minister to him just as he needs.

We sincerely believe that God could heal Josh in an instant and we pray towards that end. But we don't know what the will of God is, do we? We will pray and wait on the Lord, always trusting His perfect and awesome ways.

Joshua's older (and gorgeous :)) sister and I are going to create a new blog to keep everyone updated.


I love you Joshua M.!!!
You are da man.
We're gonna get you through this buddy :-)
From Mrs. W.