Houston Bound

Bobby's checkup Thursday with Dr Fell went great.  It's been less than 3 weeks since surgery, and he's already been cleared to resume regular activities. It's great to have him back to driving and mowing the grass, and yesterday he even took a short (17 mile) bike ride.  He really is pretty amazing.

We are driving down to Houston tomorrow for Bobby's appointment with Dr Jonasch at MD Anderson, at 8:30 Monday morning. At this point, we don't know if we will be there a day or a week, depends on what he recommends.  We are going in with an open mind, hoping he will give us a fresh  opinion on what to do next. Specifically, we want to know what he thinks about the partial nephrectomy option to remove the tumor from the right kidney. But we look forward to hearing what he says about treatment options in general, especially for someone in Bobby's situation with slow growing tumors. 

As part of the preparation for the visit, we had to complete a 9 page medical history form.  When we lay it all out and look back at the past 6 1/2 years, it's incredible that Bobby is doing as well as he is: lung, adrenal & brain surgeries, biopsies, scans, chemo, bizarre rashes, IL-2 treatments, radiation, even a dog bite. If we'd been told all this would happen in advance, we never could have imagined going through it, and now looking back we know we truly cannot do it in our own strength. Only God could have supplied the endurance we have needed, especially under the persistent cloud of grief since losing Leslie. We depend on His grace every single day, and trust that it will be sufficient. That sure doesn't mean we do everything right, I have had lots of bad days, way more than Bobby, but each time, He pulls me up and sets me back on track, and for that I'm grateful.

Looking ahead to the next step,

Juli