"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. "

Philippians 1:3-6

Here's a picture that Chris and Wanda Kersey graciously took two days ago. You can see how great she looks!

Karen and I continue to be overwhelmed by the unending cascade of generosity that you continue to shower on us. It is truly hard to articulate how utterly thankful we are for everything that each of you has done for us. Thus we are left on the horns of a dilemma.

On the one hand, all the words we come up with aside from “Thank you” risk sounding trite or insincere. And yet on the other hand a simple “Thank you” seems to run the risk of sounding weak and obligatory.

As we approach the one month mark since we first rushed Karen to the ER, please know how much we continue to covet your prayers and appreciate your generosity.

Here are some current updates on Karen:

We have our next two appointments scheduled and approaching fast. Karen will be going to get her post operative MRI next Friday the 20th. She'll actually be getting 4 MRIs. One of her head, and three of her spine. She’ll be in that machine for about four hours with a couple of “stretch breaks” in between each scan as they change the "coil" (whatever that is). These people talk to you like everyone speaks the same techno-babble that falls from their lips.

The following Thursday we'll be going back to UCSF to have an interview with the radiation oncologist. They'll use the MRI results from the week before to determine their suggested course of radiation treatment. Our nuero oncologist will also look at Karen's spine to determine if the ependymoma has traveled to her spine through the cerebral fluid. This is rare but happens occasionally. During this meeting we'll be able to ask the radiation oncologist all the specific questions we'd like about the radiation therapy itself.

Also, Karen’s been experiencing pain in her thigh and back muscles. We were wondering what the cause of this might be but our oncologist and pharmacologist were stumped. After about 2 minutes on Google, however, my sister in law found a great article on the side effects of the steroid that Karen is taking. Apparently this medication (among its many side effects) causes a depletion of potassium which in turn can cause cramping and muscle pain, ergo … she’s eating bananas. Anyone know what the side effects of bananas are? On second thought I’d rather be ignorant on that subject.

We’re thankful that Karen’s last day taking the steroids will be on Saturday.