First Blog Update

Good evening sweet friends, I just arrived home from a day at the hospital with the Gardner family.  They are wonderful, faithful, strong people and they know the faithfulness of our Lord.  Jack's oncologist, Dr. Claire visited with the family today for almost 2 hours.  She delivered some challenging news to the family.  Jack's tumor, itself has not grown, but now there is a new tumor at the brain stem (top of the spinal cord).  The new growth is slightly larger than a quarter and the MRI done eight weeks ago did not show it.  That may mean the new tumor is very fast growing and aggressive.  It is actually connected to the main tumor Jack has been dealing with for six years now by a "squiggly" line.  They don't really know what it all means at this point, but they intend to take swift measures to help Jack.  Tomorrow, they will do a spinal MRI to determine if it has grown down into the spinal cord.  They plan to have a general surgeon put in a port in his chest which will allow them to begin chemotherapy right away. They also plan to biopsy the new mass to determine what stage/level of cancer it is.   Dr. Claire will be at a conference for doctors in her field so she will confer with them on Wednesday to get opinions regarding whether the tumor is operable.  Once they determine that, they will know more about what the plan for surgery and possible radiation will be.  The family believes this will all take place quickly, but no definite timeline has been set yet.  They will also administer steroids quickly to hopefully cause the swelling of the 4th cranial nerve to subside.  The cranial nerve controls eye movement and they believe the involuntary crossing of Jack's eye is being caused by this swollen nerve.  Now, they understand more about why that is happening, since the nerves connect to that brain stem, spinal column.  It is a lot to take in, a lot to consider, a lot to deal with.

Regarding Jack, he is very uncomfortable, sensitive to light.  He is still on morphine, but not constantly and he ate fairly well today.  He is in his usual good spirits, laughing and cutting up with us, but much more quiet than usual.  He complains of a constant headache and pain behind his eyes, but they are doing everything they can to keep him comfortable.  Beth, Mary and I had a sweet time of tears and laughter with Jack this evening.  Bob went home to share the news with Charlie, who had been away for the weekend.  April and Mary will spend the night with Jack and Bob will spend the night at home with Charlie after some family time tonight in Jack's room. 

The family is so grateful for the emails and texts, and they want to express just how much they love and appreciate you all.  I will continue to update the blog as I have news.  Please feel free to leave a post on the blog to encourage Jack and the family during this time.  Please continue to lift the Gardner family to the Lord and know that our sovereign Lord is in control of all things. 
Lord bless you all--Kyle