A History Lesson

I am continually amazed and in awe at the number of people who read this blog to keep up with us. I just cannot get over how awesome God is - to have given us such a strong support system. Our families, friends, church, co-workers, and community have been such a huge help and blessing. I find in my heart a need to share a little history with you - especially for those that do not really know what is going on but are so wonderful to pray for and help us anyway. So, if you already know all of this - forgive me for going through it all AGAIN : )  I will try to make it as brief as possible! 

In 1997, Steve found a spot on his tongue. We went to a local ENT doctor who called it cancerous and removed it in outpatient surgery. It was a horrible experience! He said that Steve would live a long life with no re-occurrence and die of old age. 

A year to the date it had returned! So in 1998, through the grace of God, we found Dr. Grist at Emory. He scheduled surgery immediately and removed the new large mass from Steve's tongue as well as his lymph nodes on the right hand side. Following surgery, Steve underwent 7 weeks of daily radiation therapy. It was such a hard and scary time. We were so young and the girls were only 1 and 3! Steve ended up in the hospital 3 separate times for dehydration. They put in a feeding tube during one of those trips because he could not swallow. Long story short - it was a "hell on earth" situation. Again, through God's grace and the help of so many loving people, we survived. 

After that, there were a few scares here and there with one more minor surgery (to make Steve fell better) in 2001. But we were finally past that magical 5 year mark and feeling pretty confident that we had licked it! Then in August of 2007, it returned.

Steve has since had surgery 3 times, each one progressively more involved and more frequent. He had the surgery in August of 2007, one in May of 2008, and one in September of 2008. He has such difficulty eating because so much of his tongue is gone. He cannot taste hardly anything at all. He is in constant pain (he has learned to live with it over the years anyway). Through it all he is such a positive, faith filled, uplifting, giving person. (Need I go on - ha!) 

Now we are facing another surgery. This time we understand the cancer to be in the jaw bone. We will go on Tuesday and Wednesday to meet all the doctors that will be involved and to have a new CT Scan to see if the chemotherapy has been helpful. We are looking forward  to getting many of our questions answered so we can have a plan. This will be the most radical surgery yet. 

I have to say that though we often feel like Job, all of this has truly made us better people. I know that sounds cliche, but if you know us, you know we mean every word of it. We are closer to God, we are more aware of how precious life is, and we take things in stride a little better. We are humbled by the love and prayers we receive and pray we are able to do the same for others we come in contact with. 

Thank you for sharing your lives with us to help us through this! God bless you all!

 I will update again after our doctor's visits. In the meantime, Steve is a little stronger each day. He even went to coffee with our Pastor and "the guys" from the church! Enjoy your weekend.