Life Changed in the Last Five Days

Just when we were starting to settle into somewhat of a routine... our lives were changed in an instant. Last week Wednesday, after a standard cholesterol screening at work, Brent was told to see our family doctor. After more blood tests our doctor called a doctor in Sioux City and discussed the results with him. The very next day we met with that doctor in Sioux City... Dr Wender at the Cancer Center. Brent was diagnosed with Leukemia. It's bad enough to hear yourself say that your 25 year-old husband has Leukemia, but personally I find it harder to say that he has a form of cancer. To say the least, that scares the crap out of me!

Dr Wender was my Dad's doctor, and our family really trusts him. He's one of those doctors that does not sugar-coat anything. He feels very confident that Brent won't have any problems kicking this thing! He won't be doing any chemo or radiation. Instead, his treatment will be in pill form.

Yesterday we went back to Sioux City. Brent had to have an EKG at the Cancer Center. Apparently, this pill can sometimes affect the heart. The EKG was just so they had a picture of what his hear looked like before he started treatments. After that we had to go over to Mercy Hospital and have a bone marrow test. We were a little nervous about that. We had heard that it was quite painful. Brent did really well. He was sore by the time we got home, but he handled it really well. Today he said it's feeling better. He stayed home today because he couldn't do any heavy lifting. He'll be going back to work tomorrow.

We have another appt with Dr Wender on Nov 21st. We'll find out all the results at that point, and hopefully Brent will be starting his pills after that.

Please pray for Brent. This is hard information to accept. Please also pray for the rest of us, that we may give him whatever kind of support he needs.

I'll try keep this blog updated, so feel free to check back and see how everything is going. We will have our hands full, between a (soon to be) 2 year-old, a newborn and Brent's treatments and appointments.

Thanks in advance for all of your support!

Kelli