August 11, 2010

In the last two days we have been reminded that things don't always turn out how you hope or even how you or the Dr. have planned. After Monday Austin was hopeful that he would only need one more treatment for the rest of the week on Thursday as the Dr. was working on weaning him down. He got a phone call by noon on Tuesday saying his morning blood work up at Goshen Hospital had indicated that his platelet count was dropping and he needed to come in at 7:30am the next day (Wed) for another treatment. So we headed to the hospital this morning for his 17th plasma treatment. The doctor met with us to talk further about new concerns from the blood work this week. He sees a pattern in both his platelets and his white blood cells that show significant dropping. The white blood cell issue is not a usual issue with this disease so the Dr. was contacting a blood specialist and he was also contacting the national plasma center for their input.

We're not sure what it all means but it leaves us feeling unsettled and aware that we need to continue to trust God as we really don't have control. Austin is working on coming to terms with letting go of his desire to return to work in the next several weeks and is now praying that he will be able to start school the end of August. His body and his mental state are tired right now.
Please continue to pray for him, for protection from infection or further illness, for the doctors to have wisdom to know how to continue treating him and for him to have a peace that is beyond human understanding. He will go in for treatment again on Friday. Thank you for continuing to lift us up.