Preparing for Battle...
For those of you not caught up on the war so far, it was officially declared on May 23, 2017, when Joella received a call from her doctor that biopsy results had come back. The enemy? Mucosal Melanoma. A vicious, relentless, aggressive cancer that mutates and spreads to multiple internal organs. The average lifespan of individuals diagnosed with Mucosal Melanoma is about 8 months. So far, it seems we caught it early.
Joella had surgery on June 28 to remove the tumor growing on her tongue. From the time the doctor visually examined her to the time of the surgery was about a week and a half...the tumor had grown about 20-30%. As of today, Joella is almost completely recovered, although she still has trouble drinking through a straw. But now we begin the process of treatment.
In preparation for treatment, Joella has been in and out of doctors' offices for the past few weeks: blood tests, breathing tests, cardio tests, an MRI, and a PET/CT scan. So far, it looks good. No tests indicated the cancer has spread in any noticeable way...but that is the key word: noticeable. Mucosal Melanoma spreads quickly and on a microscopic level, so the treatment plan for Joella is equally aggressive.
We had a few treatment options to choose from, but none of them are "guaranteed" in the sense that they have been proven to work even more than 50% of the time. Again, most people diagnosed with the disease are so far progressed, there simply aren't many studies done or treatment options available. We have opted for the newest and most promising treatment option, the first results of which were published in the Spring of 2016...yeah, last year.
And this brings us to the battlefield.
On September 27th, Joella will begin a 6-days-in-the-hospital-two-weeks-at-home regimen, to be repeated three times (so, 18 total days in the hospital). While in the hospital, she'll be given a cocktail of drugs. Some of them chemo. Some of them to counteract the chemo. And two updated versions of relatively new drugs: interleukin and interferon. Essentially, Joella's white blood cells are going to have their safety protocols removed so they will attack anything they think doesn't belong. The side effects, though, are along the lines of "white blood cells also attacking healthy tissue and organs," making the list of possible side effects vast and the scope of the side effects ranging from minimal to extreme. But because the chemo also destroys white blood cells, she will be getting a series of injections to boost her white blood cell count upon returning home from the hospital.
In short, the next three months will house a war within Joella.
And, understandably, we're worried, hopeful, and scared. No one can predict how Joella will respond to the treatments. All they have told us is the side effects will be cumulative. We want them to be minimal. That's what we are praying for. But we also know they could be severe.
Ecclesiastes (and much later, The Byrds) point out there is a time for everything, including a "time for war" (Ecc. 3:8).
For Joella, war starts on September 27th.
