With Jesus

I write this with joy and with grief. At 11:30 this morning my dad went to be with the Lord. My mom was with him when he passed away and I'm so glad that she was able to be with him. The Lord has such good timing in that right now there are some conferences going on in Dallas, so some of our good friends are here and able to attend the memorial service. The memorial service will be held on Thursday evening. If you would like to send cards our address here is:

402 Meadowlark Ln.

Duncanville, TX 75137

We'd like to ask you to not spend money to send us flowers (or other things), but if you would like to give something, please donate it to cancer research in memory of Ken Ghent. Thanks so much for all of your prayers! I will be staying down in TX for a while longer. 

Saturday in TX

Well, I arrived down in TX yesterday morning and came straight over to the hospital. Dad was doing pretty well yesterday, and we were able to chat some. We were also able to talk with the hospice people and I think it was helpful to talk through some of the details for what to do at home. I slept for a while last night since I'd been up so early, so I'm feeling pretty rested today. I'm back at the hospital now (hooray for wireless internet :)) and Dad's definitely more out of it today. From what I understand it's going to be like this from here on out. So I'm glad I was able to have some chat time with him yesterday. Anyway, thank you for all of your prayers & notes!

Thursday Night

I'll keep this short as I have to get up very early to go to the airport, but I wanted to keep you all updated. I was able to talk with Dad today and he definitely sounded much more like himself than he did last weekend. As far as I know his blood values were better today and he said that he felt better today. Tomorrow the physical therapist is supposed to come in and evaluate Dad and get him out of bed. So there is definite progress and hopefully dad will be able to come home soon. I will try and post again once I'm down in TX.

Wednesday

So today has been a day of praises and prayers. I'm very thankful that Dad is much more coherent today, his labs have been much better and my mom and he were able to have some good conversations about where we go from here. Another praise is that my dad was able to talk with his regular oncologist about what's been going on. After talking with the doctors we agreed that it's best to stop the chemo and enjoy the time we have left. So our prayer is that we would trust the Lord, be content with His plan, and that we would turn to Him for our comfort and strength during this time. So I'm also very thankful that I made plans to go down there for a visit this weekend to spend time with my family.

Tuesday

Well, today seems like a bit of a step backwards. Now Dad's sodium is too high, so that has made him very out of it (to the point that he doesn't really make sense). I guess this is not surprising since he's not eating (your electrolytes get out of whack) but it's not good. Also, he still has no white cells, so they are trying to figure out if there is something they can do to stimulate the bone marrow to produce more cells. It sounds like the doctors are thinking of giving him more blood today to help his cell count. This makes me really glad that I decided to go down to TX on Friday. I know that Mom and Garrett are very tired, so pray that they are able to get some good rest tonight. Thanks for your prayers! 

Sunday/Monday

Well, each day has brought a bit more progress. Dad is still definitely very sick, but today he was able to eat a little (the first time in over a week) and his blood levels are coming down as his kidney is slowly recovering. Besides his kidney, the other lingering issue is that his white blood cells (and other infection-fighting cells) are really low. So the big prayer right now is that he doesn't get an infection.

I did decide to go out to TX, so I'll be leaving this Friday and coming back to State College next Tuesday. One praise is that the Lord provided a great airfare from State College to Dallas (it was even cheaper than Philly which was running at $400+ round trip)! Also, Garrett has decided to stay in Dallas for the rest of the semester. He'll take an "incomplete" for the classes, but then be able to pick them back up which should allow him to graduate next year as planned.

Saturday Afternoon

Well, I think that we finally have some good news! My mom was able to talk to an oncologist (who's covering for Dad's regular Dr.) and the nephrologist (kidney specialist) and both were encouraged by Dad's lab results. The oncologist said that what he's thinking (which my mom thinks makes a lot of sense :)) is that the reason he seemed to get worse the last couple of days is that today is 10 days after his last chemo treatment. Which is typically when people show the worst symptoms, so the Dr. thinks that Dad will start improving over the next few days.

The nephrologist said that the kidney is working better and his blood toxin levels (from the kidney) are going down, albeit slowly. Apparently this is also not surprising and normal for someone who's gone through what he has. They haven't talked with the hematologist (blood specialist) yet to see if his red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, etc. have gone up. So hopefully he will stop by today too. 

So this latest news is definitely encouraging and puts me at ease with staying here for now. I do think that I will want to head out to TX sooner rather than later (at least for a short visit) but it can probably be planned versus an emergency. I'm very thankful to the Lord for answering my prayer of at least having some direction as to what to do. I would definitely appreciate your prayers for wisdom for what to do and strength (emotional, physical & spiritual) for my mom & brother who are at the hospital all the time.

Saturday Morning

Thursday evening they did tests and his kidney hadn't improved so the doctors decided to try giving him a huge amount of fluids over a short time to try and jump-start the kidney. They also gave him more bicarb as his blood was still acidic. He had an MRI because they want to rule out the possibility of a clotting disorder (tiny clots in the small blood vessels which could be why his platelets were so low).

As of Friday morning he seemed the most alert that he had been all week and his kidney seemed to be working better than it had. As the day went on though, Dad became less alert and more confused. We found out that the MRI was negative, so that was good, and they also did a study of his legs to make sure he didn't have a clot (DVT), which he didn't. However, his potassium was off (which I guess is typical when you give someone a bunch of bicarb and they aren't eating), so they've been having to give him that regularly. They also gave him two units of blood in the afternoon to help increase his red blood cells and platelets. Last time they gave him blood it really helped so we were hopeful that this would make a significant difference.

I just talked with my mom this morning and she hasn't seen any of the doctors yet, probably because they haven't received any results from the blood tests yet (they seem to take a really long time!). But, Dad seems to be worse today that he was yesterday, so that is pretty discouraging. A new issue is that his abdomen has been swelling and we aren't sure why. I'll post again once we hear from the doctors.

Thursday noon

My dad had the IV fluids and bicarb overnight, but he hasn't really improved. He is a little bit more alert and aware, but his kidney is still not functioning properly. As I've talked with my mom I've gained some more clarity about the main issue, which is that his kidney (he only has one) is not functioning as it should. This is what is causing the acidity in his blood and him being "out of it." The other thing that has the doctors a bit concerned is that his platelet count is low and they are wondering if he might have an infection, but so far the blood tests have been negative (for infection). So the doctors are thinking that he is still a bit dehydrated, so they are going to be pushing a lot of fluids and some more bicarb over the next few hours. They will then do more blood tests this evening and we should have a better idea what's going on with the kidney function.

In talking with my mom & brother, this hospital stay is the most sick he has been and with this latest news I'm starting to wonder if maybe I should go down to TX. I would really appreciate your prayers for wisdom in deciding whether or not to go. The hard part is that I have responsibilities here and have been trying to plan some Support Raising trips over the next two months before the DM internship starts (where I will be an apartment leader). Thanks again for praying.

Update this evening

I talked with my mom this evening and it sounds like the Lord has answered a prayer! The doctors figured out that his blood is acidic, so they have started giving him IV's (bicarbonate) to balance out his blood. We should know if it is working in the morning. 

Update 4/15 11:30 AM

I just talked with my mom this morning and it seems that Dad is doing a bit better. As she put it "It's all relative" meaning that he's still not doing well, but has made some improvement. He seems a lot more aware this morning and has even been asking for water! (But unfortunately he can't have anything by mouth right now because their afraid he'll choke on it). At this point I'm not planning to go down to TX unless things change for the worse. Thanks for your prayers!

Beginning

So I've been trying to figure out a better way to keep you all updated on what's going on in our lives, particularly with my dad's health. My goal is to try and keep this updated, and then those of you who want to know can hear about what's going on. So for starters Dad went back into the hospital on Sunday for dehydration, even though he'd been working hard to eat & drink. However, even though they have been hydrating him, he hasn't really improved. He's been pretty out of it and having trouble drinking/swallowing. Garrett (my brother) is home now so he's able to be with my mom and visit dad. In terms of prayer requests:

• Pray that my mom is able to get some sleep
  
• Pray that the doctors would be able to figure out why he doesn't seem to be improving
• Pray for wisdom for whether or not I should go down to TX again.

Thanks for praying and I'll try to keep you all updated.