All of the things we have been through over the last few weeks have driven us to prayer much more than normal. We’ve really appreciated the prayers of all of our friends and family too. It’s such a blessing to hear through the grape vine all of the people that have been praying for Jude and for our family. We even got a report that a church in India, connected to our pastor via a friend/former co-worker, has been praying for Jude.
We’ve gotten through the big surgery and the subsequent hospital stay, and even had a second hospital stay after Jude had a seizure on Monday night, and are home again. We really hope and pray that our nights at Children’s hospital are behind us.
What we are focussing on now is the decision of whether or not to do radiation treatments. It’s really a big decision, probably the biggest we’ve ever had to make. The risks are that if we don’t do the treatment, Jude’s cancer could come back. After the second occurrence, the odds of it coming back yet again go up. His tumor type is not particularly aggressive, and is in a part of his brain that presents a low risk to complications. However, each occurrence brings with it the possibility of the tumor mutating to something more aggressive, and also possibly spreading to other parts of his brain or spinal chord. If it enters his spinal chord, things get very serious and dire.
On the other hand, radiation treatments themselves bring risk, especially when treating a brain tumor, and even more so when treating a pediatric brain tumor. Also, we can’t get the treatments he’d need in Minnesota, and would likely go to Bloomington, Indiana for about 7 weeks. He would receive proton radiation, which would reduce the potential damage to healthy tissue and side effects because it goes where it’s targeted and then stops. Normal radiation travels through the area to be treated and continues on through healthy tissue on the other side. Also, radiation treatments make a cure more likely, but not a guarantee.
It’s a heavy decision for us. Do we take chances with the tumor and hope it just never comes back, or do we take our chances with the side effects of radiation to make a cure more likely?
We ask for prayer that we can get all of the important information we need to make a wise decision.