Bumpy Road

This journey is full of twists and turns along the way. This last week Dave woke up one morning with a swollen and painful knee. Strange. The next morning it was much worse and he couldn’t walk on it. Thankfully that was a day we were already scheduled for a doctor’s visit at Cedars. They pulled over 70cc’s of fluid off the knee and sent it off to the lab to figure out what was going on. And then they pumped a bunch of pain meds into him and sent him home. Wow, was he ever loopy that night, but you’ve got to be thankful for those pain meds when you really need them.

On Friday we were back for our regular visit at Cedars where we learned that Dave was having an episode of gout in his knee joint. Very painful! On Friday the doctor again pulled another 70cc’s of fluid off the knee and this time shot some steroids into the joint. That, along with those pain meds and a couple weeks on prednisone, ought to take care of the problem. We are praying that this is a random incidence as opposed to something chronic, which would be no fun at all. We hope you will pray for that, too.

In so many other ways Dave is doing incredibly well. His blood counts of white blood cells, hemoglobin, and platelets have been consistently very, very good. That is so encouraging and exciting. His magnesium, potassium, and other numbers that need to be within a certain range have been getting better and we haven’t needed to stay at the hospital for infusions as often. His doctor tells us to slowly start getting back to our life, which is scary and exciting at the same time. How do you do that? We’ll figure it out. Probably just one baby step at a time.

Please pray for the pain in Dave’s knee and that we never see the gout again.
Pray that Dave can slowly regain his strength and stamina.
Pray that he can get his pic line removed soon and that we don’t have any issues with the blood clots that are surrounding the line.
And please start praying now for the upcoming blood marrow biopsy. We’ll let you know when that is scheduled.

Thank you so much. We appreciate you all!

The Stoeckleins