from Ashley........

Fried tumors!
I am happy to report that Dan is right now waking up from (possibly) his last necessary cancer treatment. The last of his visible tumors have been fried today...and hopefully, they'll never come back!

We got to the hospital about half an hour early, but they couldn't start the procedure until 3 hours later because Dan's platelets were a bit low. After finally deciding to give him a unit of platelets, they took him at 1030.

3 hours later, his fantastic doctor (our favorite over the past 4 years) came out to give us great news. The pre-procedure CT showed no new tumors and showed that the old tumors looked smaller than before. Then, they ablated a few areas ("microwave on a stick", as Dan says). The doctor admitted to us that he thinks the tumors were already dead, but he wanted to cook them anyway--for good measure. Biopsies from the site will tell us if there was any living cancer in them later. The doctor was overall very happy with the procedure. Little bleeding, no complications seen yet. Dan is waking up right now, so he's not even in the recovery area. In a couple hours or so, we'll be able to see him in his hospital room where he'll stay overnight for observation.

As long as Dan can eat, drink and have good pain control tonight, we should be able to leave in the morning. We'll be on the watch for signs of bleeding or infection for a little while. Then, we'll take a couple days to recuperate in NorCal, then drive home to La Habra.

As for future cancer treatments--there are NONE scheduled. After Dan's hip gets replaced, he can begin to work toward life without cancer. Check-up scans will happen every 3-6 months and the possibility will always remain that something could return. I will personally always be a little scared and worried. Yet, it feels like a new stage of life can begin. Please pray with us that Dan can officially and forever become a cancer survivor, instead of a cancer patient!

It's hard to believe that 4 years ago this time, Dan hadn't even started chemo. In fact, my mother-in-law and I were probably playing cards waiting for Dan to come out of a scan that would tell us fairly terrible news. Fast forward to now: Dan has his Bachelor's degree, has a wife, almost has his teacher's credential, has a cat and is planning for whatever God has in store for him and for us. God has certainly been faithful to His children.

I can say simply now, that the doctors did not think Dan had a fighting chance shortly after his diagnosis. Yet, after 10 rounds of chemo, SIRSpheres, a couple embolizations, a Whipple surgery, a bowel obstruction surgery, and 2 ablations...Dan is very close to being cancer-free.

We can obviously be thankful for the doctors and nurses. We can give some credit to Dan himself for being so incredibly, crazily courageous and strong. However, we would be completely wrong to not give all praise and glory and thankfulness to the One who orchestrated every good gift in the midst of this trial: our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Without His provision and protection, I know that Dan would not be alive today. What a wonderful God we worship!

Thank you everyone for your prayers and support. Continue to give glory to God for all He has done.

Updates will continue...though, I hope they won't involve too many more stories from the hospital!
Posted by Dan and Ashley at 2:05 PM