A Quick Update

A quick post to fill you all in on what we are up to. I'll include pictures in my next post, but tonite I am physically and mentally exhausted. I went to "Mom's Weekend" and had a great time. It was just what I needed, and what a place. Beautiful!! I met so many wonderful and strong women. It really meant a lot to talk to someone who has either been where I'm at, or is battling it right now. We shared stories and websites and belly danced WHOO hoo! Very relaxing...and everyone survived my one night away. Ben kept telling me that everything was great at home and to just relax and enjoy. The thing is, even if it wasn't going great..he would not have told me. He's just an amazing guy.
We went to the clinic and to Georgetown University Hospital on Tuesday. We went for Luke's transplant evaluation. So here's the deal. The tumor has gotten much smaller, but is still on the major vessels. These surgeons could remove the tumor no problem, but due to the location of it there is a high risk of spreading to other organs. I did not realize that because it is on the vessels, the vessels can carry the cancer cells all over his body. The recommendation is a total liver transplant. This will carry many lifetime challenges for Luke, but we believe it is the best decision. The Dr. said that many times they have done a resection, just to have the cancer come back less than a year later. It is much harder to have a transplant after having a resection. We will meet with the surgeons on Tuesday and Luke will go on a list for a liver. We are not sure how long we will have to wait, so meanwhile he has to start another round of chemo. I can't be a living donor because of the pregnancy and we found out that Ben can't because his blood type is B and Luke's is O. My brother has offered to give part of his liver, the offer just chokes me up. It is a gift of life, and just the offer means so much to us. The Dr's prefer to do an entire liver because partial liver transplants are trickier, but we don't want to wait for too long. It's something we really have to think and pray about.
Luke will be on autoimmune suppressants for the rest of his life, but be able to live an otherwise normal life. These Dr's don't candy coat anything for you. They just tell it like it is. If death is a risk...they say so. The Dr. told us several cases of the child dying, which didn't make me feel good, but they want to make sure the facts are known. I'm already scared, I don't need to know anything else. I struggle to make sense of all this. I don't know why God chose Lukey to go through this, but I do know that something awesome is going to come out of it. Job asked his wife if we are to accept only the good things from God and not the bad. He lost everything: family, livestock, his health and yet was still able to say "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord". I want to have that attitude.