Recovery, a birthday, and a baptism

It’s been over a month since Markus has had a chemo treatment. He’s even showing a few new hairs on his head, but the reprieve is over. Next week Tuesday he will be back in BC Children’s for his tenth round. Including this upcoming one there’s only five more to go!

On Friday Markus had an appointment with Dr. Clarkson to see how the wound was healing and also to go over the pathology report. The bone he removed from Markus, as well as the surrounding tissue went under the microscope so they could see how many active cancer cells were still in the primary tumour that he removed. The other important part of the pathology report is to see if there were any cancer cells near the margins of the specimen. Dr. Clarkson was very happy with how Markus was healing. He also, together with the physiotherapist, gave permission for Markus to do some additional exercises in order to keep the other parts of his arm as functional as possible for now.

When Dr. Clarkson went over the pathology report he expressed mild disappointment in that he didn’t get all of the cancer cells when he removed the humerus bone. It was challenging when he went in to get the right amount of surrounding tissue and the pathology report showed one small area where there was still a bunch of cells right up to the margin. The plan is to include that area when it comes time for radiation later this fall.

Markus has recovered well from the surgery and since we came home on July 20^th we’ve had many occasions to praise God. We were so grateful to Sara for staying at our place longer than planned. When Markus was recovering in the hospital Jennifer tested positive for COVID and had to quarantine in a trailer on the yard (ya, the second time we’ve had to deal with cancer and COVID ☹). Thankfully she didn’t get too sick. Because I was in the hospital with Markus, we asked Sara to stay and run the rest of the house. She did a great job at keeping everyone isolated because on the date directed by Fraser Health we all received negative test results. Huge thanks to Aidan as well who stayed back in Alberta for a couple weeks without his wife!

The first Sunday after COVID we all worshipped together at Kaitlyn and Reuben’s church where we could see Mateo be baptized. A few days later we celebrated Markus’ 18^th birthday, and now he’s spending quality time with his friends over the long weekend. When Markus is out with his friends or going for coffee with his mentor(s), or even indulging in a lunch with his Opa, it’s really good for us as parents. There are times when everyone else is busy and he’s sitting around the house for longer periods of time, but to see him have the energy to go out and about is so good! Good for his soul, and great for his mental frame of mind in this ongoing journey. We thank God for His care over Markus!

“Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)