On The Mark

“I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” This passage from Isaiah 41 is one of the texts that we read multiple times throughout the day as Markus had surgery to remove his cancer infested humerus bone and replace it with a new one. It is hard to anticipate how your mind, body, and soul will cope with waiting around the hospital while your child is in the operating room having major surgery. Praise God that as the day moved along we once again felt his nearness, presence, and powerful Holy Spirit in our hearts. It was also so good to receive many texts and emails and other messages of support from friends, family, and people in our church community. The steady stream of messages throughout the day was incredibly encouraging! The day started early with a 7:00am appointment at BC Children’s, but it was another beautiful summer day. Markus was very calm leading up to the surgery. He con...

The past few weeks have been such a blessing for Markus and our family! With the surgery coming up the medical team decided against a round of chemotherapy this week. It was better that Markus went into the surgery as strong as possible and with good blood counts. Markus’ graduation was a joyous event but he was quite exhausted by the time the festivities were over. Since then, his strength has come back and he’s been able to do quite a few things while anticipating the upcoming surgery. Markus is apprehensive, but also eager to get the surgery done and behind him. In his mind it is just another thing towards getting well again, so the sooner it can happen the better.   One of our favourite family camping spots is Monck Park on Nicola Lake. Because the summer is going to be about Markus’ cancer we had already decided a few months ago that camping was going to have to be postponed this year. But that didn’t stop us from heading to Monck Park for the day on Canada Day! It was so go...

This week Markus graduated from Credo Christian High School. As parents we are thankful to God that he could attend the graduation ceremony and most of the other events associated with graduation. With COVID rules still in place only students and staff were able to attend the ceremony so we gathered with our family as well as Markus’ cousin Eric’s family to watch the ceremony online. At moments such as this we try to prepare ourselves for the various emotions that are sure to begin flowing. While we don’t overthink these situations, we did anticipate experiencing a few moving moments when Markus went up to be handed his graduation diploma and obligatory book that all the students receive. But alas, things proceeded quite differently. Principal Kent Dykstra gave the opening remarks and began by immediately reaching under the podium and pulling out an “On the Mark Maintenance” ball cap and placing it on his head. Needless to say we couldn’t hold it together. Principal Dykstra’s speec...

As Christians we believe that our only comfort in life and death is that we belong with body and soul to our faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. This is especially comforting to us as we navigate life with Markus and his fight against Ewing Sarcoma. Therefore, soon after Markus’ diagnosis, when we were contacted Make-A-Wish Canada, we did some contemplating. This sounded exciting, but we would have traded good health for Markus over anything he would wish for. How was this going to make things better? In our minds we knew that Jesus was the one who would get us through this, not a gift from Make-A-Wish. Yet, this charitable organization (which you can support here ) simply wants to, “create life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses” as r esearch shows that children who have wishes granted helps to build the physical and emotional strength they need to fight a critical illness. Initially Markus wasn’t really interested in it, but he must have been mulling over some thing...

It has been a few weeks since we received the good news that the tumors are shrinking, and the chemo is having its desired impact. Markus had another round of chemo last week. It was perilously close to being postponed because of low platelet counts it was able to proceed as scheduled. While at home Markus still has energy to complete the schoolwork required in order to graduate from grade 12. This past week he completed his Capstone project and presented it to a number of faculty members at his high school. It was the first time Markus has been back to Credo Christian since the diagnosis and it went well. He was pretty thankful that a number of his friends were also present for some moral support. 😊 We also met with Dr. Clarkson, the orthopedic surgeon who will be rebuilding Markus’ upper right arm. It was an informative meeting but also challenging. Currently Markus’ arm causes him no pain and he has full use of it. Following surgery his range of motion will be seriously restri...

Today we learned the results of Markus’ recent tests and we praise the Lord that the past three months of treatment have shown great effectiveness! The tumors are shrinking, with some of them completely invisible, even on the MRI’s and PET scan images. The staff at BC Children’s Hospital continue to show an incredible amount of expertise and compassion as they execute the plan to attack the cancer in Markus’ body. All the doctors are pleased with where he is at and are unanimous that the aggressive treatment can continue. They are hopeful that Markus can beat this! They also let us know what’s going to happen next. For the next 6-7 weeks Markus will continue to receive the same treatment plan. In mid-July he will have major surgery to remove most of the bone from his upper arm and have it replaced with titanium. It will take a few weeks to recover and then they will resume chemo for another 10-12 weeks. Once the chemo is finished, he will have another big surgery to remove a large p...

The bi-weekly routine that we have gotten used to over the past number of months was interrupted this week. Markus’ doctors determined that rather then starting his 6 th round of chemo on Monday, it would be postponed to today (Thursday). The reason is that they have scheduled a PET scan for May 19 th and the results are best with a maximum number of days as possible without his “G-shot” (medication to boost his white blood cells). Markus made the most of the extra days at home and spent some time with his Opa converting an old shed into a storage facility for On the Mark Maintenance. Working on this has been a great distraction for Markus! We are so thankful that his energy levels are such that he can work on these small projects. Throughout the past few weeks we have also been contacted by Make-a-Wish. They have granted Markus a wish and he’s been thinking about that a fair bit. While the anticipation of such a large gift is unexpected and humbling, it is quite amazing to see how...