Trudy's Next Step

Hello Friends and Family,

Trudy is on her way to Houston, accompanied by her sister, Katy. There, Trudy will undergo the quarterly regiment of labs and BMA testing and consults with the medical team. All will take place on Monday, and it will be a grueling day for her. Alas, I was benched for this trip due to a nasty 'ol cold.

As you may know, the actual results may take several weeks to ascertain, so this necessary day of tests and consultations is an important step but will not be concluded until all the results are in. There is a particular significance to this trip in that Trudy has completed the 30 month Maintenance Protocol...so she will begin to discover what her doctors feel is the best way to proceed in her treatment. On the extremely positive side, she has not shown any evidence of a relapse with the A.L.L., for which we are praising our Lord. On the side of caution, she was not able to receive all of the chemo drugs because her blood counts were too sluggish in recovering to needed levels. Secondly, even with the strong chemo's withdrawal over a year ago, her counts still remain slightly below the "normal ranges." Lastly, there were two BMA reports that showed some abnormal cell activity. Thankfully, those abnormalities have NOT been present in her recent reports...a "God thing" indeed!

So, while Trudy is pleased that she has completed the protocol, there has been no A.L.L., and she is feeling absolutely fine...she is anxious to know what she can do medically to continue to keep the cancer and all its complications away. I am sure that Dr. Koller will present a plan of action and I know that with him and with Trudy, the major part of the action plan will be... P R A Y E R !

So, thank you for your loving concern and prayers. We trust in God and we continue to offer up much prayers...and we ask for your ongoing prayer support for Trudy. We pray that she will have excellent health, that the Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia and all related cancer issues will stay away.

Blessings,
Trudy and Robert