January 20: BCR-ABL

On January 2 Brent went for blood work to check his levels. Everything looked normal to Dr. Sapp, but we had to wait for the BCR-ABL results. About a week later he got a phone call that they didn't take enough blood so he needed to come back. On January 10 the blood was taken and we waited again. Two nights ago the results showed up in his MyChart. The numbers were up from 0.1332 to 0.2354.

BCR-ABL that tells us the percentage of cancer left in Brent's blood. This means there is more cancer now than there was at the end of October. Seriously? So first thing yesterday morning, Brent talked to Dr. Sapp. She gave a few options, but the one we are sticking with is to go in today for a bone marrow biopsy. He has only done this one time before. It was when he was first diagnosed and I was not there with him. Today I will be there! It's a procedure where they stick a long needle into his hip and cut out a sample of his bone marrow. It's painful. It will tell the amount of blasts in his blood, a number we've not had since the last time a sample was taken.

Then we wait a week to find out results. 

This is scary. We are confused. But I know God is in this. I don't know why or when or how this will work. I hope for the best. Oliver prays multiple times each day for "Daddy's bad blood to feel better." He has so much faith. His comment the other night when I told him there was more bad blood present was that we were not praying enough and God was forgetting to fix Dad's blood. I explained how sometimes God says "yes", sometimes He says "no", and sometimes he says "wait." Right now God is making us wait so we just have to continue praying and have hope that He is good. We have to trust that He knows what He's doing. 

As 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 says, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."