How TIP Cycle One is Going
Today starts Cycle One, Day Three of Mike’s TIP regimen chemotherapy. Yesterday was a bit hard with keeping his pain managed, but we seem to be on the right track with that now. I stayed with him at the hospital last night to make sure things went smoothly and we both slept way better than I expected we would. It’s around 10 a.m. and he’s still snoring like he’s getting paid to do it!
The TIP Regimen
TIP chemotherapy must be done inpatient due to a couple of the drugs being administered over a 24-hour drip. TIP stands for the chemotherapy drugs taxol, ifosfamide, and cisplatin. It’s a pretty intense regimen with 5 days straight of a bit stronger chemotherapy (the schedule is nearly identical to the BEP protocol he got in his first-line treatment). This is still considered standard-dose treatment, but the drugs themselves are a bit more intense, which will likely mean more intense side effects. There’ve been no side effects other than fatigue so far, and we’re hopeful that having an inpatient regimen will help us stay more vigilant about the nausea and catch any colitis that happens before he develops an ileus like he has in the past.
Covering Mike (and Me) in Scripture Prayers
I have a big request of all of you who have taken up the mantle of being prayer warriors for us. On advice from a couple friends, I want to post encouraging Scripture all over his hospital room when he’s inpatient. I’m asking you guys to make posters or notecards with encouraging Scripture and mail them to us or drop them off at the house. If you need my address and don’t have my contact info, just hit the “contact” button at the bottom of this page. Of course, I will be doing some as well, but I want to invite our praying friends and family to participate in this way with us. Please continue to pray in intercession whatever Scriptures you share with us.
This is to encourage Mike, yes, but it’s also to encourage me as I sit at his bedside and my mind races. I need to frisk my thoughts, as my dear friend Suzanne always says, through the lens of Scripture and stop negative, life-sucking thoughts and fears in their tracks. I need to stop reading PubMed, Journal of Oncology, and New England Journal of Medicine articles trying to find a concrete answer to all the unknowns. I keep looking for a guarantee in all these statistics and case studies that things will be okay, but I usually only feed my worries and fears with them. Scripture is a far better newsfeed to meditate upon. Will you join us in this activity?
I’m not sure how long he will be inpatient this cycle. It depends on how his blood counts respond to the treatment. These drugs have a higher probability of causing low blood counts, therefore making him more susceptible to infection, so he may have to stay beyond the final day of treatment to support his blood counts. In the meantime, I need to pray and storm the throne of heaven with the belief and confidence God has promised to his children. God isn’t a cosmic vending machine and prayer isn’t the exact change to make the machine work. But he promised us all over Scripture that he longs to hear his children call upon him, confessing their needs, and therefore, learn to fully rely on his all-sufficient power. He has given us the entire body of Christ to help us do just that and I’m calling on you guys to help us—help me—fight the unbelief. . . even if the answers aren’t the way I had envisioned them to come.
