Today: Surgery and Chemo Begins (Update #8: Emily Whiting)

Today: Surgery and Chemo Begins (Update #8: Emily Whiting)

I will give you a brief update via pictures today.

Emily enjoyed her last night at home before chemo by hanging out with Daisy and going to Star Wars. She said it was SO worth it! She loved it.

The first thing today was surgery for her port. All went smoothly. All of her chemo and IVs will be administered through that port. That port will stay in for the next nine months.

After she recovered from surgery, she was free until 3:00 PM. So our pastor, his wife, and college-aged daughter came down and took the three of us to lunch. Emily didn’t want to go to one of her favorite places because she knows she will likely be throwing up tonight and/or tomorrow. And sometimes whatever you throw up, you don’t want to eat for a long, long time. 🙂

So they took us to Hungry’s – a restaurant I’ve been to a couple of times and that Emily has never been to. Then we stopped by my office so Emily could see my co-workers before heading back to the hospital.

We had a couple more tests Emily had to take. Chemo can kill the cancer, but it also can have side effects that are negative. So over the last week she has taken many tests to get a baseline for comparison in the coming weeks. Here she is taking her hearing test. Her heart and kidneys were tested last week. And she will continually go for those tests over the next nine months. If they see a problem, they will adjust her chemo meds. She also has been asked to participate in an exercise study. They are testing the results of those who exercise during chemo versus those who don’t. So she will be coming to the hospital three times a week for supervised exercise. Even the weeks of no chemo, she has to come down 3 times a week. It will be more driving to MD Anderson than we thought. 🙂

We then took her stuff up to her room. This is Emily’s and Sue’s stuff for the next four nights. My bags stayed in the car since I’m driving a couple of miles away for tonight. One of us is allowed to stay in the room with her. Tonight, I will drive to a friend’s house a couple of miles away and stay in their apartment above their garage.

This is the hospital room where Emily will be until Tuesday. Sue or I will stay on the couch.

This is the bell that you ring when your treatment is over. Our prayer is nine months from now, Emily will be ringing this bell with great joy and thankfulness.

We are going to eat dinner in the hospital food court. Then at 7:00 PM, we check in for chemo and sometime in the next few hours, the first dose toward healing begins.

Pray for Emily. Although filled with joy, she is stressed about the impact chemo will have on her. Pray that she gets a good night’s sleep tonight.

A Psalm that I’ve loved this week is Psalm 46.

¹ God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
³ though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.