thank you all for your prayers and offerings this past week, as things
have been difficult for me and mine. i am presently in the cancer ward
at regions hospital, feeling more or less better today than i have for
a week. i am suffering from a case of prostatitis, a case of
pneumonia, and a case of inexplicably low blood counts.
beginning with a trip to the ER on friday, and culminating with an
admission to regions monday, doctors have been exploring the realm of
possible explanations for my pain and my numbers being all askew. i
have been on a steady course of IV antibiotics since being admitted,
and with the apparent alleviation of my fevers and night sweats today,
and with the partial clearing of my lungs, I not only feel a bit
better, but we’ve been able to arrive at our first positive
conclusion: these presenting symptoms are infection related, and not
leukemic.
many of you know i was treated from 2005 to 2007 for lymphoblastic
lymphoma, a sister to acute lymphocitic leukemia. so when my counts
crashed last week, of primary concern was either the relapse of
lymphoma, or the onset of leukemia. no evidence of this was found in
my blood or lymph systems on friday. then i was admitted for the
infection on monday and for a bone marrow biopsy which was done
yesterday, all this on account of my low blood counts. the results of
this and blood cultures are pending. from what we understand, there
are two primary possibilities:
best case scenario ~ a medication i’ve been on for four years for
crohn’s disease (6MP) may have triggered the counts crash, and the
infection followed hot on the heels of my immune system checking out.
the infection now under control, the biopsy results will confirm this,
and we’ll start artificially rebooting my immune system in hospital,
until it and i are strong enough to go home. within three weeks,
wallah! back to normal.
worst case scenario ~ i have leukemia. enough said.
either way, we’ll know by the weekend. and either way, it will be
necessary to jumpstart my immune system once we know what’s going on.
this involves injections, and a days-long process that makes my bones
hurt. i’ve done it a bunch before. it’s only great because of where it
takes you. anyway…
the best case scenario got a few votes today, but we still won’t know
for sure until the results are in. please pray with us for the best
news possible.
in the meantime, i’m anemic and neutropenic, real tired with no immune
system. i’ve been told a blood transfusion is mine for the taking.
pray that i don’t catch anything else, and that my well-being
continues to improve.
and please, please, please pray for my family. for jen, who is in
nursing school fulltime, and who had been depending on me to get the
big boys to and from school all week every week (and i’d been doing a
right fine job of it too!). and pray for jo isaac, who’s been sick at
home all week with a fever since visiting the ER on saturday. and pray
for ade and eli and little jo when they’re all together, as they begin
to fall apart when they don’t get sufficient daddy time. i’ve been
sick for a week. they haven’t seen me since sunday.
we had a good family worship service sunday, so in some ways we’re
prepared for this, but they still need me around. and i like being
around. being around is good.
so pray and hope, hope and pray. we know the God who lets us suffer
(he does) has suffered Himself (and he has) and so we trust him. but
we can’t trust him all by ourselves. we need you. so thank you for
being the church with and for us.
in his strength and for his glory,
jeremy (jen and the boys)
Jeremy Erickson 