Decisions, decisions, decisions – and what a blessing to be able to make our own! This is on my mind for two reasons this morning.

First of all we had two interesting discussions yesterday. The attending physician at the hospital yesterday is a man that we have worked with a couple of other times. He decided Mark was stable and we could be sent home. He is the most thorough doctor that we know and the discharge procedure with him always takes some time. He likes to make sure that the patient is aware of everything so it sometimes feels a bit like an interrogation, but we like him.

As he stood to leave the room he paused and told us that, although he never really says this, he wanted to share that interacting with us was unique and he appreciated our outlook on life, etc. etc. Later that morning we had a team of doctors from the palliative care team come and spend about an hour with us. Though this was our first interaction they expressed the same sentiment – several times actually. Along with praising our support system, they admired that we were realistic and yet optimistic and positive.

It is hard to know what to say. Thank you?? Mark and I always look at each other and kind of shrug – we don’t know how else to be. How is everyone else behaving?? Because this team of doctors presented us with a very different type of visit and we had very much opened up to them, we just told them that we had made the decision early on to be happy and have a positive outlook. Our children had made the same decision and it would appear that we all learned it from each other.

Throughout the day we kept thinking about how these doctors had gone out of their way to stress this point. That decision has probably been one of the most important decisions we have ever made.

On to my second set of decision thoughts…

We find ourselves in a very serious situation with three treatment options at our feet.

1. Do nothing (thus the visit from the palliative care team).
2. Take an oral pill.
3. Crank up the chemotherapy infusions.

Apparently only this one type of pill and chemotherapy have the ability to pass into the brain. We are no longer eligible for trials. So that’s where we are at… I hope to not hear of all of the cool alternative cancer treatments that are out there. Currently these three choices are what we are considering.

I’ll update more details on the tumor and health situation – but for those who like to have a specific thing to pray for… we need comfort and courage and clarity on our decisions. Many friends have shared that they know the Lord’s hand is in this and we agree. However it turns out, it will be alright.