Prayer Works!

Hello friends and family,

I'm sorry, I know I am a little tardy in my latest update.  But taking care of a toddler, newborn and playing nurse to Reyn has left me little time to update the blog.  It's been a little wild but I am grateful that I have this time to be at home with my family and I have the opportunity to care for them.  I was also waiting to hear from Duke regarding Reyn's pathology report and I finally heard back today.

So first things first.  We have been home for 5 days and Reyn it doing great!  He is getting plenty of rest and starting to look more like himself, sans the black eye.  I just told him it made him look extra tough!  He had his sutures removed today and the incision is healing quite nicely.  The stitches were so small and looked like fishing wire.  Whoever the "seamstress" was did a good job putting him back together.  We estimated 100 stitches but hard to tell because they were so tiny.  Reyn is getting his energy back slowly but surely.  He even played outside with Jackson yesterday afternoon.  Although he still has to take it easy, I can tell he is feeling better day by day.  The doctor said it would probably take a month before he felt like himself completely so this means we are 10 days closer to that becoming a reality.

Now for the exciting news!  We received Reyn's pathology report last Thursday night.  Of course there are many things in there that are way over my education level but I did understand the conclusion, which read....  "well differentiated oligodendroglioma."  As soon as I saw it I called Duke to verify their diagnosis because Reyn was initially diagnosed with an "oligoastrocytoma" which meant that he had a mixed tumor.  An oligoastrocytoma has a mixture of oligodendrocyte cells and astrocyte cells, with the astrocyte cells being the more aggressive.  So, for those of you following the blog along the way- you know that one of our main prayer requests was for the composition of the tumor to show more oligodendrocyte cells than astrocyte cells.....AND PRAYER WORKS!!  The representative at Duke told me today that their sample confirmed an oligodendroglioma which means at this point no astrocyte cells were detected.  Since they removed ~ 70% of the tumor they have a much larger sample to draw from and I firmly believe the Lord heard the prayers of many and removed those astrocyte cells!  Praise the Lord!
 
Thank you to the God in heaven for being with us throughout this process.  I thought that I would share the verses given to me on the morning of Reyn's surgery because they were so beautiful.  My mom had read this in her quiet time that day and shared with me early that morning.  Deuteronomy 31:8  "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

We know that we still have much to learn regarding Reyn's tumor and studies will continue from the sample that was taken until we return to Duke on March 25th and 26th.  At that time we will have many answers.

Thank you again for checking in on us.  I will post updates again soon.

Love,

The Connellys