Silent Strength

On January 5th, a huge ice storm was making its way through Nashville.  Denny told me that he was not feeling well.  His left ear was leaking clear fluid at an alarming rate.  He had tubes put in his ears in December because the ENT saw fluid near his ear drum that was affecting his hearing.  He was also complaining that his teeth were hurting and he had a terrible headache.  He was in a lot of pain and taking painkillers (he will only use painkillers as a last resort so you know it had to be bad). You might say, "Oh, he has a sinus infection."  However to us, these symptoms strike chords of fear into our hearts.

Because of the weather situation, Denny wasn't able to get to the ENT until Wednesday.  The doc determined that he had an ear infection and prescribed antibiotics.  Thursday, Denny saw the oncologist.  He told her the cancer was back.  She had her doubts but got him in for an MRI on Sunday, January 12th.

Neither of us could sleep very well Sunday night.  At 4 a.m., I realized he was awake.  I could tell by his breathing that he was not sleeping.  I reached out and grasped his hand.  Both of his hands folded around mine.  We never spoke but simply gave each other silent strength; trying to ready ourselves for the news we hoped we wouldn't hear.

Today, we found out the results of the MRI.  Denny was correct.  The cancer has aggressively returned.  Where the MRI showed little signs of the cancer on November 25th, he now has a 4 cm. tumor behind his left eye; close to where the other was and almost as big.  This was devastating news.

Dr. Murphy is going to give Denny 2 more treatments of the same chemo that the tumor responded to last time.  That will take him out to 6 weeks and then another MRI will be done to see if it is still effective.  In the meantime, she will be trying to get him into a clinical trial for a drug identified through the Foundation One genetic mapping.

As we left her office, we both had watering eyes and determined spirits.  I said, "This is one more battle in the War."  Denny said, "Yep.  I'm still fighting."  I called the kids to tell them what was going on.  TheWoodruff4 are still holding strong and ask that you keep Denny in your prayers. 

Thank you, friends and family, for hanging in here with us.  We appreciate all the encouragement and support.  I will continue to update the blog as the situation develops.  Thanks for checking in.