Day 326

JOHN CATON IS HEALED!

Those words keep reeling in my (Amanda) mind. Can it be true? Those words I have longed to hear and John has longed to hear are finally being spoken! It's amazing to me, it stunts my speech and makes my head spin. He is healed. He is going to be ok. This changes our whole life! 

Tuesday was the day we saw Dr Antin, best doctor in the world! He was beaming :) He said John's T cells were nearly at normal human level! WOW! John with T cells! This is huge! We still wait to see if he will develop B cells but we are confident he will. 

We got the all clear to come home for Christmas so Indiana PA here we come! John returns to work 2nd January 2012.

Each day that passes comes a deeper realization of what this means. It brings with it a deeper level of gratitude for all God has done. 

God spoke, we listened, we obeyed and He was faithful.

We are amazed. I wish I had more to say but I am just so stumped; I am sure I will share more soon.

For now please celebrate with us :)  

Day 314

Apologies for not updating everyone sooner but there has not been much to report! What a lovely statement considering our first 6 months of this year. John had another appointment two weeks ago and the doctor was very happy again saying "Your lungs are sounding the best they have ever sounded!" This is just amazing. John, his whole life, has struggled with respiratory infections so to have lungs that sound clear is nothing short of a miracle!

Now the beginning of the end has begun. Two weeks ago John stopped taking one of his anti rejection drugs (Tacrilimus//Prograf) and has been great since! No signs of GVHD! We see the doctor again on the 22nd November and they will draw more tests to see if the immune system is building  still :) (The last test was August)

The next step is coming off the last anti rejection drug (Rapamune/Sirolimus) and then he will no longer be on any immune supressents! :)

As I (Amanda) look back on this year I cannot help the tears coming. Tears of gratitude that the words God spoke to us seem to be coming to pass. It still blows my mind to think that we are just a normal couple who prayed and asked God to speak to us and He did! He inclined His ears to hear our prayers. He listened all this year as we cried to Him from our beds (so often apart from one another). He knew the whole time that these days of blessing would come. That now today on day 314 we sit in awe of His faithfulness. O dear now I am crying as I type! And yes we have much to come, much news to still hear but today we are just overwhelmed with gratitude for our loving, powerful and faithful God.

Here's to more good news to come...