September 1998

Dear Family & Friends,

Wow, what a month! Thank you so much to all of you that were able to attend the prayer and praise service for Sebastian!! What an awesome evening it was. Thanks to all of you that were not able to attend but were thinking of us and praying for us as we gathered for Sebastian.

Medical Update

Many of you may have heard by now, but for those of you who haven't, we have received some bad news about Sebastian. On Thursday, August 27, it was discovered that the cancer has spread. They have found two lesions on his lung, more liver involvement, intraperitoneal studs (little bursts of cancer) all over in his abdominal cavity and more growth around the adrenal gland. This came as quite a shock to all of us including the doctors who just days before were telling us that they thought he was in the best clinical condition that they could hope for going into the transplant. Then during a routine CT scan, they found more tumor. This growth happened extremely fast because on July 30, they had done a scan and found that only a small lesion was left where the original tumor had been cut out.

They told us that the chance for survival is not likely. They gave us four choices: 1) Do nothing but manage pain which would probably give us several weeks or a few months. 2) Attempt more chemo in hopes of clearing up this cancer and going with the bone marrow transplant. 3) Give oral chemo at home that keeps the cancer at bay but doesn't actually clear it up. 4) Phase I experimental treatment going on in Minnesota which he may or may not qualify for.

At this time we have decided that we are going to continue with chemotherapy at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. We will not be going to another institution at this time because the team of pediatric oncologists at UIHC have been consulting with experts in neuroblastoma all over the country and essentially have been and will be continuing to get as many opinions about this as necessary to fight this. The doctors have assured us that we can change our minds at any time about whatever treatment we want to try.

Is Sebastian in any pain? How is he doing? He has been very irritable this week and extremely attached to his Daddy. There are a combination of factors at work here though so it is hard to pinpoint exactly what is causing him to be so grouchy. It could be that he is two, his Dad has taken some time off of work and has been able to carry him around, he had radiation to the abdominal area several times last week or that the cancer is actually causing some discomfort.

Why isn't the bone marrow transplant being done? One of the criteria for the bone marrow transplant is that the disease has to be under control. If they were to administer high doses of chemo and knock out his natural defenses when the cancer is still growing, the cancer would soon have the upper hand and overtake his body.

How are we doing? Naturally we were very stunned to hear this news, but as you know, our faith is very strong. We are still clinging to God's healing hand. We know that a miracle is coming. We know that God's word tells us that whatever we ask for in prayer and believe that we will receive it, it will happen. We know that as long as we keep our eyes on Him, he will lead us to where he wants us to be. We know that if we are trying to find out what pleases him and trying to do it, we will be well taken care of.

What do we need? As of right now, we aren't exactly sure of what we will be facing over the next couple of weeks so please just keep praying for us and for Sebastian and we will try very hard to keep all of you posted about what is going on and what you could do through these letters.

With God's Abundant Love

The Dockery's