Glen Update - October 17th

First, I wanted to say "Thank you" for your prayers for travel mercies for Peggy and Judy.  They had a great time in Jackson being part of Grandparents Day and listening to Kelsey sing on Sunday.  They made it back safely and are both doing well.  Peggy is getting around much better, but still needs your prayer support.

Glen's heart test and blood count results show that everything is looking good and the doctor is VERY pleased with his progress.  He started his 5th round of chemo on Tuesday, October 16th.  The current plan still calls for him to do a 6th and final round of chemo 3 weeks from now and then treat with maintenance doses every 6 months from that point.  He still has to go to the esophagus doctor to confirm what the spot was in the PET scan, but the lymphoma doctor doesn't think that is a problem.

Thank you for your continued prayer support for Glen and Peggy and we ask that you add us back in your prayers as well.  Next Wednesday, October 24th, Courtney will have the pulmonary valve in her heart replaced. 

It has been 4 1/2 years since her last surgery and the valve is needing replacement again.  In each of the previous valve replacement surgeries, they have had to open her chest and the recovery time has been several weeks.  With the advancements due to research and technology, they hope to do this replacement without opening her chest.  Dr. Doyle, who has done all of Courtney's catheterization procedures at Vandy, will be implanting a Melody transcatheter pulmonary valve.  This procedure has been done many times at Vandy, but normally going through the IVC arteries in the legs.  Due to Courtney's myriad of medical procedures over the years, her IVC arteries became sclerosed and may not be an option.  The human body will adjust and create new "highways", but they are not sure she will have the access they need from them.  The next option will be to perform the procedure going through the jugular in the neck.  This is a viable option, but has not been done in any of the previous procedures at Vandy.  If either of these options is viable and they are able to complete the procedure this way, Courtney should be able to go home the next day and only miss 3 days of school.  However, if these options are not viable, they will either perform open heart surgery at that point if necessary or schedule a time to do it in the near future.

I will use this site to update her progress next week prior to, during, and after the procedure.

Thank you again for your continued prayer support.