An update on Sean

We want to update everyone on Sean's health situation.

We went into the medical oncologist today to get the results of Sean's CT scan and they weren't good. The cancer has spread to the lymph nodes in his lower abdomen, which means he'll need much more treatment than we were anticipating. He will have 3 cycles of chemotherapy, each 3 weeks long, starting this Monday. The first week of the cycle he will have a 5-hour long treatment each day for 5 days; the second and third weeks he will only go in one day for a quick shot. The cycle will then repeat two more times for a total of 9 weeks of treatment. After that time, they will do another CT scan to make sure that the cancer is gone and if it isn't, he'll have to have surgery.

As far as side effects go, they will treat his nausea with a battery of anti-nausea medications. At around day 17 he will lose all the hair from heat to foot, which he's really not looking forward to. And the biggest side effect (and unfortunately the only one they can't treat with medicine) is extreme fatigue. He will basically be absolutely exhausted all the time, no matter how much sleep he gets.

We've pretty much experienced every emotion imaginable today and I feel completely drained. I'm so sad that Sean has to go through this, and even though I know he'll be okay it's still really hard for both of us to accept and deal with. As hard as it is I know we just need to keep praying and rely on Heavenly Father to get us through these next few months. I have faith that we will be taken care of, and we both really appreciate everyone's love, support, and prayers on our behalf. We just absolutely couldn't get through this without our family and friends that surround us and buoy us up when we are feeling our lowest.

We love you all and appreciate everything you do for us. I'll keep everyone updated on what's going on as Sean goes through treatments.