How We Got Here

One of the questions that we have gotten more than any other is, "How did you know he should go to the doctor?" This picture is us in March. That is when this journey began. In March, I noticed that Nathan had less energy that normal. It really wasn't a big deal, but enough that I noticed. He hadn't been to the doctor for a regular check up in a long time, so I asked him to go to the doctor and get blood work done. He did. That initial blood work showed he was anemic. While anemia is common in women because of their menstrual cycles, it is not common in men. Anemia is either caused by a loss of blood somewhere in the body OR your body isn't making enough blood. The doctor decided to first check for a GI bleed and scheduled a colonoscopy. The appointment making got lost somewhere by the doctor's office and when Nathan went to have his anemia numbers checked in April, the colonoscopy still wasn't scheduled. We didn't look at any other numbers on his April blood work, but if we would have, we would have seen that myeloma was starting to affect his body. When looking for myeloma, they use the acronym CRAB. C-Calcium R-Renal (Kidney) A-Anemia B-Bones. Nathan had it all at this point, but we didn't know anything about myeloma so we didn't connect the dots. Nathan started having rib pain this month that he attributed to working out. His doctor did an x-ray and agreed that it was probably a muscle strain he was feeling and this takes months to heal. A colonoscopy and endoscopy was performed at the beginning of June and was all clear. The GI doctor said that they don't find the cause of anemia in men close to 50% of the time. This made us think that we may be in the clear, but they still wanted to check his small intestine to look for bleeding (that exam was scheduled for this week). Not long after the colonoscopy/endoscopy Nathan got a canker sore. Two weeks later it wasn't getting better. I said, "I don't think your immune system is working like it's supposed to." Nathan made an appointment but canceled when he realized the canker sore was finally healing. However, when he called to cancel the appointment, he realized that he had an anemia check appointment scheduled for when we were going to be in Indiana. He moved that appointment to July 13. And on July 13 our world changed forever. Nathan went in and had blood work done and the doctor called him a half an hour later saying he needed to come back in for more blood work and mentioned cancer. He went in for more blood work and then headed to the gas station where he got another phone call from the doctor telling him to go the ER for a blood transfusion because his hemoglobin was down to 6.5. We started looking into his blood work numbers and when you put all of the different numbers that were "off" (hemoglobin, white blood cell count, renal activity, calcium) the only thing that came up was myeloma. July 13 was a really hard day. BUT, there were some amazing things that happened that day too. God showed up in the hands and feet of church friends taking our boys until evening and bringing us a meal. Co-workers praying and hugging and making tangible things happen to support our family. There was a really quick realignment of priorities in our family. Plans were quickly canceled so we could be together as a family. All of a sudden, the small moments became everything. God is writing this story. We don't know the outcome of this part of the story, but we trust the one who is writing it and we know the ending. Jesus wins! No matter what, Jesus wins! We are secure in the hands of the one who bought us with his blood and we know he will never let us go! We are clinging to this hope now more than ever. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of the love and support you've shown us in the last couple weeks! And, thank you for your prayers!! We know so many of you are praying and we truly do feel it. Please continue to pray. Specific prayer requests will be coming, but right now please pray for healing, strength, endurance, and peace for our family. In Christ Alone, The Scheeles (written by Melissa)