12/3/25

Hello prayer warriors! We want to sincerely thank you for your prayers and patience as we navigated the last few days! The results are in! We don’t want to put a label on the news as good or bad because truly Zeke’s case is still pretty complicated BUT the situation is not worsening. So let’s start with a recap of this last week before the scan- no real changes yet again just still a little more fuss from the boy and some new teeth are making their appearance so he hasn’t been as hungry.

Scan day overall went well but it was a veeeeery long day. Because Zeke is young and the MRI takes quite some time he had to be sedated for the procedure. Because of the sedation there’s a certain amount of time where the patient can’t eat beforehand. Since Zeke’s procedure was scheduled at 1130 his last feeding was at 0730. All of this would’ve been fine but the pediatric MRI machine broke and pushed our case even further out 🥺 Zeke didn’t get in to the scan until around 3pm- so not only was he starving but his entire nap schedule was thrown off. A combination from Satan, if you will. Just kidding 😁 Once he was in, the procedures all went smoothly and we finally got to see our super sleepy boy. The rest of the night we spent at home recovering and then off to bed.

The following day was Chemo week 6 and the discussion of the plan based on the results. We accessed the port and got labs sent off, next we sat in our room with angst waiting to see the doctor. We had a brief conversation about the results and potential plans but nothing could be solidified until the tumor board met that same evening and discussed all the options thoroughly.

The plan is as follows- we will try to explain as briefly and simply as we can but like we said Zeke’s case is intricate and complicated so all of these options could change at any point. The findings on the scans showed several things- there was no spread of the cancer to any organs or to the chest (yay!!), the lesions on both kidneys were basically non existent and could barely be measured, (where as the first scanned on week one showed measurable lesions) (woohoo!!) which indicates that they responded to the chemotherapy. Finally, the scan showed that the original tumor has gotten bigger (by 75%)- there are several reasons why this could occur but according to the radiologist it looked like tissue in the tumor was necrotic (dead) which is what was contributing to its size. Now this is where it gets tricky- we’re happy to see that the tumor cells are dying but because the tumor is bigger it complicates the surgery quite a bit. As it stands- the plan is to have surgery next Friday (12/12)! This is very exciting and we are happy that for now chemotherapy is done BUT there are still possible complications with this route. We are hopeful that the team will be able to safely remove the tumor and preserve as much kidney as they can, but it also may be that they can’t safely do it and then they would just biopsy the tumor and test it for cells and genes that require different chemotherapy. All of this also increases the risk of “tumor spillage” where if the sac of the tumor is ruptured the cancer cells can flow all over the body. Not ideal, but Zeke is receiving chemotherapy post surgery either way to help in that sense. Another concern is that if the tumor is too large to safely remove he may also need radiation. 😔

All of this to say- we are grateful for modern medicine and for the knowledge of our doctors but as we know this is all in the Lord’s hands. We must believe that this is for our good and through this the Lord’s will, will be done. Please continue to pray for Zeke’s little body to have strength, pray for us to be faithful in our prayers, and pray for the hands of the doctors and the intricate care they must be provide.

We will update a few days post surgery next week unless anything happens before that!

We love you! 💕