This is a hard post to write. It may even read as pretty choppy because there are so many details that can be shared but I just want to share a short background story and the present situation so you as my dear family and friends and readers can be praying for this family.
I just got a hard phone call. A phone call about cancer. For months now I have been praying for a 6 year old boy in our church. Collin Frye. In August he was diagnosed with leukemia. He has already been through a long journey of staying in Denver Children's hospital from August through December while going through chemo. This has been even harder with his family in Colorado Springs and his two siblings, 4 and 9, not able to see him a lot. He also has a new baby brother 6 weeks old who was born on Thanksgiving.
Family and friends have been helping with driving to Denver and staying at the hospital with Collin. The Frye family now have an apartment in Denver that is provided for families of patients going through a bone marrow transplant. I have been on call to stay the night with Collin, but haven't yet so I have not had the pleasure of meeting this brave young man. I did meet his mom and siblings here in Colorado Springs. So much love is being wrapped around this sweet family. I will get to the hard phone call after I share a little bit about Collin.
Collin just began the bone marrow transplant process and he is receiving stem cells from a donor match. Since Collin is required to be in isolation for 45 days from everyone except medical staff there are only 6 people who are allowed to come stay with him. 5 of those people are family members and 1 person can be a non-family member.
This leads up to the call I received today... One of the Frye family's sweet friends who has been coordinating to have people help stay at the hospital over night with Collin in Denver and helping with Collin's 4 and 9 year old siblings at home called me. She called to ask me to pray about something and share what lays heavy on my heart now.... Collin's mom Suzanne may have cancer.
Suzanne gave birth to their 4th child on Thanksgiving. A sweet baby boy Owen. She experienced some edema after the c-section. The swelling was not going away like it should. At her 6 week check up they did an ultrasound and saw something on one of her kidneys. They followed up with a CT scan and found a 9 cm mass on her adrenal gland. They did an MRI and said she needs to have surgery. Here is the exact information from her husband Tim written on Collin's caring bridge website.
"Suzanne just got done meeting with a general surgeon and nothing he had to say was encouraging. His feeling is that this is likely a cancerous tumor based on size and some other factors. It is a little larger than they thought before and it will require major abdominal surgery to get this thing out. That will mean approx 6 weeks of hard recovery; much harder than from a C-Section he said. And then of course the unknown of what kind of treatments might have to follow after the surgery, if the tumor is cancerous..."
This is hard news to hear. Suzanne will have the surgery here in Colorado Springs. Her surgery will hopefully be this coming week. Her surgery recovery time will be during the 45 days that Collin has to be in the isolation at Denver Children's Hospital. The Frye's family and relatives do not live in Colorado. Suzanne's sister has come to be with Collin during the 45 days and another 20 year old relative of theirs in college has switched all of her classes to online so she can fly out and be here in Colorado Springs to help Suzanne with recovery and their baby boy Owen who is just 6 weeks old. Please pray for this family as this is a time where lots of support is needed and many friends will be giving of their time to help. Please pray for Tim, a father and husband, who has the burden of caring for his wife and son as well as their other 3 children.
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