Looking out the window of our fourth floor hospital room, we first see the lovely view of a three-story high block wall. Yes. Actually, not so lovely at all. On the other side of that block wall is a four-story parking structure that is usually empty at night and full of employee cars during the day. If you look beyond that parking structure you can see the tops of trees, buildings, and street lights. And then finally, if you choose to look long enough and high enough, you can see some beautiful hills in the distance.

This view from our room reminded me of the verse in the Psalms that instructs us to lift up our eyes. To lift up our eyes and look to the Lord where our help comes from. It would be so easy to simply look at our block wall. It would be so tempting to focus on the ugly parking lot of cement and steel. Yet, it would be a tragedy to miss the view of the beautiful hills peeking out from behind the ugliness. You can even choose to look so intently at the hills that you forget the depressing sight of the block wall and the parking lot.

For us, living in this small hospital room in the middle of our current circumstances, that block wall is leukemia. It is chemotherapy. It is a stem cell transplant. It is odds and percentages and statistics. It is fear and pain and human limitations. And the parking lot? The parking lot is the perilous fight against side effects and rejection. The parking lot is the dark uncertainty of what life is going to bring in the days and weeks and months to come. The parking lot is the ongoing, and sometimes ugly, journey ahead.

What is the window you are looking out of? What is your block wall? What is your parking lot? Look at it. Acknowledge it, own it, name it. Look at it intently and seriously, and then look up. Look up! Look up to the Lord from where your help comes from! Look into his eyes and see his deep and very real love for you. Look at his nail-scarred hands and see the forgiveness, the freedom, and the incredible hope. Let hope come alive in your soul as you look up to your helper, your healer… the maker of heaven and earth!

Looking up to the hills, and looking up to our Lord of incredible mercy and hope and help today,

Carol Stoecklein

Hey friends, 

This weekend at church I gave an update on Dave and shared that early Sunday morning his fever had spiked to 102.5 degrees. It was scary for us because his immune system is completely shot right now. His body doesn’t have much to fight an infection right now. 

After church on Sunday I left straight for the hospital and was there till 10pm. During that time his fever had reduced to 98.6 degrees! We eventually spoke with Dr. Lopez which is always a huge blessing. She is by far the most caring and loving Doctor we have had so far. She assured us that his fever is completely normal and expected at this stage in the transplant. Her words, “No one gets through a transplant without a fever;)” They are still unsure what caused the fever, and sometimes they never know. Keep praying that his temperature stays normal and doesn’t spike again.

He is also experiencing some difficulty swallowing, which is a side affect from on of the chemos they have him on. The technical term is ‘Mucositis’ and is an inflammation in the esophagus and digestive tract. He has had this before and it even spread to his mouth. So please continue to pray for these side affects to go away and that the pain is manageable.

The next couple weeks will be a difficult ones, but we know it’s all part of the process to get him healthy again!  Dr. Lopez assured us that he is doing amazing compared to most transplant patients at this stage. He is fighter, and we are very proud of him.

God is able.

Andrew Stoecklein

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23

Have you ever been more tired than you ever thought possible? A kind of tired that sleep doesn’t fix. A tired that can almost feel suffocating. Where just to sit up in bed and eat a few bites of a meal is a huge effort. Well, that’s where Dave is at right now, but we are learning to be okay with that. The doctors are telling us that Dave’s body is working really hard at getting better and integrating the new stem cells. And they are telling us that he is right where he should be in the process. 

There are many things to be thankful for. At this point, there are no infections or fevers. The nausea is manageable with medication. The pain, for the most part, is also being managed with medication. The confusion and hallucinations Dave was experiencing seem to be gone. Wow! Those are all such good things, and huge answers to all of our prayers.

Things to pray for:

• Because Dave’s white blood cell count is down to 0.1, he is very susceptible to infections.
• An expected side effect in the coming days is mucositis (mouth and esophagus sores). Let’s pray it doesn’t happen.
• Please pray that in the next couple weeks Paul’s stem cells start taking over, growing strong, and fighting any remaining leukemia cells.
• Please pray against any rejection of the new stem cells.
• Please pray against discouragement and for patience and perseverance with the necessary process.

Thank you for all of your prayers. Thank you for the words of love and encouragement you are sending us on this blog. You may not realize what a difference your encouragement means from inside the four walls of this hospital room. There are days when those words are our life-line to the outside world. There are times when your words of encouragement are what help us to focus back on the power and love of God instead of the circumstances.

We are depending on the new mercies that God offers each and every day. Because of those mercies, we will get there!

The Stoeckleins

Today was a big day and God was with us. Everything went very smoothly with no bad reactions or side effects. We even saw glimpses of Dave’s great sense of humor. All the kids were there, along with two of Dave’s brothers, and it was a wonderful thing to experience together. Our nurse, Eartha, was so perfect as she prayed along with us and enjoyed the “God songs” we had playing.

We have many reasons to be hopeful. The doctors and nurses commented about how strong and healthy Paul’s stem cells were. That was very encouraging. Now we pray that those stem cells go to work in Dave’s body and do their thing. And we pray that Dave’s body accepts them with very few side effects in the next few weeks. We could still have some tough days ahead, but we know that we will get through them.

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” Philippians 4:4

Let’s all rejoice together in what God has done today!

The Stoeckleins

Dave is receiving an intense round of chemo and the side effects are kicking in. He is struggling with headaches, nausea, extreme fatigue and still the foot pain. The reason we put this out to you is so that you can be praying for him. We are noticing that Dave, as well as our whole family, is much more physically tired and emotionally drained as we head into this round of treatment. We are also struggling with the uncertainly involved with the transplant. This is hard.

Does that mean we are discouraged and have no hope? Absolutely not!! We have all hope in our incredibly loving and wonderfully strong and powerful God. He is with us and we know that.

“Trust in the Lord forever: for in the Lord God is everlasting strength.” Isaiah 26:4

Today we returned to Cedars for the next step in our journey with leukemia. It was a bittersweet drive, knowing that these next few weeks are probably going to be very difficult, but at the same time knowing this is taking us one step closer to Dave being back to full health.

As we were registering at the hospital, we happened to run into the man who has been our Cedars contact in coordinating the two blood drives we have done at IHC. Many of you met him at the blood drives. We had never met this man before, but he recognized Dave and was thrilled to meet him. He also enthusiastically commended the church for the huge response to those blood drives. He said that the love, faith, and commitment was unlike anything they had ever experienced before. Way to go, IHC!

The plan, as of today, is for Dave to undergo four days of chemo, then two days of rest, followed by the stem cell transplant next week. This is a very fragile and scary time we are headed into. Our hope is for a complete cure and that is what we are depending on God for. God is with us. He is answering our prayers and we are fully trusting in Him. It gives us great confidence to know that people all around the world are praying for Dave. 

In these next few days, please pray for limited side effects from the chemo. One of these chemos is known to cause the mucositis (terrible mouth and throat sores), so that is something specific you can pray about. We will keep you posted with how Dave is doing. The chemo will be starting tonight about 10 o’clock.

“Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord God you have an everlasting Rock.” Isaiah 26:4

Trusting Our Lord God,

Dave and Carol