My friend Ken Corsini is a dad battling a cancer bout for his son Rocco. Please pray for Rocco and his family. Here is a phenomenal video Ken made of the moments in Roccos journey that touch your heart, especially I can only imagine as a parent. Share this. https://youtube/embed/SW4LjEByIpI CaringBridge Is Funded by People Like You Tough Times Dont Last; Tough People Do By Anita Corsini — 50 minutes ago In the nurses office in the hallway on the way to the family lounge, there is a small, pink sign that hangs on one of their desks that reads, Tough times dont last; tough people do. I remember reading it as we began this journey and just wanting to bawl my eyes out as I felt so weak and unprepared for the battle that we were facing. I was scared, the outlook was unknown, everything was new and unfamiliar and as I looked around everything seemed bleak. I felt alone and terrified - I never thought that feeling would change. It took me a while, but I realized that living with the outlook that tough times will last is futile. Nothing productive comes from living defeated. Honestly, in my opinion, tough times are inevitable, but they certainly dont last ... so it was up to me to decide if I was going to be broken by this or gain strength. If youve ever tried to gain strength by lifting weights you know it doesnt happen over night. And its painful. I will testify that this journey has challenged me in ways that I never thought were possible. It felt like I was being asked to go from benching 50 lbs to 200 lbs overnight. You and I both know that it just doesnt work that way - but that part in between, the work, the consistency, the dedication, the pain is all worth it in the end, but getting there, well ... that is the hard part. So in my weakness I asked God to make me strong in ways that He knew I needed. My sweet friend had put together some gifts for all of us and on each one was a sticky note with some scriptures. I wrote all of them down in my journal and often looked back at them. My heart was drawn to Psalm 73:26, My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. I began praying, begging God for strength, His strength. A strength that could only come from Him. Believing that He gave me this word, I was honest with Him, writing in my journal, While my heart feels weak, and my faith is weary, Father I recognize and claim that You are the strength of my heart and You are my portion forever. I ask Jesus that You would strengthen me, and that in You I would be satisfied, even through this horrible trial. This has truly been the cry of my heart for the last few months, and I sincerely believe that God has given me His strength ... I dont have to muster up the strength to push up a 200 lb barbell overnight like I thought. Rather, as I begin to lift it He comes behind me and pushes it up with me and strengthens me in the process. For that my friends, I am grateful. And yes, I do believe, that tough times dont last; tough people do, and its a heck of a lot easier with Jesus lifting the weight of life with you. Speaking of tough -- this son of ours is one tough cookie. He fought hard through round 3, came home and we STAYED home until round 4 began, last Friday on the 14th. I couldnt believe it!! I was so so so thankful that we were able to be at home together as a family for a little more than a week. We had to take Rocco to get his labs checked every 3-4 days and he had both an MRI and a CT scan on Wednesday. We anxiously awaited the results and learned that both of the scans were clear of tumors, but there is a bloody mass where they removed the tumor on his kidney. Basically, where the tumor was scooped out of the kidney, blood pooled in the damaged void left behind. This blood congealed together to form something like a hematoma which will take time to heal and reabsorb into his body. So we will have to watch this spot carefully after treatment. This is the 4th round of treatment, the last scheduled round - we are currently on day 3 of the 5 day infusion of ARAC. He flew through the last round as if he didnt even receive heavy doses of chemo, but we are starting to see some of it catching up with him today. His temperature is slowly starting to rise and tonight we noticed some pretty bad blistering on his hands. We are pretty certain that all of these things are results of the chemotherapy, but we are praying that it stops here. It would be so nice to go home on Thursday as planned. On Wednesday night, we are having a little last chemo party for him on the AFLAC floor. Our friends from Chic-fil-A at Perimeter Pointe are generously donating dinner for the entire floor to celebrate. We are so proud of how far he has come and how hard he has fought - this little booger deserves a par-tay if you ask me. Ken put together a video of the journey weve been on since July 24 - he did an amazing job capturing many of the significant moments weve had here and at home (see below). As always, thank you for joining with us in praying for Rocco. We would ask that you would specifically pray for: -No more blisters and no complications from the ones that are there. -That he would remain fever free for the duration of this treatment. -He would remain healthy (good blood counts and no infections) after the chemo so we would have no more hospitalizations. -For no mouth sores or other complications from treatment. -And for those sweet girls of ours - their little hearts are growing weary from our absense
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 05:55:38 +0000
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