Prayer Updates for Buntheep

Buntheep Performing The Blessing Dance		Buntheep Playing Molly in Annie

Dear CCAM Partners and Friends,

Gioia still has no access to email at the Ronald McDonald house (it is broken), so she called me this evening to give me an update to relay to you. She really wants to express her thanks for the cards and packages that so many sent to Buntheep's birthday. Buntheep received lots of mail and packages and she and Gioia are left feeling very thankful for your generosity. Buntheep enjoyed her birthday quite a lot because of these letters and packages. Thank you!

Regarding Buntheep's treatment, Gioia reports that the doctors did another MRI to check on the progress of the radiation therapy. You may recall that last time they found that the tumor has shrunk about 25% over the course of 8 days of treatment. Another 8 days of treatment have passed, and this time the tumor did not seem to have shrunk much more at all. It still seems to be about the same as last time or perhaps very slightly smaller. At least there was no growth. There is about one more week of radiation treatment in which 5 more days of the two/day treatments will be given.

Gioia reports that Buntheep is not as sick now as in the first week of treatment. Sometimes she still has symptoms that prevent her from doing anything, but other times she is able to play the guitar, paint, or play games.

After the radiation therapy is complete, the doctors want to do chemotherapy as a follow-up. Their choice is to use a drug called Calcitonin which is manufactured by Novartis. The course of this treatment takes 18 months. Gioia thinks that it includes one injection per day. The cost of the Calcitonin is something like $13,000 to $15,000 normally. Ideally, this treatment would start at the end of next week! So, we need to pray that a source of the Calcitonin would be found quickly, or else that God would tell someone to donate funds to purchase the drug. If any of you know of a connection to pursue to acquire this medicine, please help. We're praying for this drug to be made available somehow. Buntheep's doctors are attempting to contact the manufacturer.

The doctors say that sometimes tumors of this type disappear with treatment, sometimes they "die" and turn into a bone-like mass or scar tissue. Sometimes they will not die. They don't know what to expect because there really is not enough information from past experience in the literature. Of course, we would like to pray that the tumor would disappear or at least die and no longer threaten Buntheep's life.

Gioia said that she had news to report about the school in Cambodia, but has not had time to focus on getting anything written up. (I think we can all understand that!) She asked that we pray for the operation of the school in Cambodia. Expenses are up, particularly for food and rent; new sources of income are needed. She will report on this later.

Gioia also reported that she has gotten back the results of her tests. The tests confirmed that she does not have hepatitis A, B, or C. The tests verified the moderate nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (deposits of fat in the liver) diagnosis from before. Gioia has been on the South Beach diet and has lost 15 pounds already. She's taking Omega 3 fish oil, and her blood pressure is down. So, she is doing well. We can continue to pray for her good health and strength. Caring for Buntheep is very tiring, of course, so maintaining good health is important.

Gioia says that she will try to find a way to get access to the internet and send out an update. In the meantime, we can continue to pray for the tumor to shrink away and die, For Buntheep to be spared the bad symptoms from radiation treatment as much as possible, for the chemotherapy drug Calcitonin to be made available, for internet access to be repaired at the Ronald McDonald house, and for Gioia's continued health improvement.

Thank you for your prayer support and birthday surprises sent to Buntheep. I know Gioia and Buntheep are very grateful. God is good!

For Gioia and Buntheep,

--Joe Ginder