The business and blessings of our Beckstead family.

After a miraculous stay at the hospital, Sid was discharged on Thursday - exactly one week from his surgery. I use "miraculous" very intentionally. There isn't a logical reason for Sid to be healing so well. We were told his stay would most likely be 10-14 days.  I should make mention that the obvious blessings apparent in this journey do not (and have not) always help us avoid difficulties. The first night home was incredibly hard. The instant shift from having a professional nurse monitoring all of Sid's meds, food, wound care, etc to us taking on all of that responsibility, was... overwhelming. Every department sends you home with a literal packet of info to read and there are some discrepancies on how to handle certain care. I consider myself a very capable person and I also have a decent background in medical care between my days as an EMT and my college job at the plasma center. It was still a lot to have thrust on us all at once. But with some good planning and...

Sid has been recovering so well! His doctor is so pleased with his progress. For the most part the pain has been very controlled with only a few rough goes.  At this point we are all just waiting for his intestines to finish waking up so that they can remove the NG tube that's removing his stomach acid and one of the chest tubes that's draining excess fluids from the surgery site internally. Each day he is getting more mobile and stronger. Hopefully tomorrow those tubes will be removed!

Yesterday was surgery day.  There was much stress and anxiety leading up to it. Honestly, for me, the most stress was in preparing to leave and much of that was alleviated once we got the kiddos sent of with Grandma and left the house ourselves.  We left Wednesday night and stayed that evening with Sid's mission president. It was a really good night due to our time in the temple and chatting with them.  We had a very early start to our day. Check in at the hospital was at 6:00. Surgery time officially started at 8:27 and I received the last text update at 4:41 saying it was done. If you include when they started the sedation process which started around 7:30, it was a 9 hour long procedure. What a work day for the medical staff!  When we got to the hospital, I felt a sense of anticipation, but I don't remember feeling scared or even nervous. As soon as I left the prep room and he started being wheeled back I just felt peace.  I know so many were praying; praying...

Today we finally moved out of limbo and have a plan of action! We met with Dr. Contreras again this morning who is a thoracic surgeon at Huntsman. We really like him as a person and as a professional. We've collectively made the decision to move forward with Sid getting the surgery done. If you're curious the procedure is specifically called an Ivor Lewis Esophagectomy. This will happen on June 5th.  We were told that Sid is likely less than 1 or 2 percent of patients who have started with metastatic disease with response to treatment and now being treated as if it were a localized cancer. Sid responded that he fully attributes this to Divine intervention as a result of the many prayers said on his and our behalf. Dr. Contreras completely agreed. Truly a walking miracle.  Generally, this surgery entails removing the lower third (more or less) of his esophagus, upper section of the stomach (which will permanently reshape the stomach into a tube shape), and the surrounding lymph...

 Happy Palm Sunday. ❤️ Quite frequently in the past month I have thought "why me?".  Every time we have had someone drop off a treat or reach out with offers of service I wonder how we could possibly warrant this much love and attention.  Why me? Why us? We're just the Becksteads.  Why do I get to know so many people willing to give, love, and serve us so generously? I feel so undeserving of the care we regularly receive. Thousands of years ago on the first Palm Sunday, Christ boldly rode into Jerusalem in open proclamation of his Messianic role. He knew the unrest this would create and what it would eventually lead to. And in the spirit of this special Sabbath, the same recurring question circling my mind could be asked of the Savior, "Why me?".  Why did you willingly suffer for me? Why did you give your life, in a most agonizing way, for me? Ultimately, it's not about being deserving or worthy. It's about love.  "I marvel that he would descend fro...

In the last couple of weeks there have been many consultations with new doctors that are being added to Sid's medical team. They have all been so kind and professional. They have taken great effort to care for Sid; emotionally, physically, intellectually -  they have gone to great lengths to make sure we are ready for the fight ahead.   Because of Sid's initial Stage 4 diagnosis, surgery wasn't ever supposed to be on the table. But due to a combination of a few factors (I'm not sure I could do it justice here) they proposed trying it with this current tumor. However, the medical team is a little hesitant to just jump right into surgery. The hesitation is that if there are any lingering cancer cells floating around in the body that are not currently detected on scans, they would be doing Sid a HUGE disservice by doing surgery. If the surgery was done and the cancer were to pop up elsewhere, we wouldn't be able to jump back into chemo until Sid was fully recovered fro...

Again. At a checkup/routine endoscopy they found a tumor again.  Just before Christmas Sid went for his annual endoscopy. What was supposed to be a routine checkup ended up being the second time that we heard the doctors tell us that they found a mass growing in his esophagus. And with "again" comes remembering.  Remembering the agony of hearing "cancer". Remembering the worry and the fear. The panic. Remembering treatments; the heaviness in your gut and on your heart in just getting through each of those days.  Over and over again. And for quite a few days I was stuck there in the devastation.  But slowly I have remembered other things. As more of our neighbors and friends have started hearing the news, I've been reminded of better things. There are people willing and waiting to help.  So many people love our family. I can't even comprehend how so many people could care so much.  We still have each other and there are plenty of moments to see sparks of hap...