The Diagnosis

Mikael's cancer journey began four years ago. After dealing with pain in his right hip - which got worse and worse as time went on - doctor's finally discovered a mass. It was concluded it was a benign tumour (basically it was a non-threatening cancer), one which would maybe reoccur, but would never spread and would stay benign. Just to be sure, after Mikael's first surgery, they did radiation treatments.

The tumour did return which lead to another surgery. The diagnosis still stayed the same - a benign tumour. After surgery they did more tests which revealed they did not get all of the current tumour. Mikael needed more time to heal from the second surgery; which he did.

Fast forward eight months, Mikael and Jolene have just gotten home from their time with YWAM and the pain was once again worsening, seemingly by the day. So a third surgery date was set.

Keep in mind the lead up to every surgery meant extreme pain for Mikael making it hard for him to function in every day life. Which is why the surgery's were needed.

So here we are, the third surgery has happened. A PET scan before the surgery revealed a spot on his femur as well as a lymph node which had doctors worried. Doctors felt they had completely removed the current tumour from Mike's hip and got a biopsy of the lymph node. However, during surgery they discovered over a litre of free fluid in his abdomen, yet their focus was still the tumour.

The biopsy's revealed the tumour was still the same, the lymph node was of no concern and the fluid came up clear.

Yet the pain for Mikael continued on over the next couple weeks. This revealed that once again his abdomen filled with fluid. Doctors wrote it off being anything from minor damage from the radiation three years ago, to the scar tissue in his hip from surgery's past rubbing against his intestines. The second time they removed over 3 litres of fluid from his abdomen, and the third time, a week later (Christmas Day) they removed over 4 litres.

Enough was enough. The pain was getting worse and more consistent. With one call into the oncologist an emergency CT scan was scheduled that Wednesday. This revealed spots covering Mikael's liver, abdomen wall and intestines. Cancer was not the first word, but we were told that's what it could be. By Friday the 29th doctors met with Mikael and Jolene to tell them that yes, it is cancer and because of how it had metastasized over Mikael's liver, there wasn't much hope.

Chemo was an option, but with how severe Mikael's case is it would have only prolonged his symptoms by less than 20-25% - but that was a huge maybe.

His official diagnosis is this : Metastatic epithelioid hemangioendothelioma to the liver.

It is extremely rare which has meant a lot of research for our family and deciding which treatments are the ones for Mikael.

It has been an overwhelming process. Seems crazy to think only 10 days have passed since we found out the news. Due to huge research and many phone conversations my parents have gotten Mikael on a special juicing diet and other remedies. Our main goal is to get Mikael's weight up - due to the pain in his abdomen and most foods not agreeing with him for a couple months now, he has lost an extreme amount of weight.

We have a meeting with a specialized surgeon who is known for his 'miracles'...

And as much as we are searching out as many remedies and treatments here, we are also believing for a miracle.

Our God is a God of miracles; the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the dead coming back to life. Already the prayer support has been huge, with my original Facebook post being shared over 100 times. Between Mikael and Jolene's YWAM family, my Bethel family, and Marek and Kendra's family in the states we have a global prayer movement happening. It is beyond amazing.

So thank you for joining with us on this journey - together we will see God do amazing things, as He already has done so much for us.

He truly is a good God.