Hard news of Hank Zavaleta

This is hard news to hear and share. Please pray for Hank, Cris, and family.

Hi everyone,
A few days ago hank starting getting worse, so yesterday we took him to LB Memorial ER and they found a large bleed in the brain. He is not in pain, but he cannot walk and he cannot speak well. He had a stroke and the bleed is so big that it has pushed his brain to one side. With all that said, the dr's and I have decided that he will go home tomorrow and will be put on hospice. No more treatment, he will just be made comfortable. He is alert, and understands most things. He actually looks better than I make it sound. Thanks again for all your love and support
Love to all, Cris

A memorable annivesary

Of the 26 wedding anniversaries Susan and I have had since March 23, 1985, I think this week’s was the first one we celebrated with an MRI. Why not? If silver is good for 25 years, then radiology works for 26. It was a double celebration because her scan was stable again. Even one of UCLA’s top neuro-radiologists chimed in after viewing the results to confirm her tumor hasn’t grown since last time. We are thankful. We got in for this MRI a month early since Susan has been struggling more lately with increased fatigue, confusion, and occasional vomiting. By ruling out tumor growth, I can put my mind at rest as we consider other causes like steroid adjustments. We’ll meet with a UCLA endocrinologist next week to sort it out rather than wait a month to see the one in Long Beach. We enjoyed a quiet, delicious Italian dinner at Marino’s in Bellflower to top off our day.

Every year at this time I consider how God has blessed me with Susan as the coming of spring brings reminders of when we met nearly 30 years ago. We met at church, on the 2nd floor balcony of the education building when I first attended the college group. Along with Susan, I met some of my soon-to-be-new friends and family. There was brother Randy Romberg, cousin Buddy Feenstra, friend Don Murashima, and cousin Gary Romberg who led worship while seminary student Kevin Korver led the group. I’d been invited by a friend from high school I thought I was dating. You know how guys are always the last to know what’s going on in a relationship? Yup. Barbie had already breezed past me for other prospects (we were actually good friends anyway), so I must have had a neon “available” sign floating above my head. There were so many really nice, good-looking young ladies there, I found I liked Emmanuel Reformed Church quite a lot. I kept coming back. I also began discovering God’s love for me like never before – but I’m just saying. I don’t think I’m the only kid who ever followed a girl to church.
 

Soon I found myself on a college group retreat in Solvang sitting at dinner across from Susan Romberg over a bowl of Anderson’s pea soup. I must have had a really low-frequency antenna because I had no idea she was winning a feminine scrum to see who had dibs on the new guy. All I knew is I liked the soup. But the girl in front of me was pretty nice too, and had beautiful blue eyes. We started dating and soon became inseparable.
 

We pretty much knew within our first year together that it would be the first of many. I proposed marriage at Tommy’s in LA less than two years later, and that’s another story. Our wedding would wait until March of 1985 as UCLA's spring break began. Planning the ceremony before that school year seemed too soon – but we couldn’t stand to wait until after, so the university dictated our wedding date. I finished my last final and winged it to church for our wedding rehearsal and dinner. Our wedding itself was a surreal blur of a day with family, friends, flowers, photos, and me gripping the end of the front pew with white knuckles as Susan walked down the aisle. A short while later we held hands tightly near our wedding party, standing side by side as we were launched into married life. Like getting fastened into a roller coaster car, we both were thinking, "Here we go..."
 

Valentine's dinner, mid-1990s

God gave me so much during that season that began in early 1982 – a church home, a wife, a new family, lots of friends, and deep growth in a lifelong faith that by grace will continue until I get to heaven. But in Susan, he’s blessed me richly. She helped lead me to know God and modeled out for me what it means to serve him. Though not removed at all from normal human failings, the purity in her heart for God has continually caused me to take hold of the grace he has for me as well. She has a super strong sense of commitment and responsibility that she’s countless times allowed to trump her feelings. Her faithfulness has been an anchor of stability in our marriage and our home, a refuge that created a sense of freedom. Her unmovable sense of humor means we can be serious when we need to and mess around when we want to, which is most of the time.
 

In Susan, I married up – into being a person I never thought I could be, into a life I never knew I could have, and into knowing a God I never knew was so real. I thank God for giving the type of woman described in Proverbs 31: “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.”
 

Not only that, but we’re crazy about each other and still are inseparable. There’s just nothing else we prefer than being together, even if that means spending the day at a cancer clinic. I think that’s a gift. As we celebrate our 26th anniversary, we don’t know if we’ll have a 27th. But a few years ago, we didn’t know if we’d have a 25th. God has been good to us. We’ll enjoy as many more anniversaries as he gives us.

Troubles with neuropathy and steroids

Susan’s had a hard time the past several weeks. Her lower legs and feet are still swollen, red, and painful. It’s been hard for her to walk. She tires easily and is prone to more confusion. Rest helps, but the leg pain is always there. All this has been dogging her since January, though now we now know more about it. Her leg and foot pain have been diagnosed as peripheral neuropathy, which is kind of a catch-all name for damage to the peripheral nervous system. Neuropathy can take various forms, affecting a single nerve, a group of nerves, or the entire autonomic nerve system. Among other things, it can be caused by nerve trauma, infection, diabetes, and liver disease – Susan's had all of these at some level since her brain tumor was discovered. Unfortunately, with such a grab bag of causes, treatment is difficult and usually is symptom-based with pain management.
 

Since Susan's biometric body scans done by our chiropractor Dr Jim Augustine show a distressed liver, we’re trying several remedies to improve liver health. We prefer this approach since pain meds don’t fix the cause and will only add more toxins to her liver. To further relieve that burden, we’ve also consulted with her infectious disease MD and discontinued her long-term maintenance dose of anti-fungal Fluconazole. There’s risk that meningitis may return, so we’ll watch for it. We’re making further meds adjustments with Dr Jim to replace Prevacid with natural supplements for digestive support and hope her steroids won’t notice since there’s also risk of ulcers.
 

Speaking of steroids, we doubled Susan's dose of Prednisone last week after a spell of nausea, vomiting and weakness. This assumes 2.5mg daily was too low for her system and was causing the nausea. To remove any guess work, her neuro-oncologist Dr Nghiemphu recommended she see an endocrinologist to confirm she’s actually steroid dependent and find out how much the right dose is for her. We were eager to have a new specialist since it’s been a while since we met one. We’ll see Dr Choi next month or sooner if there’s an opening.
 

Susan getting IV fluids in Long Beach.

Meanwhile, Susan had a new set of labs done last Friday to follow up on her steroid-induced diabetes. We determined she’d gotten dehydrated, so she received almost two liters of IV fluids that perked her up by the weekend. Unfortunately, her lab tests show higher triglycerides, so we’ll need to be stricter on the low-carb diet. Friday’s labs also showed lower red blood count and hemoglobin, known as anemia. Her primary care doctor prescribed OTC iron supplements and suggested she may have a source of bleeding somewhere like an ulcer – but if her dysfunctional liver is causing the anemia, the chiropractor’s remedy will help. Maybe we’ll put the MD and chiropractor in a room together and let them sort it out. I’m thinking Nerf guns.
 

The good thing about the phase we’re in is that Susan's tumor has been stable. The hard thing is dealing with persistent symptoms that have been dragging her down with no clear-cut causes or treatments. It’s not that something worse would be preferable, but as traumatic as they’ve been, at least her past ER visits brought us more quickly to identify an issue and treat it. So right now we’re stepping through a tangle of chronic disease – and Susan can’t walk very well.
 

Even so, we’re constantly affirmed of God’s love and presence, and are always encouraged by his promises like “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Joshua 1:5) and “I am the Lord, who heals you” (Exodus 15:26). We know God’s nature. He is loving, good, powerful, and purposeful. David says of God in Psalm 145:13 “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.” Our lives are attended by this mystery – circumstances we neither want nor can be rid of, along with the presence of a loving God who wraps us in his care and assures us of his good plans. We’re always thankful to him. 

Hank Zavaleta update

Here's an update on our friend and fellow brain tumor patient Hank Zavaleta from his wife Cris. Thank you for continuing to pray for him.

Hi everyone, Today Hank had his 4 week MRI and it showed that the tumors were still growing. They didn't grow a lot, but they did grow. So, Dr. is keeping him on the same chemo and infusion of Avastin for another 4 weeks. Then we will see what that MRI shows and we go from there. So, I think that the news was OK, it could have been much worse. Always a little hope. Thanks for all your well wishes, prayers, cards and your generosity with everything. We love you.