Prayer Update, 1-30-2026

Dear Saints,

Thanks to each and all of you you all and each for keeping my mother in prayer. With many of you asking about her, it seems a fitting time to give a proper update.

When I went home over Christmas, her condition wasn’t great. Her legs had swollen full, and she had a rasping cough from fluid in her lungs. My second week there, we were able to go to the hospital for lymphatic drainage. It turns out her right lung had been half full of fluid. They were able to drain most of it, and most of the fluid in her legs. When she came home, she was more or less back to neutral.

It was a great relief to her, but unfortunately only lasted a few days. After being on her feet for a few days, the fluid pooled again in her legs, and, in subsequent weeks, returned to her lungs as well. For now, it looks like she’ll need regular drainage. Please pray that the doctors would discern a long-term solution for this.

At present, my parents need wisdom about what course of action to take. They’ve been hesitant to continue chemo since September and October, under which treatment the tumor grew significantly. They have the option now to try a different chemo pill, but they are understandably wary to do so.

On the other hand, alternative treatment, being more systemic, doesn’t provide discernible progress in the short term. It doesn’t seem that the research there is less substantial—but in any case, it operates on a different time-scale.

Pray for wisdom and a path forward in these things, to the end that the tumor might shrink to nothing and give our immediate and larger family occasion to praise our God, ‘who gives to all generously without reproach.’ Even so, pray that we ‘would set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ from the dead.’

On that note, pray that we would continue to look to Christ, ‘who keeps those in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on him,’ and ‘seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness’ in our trial.

SDG,
Ethan Plante