Clayton Health Update - 8/24/25

From Darby: Last weekend (August 16th), the weekend after Clayton finished his 5 days of radiation on his L4-L5 lesion, he started having a lot of pain in his chest. We reached out to Dr. Amy Thompson (doctor but also friend who is walking through their own cancer journey with her husband, Dusty, pastor of Redeemer here in Lubbock), and asked her what we needed to do. She advised us to go to the ER Sunday if his pain persisted, and so after Clayton preached in the 9:30 service we headed to the ER. They did bloodwork, CT scans, and X-rays. Initially they were nervous about blood clots or possible side effects from the radiation, but the scans showed that the cancer in Clayton’s chest that has been there had grown, and new spots had formed. It also showed that the lesion on his T4 on his spine had also grown. They believe this is what was causing the pain. So Monday afternoon we had a meeting with Dr. Shalaby’s NP and another oncologist in his office, Dr. Yalamanchili, because Dr. Shalaby was out of town. Before we went to the appointment I told Clayton I wished they would put him back on the first chemo he did in January of 2024 because it was the chemotherapy that produced an eventual scan of “No evidence of disease,” but we weren’t sure what they would say since we were still set to start the clinical trials around the beginning of September. And thankfully, the plan they were sure of was for Clayton to hold off on clinical trials for now since we don’t know if the drug will work or not, because we DO know that the cancer is growing/spreading, and for him to start back on chemotherapy asap. And the chemo they wanted him to start was the one he started in 2024, and the one we were “hoping” he could start. It’s weird to say you are hoping for a certain chemo, but after trying different ones that you don’t see results with, you’ll take whatever produces results. There may also be a time Clayton does radiation on his T4 spot, but it won’t be as intense because he won’t be cramming 10 days worth of treatment into 5 like he did with the L4. They encouraged us to start treatment as soon as we could, so Clayton had his first treatment last Wednesday the 20th. He will be doing it every 2 weeks at a lower dose rather than every 3 weeks like he did last time, so hopefully the side effects will be less. We are obviously disappointed that the cancer is growing/spreading, but we are thankful that we caught it now, and could start treatment before we headed into a trial that possibly could have wasted a lot of time with a drug that didn’t work. We still have the option to do that later on down the road, just hopefully when Clayton is in a better position. Please be praying for us for strength and perseverance. We are so tired and worn out. We are ready for some good news, some joy, and some light heartedness to return to our family. And of course, please be praying for the treatments to work, we would love to hear “no evidence of disease” again. ❤️