Facing It

Well, it’s almost the end of the line.

On Tuesday Pam will have her port removed. This is a surgical procedure and Pam isn’t looking forward to it AND is asking for prayer ahead of time.

But, this is an ending stage to treatment. All the infusions are now done. All the major blood draws are complete. Once the port is out and recovery from the surgery completed, we’ll move into maintenance mode. A visit to the oncologist every three months. No doubt a mammogram periodically. Monitoring for any changes, but cancer free for now.

Praise to God. Thanks to the treatment team. Thanks also to friends who have supported in so many ways. Prayer, food, encouragement. Yahoo!

Well now. When last year ended who would have thought what we might face in 2018. At the beginning of the year, I had in mind that I needed to pay attention each day. I took a picture of something each day as a way of doing that.

Of course, what seemed like such a simple start turned out to be the beginning of an incredible journey beginning with the diagnosis of Pam’s cancer. One day, everything was pretty normal and ordinary, and then Boom, like that, everything was turned upside down.

Soon after that diagnosis, I began sharing a word each day with Pam and our three daughters. It was one way of paying special attention, and one way of binding us together. Our final word for the year was awe. “Shout Bravo! to GOD, families of the peoples, in awe of the Glory, in awe of the Strength: Bravo!” (1 Chronicles 16:28 in the Message).

Well now. We’re at the end of the year. Pam has been declared cancer-free for now. She’s still fatigued but each day grows a little stronger. She still suffers from the effects of chemo, but each day, a little less.

We look forward to the New Year and for a return to some amount of normalcy. But we’ll take what we get.

The journey would have been so much harder without all your support, and we’re ever so grateful for it. How about that.

It has often struck me as peculiar that we have a day set aside for giving thanks. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it is the case that biblically we are encouraged, commanded, and reminded to be thankful in all circumstances. For example, Paul reminds the Colossians (and us) to “Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.”

I know it can take a lot of reminding to be thankful when we’re in rough circumstances.

Anyway, we have this day tomorrow, in case we’ve slipped in our thanksgiving. Our family has a tremendous amount to be thankful for. I wanted to take this moment, though, to say thank you to all of you, family and friends, who have supported Pam and me through this struggle with cancer. Your expressions of kindness, prayers, and good thoughts have been a tremendous encouragement to us.

And a special shout out to all you meal makers and bringers. I didn’t expect the need to be there for so long, and you have been so faithful to see it through. We can’t begin to thank you enough for your generosity…and good cooking. Thank you all!

Our prayer tonight is that you have a wonderful holiday and that you, too, be devoted to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.

Here’s a quick and much delayed catch up on Pam’s situation. After her surgery in mid-September and the good news that all the cancer cells were dead, we had radiation standing in front of us as the next step in treatment. After much prayer, and with agreement in the whole family, Pam chose not to do radiation. Oncologist isn’t happy about that, but willing to go along with that decision.

So, over the past month and a half, Pam has slowly been recovering from the pounding of chemo. Let me emphasize pounding and slowly. Pam still has very low energy, but has been able to attend church, spend a couple of days with Kristina and George, make some lunches and dinners, and get in the pool twice. But it is very slow, and often just one brief expending of energy is followed by rest for the remainder of the day. There is some progress nonetheless.

Which leads to today. Pam had agreed to be part of a study on the effect of immune therapy and breast cancer. Throughout the earlier chemo infusions, every third week she received either a placebo or the drug that is used to boost the immune system in an attempt to have it attack the cancer cells. This treatment is used in other cancers, but still in study for breast cancer. Now, she begins the final set of nine infusions, once every three weeks of just the immune therapy drug.

Frankly, she doesn’t want to do it. There is no guarantee that this drug won’t have side effects, including and especially fatigue. Generally, the word is that it won’t be as severe as earlier treatments were. We’re counting on that.

I invite you to join us in praying for the efficacy of the treatment with minimal impact on Pam’s physical condition. And thank you for that.

I was hoping that September would be the last month where we needed meals. But it looks like we might need some for a while longer.

And several of you have offered to continue to bring meals. Thanks for that.

So, I have posted a reduced set of days at the Sign-Up Genius site if you would like to participate.
We really do appreciate it.

Meal Signup

A short time ago we heard from our nurse navigator with the results from the pathologist’s examination of the tissue removed from Pam’s breast last week.

No cancer cells alive. Not one. Yahoo!

We are praising God for his goodness and mercy!

This is the third day of recovery from Pam’s surgery. All seems to be proceeding normally. It’s slow, but proceeding.

That means Pam is still pretty sore, not moving much, and sleeping a fair amount.

Not much to report.

We’ve just arrived home, so I thought I’d get the word out. Surgery is finished. Everything looked good. Minimal amount of tissue removed.

Hooray!

Pam’s a little loopy right now, and we don’t know what the pathologist might yet discover, but we’re feeling really good after talking with the surgeon. Thanks for all your prayers and support.