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August 22, 2007
News too good not to share right away
I’m sorry to bother you with another update so soon, but want to share the news that the tumors have shrunk considerably. Dr. P was in the office today (what a marvelous answer to prayer!) and sent the results as soon as he saw them. I didn’t get the exact numbers, but he said the largest had shrunk from about 3 cm to 2 cm, a considerable reduction after less than two months on the new drugs. He wants me to go back on to just the Tykerb for a week, then see about taking Xeloda again.
The flowerbeds are tilled and shrubs planted. Now to add a few more perennials before it gets too hot. We had corn for lunch today along with BLTs with delicious ripe tomatoes!
Posted by David at 1:38 PM
August 21, 2007
Pains and plants and play
My ‘good’ week turned out to be no better than the bad ones (side effects seem to be cumulative, so I was still feeling more than a manageable amount of pain when off the chemo). That lead to my doctor telling me to stop both the chemo drugs last Friday and consequently I’m feeling quite a bit better now. Yesterday I had a CT scan. It took two tries to get a needle into my vein, but other than that, the test went well. I’m hoping to hear the results soon, but may have to wait until next week since Dr. P isn’t back at work yet. He is off the four IV antibiotics but still on two strong oral ones that give him nausea and make him weak. He continues to be optimistic, but he really needs our prayers for healing. At this point, his leg is too bent to be able to walk and he certainly isn’t able to drive.
If the chemo has done a good job of shrinking my tumors, I’m ready now to start back on them. If not, we’ll need to look for another drug to try. I’m scheduled for a Muga scan next Tuesday to see whether the Tykerb has done any heart damage. The pain in my chest may be caused by acid reflux or it may be heart-related, so this test should provide helpful information. But it means having another IV line in my arm, so please pray they’ll be able to get it into a vein on the first try. The ones that don’t work are the most painful.
We’ve had two days of rain, so the ground is now soft enough to use a roto-tiller to dig up the area where the rhododendrons were removed. I’ve got Oregon grape and viburnum to take their place, and while we’re at it, I’m hoping to have another flowerbed that we’ll be able to see from our family room windows. Too many of our flower beds can only be seen when we’re outside. This is wonderful weather for weeding and I think we’ll be eating our own corn in a few days. I made fried green tomato quiche for a Bible study this morning. It was delicious!
Wil has two hours of soccer practice each morning and three hours of driver’s education each weekday afternoon for the next two weeks. He is nursing a pulled muscle in his right thigh that makes kicking the soccer ball a bit painful. Pray for quick healing.
We’ve needed to switch to a different phone service. During the transition period there were a few days when we could call out but couldn’t receive incoming calls. That now seems to be resolved, but we still are unable to get answerphone messages. Sorry for the inconvenience that may have caused some of you. The phone needs healing too!
Posted by David at 1:37 PM
August 13, 2007
Walking gets harder
Please pray for my oncologist. He wasn’t able to leave the hospital as planned because when his surgeon came to check the wound he found it was infected. That lead to emergency surgery lasting about 3 hours, and another week in the hospital on very strong IV antibiotics. He is home now, but still on the IV antibiotics and can’t put any weight on that leg. He said he is weak, but glad to be home, and very grateful to all who are praying for him. I’m hoping he’ll be back at work by the end of August when I’m scheduled to see him again. I have a CAT scan scheduled for Aug. 20 which will show whether the current chemo is shrinking the tumors in my liver.
The last time I visited with Dr. P in the hospital, his wife Elena was there. She is a naturopathic doctor who has studied a lot about treatment of cancer side effects. I have an appointment to see her on Friday, so now both husband and wife will be my doctors!
I tried to do a bit too much last week while I was on the heavy dose antibiotics and ended up with very sore feet and blisters. On Friday night when I couldn’t walk, Wil was pushing me around in a desk chair with wheels. He said it would have been easier in a wheelchair! Tightness in my chest also got pretty severe and prevented me from going for a walk. I’m doing better now and have worked in the garden this morning, with Wil following my instructions on digging holes and moving plants. Yesterday friends were here who mentioned they had pulled out some rhododendron bushes with the winch on the front of their truck. Since they had come in that truck, we asked them to pull out two large bushes in front of our house. It was quite exciting to watch. Now I need to figure out what shrubs to put in their place and what new flowers to add to the landscape.
Posted by David at 1:46 PM
August 6, 2007
August Prayer Bulletin
Dear Team,
The first week of this month was chock full of visitors: Char and Beth from Colorado, Mike and Betty from Toronto, who we’ve known for many years in the Philippines, their daughter Melody with her husband and two very lively little girls, Pam from Seattle, and Jim and Louise, who arrived to visit with Char after we left for a weekend in Sunriver, Central Oregon. It was fun to have friends here and meant we had enough people to play games, as well as have rich times of fellowship. And with so much fresh produce in the garden, and lots of flowers blooming, it’s a great time of year to welcome people to our home.
As well as letting you know what we’ve been doing, the above explains why you didn’t hear from us earlier in the month. We gave you a lot of prayer requests last month, so want to begin by telling you how God has answered. First, the picnic with Filipino pastors and their congregations on the 4th of July, went well and enabled us to meet a number of new families. Dave was able to present his message on freedom in Christ without a microphone, and apart from one or two restless children, the audience was attentive. It was a hot day, but our picnic site was under very large shade trees, keeping the temperature comfortable, enabling us to talk with people until late afternoon. We went to watch fireworks downtown that evening.
The High Impact Volunteer Network training program in Denver was extremely helpful in understanding how to go about recruiting, selecting, training, and building a team of volunteers. We as a mission are looking for people who want to make a difference through their donation of time and effort in serving in OMF. We are in touch with several people who we believe will strengthen our Portland area prayer team, and are praying the Lord will lead us to more in His time. We got the computer we needed from OMF and Dave has spent a good number of hours reading information on people who have expressed interest in OMF from the Oregon and Vancouver, WA area. We’re learning now how to update information in the database and have been contacting people by email using that computer system. Dave has built an extension to our desk for the new computer at the right height to type. He’s done a beautiful job of matching the stain on the extension to the roll-top desk, and using our printer table as legs for the extension. Our bedroom doubles as our office, so space is at a premium. Pray that we will connect with the right people.
We met Wil at the airport, as planned on July 12th and saw him off to his church youth group camp early on the 14th. Since he returned from the week in the water, he’s worked odd jobs for neighbors and helped us with various projects like painting our back deck and some gardening. Now soccer practice has begun and will occupy his weekday mornings. He will do a Driver’s Ed. course the last two weeks of August.
My new chemo regimen consists of 5 tablets every day of Tykerb and 8 of Xeloda daily for a week, followed by a week off. I started with 10 a day of Xeloda and that caused a number of unpleasant side effects. Some of the side effects are cumulative, like a burning sensation in my palms and soles of my feet, tiredness, and diarrhea, but I’m doing a lot better now than I did the first week. I just need to do all that I can during the good weeks and accept that my energy level is a lot lower during the heavy dose weeks.
Thank you for walking this twisty path with us, Dave and Karen
Posted by David at 8:07 PM