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April 23, 2008
More rain and new pain
Well, we’re in Oregon, aren’t we? What made me think there would be long enough breaks in the showers to work in the garden?! And there has been a threat of snow and freezing temperatures night after night. My energy level hasn’t been too high, so I probably wouldn’t have been able to do much gardening anyway, but Dave and I did manage a visit to tulip fields south of Portland on Friday afternoon. When we left home it was hailing, we saw a bit of sun on the drive there, and as we were nearing home, we had a bit more hail.
I tried to contact my new oncologist late last week, but hadn’t heard back from him before my appointment today. I had blood tests which show that all my counts are good. I was able to talk to him about the persisting side effects and he said to keep taking Pepcid to counteract excess acid that causes nausea. After looking at my mouth and confirming thrush, he prescribed a special mouthwash for that. Dr. P had suggested that I wait a couple of weeks before having another dose of Doxil to try to let the radiation and chemo side effects settle down. That sounded good to me, and Dr. Bigler was agreeable to a one week delay. So my next chemo treatment will be on April 30. I have been experiencing pain in my left pelvic area and after examining me the Dr. Bigler ordered an x-ray as it looks like the cancer may have spread to the bone there. I had the x-ray this morning.
Dr. P is experiencing some GVHD (graft versus host disease) in the form of a rash on his hands. Since he received stem cells from another person, this is normal, but we’re praying that it will not become too severe. I shared the verses in Psalm 118 and 119 with him last week, and he told me that when he was in for his blood tests on Monday, a lady gave him an article on a boy miraculously healed in Texas and the article mentioned the same verses! He was excited to share that with me. His family will be celebrating the Russian Orthodox church Easter this weekend and he will be able to watch services from the cathedral in Moscow.
We celebrated Passover on Sunday with two families joining us. Dawn’s father is Jewish so it was very special to have him with us, sharing his memories of how his family celebrated when he was a boy. Dave and I watched a Jews for Jesus presentation on the Christian significance of different aspects of the Passover traditions and found it very moving.
Posted by David at 1:36 PM
April 14, 2008
Ups and downs
Yesterday at church I talked with a friend who has lymphoma and has had many different chemo treatments. She told me about something her oncologist prescribed called 'Magic Mouthwash' that had helped her. So I called the advice nurse who contacted the on-call oncologist and he prescribed it for me. We picked up the magic elixir (something they produce in-house at Kaiser) and I took two teaspoonfuls yesterday and have had three so far today. The inside of my mouth is MUCH better and I can swallow without pain! Hallelujah! Now I wish I hadn’t waited so long to ask for something. But when you don’t know help is available, you don’t know to ask, right? Must be a spiritual lesson there somewhere.
I think my numbers were off in my last update. Dr. P said today is Day 25 for him, so I suggested he needs to celebrate since he is now a quarter of the way to Day 100! We both still struggle some with nausea and food not tasting the way it should, but God allows us to support and encourage one another medically and spiritually. I think we both look forward to weekly chats.
Last week was so full of very welcome company and meetings that it was nothing short of a miracle that God kept me going through it. The Schlitts were able to participate in a kick-off meeting to a new OMF prayer group in Vancouver, WA. No one came who hadn’t notified us they were coming, but everyone who came is ready to be part of such a group, including a young man interested in becoming a missionary with OMF. Some who couldn’t come on Friday evening have also indicated a willingness to join the group. One couple volunteered to host the monthly meetings at their home. So the time involved in organizing the meeting was well spent and we were helped a lot by Jim Morris who spoke and Louise who helped with food and decorations.
The next couple of weeks aren’t so busy, so if I keep feeling stronger and there are long enough breaks between rain showers, we will be able to do some weeding and planting vegetables. It was about 80 degrees F. on Friday…and today we’ve had hail!
Posted by David at 10:19 PM
April 10, 2008
Trusting the God of Miracles
I’ll start with the miraculously good news. Dr. P was discharged from the hospital last Saturday! His counts suddenly began rising, his medications were shifted from IV to oral, his white counts were high enough that he no longer needed neupogen shots…so he was able to spend the last day of his mother’s visit to the US at home with her! Isn’t God wonderful?! Pray on. He reckons that up until Day 100 (he’s at 23 now) his body is still very susceptible to infections so he is still very much at risk. But he is out of his ‘prison’ and able to walk and exercise more easily, and in great spirits. No news could boost my spirits more than that.
Actually, the past two weeks have been rough physically, though God’s encouragement has been very real. Side effects of pain in my mouth, gums, throat, and stomach have lead to nausea and difficulty in swallowing. I thought it was all from the chemo and was really discouraged because if I was going to be this sick and weak for two weeks after every treatment, I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to tolerate the Doxil even if we discover that it combats the cancer (I won’t know the answer to that until I go through another round of Doxil and have another CT scan). But Dr. P thinks the pain I’m experiencing may be a delayed side effect of the radiation. If that is the case, it will eventually subside and hopefully not return. Tuesday I felt limper than a rag doll, but I’ve had a bit more energy on Wednesday and haven’t struggled as much with nausea. My weight is down to about what it was when I was 16, even lower than when I had dengue fever in Manila. It’s nice to be a size 10, but not to be so weak! I’d been trying to stay away from sugar, but right now I need every calorie I can get. The joy of the Lord is my strength, but I sure haven’t any apart from His.
In my devotions on March 18 the Lord spoke to me very clearly through two verses in Psalm 118 and a number of verses in Psalm 119. I have never felt that any particular passage that spoke about healing was intended for me, but that day as I read Psalm 118:17-18 I felt He was telling me that this was His word to me. It makes no sense in light of the medical findings and I honestly don’t feel as though I grabbed at it as one would a plank to keep from drowning in the ocean. I’ve hesitated to share it this publicly in case you viewed it as me grasping at straws. But Romans 4:20 in one translation reads, “No distrust made him (Abraham) waver concerning the promises of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that He could do all that He had promised.” That verse has been a favorite of mine for about 36 years and I want to be like Abraham and give glory to God and see Him continue to strengthen my faith.
We’ve loved being able to spend time with Chris Nemeth and her family from Seattle, Bonnie and Alan Boerner from Mission, BC, and later this afternoon Richard and Marilyn Schlitt are arriving from Abbotsford, BC. An added surprise was having Ezer Matias and his family stop in last Saturday on their way from CA to WA. We hadn’t seen Ezer for about 15 years. At that point he worked with us on the church planting team for Lord of Life. We loved seeing him and Lorna and their three lovely daughters.
Posted by David at 1:45 PM
April 1, 2008
April Prayer Bulletin
Dear Team,
You prayed and God has answered in the following areas:
Prayer groups. We asked you to pray about the start of two new OMF prayer groups. We are trying to get permission to have a kick off meeting at Multnomah on April 10th with students who were challenged during the missions conference to be involved in praying for the persecuted church. This would be an evening meeting, hopefully on campus, probably providing pizza for those who come. Then on the 11th we have a meeting in Vancouver, WA to try to get a Clark County group started. The reason for pushing both meetings into the same week is that Richard and Marilyn Schlitt will be with us then. Richard is our Philippines Field Director and was deputizing in Singapore for another director, so is in a position to speak knowledgably to prayer needs among the persecuted church and what God is doing in answer to prayer.
Health. God touched me after my first radiation treatment and took away the unpleasant side effects. Now He has done the same with the first round of a new chemotherapy. According to the doctors, I should be experiencing pain in my hands and feet and possibly other places on my skin. But so far, I’ve just had a bad time with constipation from the anti-nausea medicine given to help me tolerate the Doxil! My hair is gone after the radiation, so my head is cold, but eventually we should be seeing some warmer weather here. The sun is shining right now, but we’re still having very frosty nights.
My other health concern is my oncologist. Today is Day 11 since his stem cell transplant and I was talking to him earlier today. He said Day 8 was the hardest, but he’s feeling better now. Within a week some of those stem cells should be producing new cells in his bone marrow and building up his immune system. Doctors are as surprised by how well he is doing as they have been with me. In both cases, we know that the reason is because many have been praying and God is answering. Thank you for your part in this.
Wil’s trip to Mexico. Wil arrived Saturday morning and was willing to give us a pretty full report of his trip. I was disappointed that he hadn’t had more contact with Mexicans and been able to use and improve his Spanish. His team was mostly doing maintenance at the home of one of the missionaries, but he seemed willing to work, and felt he had learned a lot about painting walls. We are praying that as he processes the trip, he will be clear on what God wanted him to learn through the experience. He arrived home with a touch of diarrhea but seems to be doing better now. Play practice and soccer practice will fill most of his time in the afternoons after school.
Visitors. We mentioned the visit from Richard and Marilyn, but before that friends from Seattle will be in town, then friends from British Columbia. So are spring round of visitors has begun. All of the above are people we had hoped to see traveling north during spring break. We chose to stay home and take it easy while I recovered from the radiation and then the first chemo, so they all chose to come south to see us. We are delighted at the prospect of their visits, and that Dave’s brother and two sisters will also be here in May.
Thank you for standing with us,
Dave and Karen
Posted by David at 9:36 PM