The Gathering Place Where Family Matters

Wednesday Update May 6th, 2015

The Joy of Belonging to the Lord

“I trusted in Thee, O LORD: I said Thou art my God” (Psalm 31:14).

King David surely had many opportunities to truly trust in the Lord. Have you lately thought about what it means to “trust the Lord?” It really is beautiful. I am not a language scholar. However I do know that David by the power of the Holy Spirit selected an incredible word for “trust.” It is the word batach. This Old Testament word has several powerful components. Several that I am thinking about has to do with “being secure, bold, confident.”

I know David lived far from perfectly. So do I. The blessed King of Israel however is such a testimony and such an encouragement to me. He didn’t live arrogantly. He surely could have. After all he was the King. I don’t want to ever become arrogant. I need the Lord. I need to trust in the Lord.

You won’t be apt to catch me being confident in myself. My security, boldness, and confidence intentionally focus on the Lord. This journey with my Karen and her cancer really is overwhelming. I want to take it away. I can’t. I want to make her all better. I can’t. I want to stomp on that mass and smash it. I can’t.

But I can trust in the Lord and be confident in Him. He loves my Karen more than I ever can. He is able to do things in her life that only He can do. I am confident that there is no safer place for my Karen (or anyone else!) than to be in the Lord’s hands. It really is a win-win situation.

This brings me quietness tonight. I am filled with appreciation to Him for the wonderful news that after only two chemo treatments the mass has shrunk by 15%. She has never been any more beautiful and I have never loved her more than tonight. I am a man so in love. Karen and I are not alone. Over 400 different computers were logged on to my web site to check on Karen. But multiple people used the computer because my post was read by over 700 people last night. We are so blessed. We’re confident in the Lord and surrounded by people who are praying.

I am so glad that He is my God, Karen is my wife, and you are our friends who pray. Tomorrow morning will be blood labs. Then in the afternoon we see the pulmonologist. Friday morning early we see the oncologist and then Karen begins round three of six hour chemo-therapy. Go chemo! Smash the mass!

The Scan Results Are Back

Tuesday May 5, 2015 Update

Many folks tell me that they love coming to the updates and reading about Karen. Hundreds have made the decision to join us on this part of our journey. Often I am thanked for the updates. Believe me, it is my pleasure. I love to write. I obviously love Karen and I truly the Lord. It is a joy to write about what the Lord is doing on this journey with cancer.

You have been waiting for the results of the scan. Thank you so much for your concern. The Oncology office called just a few moments ago. I texted each of my children first with the results, and now I wanted to let you dear friends know.

THE MASS AFTER JUST TWO TREATMENTS HAS SHRUNK BY 15%!!!!!

This is wonderful news. We are celebrating. Our clinical nurse is a believer and is praising the Lord with us. If the results were not good I would want to trust the Lord and praise Him for His faithfulness. But I can tell you that it was a joy to hold my Karen in my arms and thank the Lord for this good news.

We know that it is a long road ahead and there will be hard days. But today is a good day. A really good day!

This Friday she has round # 3 of the big gun chemo-therapy. I’ll write more later this week. For now thank you again for praying.

One of My Hardest Days Yet

Saturday Update May 2nd, 2015

You might say that living with cancer brings about many changes.

I am not trying to be dramatic. Although I could be dramatic very easily, I won’t. All of my adult life I have served people who have been diagnosed with cancer. I have ministered to entire families when cancer has entered the home. I have loved them, cared for them, sympathized with them, and imagined how I would feel if cancer entered my home.

Congenital heart disease and Duchene muscular dystrophy came into our lives with our boys Jeffrey and Billy. I knew how that felt. Then the day came on February 24th when the doctor told us, “Your scan results are back. I am so sorry to tell you that we have found a mass.”

Yep! You might indeed say that living with cancer does bring changes. Karen’s doctors appointments, clinic visits, hospital tests, lab work, chemo-therapy infusions that leave my beloved so very sick, the pleurX drains, surgical implants, and a dozen other things that are out of my comfort zone. But most of all, my beloved Karen has cancer.

The strange thing about being a husband to a cancer patient is that stuff hits you when you least expect it. Yesterday morning a well-meaning person made a remark about Karen’s cancer that left me struggling all day long. I felt a sense of forlorn, a despondency that I didn’t want to let on or show to Karen or anyone else (I of course couldn’t hide it from her!) It gripped me all day long.

I prayed. I wept. I held onto the verse Psalm 56:3, “What times I am afraid I will trust in you.” I wept some more. Out of the blue, unexpectedly when I was told “You know that Karen is never going to get rid of this” I can honestly say it plummeted me into one of the hardest days yet.

I know that we are dealing with a life changing situation that the Lord is able to miraculously remove the mass. I know that with medication and chemo-therapy, it is possible that Karen’s mass may be manageable for many years to come. I also know that the Rapture may come today and we believers will be home with the Lord in an instant.

I write today to be an encouragement to you and to remind you that your words are powerful. When you speak to others, stop and think about your words. The person who spoke carelessly didn’t mean to wound me so deeply. But those words did hurt me deeply and needlessly reminded Karen again of the seriousness of her situation.

Today I am doing better. The Lord brought several very precious people into our lives that through their thoughtfulness really helped both Karen and me today. Our God is so awesome and our dear friends are so very special to us. Thank you for upholding us.

Here are a couple of things to pass along as you continue on the journey with us.

• Maybe for each of us before we are quick to speak, might be well advised to ask ourselves, “Is this helpful? Is this necessary? Is this encouraging?”
• Elijah was a real man. His bravery in taking on the forces of darkness on Mt. Carmel is stunning (1 Kings 18). But at the words of the wicked Queen, he sits under a juniper tree in despondency. If it can happen to Elijah, it can happen to each of us.
• Anyone can be discouraged or depressed. Elijah didn’t stay there. Neither must we. Coming before the Lord, remembering His goodness, and sharing the burden with others are the exact ways out of the grip of discouragement. Read the rest of Elijah’s story in 1 Kings 19.
• We thank you so much for your prayers. So very many have expressed their concern in so many tangible ways. The Apostle Paul made a sobering statement in 2 Timothy 4:16. He stated, “At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me.” Karen and I surely cannot identify with this statement. Our family and friends have surrounded us, loved us, cared for us, pampered us, and helped us in so many ways.

Yes, it was a very hard day yesterday.

Today is a better day. In fact, it is a much better day. Cancer does bring many changes. But it doesn’t change everything. Our great God is unchanging. Our love for each other hasn’t changed. Our desire for our family to love the Lord and to walk in His ways hasn’t changed. Our desire to serve the Lord hasn’t changed. I could go on and on and on. Today is a much better day.

I probably won’t post anything tomorrow. We wait now until Tuesday when the Radiologist is going to measure the mass and compare it with the measurements he took before chemo-therapy began. We will let you know as soon as we learn the results.

Have a great day of worship with the Lord’s people tomorrow. Hugs from Longford Avenue!

Partial Results From Karen’s Scan

Friday May 1st, 2015

Hi Friends,

First let me say THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS.

Second let me say that I know many hundreds of friends are eagerly awaiting the results of the scan. Let me share with you what we know today.

I know that everyone is eagerly awaiting the scan results that Karen had taken on Tuesday. I only have a partial result that I can share with you at this time. We have been notified by our clinical nurse that the scan has come back with the radiologist’s two-part results. The really good news is that Karen’s pleural effusion has responded very well to the chemo-therapy. This is great news. Before her two rounds of chemo-therapy Karen was producing large amounts of fluid radiating from the mass. The chemo has stopped mass from producing the fluid to the point that her vascular thoracic surgeon removed the pluerX catheter several days ago. So that is good.

Everyone is eager to hear if the mass is still the same size. Sorry that I can’t completely answer that question. The radiologist simply reported that it is “stable.” Next Tuesday the mass will be measured by reading the scan more fully by the same radiologist that took the original scans. By stable at least it would appear that the mass didn’t grow or ignore the chemo-therapy. The clinical nurse told us that they didn’t expect a major difference after only half way through the chemo-therapy. I know this may sound disappointing to you because of course we all would love to hear that the mass had miraculously disappeared. We won’t know if it has decreased any at all until Tuesday.

We all need to be prepared to understand that unless the Lord removes the mass Himself, this will be something that Karen and I and you as our friends will have to live with the rest of our lives. The chemo-therapy goal is to reduce the mass and get it so that it can be managed with maintenance chemo-therapy. The nurse referred to the fact that “we will never actually get rid of it entirely.” Karen says she heard that statement before; but I was taken back by it as I had never heard any of the medical personnel actually say that. So perhaps you didn’t understand that fact either. We are hoping that the chemo will reduce the mass to the point that it can be managed and that Karen and I will, Lord willing, be around together a good long time.

On Tuesday I will post with any additional news on the mass measurement. Please be assured that we love you and thank the Lord for each of you.

“Waiting Is Hard, Isn’t It?”

Thursday Evening Update

April 30th, 2015

We are overwhelmed with the number of folks that stop by every day to check on Karen. Your love and encouragement makes us feel somewhat spoiled at times. We are blessed folks in many ways.

Today has been a day of very special blessings.

• Karen has felt fairly well today. That is always a blessing.
• Our visiting nurse encouraged us that Karen’s blood oxygen levels are excellent, her blood pressure is good, and her breathing sounded great.
• We were given a gift of postage stamps by a very thoughtful friend.
• We were able to watch our grandson Hunter play in a basketball game today.
• On the way to the game we stopped at the grocery store. We were so glad to see one of the ladies from our church. When we got to the checkout we were told by the cashier that a lady gave her money to put toward our grocery bill. It just about paid our entire grocery bill.
• A thoughtful reader sent a special email to thank me for the E-BOOK “When the Protector Cannot Protect His Beloved.”

The scan results have not been made available to us yet. As soon as we hear the news, we will let our children know and then immediately after that we will post the update. We have much for which to be thankful. We serve an awesome God and we partner with wonderful friends.