Posts Tagged ‘health’

Yesterday, we received news that sent my invalid wife into ecstatic outbursts of “Ya’ll jump and down for me!” The surgical biopsy that was done on Friday revealed NO sign of lymphoma or Hodgkin’s. We are so very grateful and encouraged by this most recent evidence of God’s gracious activity on our behalf.

The standard line around our house since Saturday has been a quietly urged, through a pained-grin expression, “Don’t make me laugh.” Carolyn has been incredibly sore and in quite a bit of pain as she heals from the surgery. Unfortunately, our house is not one full of stoics. Rather, everyone in our house (perhaps with the exception of Carolyn) is a budding comedian. That has produced some gut-wrenching laughter from the rest of us and painful outbursts from Carolyn.

It was particularly awkward over the weekend when Sam found out the cat’s ears can be folded to the side of her head. She looks pretty funny like this, and he took great delight in folding them back in the presence of his mother and the protests of Adelyn. 

Carolyn’s mom has been with us since Friday, and she’s been non-stop the entire time. She was even up in the attic over the weekend, as she worked to clean out our clothes closets and bag everything up to take to Goodwill. Our back porch is literally covered with trash bags. We’re so grateful for her ministry to us during this time. I was a little concerned upon discovering that my closet alone had filled 4 trashbags. “You didn’t throw away my comfortable clothes, did you?” I asked despondently. She just grinned.

In addition, our friends and church family have brought by some wonderful meals that we’re deeply appreciative for. 

At this point, we are very grateful for some closure to this not-knowing stage of Carolyn’s health. The next step is to begin chemo treatments for the breast cancer. We’ll update you here when we find out what that will entail more specifically.

In the meantime, we’ve gotten pretty spoiled by your heartfelt and intentional intercession. Would you mind keeping us on your prayer lists for a while longer? We need continued healing, wisdom, provision, and constant grace. And we’d be overjoyed to have the privilege of lifting you up as well. Drop me an email or tweet if you are in need of intercession as well.

This should be the last time Carolyn gets cut during this go-round. She has surgery today at Baptist Hospital in Little Rock. As I related in other posts, the doctor wasn’t satisfied with the negative results of the needle biopsies of lymph nodes in the groin area So they will be going in today to remove them.

This will be the second surgical attempt to do so. They were trying to avoid having to go deep.

It will most likely mean an overnight stay. However, the surgeon said she may be able to go home this evening.

What this means for us:
- The waiting game is almost over. Since November, we haven’t known exactly what we were dealing with or what she might be facing in terms of treatment. We will know early next week if Hodgkins or lymphoma is present with confidence.
- Chemo is ahead. A I related in my last post, they will be treating the breast cancer that way. If the results from today show lymphoma, there will be chemo for that as well.
- Living by faith and prayer is hard but deeply significant and surreal. We are overwhelmed by the support of friends, loved ones and complete strangers. Thank you.

At this point, we no longer ask for your prayers. You’ve spoiled us. Now we expect them. It is a glorious blessing to presume upon you in this way. Reality is though that we need more than prayers for health. Please pray for wisdom, financial provision, and our ability to testify to the Lord’s mercy in the middle of it all.

Living with uncertainty with Christ is better than being amply supplied and healthy without Him. I am reminded of David’s words, “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the courts of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”

We had an appointment with the oncologist today. Dr. Larry Mendohlsohn has been Carolyn’s doctor since 1992 when she first started battling Hodgkin’s. He is an incredible, wise, Christ-follower who just happens to be one of the leading oncologists in this field. We’re grateful to be under his care.

However, as we met with him today, we realized that we had not exactly understood the situation. To review:

• A PET scan in early November revealed areas of activity, notably two areas in her groin, one in her breast, and today we found out that there was a small area on her spleen.
• She had a needle biopsy done on one of the groin areas to determine if it was lymphoma or Hodgkin’s. This biopsy was messed up by the lab, so we were back at square one.
• She had a lumpectomy to remove the tumor in her breast. It tested 70% noninvasive and 30% invasive. It was determined to be radiation-induced cancer, and we learned that she could not have anymore radiation since she’d reached her limit with her treatments in ’91-92.
• The doctors recommended a mastectomy, and without rehashing our decision NOT to proceed that way, she had another procedure a week ago to remove more tissue in her breast AND remove lymph nodes in the area around that to test and see if the breast cancer had spread. 
• In the meantime, she had another needle biopsy of the areas in her groin. These all came back negative. We took this for great news.
• She’s been very sore from the breast and node removal surgery. They installed a drain port for the lymph incision which was pretty uncomfortable. But the results on the tests all came back good. No sign of breast cancer in the lymph nodes.

At this point, we were elated. Except for a hurried trip to Little Rock Saturday morning, her recovery has been pretty smooth. The Saturday trip was due to the drain port causing a contact allergy that was extremely painful. 

Which brings us back to today. 

In our consultation with Dr. Mendelsohn, he was still not convinced that the nodes in the groin area were not problematic. It’s just a risk that we can’t take, he advised, and therefore recommended the necessary abdominal surgery (the node is deep) to remove it and test. 

In addition, he said that since we can’t treat the breast area with radiation, and even though all tests have come back negative, due to her age and history, he wants to treat her with chemotherapy for the breast cancer. 

If the node removed from the surgery comes back positive, she will also need to receive chemo for that as well, but he believes that he might be able to combine chemo treatments and treat both at the same time.

So that’s where we are tonight. Not where we want to be. But we’re still kicking. And relying on prayers. Thank you all so much!

Carolyn’s birthday is December 24. That was the  day we received good news about her last needle biopsy. All the initial results from those came back negative for lymphoma or Hodgkin’s! That is truly a startling turn of events that we are ascribing to God’s gracious intervention through His people’s prayers. While Caro’s doctor may still ask her to have one of the nodes removed (a significant abdominal surgery), we are thanking the Lord at this point. Carolyn said she felt like a ton of bricks had been lifted off her shoulders.

Last Friday, she had surgery again to remove more tissue around her breast from where they removed the first tumor. They injected her with dye that traced the lymph nodes connected to that area. They removed those and tested them for breast cancer to see if the invasive portions of the tumor had spread.

Today is my birthday. We got a call this evening while celebrating my birthday with family and old friends at Mimi’s Cafe in Little Rock. The results… again, negative. No sign of cancer in the removed nodes. Carolyn breathed a huge sigh of relief and says she can’t stop sighing.

Obviously, we’ll have some more consultations. She goes back next Monday morning to have the drain port removed. (We won’t go into that; it’s rather gross.) We are continuing to count on your and your church’s intercession for us. We thank you deeply for your participation in this hard journey with us.

I remarked to Caro the other night how different this time around is from the first bout with cancer in 1992. The outpouring of prayer and a sense of connectedness thanks to the blog world, Facebook, email and other forums has been astonishing. Literally, we’ve been aware of prayer and encouragement from all over the globe. Thank you.

And for those few of you who keep coming back to Notes waiting patiently for posts of church planting, tech, missional living, etc., please stay with me. I’ll get back to that in the near future.

We went yesterday for another consultation and were encouraged by the visit with the doctor. He assured us that a mastectomy was not urgent nor essential at this stage. So we will be opting for breast salvage, and a surgery is scheduled for January 2. 

The main issue at this point is discovering what we are dealing with regarding the cell activity the PET scan found in the groin area. We’re hoping to schedule a needle biopsy for next week, before Christmas. If we cannot get a discernible answer from the needle biopsy, she will have to have surgery to remove one of those nodes, which are deep, so it will require a significant surgery. We’re praying that the needle biopsy tells us what we need to know.

Since beginning this new health journey several weeks ago, we’ve been in discovery and learning mode. All the PET scan told us back then was that there are three areas of activity in Carolyn’s body that may indicate cancer in some form. The first biopsy attempt was a failure on the part of the lab. 

Carolyn went in this Monday for surgery to remove one spot and possibly another for testing. It’s been a long, drawn-out experience so far of simply not knowing what we are dealing with.

Today, however, we received “the phone call” from the doctor stating that the node removed from her breast tested positive for radiation-induced cancer. We were told that the tissue they tested was 70% noninvasive but 30% invasive. The doctor said that he will need to study how much radiation Caro received way back when to determine if this breast cancer can even be treated with radiation. In fact, he said that we may be looking at a mastectomy as the main treatment.

Unfortunately, we were told that the testing of the other nodes was inconclusive, so we may be back to square one there and still will need to determine if there is any kind of lymphoma present. 

It has not been a fun day around the Noble House, as you can imagine. Yet… we are confident in God’s protection and peace. In fact, just yesterday I learned of a former campus minister friend who is battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma… again. He wrote something on his blog that echoes the very desires of our hearts as well and did so eloquently:

Ultimately, our hope does not exist in Chemo or gifted doctors. I am thankful that these exist but we do not find any rest in either. Rest is a by product (lifeline) of where our affection and faith are attached. My recent understanding is if rest is to be had, then it must be chosen as an act of trust. (Jeremiah 6:16, 2Jeremiah 6:16, 2
English: World English Bible - WEB
16 Thus says Yahweh, Stand you in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk therein. ² The comely and delicate one, the daughter of Zion, will I cut off.

WP-Bible plugin Tim 1:12, Matt 11:28Matt 11:28
English: World English Bible - WEB
28 “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.

WP-Bible plugin). Said another way, anxiety has a way of quieting in the face of the Almighty who is sustaining, holding and allowing all. So pray that I will choose REST in the midst of this and worship Him through it all.

There are still so many things that we don’t know. It’s early in all this, and recommendations from doctors change frequently. We also do not know why God has chosen us, once again, for such an experience. Yet what we do know is greater than what we don’t know. Of that, and in Him, we are confident.

There are so many questions we have for the doctors… and for the Lord. In rational and faith-filled moments, we choose hope, strength and trust. In emotional ones, we are crying out to God with why’s, complaints, and in helpless frustration. Please be praying that the former moments far exceed and outweigh the latter. 

In the middle of all the health stuff, life continues to happen on other fronts. It’s unkind in that way, really. It simply will not pause long enough for you to manage one crisis or stressor before handing you another. 

There’s an old adage that “God will not give us more than we can bear.” It sounds good, but like this blog entry points out, that principle is in relationship to temptation, not suffering or hardship. In truth, God frequently gives us more than we can bear. Now is such a time for us, it feels like.

However, He never gives us what we can’t bear without also providing Himself.

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” (2 Corinthians 1.8-9)

And so there is our hope… in God alone. As we walk this path (again) with imperfect knowledge of what awaits, we walk it with our Messiah. We know that if we walk with Him, we will become more like Him. We also know that you can help us in our walk. According the the next verses from the passage above:

“He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.” (1.10-11)

We covet your prayers during this time for our ability to set our hope on Him. Please pray for us all around. There are several areas of this “life stuff” that we are helpless to do without His work at this time. As always, we thank you for your gracious and tender mercy toward us through your prayers and help.

Just wanted to post a quick update on our health journey with Carolyn. Thank you all for emailing, asking and praying. 

She had an appointment today at 12:30 in which the surgeon reviewed her PET scan and medical history. After doing an ultrasound on two of the areas in which he was able to see the lumps, he and Carolyn’s oncologist are recommending an outpatient surgery. We scheduled it for December 8.

On a side note, his ultrasound machine was smaller than a standard laptop… I was dying to snap a picture of it but just couldn’t bring myself to do so. (I can take a picture of a cat funeral but not a sonogram machine… Go figure.)

Basically, he will remove the lump in the breast and do a biopsy of it first. If it proves to be Hodgkin’s or some sort of lymphoma, he will not remove anything else. If it’s not, then he’ll proceed to one of the other nodes and remove one of them and do a biopsy of it.

The reasoning is that since all this is happening at one time, that it’s most likely related and not separate cases of breast cancer and Hodgkin’s. We were very pleased with his professionalism, candor and sensitivity.

We’re trying to schedule things around Adelyn’s performance in the Arkansas Ballet’s production of the Nutcracker the weekend of the 6th. 

Again, thanks for your prayers and thoughts!