We just received some answers to the pain that Rex has been experiencing lately. He had a CT scan done on Monday, and the doctor called this morning and said that the lesion in his spleen has quadrupled in size since the last scan from October. While it certainly isn't the news that we wanted to hear, there is some relief to have an answer to source of his pain. Rex' oncologist wants to know by tomorrow what we want to do as the next step. In the past, there was no pressure or encouragement to do any more chemo because he was doing so well, the cancer seemed to be non-growing and the harmful effects of chemo weren't worth pursuing.
In light of this recent growth, the oncologist wants to pursue some chemo. She has no other offer to make to us because this is what she does for cancer.
While it is not known for sure whether this lesion is cancer (there has never been a biopsy done because of the nature of the spleen), it is assumed to be at this point.
We desperately need God's guidance and wisdom in this, particularly in the next 24 hours as we make a decision of our next step.
Rex is not really surprised about this growth. He has waned considerably in all of the nutritional things he was doing prior to October. When we got busy with The Promise, he let some of his supplements go, he went down on his juicing, and he ate more acidic foods as we ate on the run more. I think it got to be so tiring taking so many supplements and doing all that he/we were doing. He was taking about 30 supplements a day. He did that consistently for 6 months. It was a major effort as each day was filled from daylight to dark with juices, powders, pills, and drops throughout the entire day. Then, he had to make sure he was eating in the midst of all of this, along with eating healthy and not convenient.
God is bigger than any supplement or any chemo. God is bigger than any doctor's report or prognosis. We want to do what God wants. Do we just continue and get aggressive with supplementation/nutrition again? Do we do that and take some chemo? If he takes chemo, does he do IV chemo or take a milder pill form? If he does nutritional/supplementation, what regimen should he follow? I don't know that he can do everything that he was doing in the beginning for a long length of time; we need an exact regimen that is not overwhelming. Something that is manageable and realistic, particularly long term.
Please pray for us to know what we are to do on our part. Pray that God will intervene and heal Rex. Pray for wisdom and peace to be obedient even if God leads us to go against all of man's advice. If for some reason this lesion is not even cancer but something else, pray that we will get answers showing us this truth.
Just as I finished this email above, I decided to go to crosswalk.com to look up some scripture and saw this devotional on the main page. It is the Greg Laurie devotional for today. I haven't ever read the devotionals on this website before. I don't believe in coincidence, either. What is interesting is that Rex played Jairus in The Promise this year and Erin played the the role of the daughter. The last few sentences have touched me significantly this morning. I have put them in bold print.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Just Wait
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
—Ecclesiastes 3:11
Jairus was a well-known, powerful, wealthy individual who was the head of the local synagogue. When his 12-year-old daughter, his only child, was in great need, he sought out Jesus to heal her.
We don’t know whether Jairus was a believer in Jesus. As the head of the synagogue, he would have been a religious man. He probably had heard about Jesus. Maybe he had already put his faith in Him. The Scripture doesn’t say. But Jairus believed that Jesus could save his daughter’s life. So he went and found the Lord and begged Him to heal his daughter. He placed his complete trust in Jesus.
But as they were on the way to his house, the news came that his daughter had died. The reason they did not get to his daughter more quickly was because a woman in need of healing came along and touched Jesus, and He stopped and demanded to know who it was that touched Him.
Yet Jairus did not complain. Rather, he committed himself to Jesus, believing that God knew what He was doing. His faith was dramatic, especially because at this particular time in Jesus’ ministry, He had not raised anyone from the dead. Granted, He had healed people. But there had been no resurrections.
Jairus had to wait, and we have to wait. A lot of us grow impatient with God, and in our impatience, we can foolishly take things into our own hands and make them far worse. Know this: God’s delays are not necessarily His denials. We need to wait on the Lord. God’s timing is just as important as His will. He doesn’t ask for us to understand. He just asks us to trust.
Have a great day today. God is still in control. While things may seem impossible to man, they are just a mere circumstance to God.
Donna Meadows
In light of this recent growth, the oncologist wants to pursue some chemo. She has no other offer to make to us because this is what she does for cancer.
While it is not known for sure whether this lesion is cancer (there has never been a biopsy done because of the nature of the spleen), it is assumed to be at this point.
We desperately need God's guidance and wisdom in this, particularly in the next 24 hours as we make a decision of our next step.
Rex is not really surprised about this growth. He has waned considerably in all of the nutritional things he was doing prior to October. When we got busy with The Promise, he let some of his supplements go, he went down on his juicing, and he ate more acidic foods as we ate on the run more. I think it got to be so tiring taking so many supplements and doing all that he/we were doing. He was taking about 30 supplements a day. He did that consistently for 6 months. It was a major effort as each day was filled from daylight to dark with juices, powders, pills, and drops throughout the entire day. Then, he had to make sure he was eating in the midst of all of this, along with eating healthy and not convenient.
God is bigger than any supplement or any chemo. God is bigger than any doctor's report or prognosis. We want to do what God wants. Do we just continue and get aggressive with supplementation/nutrition again? Do we do that and take some chemo? If he takes chemo, does he do IV chemo or take a milder pill form? If he does nutritional/supplementation, what regimen should he follow? I don't know that he can do everything that he was doing in the beginning for a long length of time; we need an exact regimen that is not overwhelming. Something that is manageable and realistic, particularly long term.
Please pray for us to know what we are to do on our part. Pray that God will intervene and heal Rex. Pray for wisdom and peace to be obedient even if God leads us to go against all of man's advice. If for some reason this lesion is not even cancer but something else, pray that we will get answers showing us this truth.
Just as I finished this email above, I decided to go to crosswalk.com to look up some scripture and saw this devotional on the main page. It is the Greg Laurie devotional for today. I haven't ever read the devotionals on this website before. I don't believe in coincidence, either. What is interesting is that Rex played Jairus in The Promise this year and Erin played the the role of the daughter. The last few sentences have touched me significantly this morning. I have put them in bold print.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Just Wait
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
—Ecclesiastes 3:11
Jairus was a well-known, powerful, wealthy individual who was the head of the local synagogue. When his 12-year-old daughter, his only child, was in great need, he sought out Jesus to heal her.
We don’t know whether Jairus was a believer in Jesus. As the head of the synagogue, he would have been a religious man. He probably had heard about Jesus. Maybe he had already put his faith in Him. The Scripture doesn’t say. But Jairus believed that Jesus could save his daughter’s life. So he went and found the Lord and begged Him to heal his daughter. He placed his complete trust in Jesus.
But as they were on the way to his house, the news came that his daughter had died. The reason they did not get to his daughter more quickly was because a woman in need of healing came along and touched Jesus, and He stopped and demanded to know who it was that touched Him.
Yet Jairus did not complain. Rather, he committed himself to Jesus, believing that God knew what He was doing. His faith was dramatic, especially because at this particular time in Jesus’ ministry, He had not raised anyone from the dead. Granted, He had healed people. But there had been no resurrections.
Jairus had to wait, and we have to wait. A lot of us grow impatient with God, and in our impatience, we can foolishly take things into our own hands and make them far worse. Know this: God’s delays are not necessarily His denials. We need to wait on the Lord. God’s timing is just as important as His will. He doesn’t ask for us to understand. He just asks us to trust.
Have a great day today. God is still in control. While things may seem impossible to man, they are just a mere circumstance to God.
Donna Meadows
