Thursday, April 12, 2007

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

Thursday, June 1, 2006

We completed the last test which was the scope (EGD); while Rex was getting prepped for it, the nurse told us that the doctor prays for his patients while they are going under sedation and continues to pray until they are sedated. The patients don't even hear the "Amen." True to her word, he did exactly that.

It typically takes 30 minutes to actually do this procedure. I was sweating it a little when they still hadn't called me 1 hour and 40 minutes later. That is similar to our previous scope when they found the mass. I started getting anxious and just began to pray and pray. Finally, the doctor called me. He couldn't find any evidence of a tumor; he did find some inflammation which is typical of radiation. He took many, many biopsies all up and down his esophagus to be thorough, as well as, to make sure there wasn't anything below the surface that he couldn't see. Overall, his esophagus looked very good to the doctor.

We will get the results of the bone scan, MRI, CT scan, and PET scan tomorrow morning. As of now, we are scheduled to fly back Friday afternoon/evening. Depending on the results, we both have the option of staying here and pursuing treatment for Rex. As of now, we plan to fly back Friday, regardless of the results.

Thank you for praying for us. We have had a blessed experience here.

I will write more later. We have another appointment to attend.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Well...I still don't have internet; we thought it was router instead it is the modem. We are trying to get it fixed.

Anyway, we got the results of the CT/PET scan today. There has been significant improvement in Rex' health. I have a copy of the results, so that I can give you the details.

The original CT/PET scan revealed to us that Rex had an 8 cm mass at the base of his esophagus leading into his stomach, several lymph nodes showing cancerous activity, an area in the spleen showing possible cancerous activity, and the adrenal gland on his kidney showing activity.

Now, for the current scan:

This CT part of the scan doesn't register a mass in the esophagus at all! The PET part of the scan shows that the SUV (sugar uptake value) has marked decrease. The SUV value on the first scan was an 18 and has decreased to a 3.1 -- so there is no mass to be seen but there are still cancer cells in there.

The lesion in the spleen has SUV values that have decreased from a range of 3.6 - 7.3 to a range of 1.7 - 3.5 -- if I understand this correctly, there is less cancer activity i.e. less cancer cells in the spleen -- again that is improvement.

There are two lymph nodes that have not changed in size, but again there was a mild decrease in sugar uptake on this exam compared to the prior exam. These two lymph nodes are located near the esophagus.

There is another lymph node that shows marked decrease in size and activity on this PET scan.
The lungs are clear; the liver and kidneys show no activity; no activity in the bones was seen.
Overall, we got a great report! This battle is not over yet, but great strides have been made toward eradicating this cancer.

Our next step is to meet with the surgeon. We really aren't sure what the next step will be. If there is no "mass" in the esophagus, it seems unnecessary to remove it. The spleen and adrenal gland may be what they want to remove. The Dr. was noncommittal about what to do next, so he wants us to see the surgeon here first, then the surgeon at Baptist before we take the next step. We asked if the Dr. would maybe want to do some more chemo before considering surgery. He wants us to talk to the surgeons first.

Thank you thank you thank you for all the prayers that you have lifted up on our behalf, particularly on Rex' behalf. God answers prayer! This is definite proof of that.

God's wisdom is just as important now as it was when Rex was first diagnosed. They weren't expecting this much improvement show it gives leeway in what to do next. I still would very much like to see surgery out of the picture, however, the invasive removal of the esophagus was really the dread in my heart. The removal of the spleen and adrenal gland doesn't seem to entail as much in surgery. We won't know more until we meet with the surgeons. Our appointment witht the surgeon here in Hickory is currrently scheduled for March 30th, but Dr. Tate's office wants us to meet with him sooner. So, they are trying to get us scheduled sooner.
Rex and I are very thankful to God for his love for us; he has certainly extended mercy and grace to us through all of this. We are just so very appreciative of that.

There have been some that have said, "Why Rex?" and even "Why not me instead of Rex?" Please understand that Rex and I fully believe that God is refining us, purifying us, and growing us for His glory. We are honored to be considered worthy or faithful or strong enough to carry this torch. It doesn't mean that it's not painful, and it certainly doesn't mean that it's easy to bear, and it doesn't mean that at times I don't want to bear it. What it does mean is that God wants to use this in the lives of us and others to draw people closer to the only hope we have in life and that hope is Jesus Christ.

There is deep maturity that can take place in our lives when these storms are harsh and when they are hard. Rex recently talked about the study of plant growth, and that the most growth takes place not when the rains are light and easy, but rather when the winds are the strongest and storms are harsh. That is a very good way to look at the storm we are going through. Whenever you encounter things in life that are difficult, you will have a response to it. You will either allow it to refine you, give you more character, make you a stronger person, and make you more like Christ or you will respond in anger, think it is unfair and refuse to "grow up." We have chosen to allow God to work in our lives and make us stronger, deepen our character and to mold us into usable vessels for Him.

We love you. Continue to pray for God's wisdom and guidance in our lives.

Donna Meadows