lend me your hearts

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears eyes. And, while you're at it, lend me your hearts, too. And maybe occasionally your voices lifted up in prayer to the Great Physician, through whom ALL things are possible.

We did not get the news we were praying for today. My mom has pancreatic cancer. This is not a relapse of her breast cancer; in fact, this has nothing at all to do with her previous experiences with breast cancer. She is just one of the lucky 5% of cancer patients who get more than one type of cancer in their lifetime. Her biopsy showed that she has adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. If you know anything about pancreatic cancer, you probably know the prognosis for this is not good. It's pretty terrible actually. However, her oncologist, Dr. Tauer, was able to give us some hope today . . . oh, I how love hope!

First of all, it appears we have caught this very early. Four weeks ago, her CT scan and labs were normal and last week they were abnormal. Thank goodness for Mom's frequent check-ups due to cancer #1. Second, this tumor is currently very small and doesn't appear to have spread anywhere else. The reason most pancreatic cancer cases are fatal is because most people don't realize they have it until it has already spread to other organs; at that point, it is too late for surgery. Only 20 - 30% of people with pancreatic cancer are eligible for surgery, and surgery is the only hope for a cure. Because of the apparent small size and early stage of my mom's tumor, Dr. Tauer feels like she will be a candidate for surgery. He is hopeful that the surgeon will be able to remove the cancer completely.

Because it was after office hours today when we learned all of this, Dr. Tauer was unable to schedule a consult with the surgeon. He will call first thing tomorrow morning and hopefully we'll have an appointment set up by the end of the day. The surgeon we plan on seeing is Dr. Behrman. The surgery we hope she can have done is called a Whipple procedure. It is a big surgery. Fortunately for us, we serve a big God.

Meanwhile, tomorrow at noon, my mom will have an ERCP, an outpatient procedure which involves putting a scope down the throat all the way to the small intestine. This will be done by our good friend Randy, who goes to church with us and happens to be an excellent gastroenterologist. During the procedure, Randy will try to open up the bile duct by placing a stent in it. If he's successful, this should relieve Mom of the symptoms she's been having lately (jaundice, itching, etc.), at least until she can have surgery.

Specific prayer requests right now:

• Mom's ERCP tomorrow . . . that it will go well and be successful in opening up her bile duct and that she will have no complications.
  
• Surgery . . . a) that Mom will be able to see the surgeon for a consult ASAP, b) that she will indeed be a candidate for surgery, and c) that the surgery would be successful in removing every bit of cancer from her body.
• Pancreatic cancer . . . that her tumor will remain small and not spread to any other organs or lymph nodes before it can be removed.
• Breast cancer . . . During all of this cancer #2 mess, Mom will not be able to receive her Herceptin, which is the maintenance treatment she has gotten monthly for the past six years to prevent cancer #1 from returning. She is doing great on this front, but pray that her breast cancer will remain in remission during this time!
• Her doctors . . . Dr. Tauer, Dr. Frederick, and Dr. Behrman and their respective teams . . . that God will give them wisdom and work through them to bring healing.
  
• Our family, specifically Jamal and Tekia, who are 15 and 10 years old . . . pray that God will give us His perfect peace and that we will put our trust in Him and continue to praise and bless His name, no matter what.
  
• Total and complete HEALING for my mom! Our God is a God who saves!
• Last but not least, don't forget to thank God for all that He has already done for us and for the blessings that I know are on the way. :-)

Before Dr. Tauer left the room today, he told my mom today that he doesn't think we're through learning from her just yet. He said, "Six years ago when I told you it was in your liver, that was about as bad as it could get, and look how much we've learned from you since then! I think we've still got a lot to learn from you." I would have to agree.

So, the bad news is my mom has pancreatic cancer. And, while it breaks my heart and scares me to death to type those words, I know there is good news, too. The good news is that the God we cry out to tonight is walking this road with us. He has not left our side, not even for a minute. He is the same God I've always known. He is the same as He was yesterday when we were waiting on this news and the same as He was a few weeks ago when all was right with our world. He is a good God, a loving God, a perfect God. And in all of this cancer nonsense, let us not forget what most of us learned as small children, "my God is so BIG, so strong and so mighty - there's NOTHING my God cannot do!"

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine . . ." Ephesians 3:20