Terminal

If you have ever seen the movie, Lemmony Snickets 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' you will remember that the movie starts with an elf scene and jolly music but very quickly Mr. Snicket lets you know that if that was the movie you were looking for you are in the wrong theater.   I feel the need to let you know before you read too far that this too, is not jolly.  Unfortunately, this post is a bit morbid.  

Andrew and I had our follow up visit with the oncologist today.  

I have to say, I was not expecting what he said.  Yesterday, a community of oncology surgeons,  oncology radiologist, and specialized(for liver, gallbladder, etc) oncologist reviewed my case to decide what exact type of cancer I have and what possible treatments are. I expected that the verdict would be the same as last week.  I thought he would suggest I take chemo to shrink the cancer, then surgery to remove the remaining. However, these are the facts;

1.  Chemo only has a 30-40% chance of shrinking my cancer.  It is currently covering every section of my liver. It has spread to some lymph nodes in my abdomen and some small areas in my lungs.  This is bad news because it is hard to get rid of this much cancer with chemo and difficult to biopsy some of the lymph nodes.

2.  If I did make it past step one, I would then have the hurdle of the operation.  Each of the surgeons on the panel were against it because of the amount of cancer that is there in multiple places and the statistics of it coming back.  

If they did operate and cut the remaining infected sections cut out, I would most likely be very sick and tired for at least a month while I recuperated and my liver regenerated and even then it is possible for the cancer to come back.

If they did operate, but did a liver transplant, it is possible that the new one would be rejected by my body.

3.  This is considered terminal cancer because even if all the stars aligned and I made it through step one and two- the statistics for surviving this route is approximately 5-10%.  

Our doctor has had a total of two patients ever make it to the 5-10% and both of them had a reoccurrence of cancer within a fairly short time.  For one it has been 6 months since her second surgery, and the other has passed away.

4. The average life expectancy for someone in this predicament, according to modern medicine, is approximately 6 months to 1 year. 

I have not swayed from my last blog post but I am going to stick to the facts today and I just want to ask again that anyone who is willing will pray that I would be healed.  We are in a situation where it will require a miracle of God.  I believe that Jesus Christ has all authority under heaven and the ability to heal me.  Please pray that he will. I have not decided on a day to fast yet but will post more on that as soon as I decide. 

Thank you all so much for such kind words and sweet messages.  We have been so amazed by the outpouring of love towards our family.  We have an army of friends and family doing our laundry, mowing our yard, bringing us dinners, offering all kinds of sweet things.  When we moved here 10 years ago one of our deepest prayers was that God would bless us with good friends and he definitely answered that.  Here is to hoping he will answer again just as abundantly.