Kutless in S'toon
posted by Kevin @ 4:56 p.m.
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Monday, August 21, 2006
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Dad Writes....
"Yesterday, August 16th, we drove to Saskatoon to visit our doctor at the Cancer Clinic. The essence of our visit was that there was good news and there was a "concern" that we will have to continue trusting the Lord about. First, the good news--the CT scan done on July 14th showed no spots on the lungs and no signs of cancer in any of the lymph nodes. Furthermore, according to our doctor, the tumour on the pancreas is now completely gone! Praise the Lord! The doctor also told us that the results of tests on our blood have always been "excellent"--meaning no signs that the body is fighting intruders of any kind.
The doctor did, however, inform us about something that presents a bit of a faith challenge. He said that the CT showed that one of my lymph nodules was slightly enlarged. He went on to give a worst case and a best case scenerio for this. In the worst case scenerio, the lymph nodule is enlarged because it's malignant. If that's the case it will continue to grow larger and obviously also it will spread to other areas of the body. He said that this would show that the cancer did not respond to the chemo treatments and that there would be nothing further that they could do for me. To follow up on this he has scheduled another CT for mid-October ... at which time they will see if there has been any change. With the "best case" scenerio, the nodule should be understood to be inflamed and that this will eventually settle down and things will return to normal size. If this were the case, the future CT scan will show it as unchanged or smaller. The doctor did emphasize that, overall, he is very pleased with the results of these tests.
We are very grateful to God for the good news. We know that many of you reading this have been praying faithfully for us over the past many months of our treatment and we thank you for that. As God brings us to mind, we would appreciate your continued prayers. Especially remember Diane in your prayers. She does tend to worry about me ... more, I think, than she lets on. But ... we have been trusting God through all of this and I see no reason to stop now. So ... rather than focusing on the "concern" that the doctor expressed, instead we choose to focus on the positive results of the CT scan and the consistent positive results of the many blood tests that we have had since we got out of hospital at the end of May ... and we will believe that God has competely eradicated the cancer from my body. Agreed? Agreed!
I have been feeling much stronger lately--especially over this last month--and have become more active. Among my many activities I have been going to Tim Horton's, attending church regularly, taking out the garbage, going to Tim Horton's, mowing the lawn, trimming our hedge, cleaning up our garage, tiding up my computer hard drive, doing lots of reading and preparing sermons (for future use) ... oh and, did I mention, going to Tim Horton's? I'm still not back to 100% but things are definitely headed in that direction.
This whole ordeal has made eternity much more of a reality to us. Do continue to remember us in your prayers. Since I won't be going back to work until at least the beginning of the New Year (the church has hired an interim pastor until we are ready to start back) please pray that we will find ways to serve God with the strength and the opportunities that He will bring our way each day. And may God bless each of you in all your endeavours for Him."
The doctor did, however, inform us about something that presents a bit of a faith challenge. He said that the CT showed that one of my lymph nodules was slightly enlarged. He went on to give a worst case and a best case scenerio for this. In the worst case scenerio, the lymph nodule is enlarged because it's malignant. If that's the case it will continue to grow larger and obviously also it will spread to other areas of the body. He said that this would show that the cancer did not respond to the chemo treatments and that there would be nothing further that they could do for me. To follow up on this he has scheduled another CT for mid-October ... at which time they will see if there has been any change. With the "best case" scenerio, the nodule should be understood to be inflamed and that this will eventually settle down and things will return to normal size. If this were the case, the future CT scan will show it as unchanged or smaller. The doctor did emphasize that, overall, he is very pleased with the results of these tests.
We are very grateful to God for the good news. We know that many of you reading this have been praying faithfully for us over the past many months of our treatment and we thank you for that. As God brings us to mind, we would appreciate your continued prayers. Especially remember Diane in your prayers. She does tend to worry about me ... more, I think, than she lets on. But ... we have been trusting God through all of this and I see no reason to stop now. So ... rather than focusing on the "concern" that the doctor expressed, instead we choose to focus on the positive results of the CT scan and the consistent positive results of the many blood tests that we have had since we got out of hospital at the end of May ... and we will believe that God has competely eradicated the cancer from my body. Agreed? Agreed!
I have been feeling much stronger lately--especially over this last month--and have become more active. Among my many activities I have been going to Tim Horton's, attending church regularly, taking out the garbage, going to Tim Horton's, mowing the lawn, trimming our hedge, cleaning up our garage, tiding up my computer hard drive, doing lots of reading and preparing sermons (for future use) ... oh and, did I mention, going to Tim Horton's? I'm still not back to 100% but things are definitely headed in that direction.
This whole ordeal has made eternity much more of a reality to us. Do continue to remember us in your prayers. Since I won't be going back to work until at least the beginning of the New Year (the church has hired an interim pastor until we are ready to start back) please pray that we will find ways to serve God with the strength and the opportunities that He will bring our way each day. And may God bless each of you in all your endeavours for Him."
posted by Kevin @ 11:37 p.m.
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Thursday, August 17, 2006
Results
Dad's appointment was the other day. We found out that the tumour is completely gone. His abdominal lymph node is bigger than it should be but the doc said it is inflamation probably from all the chemicals put in his body during chemo. Praise God for this news! Please continue to pray for dad's health. Sometimes cancer patients have heart problems after chemo because of the harshness of the chemicals on the cardiovascular system. Pray for me as I decide what to do after my business dies down for winter.
posted by Kevin @ 7:05 p.m.
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Friday, August 04, 2006
Alrighty Then!
It's August already! Crazy. So a nurse phoned the other day and told us they found the results from dad's CT scan. She said the results are the same as his last CT scan from February, which makes absolutely no sense. Dad has an appointment with his doc in the middle of the month so we will find out what is going on then. Good thing God is in control 'cause we don't have a clue what's going on. That's the way it should be though--we don't really need to know what's going on, we just need to put our trust in God and have faith that everything will work out as promised (Romans 8:28).
posted by Kevin @ 11:37 a.m.
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