Quite a day for me today! 25 sessions of radiation done, and I can't really believe how quick it went by… although it got to feel a little like Cheers, "where everybody knows your name." Kind of happens that way after five weeks of seeing mostly the same techs every day. I've got to say, by God's grace and all the prayers, I didn't really notice any side effects at all. It's hard to believe I didn't have any skin irritation given the fact that I can't even be out in the sun for very long before I turn bright red in the summer… And, to top it off, I got a diploma from the Radiation-Oncology department! That was a fun little extra. In a weird way, I'm going to miss going there every day. I really had some incredibly intense times in that bunker style room, feeling surrounded by the presence of God more than I can ever remember. It took about a week of sessions before I started to notice the subtleties of what was actually going on. After they walked me into the room and got me set up on the table exactly with laser levels and the three freckle tattoos they gave me, they would leave the room. I didn't notice at first, but as they left, the two foot thick door would slowly close behind them and I could hear the faint click as it locked in place. And then it was just me, in a room designed to protect everyone else from the radiation they were about to expose me to. But it wasn't just me, the presence of God was overwhelming in those moments. I remember hearing the whisper of the Holy Spirit reminding me of what the Scriptures say, "you are in Christ, and He is in you." In that moment I felt like Jesus just wrapped me up in Himself as I lay there, and as I heard the buzz of the radiation, I remember thinking to myself, "I should be afraid of this, but I'm not." I just felt an overwhelming peace that anything that got through to me had to pass through Him first… That was my comfort throughout these sessions, and even beyond that, I think it's the same with the trials of my life. There is no trial that doesn't pass by God before it comes into my life, and so I believe there is a purpose for each one, which brings me back to the verses we shared in our first e-mail with the big news (James 1:2-4 and 1 Peter 1:3-9)… but also one from the book of Romans comes to mind today, chapter 8, verse 28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Actually verses 18-39 really give a fuller picture, but it's a bit much to add to an already lengthy e-mail, so you can read that on your own if you want to look it up…
We also went in to see the Hematology-Oncology doctor today because I had trouble with a blood clot two weekends ago, and landed in the hospital for a few more days. They found a few in my calves, but are taking care of them with blood thinners. Again, we see God walking ahead of us and preparing the path before us. One of the medications that was part of my remission treatment plan has a high risk of causing blood clots, which would have been a real problem considering I already had some, and now know that I am probably more susceptible to them in general. We got a lot of good information from the doctor about different treatments they use and the different medications they match up together for a specific individual, but there is a some flexibility there too. We could really use prayer for wisdom in these decisions. I have the holiday and next week off, no hospital visits (scheduled ones anyway), so that's going to be a nice change for a while, and should give us some time to digest some of these things.
Thank you again for your thoughts, prayers, gifts, cards, e-mails, meals, rides and help… Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, I hope you have a wonderful time with family and friends and food and fun! We all have much to be thankful for…
Brady
11/9/2012 - Update
Friends & Family, again, I can't thank you enough for
your encouraging words, your many prayers, your constant support and offers for
anything we might need. We are blessed
by your generous hearts… God has done
such an amazing work in planting our little family where we are, to grow with
this wonderful community around us, and even reaching out to our wonderful
friends across the country, and around the world. The richness of our lives has become so
evident over the past month… we have
seen a world of wonderful people rise up around us, and we appreciate, so much,
each one of you. Thank you!
We had our meeting with the Hematology-Oncology doctor about
the results of my bone marrow biopsy yesterday afternoon, and were met with
some unanticipated news. Where we
thought our preliminary glance at the results put us in the "great
news" category, it unfortunately did not.
Although the percentage of plasma cells found in my bone marrow is low,
it is still present, and along with another abnormal indicator of high light
chain protein ratio in my blood, and the bone lesion growth on my vertebrae, I
have been diagnosed with myeloma.
Myeloma is a type of blood cancer, and by the medical world, it is
considered non-curable, but treatable.
Obviously, the diagnosis hit us pretty hard and we still have a lot to
process, but it is good to know what is going on in my body, to the extent that
we can understand it anyway. With little
time to absorb the weight of everything, we moved right into what the treatment
would look like for me working with this team of doctors. Without going into too much detail, the general
approach is to push the cancer into remission using non-chemo drugs, which
could be about a four to six month process.
Apparently the advancements in the treatments for myeloma have been
exploding over the past few years, which has given the medical community very
effective, targeted medications that work much better than chemo treatments
they have used in the past. Once the
cancer is in a remission stage, we have the opportunity/option to do a bone
marrow transplant to get rid of the plasma cells that are present in my bone
marrow. There are different thoughts on
when a transplant should be done, so we will have consultations on that with
other specialists in the future. The
transplant would be done using my own stem cells, which they would only collect
after the cancer is in remission.
Apparently, similar to my radiation treatments now, I
probably won't have heavy side-effects that keep me from normal activities
during my remission treatments. How
great would that be! The remission
treatment schedule is much different than the radiation treatment schedule, so
it will be much easier to get back to a more normal routine. And, because the remission treatment cannot
be done at the same time as I am undergoing radiation treatment for my
vertebrae, we have a few weeks of breathing time to let everything soak in
before anything new starts.
So there's the facts…
Reading over it again, I can imagine how you may see the engineer in me
presenting a somewhat sterile diagnosis, but I'm sure you know that each word
is bleeding with emotion for us. I thank
the Lord for my beautiful, wonderful, loving wife who is always by my side to
take this in with me. She knows all the
right questions to ask when I only have a few, and together we are so much
stronger when this world throws us a curve ball. I am a rich man, that God has brought my
wonderful wife and I together, and delivered to us three absolutely beautiful
and amazing little ones.
I hesitate to share the doctors opinion of how many years I
may have left because there is not much to go on for my specific set of
symptoms and age and conditions. She
actually said I was a unique constellation…
So pretty much anyone can go online and find plenty of different
statistics and stories of myeloma remission and expectancies. But I won't hesitate to tell you that I
believe God created the universe and everything in it, and He knows about each
and every cell in my body. I believe
that His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, my Lord and my Savior, could place His
healing hand upon me and completely heal me today. I believe that with all my heart, but I also
believe that I have a purpose and a path, just for me… and it isn't always
clear how that works itself out in this world.
Thankfully I know, by the grace God has given me thus far in my life,
that it is He Himself who has numbered my days.
There is no doctor that knows, and there is no disease that has more
power than the Hand of God. He has given
me all the time I need to accomplish the work I have been created to do, and I
pray that I can use every day to the fullest to bring the glory, honor and
praise to Him who has adopted me as His own.
It is a blessing to walk through this with all of your
support…
Brady
Please be aware that we have not been talking to Sadie,
Wyatt and Samuel about many of the more difficult aspects of my condition. They know the word cancer, and they know that
I am being treated because I'm sick, but we are going to try to introduce this
new information at the appropriate times.
So if you are talking to me or Jasmine about anything, and our kids are
within earshot, please be very sensitive of your words. Thanks.
11/1/2012 - Update
It's hard to get an update out sitting in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy's dance through Allentown. The hum of the generator in the background, keeping the family warm and our food cold. God's timing couldn't have been better on that, when Jas had an inclination to check a certain store Monday morning before the storm. We had pretty much chalked it off as a lost cause, but ended up in the right place at the right time, and we got one of the last couple dozen that Home Depot got in on an overnight shipment. Got it all prep'd with our neighbor's help and we were ready when the power went out at 9pm that night, Monday. It's about 9pm on Thursday, and we're still sitting on a dark street, but we're doing good.
Thankfully, with the help of friends not afraid to venture out even the morning after the storm, I didn't have to miss any of my radiation sessions. Two weeks down now, with three to go. They say I should start feeling some side effects soon, but I'm still feeling great right now. Some may already know, but I got a preliminary peek at my bone marrow results from my Radiation Oncologist, which she said indicated a lower percentage than they were looking for to indicate multiple myeloma. Great news! As we understand it, that means this is, in fact, an isolated instance of plasmacytoma. I am scheduled to review the information with my Hematology Oncologist on Nov 8th, so I will get an explanation of all the details of the report, but for now we are celebrating the great news. Thank you for your prayers!
If anytime were a good time to glow in the dark, this would have been the week, but apparently radiation doesn't quite do that... so flashlights it is.
Thinking about you all, and so grateful for your friendship!
Brady
Thankfully, with the help of friends not afraid to venture out even the morning after the storm, I didn't have to miss any of my radiation sessions. Two weeks down now, with three to go. They say I should start feeling some side effects soon, but I'm still feeling great right now. Some may already know, but I got a preliminary peek at my bone marrow results from my Radiation Oncologist, which she said indicated a lower percentage than they were looking for to indicate multiple myeloma. Great news! As we understand it, that means this is, in fact, an isolated instance of plasmacytoma. I am scheduled to review the information with my Hematology Oncologist on Nov 8th, so I will get an explanation of all the details of the report, but for now we are celebrating the great news. Thank you for your prayers!
If anytime were a good time to glow in the dark, this would have been the week, but apparently radiation doesn't quite do that... so flashlights it is.
Thinking about you all, and so grateful for your friendship!
Brady
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