Reassurance

God puts people in our path, even when we don’t know we need them.

It’s always been my desire that people who follow this Blog learn about this disease and appreciate our reliance on faith and positive attitude.  We’ve been lifted up family, friends and strangers.  Here’s an example:

I first met Joe several years ago when I was invited onto his softball team for a local softball tournament.  This occurred not long after I was diagnosed with, at that time, an unknown cancer.  At a restaurant after the game I learned that Joe and his wife Tammy pastor a church here in the Valley. Joe prayed for me that day and indicated he would continue to follow my situation.  

Last Thursday my 70+ Sidewinders softball team had a scrimmage game with the 65+ Sidewinders team.  As I came up to bat for the first time the catcher was Joe.  Before the first pitch he briefly said, “we need to talk after the game.”  

I stayed after the game and Joe told me an inspiring story about his wife Tammy and a serious medical situation she was experiencing.  She recently had significant problems in her abdomen (not cancer) that required surgery and resulted in the doctors placing an ileostomy.  Joe told me they had kept up with my blog and Tammy drew comfort and strength from an entry titled, “Say Hello To My Leetle Friend”.  She even named her stoma, Pinky!  Later in the day Joe sent me a link to her sermon at their church where she had the courage to publicly share her story with their congregation, using the Book of Job as a reference.  That is God at work.

Haven’t I commanded you; be strong and courageous?  Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go”

Joshua 1:9

Medical Update:

Diane and I met with the MDAnderson medical team on Tuesday last week.  It started off on a good note with excellent bloodwork.  Almost every indicator was in the green,  We were still on pins and needles waiting for Dr. Yap to give us his observations.  

Was this blocked bowel caused by my poor food choices?   Is it possible when a 70 year old celebrates his birthday all month long he could wake up from a food coma wondering, “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing”…you know, like a 10 year old eating too much candy and cake?

Or was the Mayo staff right about cancer tumors pressing on the small intestine?  If so, was my cancer spreading, growing or metastasizing?  

Dr. Yap walked in with his usual smile and relaxed attitude.  He sat down and explained his version.  He said the real answer is a coalescence.  I interrupted and asked him what that word meant.  He replied, “it’s not just one thing, it’s the combination of everything.”  The poor food choice, the cancer in the abdomen, the Trial.  It’s all the things we need to watch.

The whole principal to the management of a blocked bowel is to rest it and unload it.

The technical procedures for a blocked bowel are Conservative or Surgical.  With a surgical approach it’s “snip, snip, remove the blockage, sew it back up,” he told us, “it’s the most extreme approach.”  The preferred means is to “Drip and Suck”, the conservative approach.  The “Drip” is IV hydration and the “Suck” is a nasal gastric (NG) tube to basically unload the stomach and the bowel.  He had no criticism of the Mayo staff.  Their conservative approach worked without an NG tube.  Had I been in acute distress or pain, my request for no NG tube would have been overridden.  

I asked the doctor if he compared the Mayo scans to my MDA scans.  He said he asked an associate to try but then added, “it’s very hard for us, I don’t want to complicate your continuation on the Clinical Trial.”  Then he said, the blocked bowel is one issue but the main thing is “how is the trial working?”  Clearly, this trial is off to a good start….it’s working.

He finished with “we are very happy to re-start things and keep up with the progress, It’s kind of a wake-up call so let’s not overload the bowel again!”

Diane added, “we’re so happy to hear this news from you, this is our comfort place.”

She’s so right.  We often get reassurance from the doctors at MDAnderson.  

The confirmation of the reassurance is how am I doing now?  Well, I’m back to feeling normal, sleeping good and most importantly, good flow through the ileostomy.  This is in part to our telephone meeting with Stephanie, our nutritionalist at MDA.  She has me back on a medium diet with smaller meals more often to give the intestine some time to process the food.  In addition, we’ve got a strategy to gain back the weight I lost that week.  

All this news has been such a relief for us.  It’s the comforting news needed for Diane to agree that I’m in good enough shape to travel on my own to Las Vegas next week without her (she could use a little break from taking care of me as well!). My softball travel team is headed to Vegas for the Southwest Senior Championships April 9-11th.  This is one of the big tournaments on the schedule where the winners of each division win a berth at the Tournament of Champions at the end of the year in Florida.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.  As you can tell, prayer really works!

I always like at least one photo with every Blog.  This one is me proving I brought my 30-pack for striking out at the last tournament!  Striking out in Slo-pitch softball is a Cardinal Sin!  It deserves a fitting punishment!