Thankful Thursday: Modern Medications

As some of you  know from reading yesterday's header-note, I have been suffering with a bacterial ear infection this week.  I was pretty miserable.  It's not really like me to put off going to the doctor, if I really need to, but I realized that's exactly what I was doing, and with the long weekend ahead of me, I knew I'd be in trouble if I put it off any longer! So, today I went in, found out that it was indeed an ear infection, which can be sometimes, and had been earlier this week, in my neck and shoulders.

What I'm so thankful for today, this Thankful Thursday, (oh, and thank you, Laurie, at Women Taking a Stand, for hosting this month!), what I'm so, so thankful for today is that modern medicine has made it possible for me to take a pill, and feel great relief from pain almost instantly.  I'm still feeling pain off and on, but I can definitely say the medicine is working!  Thankfulness wells up within me when I think of all the benefits that I enjoy from living in this free country of mine, and in this time of medical advancements, and with the resources to be able to pay for medical treatment, and for the provision of work which God has graciously provided to my husband for so many years, and for the medical insurance that we enjoy, which paid for my medications. Many people complain about insurance, having to pay for it, and I know our insurance situation may be changing, and become more and more expensive, but I want to thank the Lord for how blessed our family has been to have great insurance up til now.  It wasn't as if we said one day, "Let's find out just how good our insurance really is!"  But we found out whether we had decent insurance or not.  You know, you pay and you pay, and sometimes you feel like all you do is pay: but be grateful if you never have to use your insurance! You don't know how good your insurance is until you are diagnosed with cancer and go into the hospital for surgery and a 5-day stay! That's a pretty good test of how good your insurance is!  Well, I give God all the glory, and thank Him that our insurance is fantastic!  Words kind of fail me.  Our bill for the hospital stay, not including the doctors, surgeons, etc., was $32,000!  That is peanuts compared to the experience of many of you, I know, but 8 years ago, it was an enormous amount of money to us, let me tell you.  How much do you think we had to pay of that $32,000 bill?  Well, we had to pay $100.  One hundred dollars.  That's it.  I am so grateful to the Lord for all the medical mercies He has extended to us over the years.  And today, thank You, Lord, for antibiotics and pain killers, when you need them.  I don't like taking them, but when I needed them, praise God, they were there!
(Go visit Laurie's blog, Women Taking a Stand, to read other thankful posts!)

How To Endure Trials: Manage It (No, Victorious in Christ) Monday

The Trials of Life 
Today is the 8th Anniversary of the day I had surgery to remove a football-size, cancerous tumor from my body, which was threatening my life. I had ovarian cancer (click on the link to read my testimony).  In the subsequent weeks following successful surgery, I received three rounds of chemotherapy, and then 24 weekly treatments of a lower dose of chemo, while participating in a voluntary scientific trial.  Following that time, I have had tests and checkups which have continued to declare me to be "cancer-free".  I am grateful to God today for life and health.
For me, this anniversary, and time of year, transports me back and I relive so many events from the past and I remember the feelings associated with that experience. For me, this is an emotional time.


Friendship 
Especially so, this year, on this anniversary, for we have just found out that our dear friend, who has battled breast cancer for 15 years, learned this week that her cancer has spread to all of her organs, and even broken a vertebrae in her back.  She is in intense pain.  I am deeply moved by my friend's situation, and concerned for them.  Our prayers go up to God for her and her family, and our thoughts are continually with them.  Yet, we give praise to God, for we don't want to withhold any of the praise and thanks that is due to the Lord, for another year of health in my life.


This morning, during my quiet time, feeling it might be helpful to listen to some solid Biblical teaching from an old familiar friend, I listened to the first sermon by John MacArthur, "Trouble to Triumph", in a series called "Benefiting From Life's Trials", a study from the book of James. (You, too, can listen free of charge to all of the sermons in the archives of John MacArthur's preaching.  You can also choose to download them onto your MP3 player, if you want, or read the transcripts. It's all free!  I enjoy hearing his voice and how he says what he says, so I like to listen through my computer.)


How Can a Christian Endure Trials?  
Quoting from the end of the sermon:
"How can a Christian practically endure trials? What is the practicality of trials? That's what James wants to hit.  It's not enough to say, 'I must persevere.' Tell me how! How do I persevere?
These are the pragmatic aspects to a persevering faith--several things are required:

• A Joyous Attitude, vs. 2:  "Count it all joy."
• An Understanding Mind, vs. 3: "Knowing this."
• A Submissive Will, vs. 4: "Let patience have her perfect work."  Let it do what it's gonna do.  Accepting it from the Lord, getting under it and learning what He wants you to learn.
• A Believing Heart:  Don't have wavering faith, vs. 6, but ask in true faith; vs. 8, don't be double-minded. A believing heart that never wavers in faith.
• Then in verses 9-11, A Humble Spirit, that is willing to accept anything.

The way to go through trials victoriously is with a joyous attitude, an understanding mind--perceiving the reality of the trial and the purpose in it; a submissive will--accepting it from the Lord, getting under it and learning what He wants you to learn; a believing heart--that never wavers in faith; and a humble spirit, that is willing to accept anything.



That's how you handle your trials."
(My goal was to strengthen myself in the Word and be encouraged; maybe it will do the same for you.  To listen to the rest of the series, click "trials".  You may also enjoy John MacArthur's series:  "7 Steps to Spiritual Stability" or other resources at www.gty.org)

"Thou shalt find thy hopes were just,

Jesus is my hope and trust."

Trials strengthen faith and trust, for the believer.  As I get older, I can look back and say, the Lord has been with me in the past through every trial, small and great, and He will be with me through whatever trials I'm going through now, or may have to go through in the future.  He is faithful. Rejoice with me and be glad. Trust in the Lord, for He is good.

My Cancer Testimony

To those of you who came to this blog in order to read my cancer testimony in a previous post, I apologize, because that was just a snippet of the whole testimony of what God did in our lives! I really want you to know all that God did for us at that time, because He deserves so much praise and glory and I never want to forget what He's done for me!! So bear with me as I post the complete testimony that we shared with friends and family via our Christmas Letter in 2002 (it is long, for which I apologize):
Dear Friends and Family.

"O Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining;
it is the night of the dear Savior’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining til He appeared
and the world felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the lonely world rejoices,
for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees, oh hear the angel voices; O night divine,
o night when Christ was born.
O night, o night, o night divine."Praise the Lord, praise the Lord with me!
 Praise Him all ye creatures.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Merry Christmas!

Though this is a group letter, we write it to each one of you personally, and we thank the Lord for each one of you this Christmas, and pray for you as we send our greetings.  We thoroughly enjoy getting your letters, cards, and pictures, as well.  Thank you to all who have sent them.
"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,

who daily bears our burdens.

Our God is a God who saves;
from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death.”
Psalm 68:19-20

We want to give testimony of the Lord’s goodness in our lives this past year. It was a year like no other before. There are a few of you who don’t know what the Lord has done for us, and those of you who do, we want you to praise the Lord with us once more as we reflect on His goodness.

On May 21, 2002, I (Wendy) went in to the doctor for relatively minor symptoms and by the end of the day was facing the diagnosis that I had two tumors, one very large, one smaller, appearing to be cancerous, yes, and appearing to have spread, and by those factors, appearing to have not been caught early, but to have progressed to some degree.

Within three days, I was operated on and there now was only one tumor, it had not spread, and it was able to be completely removed. Further, when the tests came back, I was told that indeed the cancer, which was ovarian, had been caught early, a very rare event for ovarian cancer, and I was informed that I had a 90% chance of cancer not recurring.

I believe with all my heart that God gave me cancer, and I praise Him for it, which may sound strange. But I am so thankful.

Here are four reasons why I am grateful God gave me cancer: 1) We saw God’s hand on our lives in a powerful way causing us to trust Him more; 2) We experienced the love of friends and family through tangible and sacrificial acts of service causing us to love God more; 3) We experienced the power of prayer causing our faith to grow; and, 4) We saw the intervention of the Lord on our behalf in numerous ways causing us to thank Him.
We would like to share eight of these interventions that occurred in just a few days.

God’s Intervention #1
God brought me into the doctor by giving me one simple symptom that caused the nurse-line nurse to say “get in there today and if you can’t see your own doctor, go to the emergency room”. I would not have gone otherwise.
God’s Intervention #2
As I sat speaking to my doctor, I had a written, detailed summary of my symptoms over the past week, which I read to him (I never do that) and as he was diagnosing me with (possibly) something completely different than what I actually had, an urgency came over me to pray, “God, don’t let him let me leave today without knowing what is wrong with me.” Since I had not the slightest fear of anything seriously wrong with me, I believe this was the Holy Spirit’s prompting. God answered that prayer as my Christian doctor paused and said, “I think I’d like you to have a CT scan, just to make sure there isn’t anything else going on, since there‘s really nothing over there on the left side except your ovary…” That decision saved my life, I believe. 75% of ovarian cancer is not caught early, and 75-80% of those patients die.
God’s Intervention #3
Though my doctor advised me to try to get in for the CT scan within 2-3 days at least, God arranged for us to get in that very day, and for Jerry (my husband) to go with me.
God’s Intervention #4
We had to wait for a while following the scan, and thought they must have forgotten us, not suspecting anything at all, and were about to leave the hospital, but just as we were leaving, God intervened and sent someone to ask us to stay and wait for our doctor’s phone call. (Ok, that 20-minute wait for the phone call was anything but pleasant, but praise God for His peace in time of panic.)
God’s Intervention #5
The next day, only day 2, we were able to meet with our doctor again, see the CT scan ourselves, which already showed only one tumor to our untrained eyes, and more importantly, we were able to schedule a consultation with the surgeon! God was moving things along quickly.
God’s Intervention #6
“Would you like to have surgery in two days if we can fit you in?” our surgeon asked. Yes! Praise God, yes!
God’s Intervention #7
Aside from the first night, prior to the beginning of prayer for us by hundreds of people through the activation of two prayer chains, (when I didn’t sleep letting my mind go off planning for things that would never occur, and experiencing emotions I didn’t need to)...aside from that first night, I experienced a calm and peace that was out of this world, literally. Through God’s gift of cancer, I experienced God’s presence in a way like never before. We experienced the love of God through sisters and brothers in Christ praying for us and seeing answers to those prayers and being able to share those answers with our doctors and nurses who have been amazed. We experienced the joy of all the giving of dozens of people who cared for us through meals, cards, rides, and many other sacrificial acts of love. (Thank you!) We experienced trusting God in a new way, going deeper in our relationship with Him, finding out a little more realistically what it means that He is in control. Praise God that we know that He is not only sovereign, but that He can be trusted because He is all-wise and loves us perfectly and completely.
God’s Intervention #8
What happened to that other tumor that the radiologist saw? Was he mistaken? He would not have conveyed to a patient that she had cancer and it had spread without certainty of what he saw! But within 3 days, maybe sooner, there was no second tumor to be found, no other cancer to be found, though they searched diligently. I believe God intervened. Thank you, God. This might be a good time to testify that God is good, but He would’ve still been good if I had suffered painfully and died. Before we knew the prognosis, I wasn’t looking forward to the painful part, but God gave me peace about the dying part, and I felt a thrill at the possibility of being in heaven with Jesus, perhaps soon. (Any fear I have experienced has centered on leaving my children behind before I felt my “work” was through.)

Speaking of our children, they are doing great. Life goes on, amazingly, and they are still involved in piano exams, schoolwork and art lessons. Dane just finished his first two PSEO classes,  (Remember, this was written in December, 2002) independent study via internet, and enjoyed the challenge. He did well. He also obtained his driver’s permit prior to his 17th birthday. He is our resident computer expert, is working on starting up a used-book-selling business, loves to read, and loves to play hockey on our lake with his friends. Kelsey, now 13, enjoys baking, knitting, stamping cards, anything connected with animals, (she’s trying to train our dog Mocha), giving gifts, doing things for others and especially reading. One or both of them accompanied me to chemo weekly for the last six months.

We agreed to be part of a test group who would be given additional weekly chemo treatments for six months--lower doses of only one drug, with minimal side effects. The purpose is to see if these additional chemo treatments reduce the recurrence of cancer in patients whose ovarian cancer is caught early. I will be done Jan. 13, and then be followed up every 3 months for 2 years, and then every 6 months for 3 additional years.
Everything's The Same...
Everything Is Different
Everything else is pretty much the same--but everything is different. Isn’t that just the way it was 2000 years ago, when Jesus was born. Everyone went about their same lives, but everything was different, forever.

Praise God for His plan to save us from our sins, and His willingness to send His Son, Jesus, into this world to die a painful death on a cross in punishment for our sins.  Praise Jesus for being willing to come and for living a sinless life and for being obedient to the Father in every detail,

even unto death.

That takes on new meaning this year. Praise God for accepting that payment for our sins, past, present and future and by bringing Jesus back to life.
We serve a risen Savior.
Is He not worth all our love, all our honor, all our praise and adoration and all our lives in service to Him?
Have a blessed Christmas holiday
and a wonderful New Year.

Ovarian Cancer Anniversary

This past week I celebrated 7 years cancer-free! I am so grateful to God for all the days in those 7 years that He has allowed me to live! I have met some very special people in those years! I have had the blessing of seeing both my son and daughter graduate from High School! Wonderful experiences that I am so glad I didn't have to miss! Thank you, Lord, for these years! I pray that it has been worth it to You, Lord, to leave me here. Each anniversary of my diagnosis is a reminder that each day is a gift--how am I using this gift? Did I tell someone about Him today? Are my disciples built on a solid foundation of Jesus Christ that will last?
He has taught me so many lessons in these last years. I asked Him this week to prepare me for heaven, for that is where I'm going to spend the rest of my life...forever with Him!

For those of you who don't know my cancer story, here is a brief synopsis from our 2002 Christmas letter:
"On May 21, 2002, I (Wendy) went in to the doctor for relatively minor symptoms and by the end of the day was facing the diagnosis that I had two tumors, one very large, one smaller, appearing to be cancerous, yes, and appearing to have spread, and by those factors, appearing to have not been caught early, but to have progressed to some degree. Within three days, I was operated on and there now was only one tumor, it had not spread, and it was able to be completely removed. Further, when the tests came back, I was told that indeed the cancer, which was ovarian, had been caught early, a very rare event for ovarian cancer, and I was informed that I had a 90% chance of cancer not recurring."

In this anniversary month, I thought it would be a good thing to include a list of the symptoms of ovarian cancer, because they are very subtle, and can be mistaken for something else. Please go to the link below and read more--and tell your friends; you may be saving a life!

Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer
Bloating
Pelvic or abdominal pain
Difficulty eating or feeling full quickly
Feeling a frequent or urgent need to urinate

Women diagnosed with ovarian cancer report that symptoms are persistent and represent a change from normal for their bodies.

Other symptoms commonly reported may include: fatigue, indigestion, back pain, pain with intercourse, constipation and menstrual irregularities.

TAKE ACTION if any symptoms occur almost daily for more than a few weeks. Experts suggest a combination pelvic/rectal exam, a transvaginal ultrasound, and a CA 125 blood test. If ovarian cancer is suspected, consult a gynecologic oncologist.

Here is a link to the Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance website and much helpful information:
http://www.mnovarian.org/symptoms.htm


Ovarian Cancer Facts
Ovarian Cancer is a serious and under-recognized threat to women's health.
Ovarian cancer, the deadliest of the gynecologic cancers, is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among women living in the U.S. and the eighth most common cancer among U.S. women.
Ovarian cancer occurs in 1 out of 72 women.
Each year, approximately 20,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer and 15,000 women will die from the disease.
Ovarian Cancer is very treatable when it is detected early, but the vast majority of cases are not diagnosed until the cancer has spread beyond the ovaries.
In cases where ovarian cancer is detected before it has spread beyond the ovaries, more than 93% of women survive longer than five years.
Only 19% of the ovarian cancer cases in the U.S. are diagnosed in the early stages.
The 5 year survival rate for women with ovarian cancer has been improving over the years. Women diagnosed with the disease from 1975-1979 experienced a 5 year survival rate of approximately 38%. Today the 5 year survival rate is 46%.

I pray that you may be in good health!
May God bless you all!