Thursday/Friday Update: God at Every Turn!

Yesterday was quite a day! CT scans from Monday revealed cancer has spread & current chemo not working, so it's immediatley stopped & new course of action set into place. God met us at every turn! He reminded us of the start of our journey by putting us right beside people just beginning their's & we were humbled -again- by the grace of our Lord Jesus! God can speak this journey of cancer away with a whisper! He can speak away suffering of any & every kind, but He doesn't always. We live in a fallen world, a world He's given men free will in. He desperately wants us to choose him. There are many who cause harm upon others with their free will, many who turn their backs on Him & many who love sin instead of Him. Yes, it's a fallen world, for sure, & those of us who believe in Hm deeply with our free will, long for Him to return again & claim the ultimate victory! For now, we submit & wait. For now, we witness the injustices & constantly cry tears of sorrow for people choosing the ways of the world over Him.

Cancer & many other illnesses come in this fallen world of ours. It's a terrible disease & I wouldn't wish it on anyone & I wouldn't blame it on their lack of faith, either. There are many reasons for such diseases to attack, many lessons learned through it & many different outcomes as a result of this disease. Only the grace of God truly lights the path of the one He's leading, revealing Himself through the darkness of this trial. The person and families learn of His goodness, see His faithfulness, experience His power & trust Him completely through this world's disease- for they know Him intimately well & can tell others of what they know, whether there is ultimately physical healing or not.

Mike & I learned exactly 2 years ago of the aggressive nature of this particular breast cancer. We learned 70% with breast cancer are women with no family history, are non-smokers & not overwieght. We learned what the medical community knows and what they don't know (lack of data in certain areas of study). God was never one time dismissed from a conversation we had about the disease. God was never once regarded as only a second opinion & never once heard to say He didn't want me healed. Please hear me say over & over & over that God can heal me at any moment He chooses! He can also choose to keep me on this road if it's for His glory. There are many He healed throughout the Bible at one time but later died at another time. Does that mean they weren't worthy of healing again? Does that mean their faith wasn't strong enough the 2nd time? I dont think so. I don't believe in a health & wealth gospel that keeps people physically well & rich all the time. One that teaches a person will never be sick if they believe it so. God speaks of believers suffering & living in a sorrowful world. He gives direction for when trials come, not if they come. For me, God is sovereign & is in control. I am His vessel & have willingly given myself to Him for His glory. Whatever brings Him glory, I will submit to.

On to medical news as of today since hundreds of you are praying, loving, supporting & encouraging our family! My left lung had rapidly refilled again which required draining, again. Another 4 lbs was removed to give me a sence of breathing & restored a bit of an appetite. Very thankful this procedure went well today & appreciate Mike & Taylor being right by my side.

I have to have lung surgery next week since the lung fills very, very rapidly each time & will continuously need to be drained without it. The surgery is a comfort measure only, but can curtail the fluid & make breathing less laborious, making it easier on my body to work & breathe & will restore some energy. The problem with having the surgery right now is that my white blood count has taken a strong downturn keeping me from having the surgery. The first thing that must happen is to get those counts raised. Please pray for these counts to rise in the next couple of days. Doctor's will check them again Monday or Tuesday & may have to give me a booster shot to get these up. As soon as counts are strong enough, surgery can take place. Then another Chemo will begin the next week. This will be two new drugs combined for this level of chemo. In addition, a PARP Inhibitor (new trial drug for Triple Negative Breast Cancer) can be added to this regimine IF I'm chosen from the lottery! So, I ask you to pray, as each week the lorttery is drawn, my name will be chosen! If it isn't one week, we continue on the chemo & wait for the next week & wait again for my name to be drawn.

Pray for this to work medically & slow the cancer down to give me more time. Pray that if the treatment doesn't work, God will give me more time anyway, because He can do this, too! Pray especially I walk this journey the way He wants me to walk it. Pray for my family as He knows each one of us intimately well. God is still God. That's all that matters when its all been said & done. He is who he says he is! If that's true- and I believe it is- it's all that matters! This hard news hasn't changed our family's view of God at all! He's still saved us, still loves us, still sustains us, still comforts, still provides, still knows every detail of our being & He's still soverign! He's still the Creator of the Universe & cares about every detail of our lives!

Blessings!