I again thank all who pray on my behalf. I can only return the prayer on your behalves. For those who have not followed this journey from the start, I will give a little background. I suspected cancer in May, 2008. My then-new primary care doctor, as well as the first oncologist I consulted with, both misdiagnosed my illness and treated me for a virus. I went to
Fred Hutchinson, where I was properly diagnosed with aggressive
Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma - NOS, at stage 4. I had 54 tumors and the cancer was in my bone marrow. I had a few months to live. There is no standardized treatment, since this cancer is at most .03% of all cancers. Prayers began as I started treatment. There was no guarantee that the cancer would respond at all, and if it did, just how completely it would respond. After four months of intensive chemotherapy involving eight different chemotherapy agents, I was declared in remission. Three months later, the cancer was back, a very poor predictor of survivability. I again had to face a few months left to live. But, prayers were continuing. When hope seemed to be gone, a clinical trial of an experimental drug providentially appeared. I began the trial and went into remission again. There has been no sign of the cancer for over a year and a half, and my oncologist is thinking about discontinuing my treatment, since he believes that I may have no more cancer cells in my body. The cancer is so aggressive that it would have shown up by now, he says. In a few months, I will let go of my life preserver and swim alone. But, my trust in God has increased several fold through all of this.
The message for me, and for all, is never to doubt the mercy and love of God, or the power of prayer.
May the Lord richly bless each of you. Amen.