Hello everyone,
I must say that I'm ashamed of myself. I haven't posted in 3 months! You all probably thought the cancer had won and I was no more. Well, it hasn't beat me yet although the treatments are wearing on this old body!
In fact, three weeks ago I switched over to an oral chemo treatment in hopes that it would be both effective and give by body a chance to recover from the exhaustion I was feeling from my other treatments. I had been on IV treatments for 18 months and had received a total of 28 chemo treatments. No wonder my body was getting so tired! Anyway, this new treatment is two pills a day at 12 hour intervals. It's call Xalkori (crizitonib) and briefly here is how it works (I found this very interesting... I hope you do too). We have a gene called ALK that normally teams up with a partner gene from time to time to create nerve cells. My ALK gene has two breaks in it and the piece in between them has spun 180 degrees. This is sort of like flipping a switch so now the ALK and a different partner gene constantly produce nerve cells. These nerve cells don't mature so they kind of pile up and, you guessed it, there is my cancer. Quite simply, what the Xalkori does is stop the ALK from creating these endless cells! Isn't that amazing!? What is even more amazing is that of all the people who have the kind of cancer that I have, Adenocarcinoma, only around 4 percent have this mutant ALK gene and can be treated with Xalkori. I don't know about you, but I truly believe that is God's devine intervention! So far I seem to have a little more energy but I'm still tired a lot. I guess it will take a while to get my body rested up. The other symptom, one that I really didn't have before, is nausea. Rally bad nausea! I'm still trying to get a handle on how to deal with that... when to take it (i.e before or after eating) what medicine best deals with it, how long it lasts. Oh well, God and I will figure out the best course eventually.
And now, on to Bible trivia. The question from the
last post was: Lazarus had 2 sisters. What were their names? This was probably too easy because evertone that responded was correct. The
answer is... Mary & Martha. So for this entires question... I think I need to come up with a harder one... David was a great king but one of his sons led a major revolt against him. Who was he?
In closing today, I think about the fact that come January, it will 2 years since I was diagnosed with cancer. When Catherine and I were told that I had stage 4 lung cancer, I immediately though that I had probably 3 to 6 months to live. Even the information that I found on the web said that the median time for survival was 8 months. I have no doubt at all that God is guiding my treatment and my life to keep me around for a while because he has some purpose for me. He has a purpose for all of us. We just need to listen to His guidance. It really bothers me that so many in our society either don't believe or don't have God in their lives. It also bothers me that many "believers" don't take the time to go to church and worship Him or to read the Bible. Personal pleasures seem to be the top priority. But... I must remember... I am a sinner and no better than anyone else and it is not my place to judge.
I pray He helps all of us bring glory to His name.
God bless you all,
Jace
