Cancer Update

Woo hoo! Have I got an update for you! Thank you to all who have prayed me through the last eight years of cancer treatments and my bout with severe covid. God's Army is the best Army and you all deserve a medal for supporting me in prayer and in many other ways. There was not a day I felt unloved by God or all of you. Thank you.

Let me remind you, in January 2016 I was diagnosed with "high risk" chronic lymphocytic leukemia. "High risk" because three of my chromosomes are not normal. (Glad they didn't check my brain!) The prognosis was 

"Rapid progression   

inferior survival, 

shorter survival time 

and resistance to treatment." 

Bottom line:

There was no treatment for me,

 I was not expected to live,

 death would happen soon, 

and I would go fast. 

"We'll keep you comfortable" 

was all the hope I received from the doctor that day.

But God!!! 

I became ill the following December. Expecting to cash in on the "keep you comfortable" promise, I returned to the oncologist.

 Great news!!! 

FDA had just approved a treatment for "high risk" cll. 

Three pills a day, which has now been reduced to one pill a day, my leukemia stopped progressing.

 Within two months,

 my blood counts were normal! 

Hallelujah!!!

"This is phenomenal!!!" 

my oncologist cheered. 

I assured him not only do we have a God of the phenomenal, 

but a God of the impossible!

The medication (imbruvica) was new and doctors hoped it would buy me time. Three years, then five years, now seven years. Today I learned that imbruvica has been so successful, "high risk" cll is no longer labeled "high risk." 

Imbruvica works! 

This wonder drug has stood the test of time. 

Other than my bout with covid, I have remained healthy, strong, and active. leukemia lurks inside me, but imbruvica acts like a fortress keeping it from going any further. 

I thank God today, but I also thank cancer researchers and doctors. These men and women sacrifice much to spend long hours glaring at test tubes and people's blood. Thank you, dear ones, called by God to heal this vicious disease. Three cheers and many prayers go up for you!!! Thank you!!!

"For nothing will be impossible with God."

Luke 1:37

God shows Himself in many ways when cancer hits home. I write about my cancer journey in Praise the Lord and Pass the Chemo: A Hopeful Response to a Hard Reality. You can purchase a copy on Amazon or directly from me. 

https://www.amazon.com/Praise-Lord-Pass-Chemo-Response/dp/1945976012?ref_=ast_author_dp

Please pray for cancer research. I am so thankful.

September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month

I chuckled when I learned September was Blood Cancer Awareness month. Believe me, those of us with blood cancer are very aware — not just in September — but every moment of our lives. We are aware each time we see lymph nodes swollen on our necks or feel them in our groin or under our arms, when an ugly bruise appears and stays for  months, at every tiny mosquito bite that doesn't heal, when a miniscule paper cut bleeds and bleeds and bleeds, and every sneeze threatens to lead to pneumonia and death. We are aware when the night-time pains shoot through our bones. We are aware as we fight cancer's attack of our bodies and satan's attack of our minds.

We are aware.

Are you aware:

According to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in the United States in 2019 approximately

 every three minutes one person is diagnosed with blood cancer,

176,200 people are expected to be diagnosed with blood cancer,

ten percent of new cancer cases diagnoses will be blood cancer,

1,3999,180 people are living with blood cancer,

Approximately every nine minutes someone dies of blood cancer,

156 people die each day from blood cancer,

six people die each hour,

56,770 people will die this year,

9.4 percent of cancer deaths this year will be from blood cancer.

I thank God  and prayers, and cancer research that with treatment and a daily targeted therapy pill, most of the symptoms I experienced in the first paragraph are gone. I now live a healthy and happy life. Thank you for your prayers for me. Please keep praying for all cancer patients every day and month of the year. They suffer. They endure. They conquer thanks to your prayers.

My cancer care costs approximately $350,000 a year. Thanks to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and other grants, I am not hit with that financial burden. Won't you consider donating for cancer research and funding for grants to help patients like me? You can donate at www.lls.org.  Thank you. 

I was thinking of the money spent on Halloween candy. Perhaps giving the same amount  to www.lls.org will free children with leukemia from the fright of cancer.

To encourage cancer patients, I share the lessons God taught me on my cancer journey in my book Praise the Lord and Pass the Chemo: A Hopeful Response to a Hard Reality. Do you know a cancer patient who needs encouraged? Available on this website, Amazon, and Walmart.

Splashes of Serenity to all my fellow cancer warriors and thank you again to all who prayed for my healing. God heard. God healed!  Praise the Lord!!!

My Cancer Miracle! Thank You for Praying!

"Did she just say I was terminal?" I asked my husband as the oncologist left us alone to digest the test results.

"We're all terminal." The only words my hand-holding husband could say as he comforted me and grasped his own sudden grief.

We didn't tell anyone. Not one. Try telling your children you are soon to die. Impossible to do. A mother's heart can never hurt her child. I couldn't inflict that pain on them. Not yet.  I was still stage 0, so we held on to that hope and the promises of God to carry us through this quick journey to Heaven.

Doctors chastised us. "You must tell people. Your children need to know. You can't bear this alone." The conclusion of test results saying "rapid progression, low survivability, high risk, not responsive to treatment" haunted me all hours of the day and night.

Then it happened. I got sick. Thanksgiving 2016 I thanked God that He had given me nine months, because in one month I went from stage 0 to stage 3 high risk leukemia.

"We've got great news for you!" was not what I expected to hear the oncologist say. "A new drug specifically for high risk leukemia has just been approved. You take three pills a day. There are no
side effects. You won't get sick or lose your hair. It has a 90 percent effective rate."

Good news indeed! The week before Christmas Dan and I prayed over our pills (Ha! They are our pills, not my pills, because from day one Dan assured me we are one in sickness and in health.)  We asked God to Please destroy the leukemia and keep it from progressing. And please Lord, let me be in the 90 percent where they are effective and not the 10 percent who die.

Celebrate with me that I had no side effects from the medicine and the best news ever:

Last week my blood count was normal!!! 

"Phenomenal!" my oncologist gasped and then said again, "This is phenomenal!"

Why are we surprised? We're not. We have a phenomenal God who can do not only the impossible, but also the phenomenal.

Thank you for your prayers. Oncologists expect I will live a full and long life. What joy knowing He has more work for me to do here on earth.

Yes, I am writing a book as I travel the cancer road, for God has taught me much about the joy of life that healthy people miss. Please pray my words will be God's words. Thank you.

Splashes of Serenity. Every day there are splashes of serenity. Don't miss yours today.

Pink Night for Breast Cancer Research

Do you know anyone with breast cancer? Of course you do. Celebrating my sister, a breast cancer survivor, I'll join other vendors and  have a book table at Massi's Gardens. Partial proceeds go to breast cancer research. So come celebrate survivors and help stomp out this family-destroying disease.

 If you live in the Corning, NY area, please support Pink Night at Massi's Gardens, 246 Victory Highway, Painted Post, NY.

May God splash His serenity on this event and bring hope and a cure to those who suffer from the devastation of cancer.