More valuable
Minnesota Wild hockey games, family birthday parties, dinner dates with friends and out of town overnights were all activities Jim and I could continue to do within our new constraints. It was our goal to keep our lives normal and thanks to the help of friends and family we made that happen. We kept making good memories during the multiple phases of my therapies, which helped to ease the burden of the day-to-day grind of this healing process.
We had some great times. Close friends of ours invited us to their lake cabin in the Moose Lake, Minnesota. The overnight was packed full with dinner at a local family run restaurant, hanging out in the cabin talking, making and sharing meals together, attending the town's Agate Festival, which included walking through the car show and also, going to the retail and artisan booths.
I think one of my favorite things about this kind of shopping experience is that I get to talk to the artists and retailers. Kimberly and I walked along choosing vendors to visit. She was drawn to certain booths and there was one in particular, where we talked to a man named, Jerome. We were holding the agates up to the light so we could look through them when he told us that they came from his home state of Wyoming. These were different than Lake Superior agates, but beautiful just the same. Our conversation was spirited and full of life. It was truly a divine appointment that we connected with him. As we were wrapping up our talk, he said to both of us: "You know, you are more valuable than the whole world. He asked us, "Do you know why?" We said we didn't know, and he then quoted Mark 8:36 NKJV, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul." My heart soared to hear that I was more valuable than the whole wide world and that God loved me enough to give me a word like this from a stranger on a day where I needed hope, to remember that God loves me and that He hasn't forgotten me. God loves all of us in this way. So, you see, you too are more valuable than the whole world. Every time I look at the agate that came from Jerome's booth, I reminisce about this word and our brief interaction with another God-fearing soul that we may not see again until heaven.
A Chemotherapy Day
“He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.
Psalm 91: 15-16
Right before our weekend away, I had finished my last rounds of Gemcitabine/Abraxane, which was my second type of chemo after the initial Folfirinox rounds. Scans and blood tests were completed and reviewed on the last day of July. Again, I wasn't hearing good reports from my doctor. He told me he didn't see any significant response to this new chemo regiment. My CT scan showed a slight increase in the size of the main lesion and that there may be another lesion in the tail of the pancreas. The PET-MRI showed no significant metabolic response and my CA-99 rose from 500 to 700 despite a normal bilirubin. However, I didn't have any evidence of metastatic disease, which seemed to tell me it wasn’t spreading.
And so, it goes. I signed up to start radiation treatment and renewed my vow to draw near to God and trust Him to be the healer of all my diseases.
