Luehrs Line --------------------: All Clear

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

All Clear

Those sweet words I have been longing to hear for the last 9 months: no cancer detected...assumption is you are cancer free. Ahhhh. If there was ever a time for dancing...please dance with me!

The Lord himself will fight for you, just stay calm.

Exodus 14:14

The Lord is my strength and my song he has given me victory. This is my God and I will praise him!

Exodus 15:2

Waiting is the hardest thing. Twelve rounds of chemotherapy later and here we are. On the other side of my worst nightmare, now standing in awe. It's true cancer changes you. Everything is different. How can I go back to what "normal" was? What is "normal" anyway? Who determines what that is? I know this: I am changed for a reason. His ways are too wonderful to understand. Reminding myself to just stay calm. Watch and wait. He is always working no matter how grim it may appear. Believe me I know grim. Cancer does make you stronger. Stronger because of Christ in me.

Many friends have stood beside me over these last few months. They have been kind and patient with me during this ordeal. I can't say thank you enough. Many meals have been prepared, floors cleaned and prayers sent up on my behalf. They have not gone un-noticed. My family thanks you.

The nurses and staff at MSTI are amazing. I need more photos of them! I just fell in love with these people who everyday deal with sick cancer patients. What a calling! Their attitudes and words of encouragement every week was so uplifting. I can't say thank you enough to a great team of care givers.

Dave the MSTI pharmacist with me on my last treatment.

I have lots of ideas for what to focus on next. So far I know I need to stay the course of wellness. That is the one thing that is certain. I want to get back to swimming again. My energy level and stamina will take some time to bounce back. With farming season fast approaching I have no time to waste. I am all ready dreaming of my garden! The seed catalogs keep arriving in my mailbox to tempt me. So far I think relaxing and taking it easy are good plans. Just stay calm and watch what the Lord does next.

3 comments:

Michelle Vergne (Robinson)February 1, 2012 at 10:35 PM
Thought you should know a lady in our home group was just diagnosed with breast cancer. I've sharing your story and we have been praying for you. Its nice to be able to share God's grace and strength through your experience, with her. Amen its gone. Love you and glad you made it through. Know someone is benefiting from your struggles even now. God bless
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shmilyluehrsFebruary 2, 2012 at 9:44 AM
Praise the Lord, God, Almighty!!!!!!
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GDudleyFebruary 3, 2012 at 8:41 AM
Praise the Lord! Bless His holy Name!!!
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My Cancer Story

Many have asked me how long have you been sick? When did this all begin? Tough questions even for me to answer...all I can say at this point is I finally found some Doctors who listened to all my symptoms and did something about it. Late in April 2011 I went to see a family practitioner who sent me to a GI specialist for a colonoscopy. This resulted in a diagnosis on May 13th, 2011 of cancer in the colon. The extent was unknown at that point in time. I had to wait until Monday May 16th, 2011 for a CT scan. Then wait till Tuesday for an appointment with the surgeon, who would later remove the colon. I was informed of the biopsy results: adenocarcinoma. The CT did not show any signs of the cancer spreading to other organs (praise the Lord). In fact the CT did not even show the tumor. It was estimated by the GI Doctor to be the size of a golf ball. So surgery was scheduled for May 31st, 2011. Surgery was successful. They removed about a foot of the sigmoid colon and 20 lympnodes. I had to wait again for lab results. On June 2nd, 2011 I was told about the lab results. The tumor had evaded through the colon wall. Two out of the twenty lymph nodes tested positive for cancer. This elevated the stage of my cancer to 3 B. This is when I knew chemotherapy would be necessary. Recovery from surgery went well. GI functions are returning on their own and pain was easily controlled. I had my first appointment with the oncology team at MSTI (Twin Falls) on Friday June 17th, 2011.

I started chemotherapy on July 13th. The plan was set to give every two weeks for infusion treatments of poison. Sounds great on paper. The reality is this: chemo drugs deplete the body of healthy cells as well as potential rouge cancer cells. Keeping this schedule of every two weeks has proven to be difficult. On my off weeks I get my blood levels checked. This is to determine if it is "safe" enough for me to get chemo again. Safe...uh...it's poison right? Anyway chemo treatments have come and gone now, twelve in all. I finished up with my last round on January 27th.

On January 29th 2012 I had a CT scan. My oncology doctor said everything looked fine. No cancer detected. Doing the party dance! I am officially on the other side of living cancer free. I am celebrating in many ways. This has been the hardest thing in my life to do. Not to mention to try to balance so called "normal" life at home on the farm.

As far as the future goes with my health I have a few more doctor appointments scheduled. I will have another colonoscpy in May. For now, it is just watch and monitor my blood work and pray cancer doesn't return. Prognosis is good and I am believing and trusting in a mighty God. He is faithful!

Fast forward seven years -- 2018! Still cancer free! After many lab tests, blood work and CT scans so far no cancer detected. Miracles still happen everyone!

Favorite Quotes

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It's what sunflowers do. Helen Keller

"Every good work should be a revelation of the glory of God. What makes the good deed an act of love is not the raw act, but the passion and the sacrifice to make God himself known as glorious. Not to aim to show God is not to love, because God is what we need most deeply. And to have all else without him is to perish in the end. The Bible says that you can give away all that you have and deliver your body to be burned and have not love (1 Corinthians 13:3). If you don't point people to God for everlasting joy, you don't love. You waste your life." John Piper ---Don't Waste Your Life

"Surrender is the key that unlocks the vault of God's best and deepest treasures." Charles Swindoll

"You can't move people to action unless you first move them with emotion. The heart comes before the head." John Maxwell

Spiritual growth is a conundrum. The key to spiritual growth is developing healthy and holy routines called spiritual disciplines. But once routine becomes routine we need to change the routine. Why? Because sacred routines become empty rituals if we do them out of left-brain memory instead of right-brain imagination. When we learn how and forget why we start going through the motions spiritually. Mark Batterson

Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; taking as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have; trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next. --Reinhold Niebuhr

Luehrs Line --------------------

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

All Clear

3 comments:

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