How God is speaking to us...

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

This has been our prayer and God has graciously been giving us His incredible joy, peace, and hope as we trust in Him.
It is also our prayer for you!




Saturday 22 December 2012

Experiencing both joy and pain

Two days after Bob wrote the previous update, our doctor arranged to have him admitted to the hospital for three days to deal with his pain issues more effectively. During that time his pain was assessed and a proper dosage of medication was prescribed to keep him almost pain-free, however it makes him quite sleepy! While there, he had a CT scan revealing some advancement of disease on his bladder wall which has become thickened and irregular. This likely accounts for the increased pain.

The original mass has gotten slightly larger and he has a few enlarged nodes in his peritoneal cavity, however no other organs like liver, pancreas, or spleen have been affected. His full body bone scan was also clear of cancer. We found these results to be much more encouraging than they could have been.

Bob will see his oncologist the day before Christmas, and we're hoping she will bring a little more clarity to these findings and also suggest either chemo or radiation to take place early in the new year.

We still plan to fly to Regina on Christmas night for five days to be with our children and grandchildren. We're thankful for the pain medication that should keep him comfortable, and he'll receive two dialysis treatments while we're there.

Bob spent three days on the Palliative Care Ward at Surrey Memorial Hospital. It’s a small quiet ward and the care and atmosphere is so loving and homey. They even had a piano in the small lounge by the nurses’ station which I encouraged Bob to play for the enjoyment of the staff and patients. He was quite reticent to do that, but one of the nurses overheard our conversation and added her weight to the request. She even threatened to not discharge him until he played the piano . . . so that motivation seemed effective!! Here he is playing “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” and “Silent Night” just before being discharged—to everyone’s delight!!


And the “dream” of a white Christmas became a beautiful reality the night Bob came home from the hospital!!


Again, thank you SO much for your love and prayers. Just yesterday morning we were reading II Corinthians chapter one where Paul talks about his suffering and says in verses 10 and 11: " . . . On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers." You have helped us so much by your prayers.

May your Christmas be blessed with much joy and the wonderful awareness of the presence of Jesus, especially when pain is also a part of your life.


Thursday 13 December 2012

Pain--the Gift Nobody Wants

In his book, Pain: the Gift Nobody Wants, Dr. Paul Brand (coauthored with Phillip Yancey), who has spent his life working with people with leprosy, contrasts East and West. In the West we spend billions of dollars a year on avoiding pain, whereas in the East, people develop a worldview that includes pain: pain and joy go together, you can't have one without the other. Pain is a gift in that it alerts us to issues that need to be dealt with.

As my pain has re-emerged this past month, getting stronger each week, it has helped me to take a longer-range view of my day-to-day experiences. As I place it in the perspective of God's long-term involvement in my life, and I realize that once death comes in this life, I have eternal life without pain, I recenter my thoughts on how God views the pain that I--and many others--experience. In it all he claims to be working everything together for my good, he calls these times of trouble momentary in comparison to the life ahead, he says he will never leave me and that nothing can separate me from his love. So many foundational thoughts that all Christians know about, but provide confident hope and faith through trials. He even goes so far as to say, "count it all joy when you encounter various trials," and that is what Carol and I have been discussing the past few days. How does this work for our good when pain is our experience.

On the good-news front, a full body scan showed no progression of the cancer to the bones. Next week I will have a CT Scan to see what might be happening in the soft tissue in my abdomen. The pain means something, but what? So we're really dealing with hypotheses at this point, and treatment options are educated guesses as to what will be best. My bone marrow cannot handle much more chemotherapy, so we'll see what God and the medical community have up their sleeves.


As you see us enjoying the Christmas banquet at our church, we remember that the Christmas story is not exempt from pain either. The pain of childbirth. The pain of Jesus and his parents being refugees. The pain of countless families as baby boys are slaughtered in King Herod's frantic effort to remove a potential rival. Yet Jesus entered our fallen world to deal with the pains we experience: he chose pain as a way of life to bring healing to ours. We're so blessed.

We're hoping to be in Regina with our entire family for the week following Christmas. Being in the presence of those we love is always a gift. May God give you the same peace and joy that has been ours over this journey with Him through cancer.

With love,
Bob (for Carol too)