The Cancer Journey

Today was the first day of my 4 th week in Chemo/Radiation. Chemo on Mondays.   Radiation is 5 days a week.   Total planned of 5 chemos and 25 radiations.    Today I feel good, cause the first drug in my chemo-cocktail is a steroid that bumps me up and even messes with my sleep. The rest of the truth is that by the end of the week, I feel like a limp dish rag and each day I need to steel myself, decide to be an overcomer and draw from God’s grace and strength. I’m experiencing the side effects they “promised;” pain swallowing, sometimes severe heartburn, occasional nausea, weird reactions to smells and tastes. becoming easily dehydrated makes me need to pay close attention to bathroom specifics (I’ll spare you the details). They promise these side-effects will increase through the next week and in the week following treatment.  All that brings a new set of questions to 2Cor 12:7-10… and I’m praying to “KNOW” this text in a new way when I’m through with treatment. Every patient has a

It’s good to have two weeks of chemo and radiation behind me.   Three more to go.   And it’s been quite a week.   The good news on Monday that we would switch from P h oton to P r oton therapy was what we’d been praying for.   P h oton, like a shotgun, risks damage to surrounding tissue. P r oton according to my techy friend, Dave Purscell, is more a high-powered rifle with a giant sniper scope... and really good brakes; no exit wound. It's like a depth control so that it only causes collateral damage on the way in. Mayo's magic table and gun The medical technology is amazing and more like scientific wizardry.  Some of you know what it’s like.  After they get me situated on the machine, the magic table rotates me to the correct angle and the staff steps out while we wait for “the beam.” The beam is apparently reflected into each of 6 treatment rooms where a patient has been readied and positioned. Then I hear over the intercom, “We have the beam,” followed by about 6 minutes of

AND SO A NEW ADVENTURE BEGINS....      I've enjoyed and grown from blogging my missions and study trips, and I hope to occasionally write about my newer, more difficult journey. I discovered that there are lots of my friends who want to keep up with my cancer treatment, but I can't remember whom I've told what. So let's just start at the beginning and if you know the basic back-story, you might just want to skip down to the ***.      I've been serving as Interim Senior Pastor at Lakewood Evangelical Free Church in Baxter MN.  We have come to deeply love this congregation during the past 8 months. I work for Interim Pastor Ministries and so enjoy my work. Intentional Interms lead churches to become healthier, more effective congregations during the search for the next shepherd.  We've known that each church has been a calling from God and the work fits my gifts, passions and calling so well. Each of my interims has been about 18 months, but after less than half t