Hope

I finished the last of 15 Radiation Treatments today!!  

It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Unlike Chemotherapy, I've felt well enough to go to a few concerts and events, shopping and to church!  It's been great to feel a bit more normal.

Unfortunately, for yours truly, the impatient patient, I must wait until late February or early March to have the next CT scan done and a measurement of the tumor. In the meantime, that part of my liver still needs to "cook" and I'll probably be "stewing" because I like things to go really quick!

Since I last blogged, I had some back injections as well as a Physical Therapy assessment and have been doing some stretching exercises for the mid-back pain.  The pain is the same, but I have hope, that in time, it can get better.  After Christmas, I'll start going to PT twice a week for a few weeks and reevaluate then.  The Orthopedic doctor wasn't sure if the pain will go away with this approach, but it is something that I will happily try.

On Christmas Eve, I'll teach the children at church the birth of Jesus in the passage from Matthew 1:18-25.  When Joseph realized that his fiancee was pregnant, he chose not to have her be sentenced to a stoning, but rather, decided to break their engagement quietly.  The text states:

"But as he considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 

    'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is  from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.' 

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has spoken by the prophet:

    'Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.'"


My prayer for you and me this Christmas, is that we will realize our only Hope is to come to Jesus, our Emmanuel, and cry out, 

    "God, be with me!  Jesus, save me!"

Popular posts from this blog

The old tennis ball

Image
(You may need to click on photo to read entire blogpost) For two and a half years, I have referred to the tumor in my liver as a "tennis ball in my football" to describe the size of the tumor and an average liver.   Initially, I was told that only 18% of people with Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma (Bile Duct Cancer in the Liver) survive for 5 years. I'm still here, though, so I've already beaten the average statistics. Before, during and after Chemotherapy and Radiation, the CT scans have shown the tumor to be about the same size - no growth - no spread. Yawn... The tennis-ball-tumor and my news updates are getting old.   Boring is good. I'm so grateful to God!  Besides this, I have learned to manage the few mild symptoms and am doing just about everything I was doing before the diagnosis.  To celebrate, I insisted that the chemotherapy port be removed and the Oncologist finally agreed!   Thank you so much for caring about my journey - and for you...
Read more

Lloyd Christmas

Image
  It's been almost 18 months since I knew something wasn't right with my health and about 15 months since I learned it was because of a rare and aggressive Bile Duct cancer.  My quick update is, that after all the 2022 Chemotherapy and Radiation, I still have that inoperable tennis-ball-sized tumor inside my liver.  No change.    BUT... I have not had ANY cancer treatment all this year and no medication for pain or nausea for most of the year.  Yahoo! Thank the Lord for this gift!  For the most part, I feel pretty good. In the medical world, it is easy to become distracted by tests and statistics.  Sometimes, I really fight being obsessed with those numbers.  If they are "bad", then I feel defeated.  If they are "good", then I'm victorious.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I watched the silly movie, "Dumb and Dumber".  Admit it.  I know that some of you have watched it too.  If so, you probably remember these oft quoted...
Read more

Jeegaré Man-ee

Image
(You may need to click on photo to read entire blogpost) I have reached the 2-year mark in this cancer journey.  The first year was icky, with flu-like symptoms and abdominal pain and then, the ickiness of Chemo and Radiation.  Compared to that, the second year, however, was lovely!   So, this is how I celebrated living through a whole year without taking any cancer medicine or treatments:   a visit to the Emergency Room for nausea and abdominal pain. I've spent my life rejecting the idea of the ER, unless I might have a severe accident or heart attack. Everything has worked itself out with time, a call to the MD or, at most, a visit to Urgent Care.  But, that day, in my imagination, I thought the tumor had grown or spread because the pain was getting worse.  My thoughts went to Walter Payton.  He had Bile Duct Cancer too and led to a serious infection of his Bile Duct called Sclerosing Cholangitis. It can start with a blocked bile duct that ...
Read more