Back to Houston

Renee and sister Karen with Renee's 50th birthday present (the waterfall)

Sept 28

It's Saturday morning.  Yesterday we learned that the mystery lung mass is indeed a lymphoma, confirmed by MD Anderson's pathology lab.  Right away, I will say that we have been battling a little "Israelite syndrome" this week, where a week ago we were rejoicing and praising God in the highest because He delivered me from lung cancer - lymphoma was a blessing - think of the Israelites being delivered from Pharaoh when He parted the Red Sea - and within a few days, we were praying fervently that the mass would NOT be lymphoma - think of the Israelites saying to God "have you delivered us from Pharoah's armies only to have us starve in this desert?"

So what we are focusing on is that lymphoma is still better than lung cancer, remembering that God showed Himself loving and powerful and He remains in control of my life and all these medical twists and turns.  The medical details are that my CLL has undergone a "Richter's transformation", i.e. some CLL cells mutated into a B-cell lymphoma.  It is a well documented complication of CLL and it is aggressive but treatable - mine does not appear to have spread much at this point.  Dr.s Kritz and Keating conferred yesterday and the "win strategy" (to borrow a term from IBM sales) is to give me two rounds of a chemo treatment called hyperCVAD, and if that is effective on the lymphoma, move to transplant and go for the cure.  The hyperCVAD is a fairly harsh treatment - I will lose my hair and feel pretty ill for a week to 10 days.  I believe they will know during or soon after the 1st treatment if the lymphoma is responding.

Dr. Keating wants me in Houston for the 1st round of treatment so Renee and I will fly tomorrow to Houston and hopefully the treatment will start Monday.  The tentative plan is to try to get home next Saturday and hunker down here for the worst of the side effects.  Because of the potential side effects of the treatment, hospitalization is required so I will be checking into the MD Anderson hospital on Monday.  If the 1st round goes well I may get the 2nd round here locally (still would have to be hospitalized).

The outpouring of love, care, prayers, cards, and concerns have touched Renee and I in ways you cannot imagine.  Please feel free to share my blog with your circle of friends - I want to share the message of God's ministry in my life with as many people as possible.  My daughter, a talented writer and artist, did a beautiful pastel of an eagle for me for one of my birthdays - it hangs in my office with the caption:

"And in the shelter of Thy wings I will take refuge, until destruction passes by." - Psalm 57:1

God is our refuge, our strong tower - He will give us the strength and grace we need to see this through.  In Him we have supreme and ultimate confidence.  May He bless you this week.

Update on the Update

Friends, Dr. Kritz was not too alarmed or concerned by the levels of fever/symptoms I am experiencing, so he sent me home - that's a praise - and counseled finishing the antibiotics and coming back to see him Friday.  No word yet from MD Anderson on the pathology report from the biopsy.  I will post when I hear something on that.  Last Thursday, Dr. Chang came into my hospital room and said "Rex pathology was wrong about the lung cancer".  We rejoiced to see God move and answer prayer.  We rejoiced that they now thought it was lymphoma.  It may yet be lymphoma, and we need to be submissive to God's will as always.  But - we do ask with full confidence in His healing power and His power over the entirety of the physical universe - to make it something other than cancer - and either way we will give Him praise and glory.  Please continue to pray with us.....thanks so much.....Dan

Quick Update

Folks, I've been home now since Friday noon and unfortunately my symptoms are not improving, so Dr. Kritz has asked me to come in to the clinic to see him in about an hour.  He may put me on outpatient IV antibiotics (given at the cancer center) or he may put me back in the hospital.  He may also have info from MD Anderson on my biopsy, not sure about that.  This is difficult - please pray for me that I would have courage and patience as we wait on the Lord - pray that I would trust Him completely and that He would heal me.  Thanks - Dan

No Place Like Home

Self-portrait of me and my two brothers-from-another-Mother, Keith and Scott McElrath

Friends, I'm writing this from the back porch at home.  I've been away from home on many a business trip but the homecomings were never this sweet.  I have to say that the nurses at Rex Hospital and especially on "5 East" are a wonderful group of people.  What a profession, certainly one of the most noble I can think of.  Many of them combined prayer and encouragement with their medical duties - one in particular, Deborah, took my and Renee's hands and prayed earnestly with us on our darkest day.  My hat is off to these angels.

As you saw in my last post, we received remarkable news on Friday, while my pastor was with us (I want to have him at all my doctor meetings now), that they no longer think I have lung cancer, but rather lymphoma.  Honestly I am reserving any conclusions until I hear from the MD Anderson pathology lab, which should be early to mid-next week.  Another interesting data point came in today - My nurse at MD Anderson told me that the slides from the first bronchoscopy, the ones originally diagnosed as squamous cell carcinoma by the Rex Path Lab, were deemed 'no definitive evidence on malignancy' by the MD Anderson lab.  So the plot continues to thicken and God continues to be at work in this situation.  The slides from my operation, both lymph nodes and a 'tumor' biopsy, are enroute to MDA now.

Well I just wanted to let you all know that I'm out of the hospital, still working on the pneumonia symptoms, and praying that I will continue to improve while taking it easy here.  My parents will be here through tomorrow, then Renee's sister will come for a few days, and then Renee's parents will be back.  Of course with me back home, the burdens are mostly lifted.  I also want to thank the many people who came to visit me in the hospital.  Yesterday was particularly busy with visitors, up until 9 pm. 

Please pray for my pneumonia to clear up, my immune system to start firing on all cylinders, and for MD Anderson to say, early next week, "no malignancy".  With God, all things are possible.  Keep the faith!  Dan

A Miraculous Turn of Events

I lift up my eyes to the hills—

where does my help come from? 

My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.  Psalm 121, v1-2

Friends, a short while ago Renee and I were sitting here in my room with our pastor, Dr. Mike Garrett.  Dr. Chang came in and asked if we had heard the news from pathology - we said no, and Renee said "it's good news, isn't it?"  She could read his face.  We were waiting to hear whether I had stage 3a or stage 3b lung cancer, the difference being whether the lymph nodes on the opposite side of the tumor had been infected.  Dr. Chang said that the lab, based on the surgical lymph node biopsy and the 2nd bronchoscopy, was now of the opinion that the cancer is a lymphoma, not lung cancer.  Dr. Chang said that lymphoma is a lot better than lung cancer, but it will be a few days before Dr. Krtiz gets back from his vacation and we can discuss how to treat it.

Medically, it is yet to be determined how good this news is - the more important aspect is the spiritual.  So many of you prayed for the lung cancer diagnosis to be wrong, and with little medical reason - but God, being rich in mercy and loving kindness, has heard our prayer and shown us that as He promises, He is here, He is powerful, He is real, and He loves us.  Good news, difficult news - in all things and on all days, no matter how dark, He is here, He cares for us.  Rachel and Kenyon are here so I need to go - more soon.  Praise Him!  And thanks to all the praying saints!!  Dan

⁴¹ He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, ⁴² “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” ⁴³ An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. ⁴⁴ And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.<sup>[c]

Friends, the outcome of the surgery was not what we were hoping and praying for.  One of the lymph nodes in the center of my chest showed cancer despite the negative PET scan.  The doc estimated this as a 5% possibility before surgery.  Having found this, they stopped the surgery and I will be treated for this cancer by radiation and chemotherapy.  Given the very unlikely odds of everything that has happened this week, I am more convinced than ever that this is a custom-made trial authored by my Father in heaven.  I believe this with all my heart - there are people who will be touched, reached, and yes, saved because of this trial, provided I submit, honor and praise the Lord no matter what.  

I know He can heal me with a thought, and yet I know that is not always His plan.  I submit to His will for my life, as does Renee, while we pray for healing and mercy.  And really - what do I have to be bitter about?  There are hospitals throughout the world built for children with cancer.  Child or adult, we all need to understand that God will redeem ALL of the suffering of His people, as He said He would - His plan is an eternal plan, not a plan of years on this fallen earth.  If I may modify the great hymn, "When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun - it won't matter whether we lived 30, 50, 70, or 100 years on earth.  We might not even remember.

You won't be surprised to hear that I am very anxious to get out of here....my CLL docs will decide when they are satisfied with the progress of my pneumonia and hopefully let me go in a day or two.  Please pray for us in this regard as well as for special closeness to God, comfort, peace, and blessed assurance.  Thank you all.....Dan and Renee</sup>

 

Surgery Day

Hello friends, in about an hour they will come to start prepping me for surgery.  My last surgery was in 1967 when, as a 6 year old, I had my appendix removed.  The goal of the surgery today is to remove the upper-right lobe of my lung, which contains the mass that looks suspiciously like lung cancer.  The diagnostic process continues as the first step of the operation, with a biopsy of the lymph nodes in the center of my chest.  If they are clear of cancer, they will proceed to remove the lobe.  They tell me that this is the lobe that I can most easily do without and in fact, I should be back to full lung function within a few months after surgery.  If they remove the lobe, they will send it to pathology and a confirmation of the diagnosis will be made , and if it is confirmed, they will determine stage 1 vs. stage 2 (stage 2 is when cancer has infected some non-central lymph nodes).

Today, once again, I meditate on Romans 8;  please read carefully with me:

More Than Conquerors

28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,^j who^k have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. 

31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”^l

 

37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^m neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

AMEN!

All of us can be counted among this family of God if we believe and answer His knock at our door.  Again, I am blessed by your support and prayers.  Back soon.  Dan