Upper respiratory gunk…

The bad news is that Jackson's team lost their first game on Friday, but the good news is that we got to head home! This was really good news because Mike developed an upper respiratory infection probably due to his immune system being knocked down from the Chemo. He is feeling a little better today but coughing quite a bit and has a sinus headache. I guess considering what full dose Chemo does to people he is fairing pretty well.  So although we all hated the boys losing their game and being done for the season we are thrilled to be home!

James 1:2-4…Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  We love the book of James and go to it when we need direction in life. So although we know we will all face trials/difficulties in life we also know we need to keep persevering. So whether it is big things like death or cancer, or smaller things like an upper respiratory infection or a lot smaller things like dropping a glass container or carton of almond milk shattering both on the tile (yes, I had one of those days yesterday) we need to try not to question why but press on knowing that we are maturing and becoming complete!


Be blessed and… Just Breathe

Paula

Bittersweet

We have been looking forward to this day for 3 weeks, the last day of IV Chemo/supplements and on to oral. It is however a bittersweet day, because we grew to love the staff at Century Wellness Clinic as well as the fellow patients and caregivers! So many people with so many different cancers and their loved ones coming from all over the U.S. with a common goal...to heal from this dreaded disease! We shared stories, encouragement, healing strategies, "diet" ideas, exchanged phone numbers and made sweet friendships.  We feel great about our decision to follow our hearts and go to Reno NV for cancer treatment, and we enjoyed our time there. Our new affirmation: EVERY DAY, IN EVERY WAY I AM GETTING BETTER AND BETTER! We believe Mike is on the road to true healing!

Mike with Dr. Forsythe

Mike's blood work (especially his WBC & RBC)  has remained great throughout the treatments and he has felt well except for a little fatigue so he never had to take any extra medications, so we are thankful for that! He is ready to get back to work, play some golf and hang out with family and friends. We are both ready to get back to Charles City but… first we are super excited to see and hug Jackson and watch him and his Martin Brothers teammates play their last AAU basketball tournament in Kansas City these next few days.

Thanks for all the prayers, love and support, be blessed!

Paula

Mike with Dr. Maged Maged

With Chemo Nurse Manon

Mike with Chemo Nurse Manon

Mike with nurse Stephanie

With nurse Stephanie

Why?

On the app: iDisciple Pastor Greg Laurie says that when tragedy strikes we often ask God why. He says this isn't wrong but it doesn't mean that God owes us an answer! In Isaiah 55:8-9 it says Gods ways are above our ways.

I'd be lying if I said Mike and I never asked why… why would a young, athletic, never smoker get lung cancer? Why if we are believing and praying for healing hasn't Mike been healed? So many whys with so much heartache around us. Maybe someday will will have an answer for our why's but for now we just have to trust our creator! Maybe our journey with lung cancer is to help and encourage others with cancer, maybe it it is to teach us to be more loving, compassionate people, maybe it's to help us and others to live healthier more fulfilling lives?!? Only the Lord knows the answer and that is okay because like the scripture says, His ways are higher than our ways.

We are believing that the Lord brought us here to Reno to provide the answers we have been searching for and for complete healing for Mike! Thank you Lord for giving us peace and contentment. Thank you for holding us and everyone who is hurting and asking "why" in your loving, comforting healing arms! In Jesus name, Amen.

Mike is still doing great and we are so thankful that he is feeling so well and that we only has three more treatment left next week, and then he will be on to a different oral Chemo.

In His love and ours,

Paula

Sometimes it's hard to see the beauty beneath the "smoke"

California fires are not only devastating people's lives, but also making the air quality in around Reno very unhealthy and also covering up the beauty all around! Life is like that at times. Sometimes we see/notice the beauty all around us and sometimes we struggle to see anything beautiful or good, but it is always there!

Today is another Chemo day and it seems like "groundhog day"… get up, do our morning routine (more on that in a later blog), get food ready for the day, drive down the mountain trying to be early and beat all the other patients to get treatment 😜…wait… get vitals, blood work, IV, check blood sugar, more IV, more blood sugar checks, eat to get blood sugar back up, check blood sugar again, more IV then get a big jug of alkaline water and drive back up the mountain. It could get easy to overlook the beauty but we have had so many words of encouragement, love and prayers sent to us, so we choose to see the good…the beauty!

Mike is handling this all very well and is feeling good except for being tired/fatigued. We do see the light at the end of the tunnel and we will again see the mountains through the smoke (both literally and figuratively).   There has been so much pain in our small community lately and we pray that the smoke clears and the beauty of life returns!

Thank you and perfect peace to you all! (Thanks Chris)

Paula

Thank you & Happy 16 year Cancer-versary

16 years ago today our life changed forever! Mike had been having rib pain and Mayo couldn't figure out why so they finally did a CT scan which revealed that the tip of one of his ribs was broken off and embedded in the cartridge between the ribs (he used to swing really hard at the golf ball). The CT also revealed a small nodule in Mike's right lung so on July 18, 2001 Dr. Nichols performed the first of Mike's 3 thorocotomies. The diagnosis of Stage 1 non small cell adeniocarcinoma was shocking as Mike was a life long athlete and non-smoker!!! After a long recovery with a set back and another week in the hospital due to MRSA (resistant staph infection) we went back to our "new normal" with CT scans every 3 months, then every 6 mo., then finally yearly until the 5year mark when a new nodule was found growing in the left lung. Another thorocotomy removing another lobe of the left lung with the same protocol… living life as normal as possible thinking surely "it" wouldn't come back… until it did once again at the 5 year mark. Another thorocotomy was performed but this time they took a wedge section out of the right lung.

After Mike's second surgery I read every book I could on Cancer and healing, some of my favorites include (Radical Remission, Cancer Killers, Cancer Step Outside the Box, Knockout, Tripping over the Truth). Anyway we have done a lot of things to try to slow down or stop these nodules from growing and if you look at the survival rate of lung cancer you'd see that Mike is beating the odds!!!

I will say more on what we have done over the years to beat cancer but for now we want to say "thank you"! A lesson on iDisciple this morning titled "Gods answer for Anxiety" was perfect for today telling us to stop looking at the circumstances and instead thank Him for all He does, for our family and friends, the beauty around us, our beating heart, breath in our lungs! Mike and I thank God for this journey and for helping us become better people because of it!

Phillipians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heats and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Thank you,  Paula

You can count on me

As we head to Mikes second week of treatments listening to our favorite band Need to Breathe, and one their new songs "Count on me", I am so thankful for all our friends and family that I know we can count on!  One of the verses says "when you don't feel strong enough, everybody needs a pick me up, you can count on me".… this is so true! Some times we don't feel strong because this cancer journey is not easy and Lung cancer is a beast! Doctors are continually amazed that Mike has had it for over 16 years because the prognosis for lung cancer is not good! (More on that in a different blog)  It's easy for people (myself included at times) to forget that Mike is "sick" because he looks healthy! But the fact that we are here seeking treatment in Reno proves that he is not as healthy as he looks.

Everybody gets down at times so we all need to be there for each other, and we appreciate all the prayers, offers to help with things and encouragement!!! We know we can count on you, and we know we can count on God to be with us in this journey!

Today is a day of "good stuff" like IV's of high dose vitamin C and other immune boosters. As we see and talk to people from all over the country who are here seeking treatment, we see some who look very sick and others who don't, and we realize that all of them/us need someone they can count on! Thanking God that although we don't know why we have this/cancer as part of our journey He does and we are going to be better people because of it!!!

Feel like a lot of rambling today!  Guess what I'm really trying to get at is that whether we can see people's struggles/sickness/fears/etc… or not we all need to be aware of each other and help each other out even if it's just a kind word!  Thanks for listening!

Love,

Paula

"Keep fighting man"…Aaron Rodgers

Mike is feeling great except for not being able to sleep (wide awake at 1:30am) due to some steroid they use to help fight Chemo side effects (several other patients also said they didn't get a lot of sleep last night). Today was another day of talking with the Doctor, Immune boosting protocol and Poly MVA, which took about 4 hours. All blood work  looks great, so that is good!

We took advantage of a beautiful day and drove to South Lake Tahoe to watch some of the American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament which was fun. We missed seeing Steph Curry but did follow Aaron Rodgers and I played the #Stupidcancer card and got Aaron to take a picture with my Packer loving guy! Aaron was super nice and leaned into Mike and said "keep fighting man"! Mike thanked him and said "God bless" He even remembered us several holes later and said "hi" again. 💜

God bless,

Paula

Face the facts but fight your fears!

Face the facts but fight your fears! (Pastor Steven Furtick) Although we would like to "stick our heads in the sand" and pretend that Mike's body is as healthy as he feels, the fact is that for some reason his body grows lung nodules. He has Multi-focal non small cell lung cancer and a few small nodules that have been growing in his right lung the past few years. So we are fighting our fear of what people will think and starting a blog to let people know what we are doing. Our kids actually helped us set the blog up a few years ago but... we never blogged!

After having a lobe of the right lung removed in 2001, a lobe of the left lung removed in 2006 and a wedge of a lobe removed from the right lung in 2011, surgery is not an option at this time. The doctors at Mayo gave us several different options including Proton beam radiation but that is still not ready to use on the lungs, Cryoablation which is freezing or burning the nodules which causes "collateral damage " to other lung tissue or Chemotherapy (Vadetanib, Alectinib or Cabozantinib). Mike already has decreased lung capacity due to all his surgeries and the Chemo drugs didn't seem to have enough research for lung cancer, so we decided to go a different route.

I have been reasearching "holistic/alternative cancer treatments since Mikes last surgery in 2011 and that is how we ended up seeking treatment in Reno, NV. There are many great Cancer facilities around especially in Mexico but we liked the protocol here the best. We know a lot of people will think we are crazy for not following Mayo's standard protocol and we are okay with that, we just ask that you not judge us for our decision.

In May Mikes blood was sent to Greece for the RGCC test. There they tested his blood against all Chemo drugs and natural substances to determine what will work best for Him! (Why don't we do that in the US?!?) The doctor then picked the best Chemo drugs along with natural vitamins and supplements. Mike will get high dose Vitamin C along with other supplements 3 days a week and Low Dose Chemo with Insulin 2dys a week with weekends off for 3 weeks. Insulin potentiation therapy (IPT) is done because cancer feeds off sugar so the theory is that the cancer cells open up thinking they are getting sugar but instead get Chemo.

On Monday Mike had a pic line put in at St. Mary's hospital here and had his first Vitamin/supplement IV's. Tuesday was supposed to be his first Chemo but……due to wild-fire Farad we could not get to Reno from Lake Tahoe. So, today he is having his first Chemo treatment (Taxotere and Vinorelbine). Thanks for your love, support and prayers, we so appreciate it!!!


Courage doesn't mean you don't get afraid; courage means you don't let fear stop you!!!