A journey

We attended a prayer meeting Sunday evening for a friend of ours who is about to have a bone marrow transplant. You've prayed for him with us in the past as "D.A." This has been a long and difficult journey for him, his wife, their children, and grandchildren yet you wouldn't know it in speaking with them. 

     He and his wife shared about the outpouring of love they've felt from God. They always focus on the positive, how God has used this illness to introduce them to people they never would have met otherwise, people who they've shared the gospel with. They are vivid image-bearers for the Lord, always praising Him, giving Him the glory. Their love, hope, and confidence in the Lord is so evident and so inspiring; I'm moved to tears every time I think about it. They are my examples of what it means to be Christlike and to be image-bearers.

     A.A. (D.A.'s wife) shared with us the Bible verse that they cling to through this journey, and it resonates with me, that this is a verse I need to meditate on. It shows where their hearts are, and where all of us, I believe, as Christians need to be in order to truly share Christ with the world:

But I do not account my life of any value 

nor as precious to myself, 

if only I may finish my course and the 

ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, 

to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Acts 20:24 ESV

Please pray for D.A. and A.A. throughout this procedure. 

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Please join me this week while we pray through scripture, meditate on scripture, filling our hearts and minds with love and gratitude. Pray that we find hope and peace in Jesus; that we focus on and do the will of our Father and that we live our lives emulating the characteristics of Christ so that others may seek Him.

 

I'll post daily reminders on:

twitter @7DegreesOfMe

Instagram @archadia27
Pinterest Prayer Group #7thHourPrayerPower

Facebook group 7th Hour Prayer Power

#7thHourPrayerPower #BibleVerses #bible #bonemarrow #cancer #confidence #gratitude #hope #humility #journey #praise #prayer #scripture

Valentine’s Day and a Colonoscopy

My late husband passed away on Valentine’s Day, 2011 for lack of $1000 (basically), the cost of a colonoscopy back then. For the past several years, the Affordable Care Act has paid for preventive medicine and tests like these, and I sincerely hope that people took advantage of that; it had to have saved lives. With the new administration, it probably won’t be long before the Act is repealed, and people who benefited from it will be back to fending for themselves, often times forgoing medical attention rather than have to come up with the exorbitant amount of money that healthcare now costs.

I don’t want to get into a political debate. My only purpose here is for everyone to take advantage of preventive tests before they are no longer feasibly available to the poor and middle class. I think healthcare should be a right, not a privilege, but that it was simply done badly. It needs to be fixed, but, more likely, the government will just do away with it completely.

Get a physical exam, bloodwork, mammogram, colonoscopy, etc. now. Don’t wait! If you wait, it could cost you greatly. See my post from several years back, about the cost of not getting tested. Click here.

Pelotonia

From their facebook page:

"Pelotonia is a grass roots bike tour with One Goal: End Cancer. 100% of all Rider raised donations support innovative and life saving cancer research."

A client of mine, who is also a breast cancer survivor, is participating in the Pelotonia Aug. 8th - 10th. Her goal is to bicycle 50 miles to raise money for cancer research. 100% of every dollar raised goes directly toward Cancer Research. Their goal is to END CANCER.

Click the link for information about her, the ride, and to donate:  Cassandra's Pelotonia Page

Please share this link with others who might be able to help.

Cancer sucks.  Let's annihilate it!

Thank you.

What's the Cost?

Early spring my cousins did a lot of work on my yard, pulling weeds, trimming bushes, etc.  Trimming the pair of bushes next to the back patio exposed a lone golf ball.  They left it there, and I have too for all of these months as a reminder.  This was my husband's golf ball.  He loved the fact that our backyard was long enough that he could practice his swing (I guess this one got away).  He loved being out back working on his garden, or shooting hoops, or even just sitting on the porch swing.  This golf ball is a reminder to me that life is a precious gift.  Its a fragile gift that needs our full, undivided attention.

Today marks the anniversary of my husband's visit to the emergency room where we found out that he had stage 3 colon cancer.  That was 2007.  He passed away on Valentine's Day, 2011.  His only consolation during everything was that his colon cancer got several people to have colonoscopies, some which revealed pre-cancerous polyps.  So, on anniversaries such as this, and whenever I can, I try to remind people of the importance of doing this and to offer information that others may not know to help them make a more informed decision.  I hope you'll read all of this.

When I talk to people about getting one, I get the same responses over and over again, so I would like to address those this year, especially in light of the fact that my 44 year old brother just had 4 polyps removed.

Colon cancer is the 3rd highest cause of death among all of the types of cancers, BUT its one of the few that can be detected at such an early stage that it could be wiped out if everyone had colonoscopies.  So, why doesn't everyone have a colonoscopy?

No. 1 reason:  It's Nasty.
For approximately 24 hours before the procedure, you have to drink foul tasting stuff that will clean out your system, which means spending a lot of time on the toilet.  I agree, that is nasty, but look at the alternatives:
- if a tumor is found, 2 nurses will hold you down and run a tube through your nose, down your throat and into your stomach in order to clean out your system.  Its called an NG tube.  Even a sip of water will come back up through the tube.  Imagine being like that for at least 5 days.  How does one day of diarrhea compare to that?
- while on chemo you will have days and days of diarrhea and maybe need to be admitted to the hospital to get rehydrated.
- the stuff you have to drink for various tests is even nastier than the prep for the colonoscopies, and you will be required to drink these every so many months as part of your treatment.

No. 2 reason:  It cost too much.
I was put off by the cost also and most insurance companies won't pay for it; they'll apply it towards your deductible, but the doctors will want to work out a payment plan with you before your procedure.  So, you're looking at about $1000 over maybe 3 months.
The alternative:
- Cancer is expensive.  All of the medications and doctor visits, specialists, copays, deductibles, maximum out of pocket expense, etc. over the course of 3 1/2 years, I estimate to be at least $27,000, and we had a really good insurance plan.  My monthly premiums the last two years were over $1200/month which is on top of the $27,000.  Then there's the hundreds of thousands of dollars the insurance company paid (but its still cheaper for them to do this than to cover the cost of colonoscopies for everyone).  Everyone wants their money first.  You have to call each company and work out payment plans.

No. 3 reason:  I don't have any symptoms.
By the time you have symptoms you will probably have, at least, stage 3 colon cancer.

No. 4 reason:  I did the "smear" test.
By the time anything shows up on a smear test, you will probably have stage 3 colon cancer.  All the smear test does is detect blood in the stool.  My husband's tumor was in the large colon, it would have never shown a result by this method.

No. 5 reason:  We don't have a history of colon cancer in the family.
The number of people who are getting cancer is growing everyday.  Why do you think there are so many new cancer facilities being built?  Its a booming business.  Its our lifestyles, the food we eat, stress, alcohol and other drug abuse, our environment.  Its no longer just genetics.  BUT, if you do have a family history of any type of cancer, and especially colon cancer, don't wait until you're 50 to have a colonoscopy.

Please, please, please, do yourself and your family a favor.  Go have a colonoscopy.  The alternatives are so much worse.  If you don't want to have one, that's your decision, of course, but tell me...

...how would you like to be remembered?

In loving memory

Kenneth B. Weeks

11/12/51-2/14/11

Donations:

American Cancer Society

Stand Up To Cancer - be sure to watch September 7th.  8pm Eastern/7pm Central on ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX

Hospice of Dayton

 Please click any of the links above for more information.  I am not receiving compensation for them.

A New Month - A New Storm

The First Storm:
January, 2011
I didn't fair too well with my first month of goals. By mid-January, everything was lost, everything seemed to fall apart. It seemed anything I had to say would be depressing and despondent, so I just didn't write anything at all. Additionally, I had no time or energy to "reflect" or write.

I knew 2011 was going to be a rough year for me and for my family and it started out with a bang. My husband's health condition just suddenly plummeted. He entered the hospital on January 3rd of this year and was discharged a week and a half later. It turned out the cancer had spread to the nerve endings of his spine and had affected his ability to walk. By the time he came home, he was 3 days into radiation, which was going well, but he had decided not to continue with his physical therapy while he was in the hospital. At his discharge, he could barely walk. We were set up with home care to include a nurse visit 2x a week, an occupational therapist 2x a week and a physical therapist 3x a week. I could definitely see an improvement by the end of the first week. The next week, he fell and with family members trying to help him up and bruising from the fall, he insisted on having a week off to rest.

That week was full of questions, concerns and torment for me. I got no sleep. Caring for him was/is becoming more and more of a physical strain as well and it takes longer to do the same tasks we had figured out how to do the week before. I started questioning if its time to call in hospice? Should I just let him rest and not force him to exercise? Should I let him just eat and drink however much he wants?

I began noticing new "symptoms"; changes in his behavior, mood, physical appearance and mental abilities.

To be continued ...