February 28, 2014
Internalizing
Wife's Mammogram
read (BI RADS 5) Needle Core Biopsy concluded Invasive, triple negative, Ductal Carcinoma
(Malignant). Bloom/Richardson score 9/9 (severe/aggressive growth).
Off social media, will be in prayer and fasting for a while. Join our
family in prayer please.
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No, but I wish you and your family well, Dan.
ReplyDeleteI'm truly sorry to hear that Dan. I won't be praying but my thoughts are with you and yours.
ReplyDeleteHi Dan,
ReplyDeleteI, too, am sorry to hear about this.
Ydemoc
Let's see God help you out of this one huehue
ReplyDeleteClassy.
Delete"huehue" my ass, you little prick. My advice is to hope this never happens to you or one of your loved ones, whoever you are.
DeleteDan: I hope that you've got coverage in one way or another that will help. I hope that you have (and do) take advantage of all that medical science can bring to this.
Modern medicine is so illogical at times, especially in this case.
ReplyDeleteDoc: "We may have to also remove some, if not all, lymph nodes as a precaution"
Us: "What do the lymph nodes do?"
Doc: "They're an intricate part of the immune system that naturally combats and filters diseases and cancerous cells"
Us: "0.0"
Doc: "We have to start Patty on Chemotherapy to destroy the cancer cells"
Us: "What else does Chemotherapy "destroy"?
Doc: "Any dividing cells, oh, and the entire immune system that combats diseases and cancerous cells, and increases the risk of heart disease."
Us: "0.0"
There's nothing illogical about that, and I mean it respectfully. The "infected" cells simply grow in unpredictable ways, and most of those ways destroy the body' functions. The only reliable way modern medicine has of stopping that process (once it's begun) is to destroy the "infected" cells.
DeleteDestroying cells is how you kill something, be it a tumor or a person.
My Dad and his Mom (my Gram) were both taken by cancer, and while I'm hardly an expert, I've got both personal and professional experience with it.
There's no reason to not try alternative cures. Honestly, it seems like the patient's attitude is a strong factor in how long he/she survives & thrives. The problem is that no alternative cure is predictably reliable. None. So, the trick is to balance things which help you keep your spirits up, with treatments which can do a lot to ruin those spirits.
You and I do not get along, Dan, but I truly do wish your wife and you (and your kids) the best of health. Good luck, really.
Chemotherapy is a brutal treatment – it is cancer specific poison that happens to poison non-cancer cells as well. However many breast cancers respond very well to chemotherapy and remission is usually possible – moreover, often the first three or four cycles of chemo can go very well (the latter cycles are more likely to make you ill). I’ve worked in cancer care and palliative social work for ten years and breast cancer can be survived - and moreover it can be lived with successfully. It won’t be easy, but it can be lived with very well. I spent a free day, the last time I was in America for an academic conference, heading out across the Nevada desert with a middle-aged woman from Santa Monica who had recently beaten breast cancer – she had more life her than me!
ReplyDeleteAs for ‘sanmonsalve’s unhelpful comment... Not nice. Yet there is an issue here and that is how some Bible verses get taken as literal and how others (even by the most conservative of Christians) can be lightly skipped over. The usual rule of thumb is stuff that is personally costly tends to get less attention than those verses that would make life uncomfortable for your average pew filling Christian. So we see a bias towards issues below the belt (abortion and homosexuality – even though there little Biblical evidence to get hot under the collar about these issues – the weight of Biblical morality is concerned with how we treat our neighbour, the poor, the disabled, the foreigner, the employee and the prisoner (see: Exodus 22:22 , Deut 10:18, 14:29, 24:17, 24:19 etc., Isaiah 1:17, 1:23, 10:2, Jeremiah 22:3, Ezekiel 22:7, Zechariah7:10, Malachi 3:5 etc.). But such concerns tend to make life uncomfortable and so I see the advantage of ‘abstract’ or cheap righteousness, such as jawing on about homos or evolution – stuff that isn’t particularly costly for your average Christian.
The nearer to home an issue, the more likely a believer is to find some compromise with Scripture. A good example is to look at Lev 18:22 – many conservative Christians are very clear on what this verse means. Yet Mk 10:10 – a far clearer verse (the Hebrew of Lv 18:22 is not clear – whereas the Koine Greek of Mk 10:10 is very clear) gets lightly skipped over by many Christians. We do not shun divorcees who remarry even in conservative Christian churches when scripture tells us quite clearly they are adulterers (excepting those who were the innocent party in a divorce where the grounds were adultery).
Very few Christians would put their money where their mouths are when it comes to healing – despite Jesus words on the topic (cf. Jn 14:12 or Mk 16:18). Suddenly, medicine is a gift from God... (which suggests that for much of humanity’s existence God was happy for people to suffer and given we’ve only had reliable medicine in the West for the past 100 years or so – so God is happy for most of the world to suffer since we only have ‘good’ reliable medicine in the West) – and already, here, we see it scoffed at as ‘illogical’ (I’ll let others ponder the irony of that...).
So although I don’t agree with the way ‘sanmonsalve’ has made her/his point. I do think, when it is an issue that really counts, that a protective bubble can’t be drawn around some issues. Let’s be honest, many Christians set themselves up as authorities on how other people should lead their lives – it would be interesting to hear how ‘faith’ makes a difference when faced with the grim realities, a supposedly loving God, throws at us – and at least here in the privileged West there is medicine, for much of the world there is only prayer... Odd that life expectancy is greater in the West than in the rest of the world, ain’t it..?
We are in a whirlwind of emotions for sure. We are determined, frustrated, content, and prayerful obviously.
DeleteMonday, we found out Patty has the BRCA2 + (gene mutation) also. Added to the triple negative breast cancer, she has the great white shark of cancer. So, on top of everything, they're now recommending a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy. You know, "just in case". Patty is pretty fed up with modern medicine's options at this point though. We're deep in research to determine best course of action. We are really convinced that if you have a worldview of naturalism, you want to cut everything out. Appendix, tonsils, gal bladder, cesareans, double mastectomy, hysterectomy, etc. But God gave us this body with reason and purpose. Not to just have extra things to cut out and remove. Patty is really leaning to diet and nutrition, with just a lumpectomy, at the moment. Modern medicine just doesn't make any sense to her, us. Chemotherapy and radiation are certainly out for her. Thanks for thinking of her, and voicing your concerns. She is in good spirits, and very resolute.
Have you heard of Lissa Rankin? It's worth researching her points, you know instead of blindly following the religion of "modern medicine".
Dan, I have a dear friend who has aggressive bone cancer.The Doctor wanted to amputate her leg and start her on chemo. She said no. Instead, she set out to find a natural way to heal her body. Through her research, she came across a carrot juice regime that was worth giving a try. Five months after this, she had a check up. Her Doctor was amazed that there was no increase in the cancer. She told him what she had been doing - he scratched his chin, shook his head and told her to keep on doing, what she's doing.
DeleteMy husband and I will be praying for you. Adding flax meal to your wife's diet is recommended. You can find online reports of women with breast cancer in Canada who ingested flax meal in various forms over weeks/months. In some cases, the cancer disappeared. In ALL casrs, there was evident shrinkage of the cancer cells. I can also attest to the success of carrot juice; the woman in question is my best friend.
ReplyDeleteThanks for those very encouraging words Alyx. They are certainly welcomed and we are grateful for successful testimonies of nutritional success stories. Patty is encouraged more as we study up on all of this. It seems logical that a diet closer to God, (raw) and father from man (processed) is the key. Blessings.
DeleteWww.cancertutor.com/rawfood/ is worth looking into. Very informative about the raw juice regime for cancer.Romans 8:28. In Christ, Alyx.
DeleteDan- all the best to Patty, you, and your kids. My mom had breast cancer which was successfully treated with a partial mastectomy. And sure, there are cases of even very aggressive cancers remitting with no treatment, or just carrot juice or whatever. But I would urge you to listen to the doctors and not rule out any kind of medical treatment out of hand. There's nothing in the Bible (and as you know, I've read it pretty closely) that puts limits on what should be done for illnesses. In fact, if you ask me, Matthew 5:29 and its parallels makes a good case for drastic treatment when necessary.
DeleteYears ago, a young friend of mine came down with Hodgkin's disease, a very nasty form of cancer with a low survival rate. Her family were all confirmed alternative types, and she tried combatting it with every possible form of organic treatment: carrot and wheatgrass juice, vegetarian diet, you name it. In the end, when she was obviously not getting better, her family finally listened to her doctors, and she got both radiation and chemotherapy. She's alive today, thirty years later. She would almost certainly not have survived without the school medicine.
Please, don't limit yourselves.
Best wishes from Vienna, Scott (zilch)
Nice twist on Matthew. I get your point though, and thanks for sharing. She feels taking baby steps is the best course, not preventative. Risky as it may be, it feels like the right course at the moment. Ripping things out, "just in case", is not very scientific or logical.
DeleteOf course, the decision on treatment is up to Patty, and (who knows?) you may be doing the best thing. But keep in mind that "just in case" does not mean (or at least it shouldn't mean) thoughtlessness: there's experience behind it (or should be).
DeleteAll the best to all of you again, whatever you decide to do.
spring greetings from Vienna, Scott
Prayers to you and yours. As you go through this major event... you may feel (your wife may more-so) and extreme range of emotions and internal conflicts. Douglas Groothuis has this range in his current situation which he shares thoughts on at times on his blog: Chronic Illness, Christian Faith, and Other Laments.
ReplyDeletehttp://chronicillnessandchristianfaith.blogspot.com/
Again, my prayers and thoughts are with you brother.
So sorry to hear about your wife's illness Dan. Try alternative medicine, by all means, but please consider doing as the doctor suggests. Mainstream medicine is mainstream because it has a proven track record.
ReplyDeleteIf you're concerned about the side effects of the treatment that's where alternative medicine can shine but please don't rely on it to treat something as serious as cancer.
Anyway whatever your wife's decision I wish you both all the very best.
It's fallacious to believe because it's popular, it's the right thing to do.
DeletePatty read raw foods are out with chemotherapy, because your immune system becomes so weak that it is then susceptible to bacteria and pathogens on the uncooked foods. That is crazy time! Pass!
Thanks for your well wishes though, Chris.
Just wanted you to know that we continue to hold you and your wife in prayer, Dan and if it's okay with you, I'd like to ask others to pray for for you too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Alyx, it's what we really need these days,...all days. Your prayers are comforting and welcomed.
DeletePatty did great for her partial mastectomy (lumpectomy) last night and is resting at home. We were very blessed with brilliant, and talented, surgeons and their team. We are grateful to all for the support and prayers.
ReplyDeleteGood for Patty! Best wishes to her and the whole family!
Delete