Special Effects

Me writing this post during chemo, wearing
my "Punch Cancer in the Face" shirt

There's something I've been wanting to talk about for a while, but it's a little difficult because on the surface, it seems like it flies in the face of all of the "faith for healing" stuff I've said so far. But join me on this rabbit trail and let's see where it takes us!

First of all, I have EXCELLENT news to report! Some background: during cancer treatment, the oncologist tracks some factors in your blood work called "markers". I won't pretend to understand the first thing about them, but essentially they give the doctor an idea of how much cancer is still in there without having to do a CT scan every week. When my nurse practitioner looked at the report of the two markers they are following for me, she got a big smile on her face. "You're going to want to take a picture of this for your wife to see!" she said. The chart for one marker showed my level as barely above the "normal" range, way down from the high level of just a month or two ago, and for the other one it showed right smack in the middle of the "normal" range! Glory to God! (No, I don't know if this means we can stop doing chemo infusions soon - I wasn't going to ask the nurse to speak for the doctor. He'll tell us at the right time! For now, we continue to do what is clearly working!)

So God and medicine are doing great things for us! But there is one thing that is still a lingering (if minor) problem: side effects.

I mentioned the side effects I have been experiencing here and here. They aren't anything like as severe as they could be, and for that I am truly thankful! But what I was hoping and praying for was that I wouldn't have to put up with side effects at all! When I started having them, my brain automatically started trying to figure out why.

"You're pumping chemicals into your body that you know cause these things," my brain said. "You can't drink a case of alcohol and pray not to be drunk. There are causes and effects in the world, and the effect of letting them put that medicine into you is that you are going to have those side effects."

Thanks, brain, that's absolutely not helpful.

I had been thinking about the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego - three young men who were sentenced to death by burning, and were actually thrown into a fatally hot furnace, and not only did they not die, but their very clothes were not harmed by the fire - they came out not even smelling like smoke! (Daniel 3:27) My brain started telling me, "These side effects smell like smoke to me! Why aren't you coming through this not smelling like smoke? Is there something wrong with your trust in God, faith man?"

At this point of the story, I don't really know what to write. I do believe that God can remove all side effects from me. I don't know why that hasn't happened. I do know that it would be entirely possible for my side effects to be many times worse, and there are some side effects of my chemo meds that I have not experienced, so maybe God is shielding me from worse stuff. I haven't even lost any hair that I had at the start of treatment (yeah, that bald spot was already there!) It's clear that my treatment is going well, and I see God's hand in that. Several people who know me well and know what is going on have told me "You look really good!" (Not meaning that I've got a hot dad bod... meaning that I don't look like someone who has been going through chemotherapy for the past three months.) I wonder if Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego felt a little crispy while they were in the fire? Maybe they sweated a little bit? The Bible doesn't tell us what they felt during that time... only that a fourth man (many Theologians say the pre-incarnate Jesus) was with them in the furnace, and that when they came out they were as good as new, no visible harm at all.

So maybe I am coming through not smelling like smoke! I can put up with a little bit of discomfort on the way there. I can take steps to handle the little inconveniences, which will only last as long as the chemotherapy lasts. Considering that the alternative to these little problems could have been a painful illness and death, I thank God for wise doctors and effective medicine. I won't let a little FBS and cold sensitivity ruin my testimony!

4 Treatments and a CT

It's been a while since I've posted an update! That's because most of cancer treatment, when it's working as intended, is frankly pretty boring... they set you up on a schedule where you show up for chemo treatments every so often (in Cat's case, once a week... in mine, once every two weeks) and then you put up with side effects until the next treatment rolls around. Rinse, repeat, and eventually the oncologist evaluates your progress and maybe you keep doing it or maybe not. So it's been a boring road for the past few weeks with not a lot of news. Not until today!

When we first started treatment, our doctor told me we would do four cycles and then get a CT scan and see what our progress looked like. The CT scan happened Friday. We got to see the text report on Saturday, and we started to get really excited! But I didn't want to share it until we got to talk to the actual doctor. Today (Monday) we get to see him, and he's excited too! The report basically goes through every bit of cancer they initially found, and tells us how much SMALLER it is! The whole goal of chemo treatment is to attack the cancer and reduce the size until either it goes away completely or it is small enough to attack using radiation or surgery. In his office he actually showed us the before-treatment and now versions of the same CT scan side by side, and the tumors are visibly much smaller! The treatment is doing exactly what it's supposed to! Praise God!

On top of that, he had some really exciting news... there is a new chemo drug that was just approved for use less than a week ago. I'll call it "Yabba-dabba-doo" because I can't remember drug names but they all sound like the names of Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters to me. If insurance will pay for the Yabba-dabba-doo, it will replace one of the drugs we're using now, and reportedly has a 37% better effectiveness. This means that what we're already doing is doing amazing things, but we may be able to accelerate even more!

Please understand that we are not relying on only the chemotherapy. Most nights when I lie down to go to sleep, I pray "Thank you, God, that You are my healer." I have a list of healing-related Scriptures on my phone, some of which I've shared here already, and I look at them often. Faith in God is absolutely a part of all of this! But we believe, as I've shared before, that God also created medicine to help the body heal itself, so we take advantage of it all!

Water and Fire

I won't be scared of the fire or scared of the water
You're the great overcomer, You're living in me
You are the man in the fire, You walked on the water
You're the great overcomer, Emmanuel!

As we sang this song in my church last Sunday, I was reminded of one of my favorite Scriptures to meditate on during cancer treatment. But my take on it is a little different from the more traditional interpretation... or is it?

In the Bible, "water" typically is used for washing and cleansing. This would be like washing your hands or your feet, washing your clothes, washing food to prepare it, that sort of thing. The waters of the sea were a great food source via fishing. But in the ancient world, the sea also could be a terrifying, dangerous place. There was a time when Jesus' disciples were caught in a storm on the sea that was so bad that they feared for their lives... but then Jesus came to them actually walking ON the water they were so afraid of, and then He exercised authority over it and stopped the storm (Mark 6:45-52).

"Fire", on the other hand, often represents purification - melting down metals to remove impurities, for example, and making animal sacrifices to purify the people of their sins. In one notable story, three faithful Israelites were thrown into a fire to execute them, and God saved them from it - they came out perfectly unharmed (Daniel 3:8-30).

These were likely some of the kinds of thoughts that would have occurred to an ancient reader of this passage from Isaiah 43:1-3:

But now thus says the LORD,
he who created you, O Jacob,
   he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
   I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
   and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
   and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the LORD your God,
   the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

Let me take a little detour here. When my wife Cat was undergoing cancer treatment, her experience was this: first, they did chemotherapy treatments on her to reduce the size of the cancer tumor. Basically, chemotherapy involves sitting in a comfy chair for hours at a time while they pump various medicines into you through an IV. Once they decided that the many chemo treatments had had the effect they wanted, they sent her in for radiation treatments. In those they send radiation into your body in such a way that it basically burns up the cancer cells. They are very accurate with radiation treatments these days, but just like with sun radiation at the beach, you can sometimes get burns even on your skin. I understand that chemo and then radiation is a common way to treat many cancers. (I don't know yet if I will ever undergo radiation treatments - stay tuned!)

So when I read that passage and it says "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you," it reminds me of the hours of liquid medicine during chemotherapy. And when I read "when you walk through fire you shall not be burned," I'm reminded of the burning effects of radiation therapy. I choose to take this prophecy, in my own life, as a promise that whatever of those therapies I happen to be doing at the time, God is with me, protecting me from any harm that they could inadvertently do!

I won't be scared of the fire or scared of the water
You're the great overcomer, You're living in me
You are the man in the fire, You walked on the water
You're the great overcomer, Emmanuel!

 

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For the full story of my cancer journey, start here - or just explore all of the posts I've tagged "cancer".

Victory Playlist

When my wife was going through her cancer battle several years ago, we put together a playlist of songs to listen to every time we made the 30-minute trip to the cancer treatment center - it helped both of us get in the right frame of mind of faith and hopefulness on the way to whatever treatments she was going to have to endure that day. Now that I'm going down a similar road, we've come up with a playlist for me! Here it is on Spotify:

Hollow Grave

Let my soul arise
Let my heart awake
Let these empty lungs overflow with praise
I found all the life I need in a hollow grave 

It's only by the blood
Only by Your grace
All I see is love where nobody lays
I found all the life I need in a hollow grave

 

Isn't it amazing that through Christ's death we have been given life? I happened to be on worship team within a week or two of getting a cancer diagnosis, and singing this song was like rising up from the grave myself, filled with Jesus' life!

Prepare to Die

Prepare to die!
Cancer, prepare to die!
I've got a message from the God of whom you have defied!
You come against me with your weapons from hell,
And you come against me with your fearful evil spell,
But I come against you in the name of the God of the armies of Israel!
Prepare to die!
Prepare to die!

For the last time, you've come against me with your weapons from hell,
And you've come against me with your fearful evil spell,
But I come against you in the name of the God of the armies of Israel! 

Disease, hatred, jealousy
Enemies of the cross
Prepare to die

 

As I explained in my previous post, this song is absolutely not about a person dying... it is about the cancer dying! This song is really upbeat... it kind of gets me pumped!

Shackles (Praise You)

Been through the fire and the rain
Bound in every kind of way 

But God has broken every chain, so LET! ME! GO! 

Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance
I just wanna praise You, I just wanna praise You
You broke the chains, now I can lift my hands
And I'm gonna praise You, I'm gonna praise You 

 

This one is actually one of the holdovers from my wife's list. I've always liked the original Mary Mary version, but when Mandisa screams LET! ME! GO! it just knocks it out of the park for me!

Miracle Maker

In the midst of our despair
When our hope is running dry
We lift our voices to the heavens
To the One who hears our cry
With a heart full of faith
We know He's always near
Every moment, every heartbeat
He wipes away our fear

Oh, the power in His name
Bringing life to broken frames

Miracle Maker, You heal the blind
Turning water into wine
Miracle Maker, You calm the sea
Setting every captive free
Miracle Maker, we believe
In Your love, we receive

 

This may be the newest song on this playlist, released by the oldest band, Petra. This is from the album Hope which they released just last January. If you haven't heard the album, do yourself a favor and listen to the whole thing! (Physical copy store link, or find it on all of the streaming services!)

Destined to Win

This song’s for all the people with light in their hearts and love in their eyes
You don’t have to worry when the mountain seems of infinite size
There is one who goes before you to calm the sea
And there’s a king who leads his people to victory

We are destined to win!
We’re surrounded by his love, guarded by his power,
Destined to win!
Following the Lord until the battle’s over,
We are destined to win!

 

A classic by DeGarmo & Key, and maybe among the short list of perfectly crafted Christian Rock songs of all time. Which of us doesn't need to be reminded from time to time that no matter what's going on, we have a destiny in Christ Jesus?

I Still Believe

I've been in a cave for forty days
With only a spark to light my way
I want to give out, I want to give in
This is our crime
This is our sin 

But I still believe
I still believe
Through the pain, and through the grief
Through the lies, through the storms
Through the cries and through the wars 

I still believe

 

Written by Michael Been, who was a believer, and first recorded by his mainstream band The Call, this is an amazing song about standing firm through adversity. I love every version of this song (another famous version was included in the movie The Lost Boys) but I prefer Russ Taff's energy for my playlist.

Take You At Your Word

I'll take You at Your word
If You said it, I'll believe it
I've seen how good it works
If You start it You'll complete it
I'll take You at Your word

 

Faith is way simpler than we make it out to be. It doesn't take a lot of effort. It just takes one decision to believe what God says. It's not like climbing a tree - it's like letting go of a low-hanging branch and dropping safely to the ground!

This Is Our God

Remember that fear that took our breath away?
Faith so weak that we could barely pray,
But He heard every word, every whisper.
Now those altars in the wilderness
Tell the story of His faithfulness - 
Never once did He fail, and He never will!

 

I also talked about this song in my previous post, so I won't repeat myself here.

I've Got Joy

I've got joy in the struggle
I've got peace in the storm
I've got strength in the battle
I don't fear anymore
I'm a child of heaven
And my hope is secure
I've got joy cause I've got Jesus

 

Another holdover from my wife's Victory Playlist, this one just reminds me of everything I have to be joyful about!

Great Are You Lord

You give life, You are love, You bring light to the darkness
You give hope, You restore every heart that is broken
Great are You, Lord

It's Your breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise, we pour out our praise
It's Your breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise to You only

 

My wife suggested that we include Michael W. Smith's recording of this in the playlist. I love that he starts with "It's Your breath in our lungs..." When Jesus died, he took our death and gave us His life. Every breath we take is His breath.

Always Be There

I can count on You to always be there
And know that You will always be there
Every day You'll always be there with me, with me

 

This one is probably a curve ball for almost anyone but me! This is from a CD of VBS songs written and recorded by Yancy, who grew up right here in Tulsa. Sometimes I find that songs written about Jesus and recorded for kids have a quality that really speaks to me. Maybe that's because I've been involved as a volunteer children's minister for many years, or maybe I'm just an overgrown kid myself! But this song reminds me of what we always need to remember: God will never leave us, and He will never forsake us.

Givin' Up Givin' Up

I gotta stop kickin' myself around
Swimmin' in a pool of pity
I'm gonna pick myself up off the ground
And get back to the nitty gritty 

Well, it's one step, two steps
And then I'm back on my way
Sittin' around has just been gettin' me down
And that's why I just have to say that

I'm givin' up givin' up
I'll never give up again
I'm givin' up givin' up
And hangin' on till the end

 

Bryan Duncan is a ridiculously talented musician, and this song is just a lot of fun while it reminds you that you can't give up! I haven't been tempted to give up on fighting this fight of faith, but when hard times come, sometimes it helps to have a lighthearted little reminder to leave your pity party in the past and get back to what really matters!

If God Is For Us (Who Can Be Against Us)

If you're weary, don't lose hope in fighting the good fight
Just remember, God is with you through your darkest night
In the heat of battle, keep your head up high
God is marching with us
He's always at our side

If God is for us, who can be against us?
No power on earth can take His love away
If God is for us, who can be against us
We can live in victory today

 

DeGarmo & Key made the list twice! This line from Romans 8:31 is something every believer in Jesus should hang their hat on. Just remember: that "if" isn't a question. Read the context in Romans: there's no "if" about it. God IS for you!

Don't Look Back

I finally see the dawn arrivin'
I see beyond the road I'm drivin'

It's a bright horizon, ooh, and I'm awaken
I see myself in a brand new way
The sun is shinin', ooh, the clouds are breakin'
'Cause I can't lose now, there's no game to play

 

Wait, a Boston song on the playlist? Yes! This song is absolutely, 100% about leaving behind something that was keeping the singer down, and it doesn't have anything specific to do with God at all. But when you're in the middle of a storm, it's good to keep your eyes on the prize and not look back at, say, the initial prognosis of how long people live with the condition you're in, or famous people who have died from it, or whatever. Keep your eyes forward and trust in Jesus! This song just has such great energy, it was just the right way to close out the playlist.

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I hope you've enjoyed reading about these songs! I love them all, and I hope you check any out that you're not familiar with!

 

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For the full story of my cancer journey, start here - or just explore all of the posts I've tagged "cancer".

Second Week - This is Who Our God Is

It's been a minute since I posted - I don't want to get into a lot of detail about every little thing that happens ("I had to go pee twice during my infusion today!!" No thanks, TMI) but I do want to let people see my general trajectory because God is doing awesome things! So don't expect the level of detail from the first several posts, but do keep reading!

The update on the physical side is that there are very good indications in my blood work and a few more scans the doctor ordered that the chemo treatments are going very well. I've seen a few side effects, but on the whole they are still quite mild compared to what could happen and what does happen to others. God's hand is working! If you want gory details and you know me in person, don't be shy to ask. If you don't know me in person but you want to talk (maybe you're going through something yourself), do feel free to contact me, through the comments if you can't find another way.

Okay, here's what I really wanted to talk about. I've been very blessed for a number of years to be able to serve on my church's worship team, and I was rehearsing last week to serve this past Sunday. When I'm practicing the songs on my own, learning the lyrics and the music, I'm actually meditating on what they say... some of my best personal times of worship and communion with God happen when I'm practicing a song and I get a little choked up by what it's saying and I have to stop for a minute and just thank God for what He has done for me!

To preface what I'm going to say about one of the songs I was practicing this week, I have two items of context. The first thing is that my wife won a battle with cancer several years ago - the surgery that removed the last traces of it from her body will have happened three years ago in September. Completely cancer-free for three years! God did great things for her!

The second thing is that I've been listening a lot to a 40-year-old Carman song named "Prepare to Die". Saying it out of context makes it seem like a pretty morbid thing to listen to during cancer treatments, but actually it's not ME that is preparing to die, it's the CANCER that is preparing to die! The first verse tells the story of Goliath walking out onto the battlefield, seeing David, and basically telling David that he is going to wipe him off the face of the Earth... but then in the chorus, David tells Goliath that he is actually fighting the "God of the armies of Israel", so Goliath had better "prepare to die!" Then in the second verse, a giant walks out into the battlefield of our life, and as we stand there, the giant tells us it's going to wipe us out, because its name isn't Goliath... it's "Depression" or "Leukemia" or... "Cancer". Then the chorus rolls around, and like David, we become bold and aggressive, and we tell that giant of an enemy, "prepare to die!" (Here's a YouTube video of the song with lyrics, if you want to check it out!)

It's kind of amazing how a song you rocked out to when you were 15 hits differently when you're 55 and actually facing one of the giants Carman named in the song.

That said, fast forward to me rehearsing this song for our worship set:

One of the Scripture verses I've been going over and over in my mind during this situation is in Psalm 103:1-3: "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases..." Notice that spiritual salvation (forgiving all your iniquity) is placed on exactly the same level as physical healing (healing all your diseases). So I'm pretty sure Phil Wickham meant his song to be only about spiritual salvation, when I started singing this:

Remember those walls that we called sin and shame?
They were like prisons that we couldn't escape,
But He came, and He died, and He rose...
Those walls are rubble now.

I was hearing salvation of the soul. But when I sang the second part of the verse:

Remember those giants we called death and grave?
They were like mountains that stood in our way,
But He came, and He died, and He rose...
Those giants are dead now.

I couldn't help but think about the giants of disease from the Carman song, and how my wife would be dead and in a grave now from her cancer if not for the working of God in her life. We remember, and we need to remember! The last verse refers back to Exodus where God told His people to build altars and set up memorial stone to remind them of His goodness toward them:

Remember that fear that took our breath away?
Faith so weak that we could barely pray,
But He heard every word, every whisper.
Now those altars in the wilderness
Tell the story of His faithfulness - 
Never once did He fail, and He never will!

As I'm going through whatever I go through on the way to my full restoration, which I know with certainty in my heart is on its way, I can look back to the memorial altars... the big one is that day she got to ring the "I'm cured!" bell at the treatment center... but there are plenty more things that we can look back on from that wilderness time for us, and say, "THIS is what our God is like. He saved Cat's life, and not He's saving Michael's life!"

At the risk of sounding simplistic or saccharine, I want to tell you with all of the honesty in my heart. GOD CAN AND WILL DO THE SAME FOR YOU. You just have to choose to trust Him, and He won't let you down!

 

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For the full story of my cancer journey, start here - or just explore all of the posts I've tagged "cancer".

A Long Week

If you want to start at the beginning, here's Part 1.

This week was tough. Tough in a couple of ways. Not as tough as it is for some people, but still tough.

Tuesday, as you'll already know if you've read my previous post, I went in for my first round of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is well known for triggering a wide array of possible side effects, in a puzzlingly random fashion. A good oncologist will tell you that these are the possible side effects, we have no way to determine which ones will actually happen in your specific body with your specific cancer, but here's what to do if they do. From my previous post you know that I had zero side effects when I was in the chair for seven hours getting my infusion (praise God - that's an amazing blessing right there!) but when I got home I started to experience an uncomfortable side effect known as first bite syndrome, or FBS. To briefly recap what that is, picture in your mind the worst muscle cramp you've ever had. Now imagine that every time you take the first bite of pretty much anything, you get that cramp simultaneously in both hinges of your jaw, and it lasts maybe 10-15 seconds before it subsides and you can eat normally. It can be excruciating, and it's pretty frustrating to have to deal with it after all of my talk about faith for healing! Typically FBS subsides over time as the meds work their way out of your system, but basically I've dealt with it all week since then. I continue to speak out that the pain doesn't belong to me, Jesus took it and it has to leave my body! But it hung around anyway.

Then there was Tuesday night, when, probably due to the steroids they gave me, at about 2am I was suddenly wide awake for about three hours. Taking in all of that medication at once tends to wear a patient out a bit anyway, and being low on sleep certainly didn't help over the next few days. Keep in mind, Monday I had an 8:15am appointment with the nurse practitioner, then Tuesday my arrival time at the treatment center for infusion was 7am. So I was behind the eight ball a little bit on sleep even before my 3-hour unwanted wake-up; I tried to take it as easy as I could and go to bed as early as possible, but I struggled with fatigue all week.

Then there was the low-level queasiness that's been my companion most of the week. I have some anti-nausea medicine, but it seemed like overkill when I wasn't throwing up or anything - I did eventually try it out one day, and it seemed to do more damage than help, so I laid off for the rest of the week.

It also didn't help that I had some kind of medical appointment every day - four at the cancer treatment center and one at a hospital for a heart echo (everything looked good). By Friday I was absolutely sick and tired of driving up to the cancer center!

I'm saying all of this not to complain, and not to elicit sympathy, and certainly not to paint a picture that somehow I have flawless faith that took away every moment of discomfort. I think it's honest to share that some things, despite a ton of prayer of faith from dozens of people I do and don't know, still haven't gone how I would have mapped them out if I was writing the script. I did not feel full of faith every day when my tummy was complaining that it was hungry and upset, and my jaws were complaining that they didn't want to chew anyway, and my body was complaining that it just wanted to go back to bed please. But in those moments when I didn't feel like being super faith man, I held on to my belief that God wants me well and that's where I'm headed. And, on the positive side, ever since we started having people pray for me and then especially this week after one chemo treatment, my initial symptom of having difficulty swallowing seems to be getting a LOT better. I don't have medical documentation that there has been a significant change, but it seems like it to me!

The other day I told a friend of mine: "Sometimes you 'believe' in healing, and other times you darn well better REALLY believe in healing!" All faith is is making the decision that you are going to follow what the Word of God says, no matter what. Either it's true or it's not. Faith is when you quit riding the fence and jump off on the God side.

Today I was still able (with permission from the oncologist) to volunteer with my wife as a Sunday school teacher for preschoolers at church. We love those kids with all of our hearts, and I don't want to miss out on having the chance to spend time with them and share Jesus with them. It was an amazing victory to have the energy to do that! God is absolutely doing some incredible things in my body!

It's A Long Story.... Part 5

 If you want to start at the beginning, here's Part 1.

This will be the last blog post titled "It's A Long Story"... it seems like "It's A Long Story... Part 37" might get a little uninspiring! I'll keep periodically blogging when anything interesting happens, but with this post we're caught up to the current situation.

Tuesday I went into the cancer treatment center for my first round of chemotherapy (the oncologist tells us he plans to do at least four treatments, then re-evaluate, and then likely he will recommend four more). This was to be a 7 hour treatment, which is a LOT longer than my wife's treatments three years ago (hers were about 4 hours each). They had prepared us ahead of time by providing us with a HUGE list of every possible side effect known to man. We've been praying and believing God for healing already, and I felt like I wanted to kick it up a lot and apply some more faith to the situation. In the waiting room I posted on Facebook "First chemo infusion today! We are being bold and asking God for ZERO side effects!" I knew our believing friends would add their faith to ours! My wife and I also prayed together and asked God for NO side effects.

I got hooked up to the chemo, and guess how many side effects I experienced? None at all! All day we were paying attention to make sure our nurse knew if anything started to go sideways, but the worst thing that happened all day was being bored sitting around with no drama at all!

Since I got home I've experienced one side effect that we were told about. The nurse called it "first bite syndrome" and that's literally what it is... when I took the first bite of a meal or snack, I started to get a pain at the hinges of my jaw like an electric shock. Since we knew that it's not anything unusual or even serious, I just put up with if the first couple of times I ate, but then I realized, you know what? I don't have to put up with this! Jesus took this pain for me! So now whenever it happens I'm speaking out: "I am NOT putting up with this! This is not my pain! Jesus paid the price for this!"

One of the first words that came to me when we first got the cancer diagnosis was that Jesus took my sickness to Hell when He died on the cross, and He DID NOT bring it back. When I experience sickness or pain, that is a direct frontal attack on the truth of God's Word. It's easy when you know something isn't medically serious to just ignore it and move on with your day, but I don't intend to get complacent. The story is that FBS will subside anyway over the days after treatment, but I'm not waiting. I'm going to fight it with the Word of God! It needs to go away immediately!

Here's my Cancer Destruction In Progress shirt, if you want to buy one!

More to come...