Mike "Indiana" Phillips

I have first have to shared this with everyone, because it made us laugh tonight. This was sent to us in an email from our dear friends Tom and Kathleen:

So every night for weeks and weeks Tom has been saying with Corrina (their daughter) "Please heal Uncle Jeb and Mike Phillips. Watch over Mike and Deanna Phillips."

Well, the other night, instead of asking God to watch over Mike and Deanna Phillips he said: "watch over Deanna Phillips and Mike Phillips."

Erin was listening in and said: "what's Mike Phillips' middle name?"

Tom said: "I don't know. Why?" Erin answered: "Isn't it Indiana?" Which got a big: "what?!" from Tom.

And Erin said: "We always pray for Mike Indiana Phillips."

I love kids! How can you not? Tonight my precious one looked at me with such wise eyes and said, " Mommy remember pain is good". I looked at her and said, "I wonder if Jesus thought that on the cross?" She responded, " Remember Job and all the pain he went through? God blessed him doubly in the end."

I want to be more like her sometimes. She is so matter of fact. It is such an open and closed case with her. She has no doubt that Daddy will be ok. None. She says the wisest things, hugs me, and then goes back to creating her Star Wars journal that she has been working on.

OK. So, here was our day. We got up and Mike has another sleepless night. He is tired. However, he had a protein drnik for breakfast and took his medicines. We have pared down again to two supplements - Natura 201 and Bao Kung. The reason we did this is we need those medicines to stay down and not get thrown up. So we manage to get out of the house and get Mike to the IV Clinic. We left him there and picked him up at 1:00 pm and headed to the Wellness Center. Once we got there, everything got a little hectic. We ran into Bill and he is now concerned that Mike's tumor is blocking the bile duct to the pancreas. He wants us to get and MRI and if that is the case, we will be leaving to go to Jacksonville, FL for surgery. I think my jaw dropped, but off I went trying to get an MRI. Again, God is so in control here. I had an order from Dr. Monhollon for a CT Scan and I was able to call the clinic and get the appointment for this evening at 5:20. AND they would read it and get the report to Dr. Monhollon tonight. So we loaded up and made the 1 hour drive to the Imaging Center. At this point, Mike is so tired, the bags under his eyes are red and puffy. We get there and pay for the MRI. Everything happened so fast, I didn't have time to engage Tri-care. I will hopefully be able to get that reimbursed when we get back. But regardless, there we were. The biggest challenge was that Mike would have to lie on his back for 1 hour. Mike has not been able to lie flat on his back since August. There is so much pain. We prayed so hard for the ability to either endure or that the pain would be gone. God gave Mike endurance. It was so hard and I could hear his struggle out in the waiting area. That is what brought me to tears and the conversation that I shared above. I wanted to take at least a little of the pain from him. When Mike got up, he was shaking. We put him in a chair and wrapped a blanket around him and just rubbed on him. We actually put him in a wheel chair for the first time to take him to the car. He was officially wiped out just from the pain. I told him I couldn't believe he did it, but he was quick to say it wasn't him. It was too painful. It was Christ.

So I left with a CD of the pictures and they email me the quick read report. It said that Mike's pancreas is fine. No swelling, and nothing leaning on the duck. His colon, kidneys, gallbladder, and prostrate were fine. There were multiple lesions on his liver and there is still a mass in his stomach. The size wasn't on the report. It was a quick read. Dr. Monhollon has the CD with the first CT Scan from Eglin so hopefully, he can compare. So we will know more. However, tonight was good. At the very least, the tumor hasn't gone anywhere else. It appears that the tumor is at least the same size (though in my heart, I feel it has to be smaller).

Mike is 5 weeks into a treatment tonight. According to statistics, Mike would have around 3 weeks left because what we are doing is not considered treatment. However, it appears that we have a success tonight. One success in a long line of successes, God willing, yet to come. Remember, they said it was aggressive. So this is HUGE news. It we can stop it in it's tracks, then we can slowly work at tearing it apart. This is all God. ALL GOD!!!

To God be the Glory for the things He has Done......

Prayer needs:
Sleep for Mike
Less Pain for Mike
Mike will drink more
Mike will eat more
Pray that Mike's digestive tract will kick into gear soon. The lack of eating since August has created a lot of issues. But it is a battle we will win!