Praise Yeshua, Praise Jehova Rophe in the Highest!

It has been some time since I posted, and after the wonderful news we received yesterday, I felt God nudging me to do a post. So Deanna is letting me write today.

We went into the clinic to get the usual blood tests and got a small blood booster shot too. White count was a tad low. The PET scan results were ready. I had mixed feelings about getting this scan. If the news were bad, it would just knock us down emotionally for nothing because it wouldn't change the treatment in all likelihood. It also involves an injection of a radioactive variant of glucose and some more radiation, stuff we would ideally like to avoid. But apparently we should have gotten a baseline PET when we first started with this clinic and Doc was fairly insistent, so we went ahead and got it. It's been a source of some anxiety as we waited for the results. Would there be worsening conditions on existing tumors? Discovery of new tumors that were previously missed or just new? During Elizabeth's birthday celebration, I kept wondering if this would be the last one I would see. At the end of the day, I just want to get my health back to where I can once again provide for and protect my family, and of course do some good works for God along the way.

How wonderful and faithful, merciful and mighty is our God! The PET results are amazing: No metabolic activity in the liver lesions. Nothing in the myocardium, spllen, or kidneys, bladder, bowel. Lymphatics are clear, lungs improved with with "Many of the areasof scattered nodular opacity noted on the previous CT are no longer visible". Bones are clear as well.

Praise God! We still have "mild to moderate activity" at the stomach/esophagus junction, but God will heal this as well in his good time. There is so much to be thankful for here, and I wanted to share it with everyone.

I also wanted to say a belated thank you to everyone at Hurlburt who worked so hard to get me out of the hospital and back home for Christmas. I can't tell you how much that meant to us.

I'm still nauseous pretty much all the time. I believe it's because the tumor in the stomach is slowly dissolving and its nasty remains go right into the stomach to upset it, plus the chemo side effects as well. Funny thing is the doctors don't really know, so my guess is as good as any. It's hard being sick all the time and trying to eat to live; I've lost an incredible amount of weight...probably 20-30 pounds below my optimum weight. This is a shocking state of affairs for someone who has been overweight since childhood, and trying to lose weight his whole life. I can't eat a lot, and much of what I eat comes back up. But each time I am sick, I thank God because I believe it's part of the healing, removing the dissolved tumor material from my body. So there is this strange race going on right now between killing that tumor and fighting to eat. Will I succomb to malnutrition before the tumor is dead and stops interfering with eating, or will we kill the tumor in time for me to eat enough and survive? I'm putting my money on God.

Please join me first of all in praising Jesus for this wonderful healing, our other prayer requests remain unchanged. My sincere thanks to all of you for everything you've done to help us.

Yours in Christ Jesus,
-Mike