Great improvement in comparing blood slides

I am going to copy a couple of paragraphs from the August 8 post to explain this picture above so that you can better compare it to a more recent slide (below) that continures to show improvement.

When a person is deteriorating, these (white) lakes have smooth edges; when a person is improving, the lakes have an appearance similar to a real lake or pond "icing over" in the winter time (ices forms around the perimeter first, then begins to spread out to the center of the pond). The more the lake is covered with "ice," the better the improvement. This is known as a "healing profile." Your sample on July 22 had the appearance of swiss cheese, being full of large and linked "lakes" with large amounts of "debris" (sialic acid) throughout the lakes. This is a degenerating picture. Your sample on July 29 was remarkably improved. The "lakes" were beginning to "ice over," with a majority of them producing the desired healing profile. When you get the picture I'm sending, it will be visibly obvious even to the untrained eye. In a nutshell, your body has made a dramatic change in a very short period of time. You have shown improvement in the course of a week that I normally look for over a month! Even in the case of instantaneous healing the body still has to "catchup" with the immediate correction of a diseased state. That is, one moment the body is degenerating, the next moment it is healthy; all the "garbage," (dead, degenerated materials and tissue) must be cleared from the body through normal (i.e., not instantaneous) mechanisms and this takes time. A good analogy might be the result and aftermath of a flood: even with the flood waters recede, the debris the flood brought has to be cleaned up. There is no more flood but there is a lot of cleanup to be done! So it is with the body -- that's the way God made it! In every case of miraculous healing I've been associated with and have examined (I can name 4 cancer patients right off the top of my head who've had this happen and that I've been blessed to have been working with so that I could actually track them pre- and post-miracle), this has been the pattern. In working with another 200+ who did not have a miraculous remission of their cancer but who have improved dramatically through natural intervention, they too, followed this pattern, though at a slower pace.

I finally figured out how to add the latest pictures to this form Augst 26. Hopefully you have read the description of what to look for in these drops of blood (August 8th post entitled Mom's blood slides and explanation). The two pictures from Aug. 19 are two different drops. The bottom is one drop and a close up on a spot on it. Remember the white spots are bad, but notice how rapidly she has improved, so that on August 26 her drop just had a small band of white spots along the outer edge and each of the white spots had almost completely crusted over. This August 26 slide (at least the center part that is dark red) is what a healthy person's blood will look like.

These photos were very encouraging to us. I hope they will also encourage you to keep praying.

Duane and Deb

Another Fracture

Bad news / Good news

After dropping by the oncolgist's office to pick up last week's X-rays which showed another major compression fracture, we went to see the neurosurgeon again (last time we saw her was early July). Here is the bad news. She looked at it and said that it looked like the T-12 vertebra had compressed down a full inch all the way across while the T 10 was also compressed a bit. She said that in a bone that had a lot of myeloma tumor in it, when the myeloma is killed out the bone is so compromised that it compresses under the body's weight.

But the good news is that it looks like it is a candidate for kyphoplasty (the procedure to pump it back up with a baloon, then fill the cavities with cement so that the vertebra will rregain most its original size.) We will do an MRI and then she will determine if kyphoplasty is a good option. Fortunately, Deb is still off all pain medication and doing well. She is walking a half hour each day, can stand sit and walk reasonably well. Her strength and energy are returning to near normal. She got her hair cut and styled yesterday and it looks really cute on her (amazingly, most of those stray gray hairs disappeared too! Mine is turning loose more than turning gray.)

I had a physical done today and everything was normal and good with the exception of my triglyceride count. The Dr. said that exercise will take care of those numbers. My supervisor told me earlier today that I needed to get back into my exercising. So that is being reminded twice in one day. Do you think I will get the message? Or am I like those die hards who choose to ignore evacuation warnings and choose to ride out a hurricane? Time will tell.

God bless.

Duane and Debbie

Freedom - removal of PICC line

The major news this week is that since we are past needing to take blood and receive a lot of IV drugs, etc., is that the 16 inch PICC line in a vein in Deb's upper arm was remeoved yesterday. That does away with changing a weekly bandage, and daily shots of heparin. It is a bit sore and hardened today, so we are watching it carefully to make sure it is not infected.

Also, the oncologist said Friday that Deb is "almost in complete remission" based on the bloodwork. We will see him again in 6 weeks, and trust the bloodwork will indicate complete remission at that time.

Her blood work continues to improve along with her increase in strength and stamina. The main problem now is her spine. She will see the neurosurgeon Wednesday to see if another vertebra may be in need of the kyphoplasty procedure. She has been off all pain medication now for quite a while, and quit the anitinflammatory naproxin, which is a mild pain reliever, last week. So that is our news this week.

God bless.

Continued improvement

There are a few items noteworthy of good news for this week.

First, Deb was able to stand totally erect yesterday without pain and without using a hand on her hip to help support herself. Please continue petitioning the Father above that her back will heal and that her back and stomach muscles will get stronger so her spine will get back to normal. She still has quite a ways to go with her spine.

Secondly, her lab work yesterday showed that her blood counts continue to improve with only two that are high and two that are low, and a couple of those are real close to being in the normal range. So that is much improved.

Thirdly, her blood's ph is approaching the alkaline range that we have been trying to get her into. That is important because the cancer cannot survive in blood that is slightly alkaline. It is actually the healthiest state for us humans, and healthy folks have it. Pray that her blood will get to an alkaline state and stay there. Of course, a lot of that success depends on her staying on an alkaline diet.

Our friend, Eddie Nelson, is undergoing the stem cell transplant over the next few weeks as his treatment for his Multiple Myeloma and is doing very well. He has taken his initial chemo and has not been nauseous at all, praise the Lord. He has responded very well to the steroid treatment, and he and Lena have been an encouragement to us through this ordeal. Fortunately, they caught his MM very early with only one bone in his body compromised.

Please keep the Nelsons and us in your prayers as we battle this disease.

God bless,
Duane

A Get Away

First of all, our hearts ache for the Hurricane victims on our Gulf Coast. We cannot imagine the difficulties they face with starting over after having lost every thing except their lives and the clothes on their backs. May the rest of this nation rise up to help.

I desperately needed to get away and relax a bit and recharge, so Deb and I went to a Bed and Breakfast in Salado for two days. It was a blessed time for us and restful for me as we stayed out in the country and mainly just chilled - well, yes, we did an hour's worth of shopping each day in some of those quaint stores. Isn't she wonderful to enjoy looking at stuff without having to buy anything? She is one in a million.

On the providential side, the owner of the B&B is a vegetarian and was able to give Deb a lot of ideas about the diet changes we need to implement. That was a real blessing and encouragement for us. We are not going the vegetarian route, but we are cutting back quite a bit on meat consumption, she more than I. I enjoyed visiting this morning with a couple who rode in from Crocket, TX, last night on a motorcycle. I noticed a strange lookign little insignia on his cap, and I asked if it was a symbol of the F 117-A fighter (the Stealth fighter-bomber)? Sure was. Their son is in the Air Force and he works on the stealth fighters. So we had airplanes to talk about (one of my intersts). They are also believers and we had a good time at breakfast. I was much refreshed and almost ready to head back to Ft. Worth this afternoon.

Debbie continues to get stronger and feel better, although she did not sleep well last night, probably due to her second day back on the steroid. So she is a tired puppy tonight and went to sleep at 8:30!

It is good to be home.