Praise Report! Good News Again!

As I mentioned in the last post, Deb’s oncologist had noted a "slight increase" in one of her markers in late September and ordered a series of tests including an MRI.

The oncologist gave us great news today! First, keep in mind that he has told us on numerous occasions that the myeloma tumors or lesions in her bone marrow will be there from now on, nor do they diminish in size. Secondly, keep in mind that all her vertebras had many lesions (tumors). We praise God because this new MRI report says that there has been an improvement or diminishing of those myeloma lesions throughout the spine and that there are only "a few small ones" while where the other lesions have been, they are now "essentially invisible". She has been taking an alternative supplement since November last year which is supposed to reduce multiple myeloma tumors so we praise the Lord for His provisions. In addition, the new more refined blood test that he repeated last week indicated that she is totally in the normal range. (this confirmed the findings discovered in August, by the same test). Also, her IGG marker has been well under the normal range for a year now, but has been gradually rising. Today is the first time is too has moved into the normal range! The Dr. assured her her kidneys looked good, and all other check points were right where they needed to be. The oncologist saw no reason to change what she is doing and just recommended that we check her blood work again in 6 weeks, to see if the M Protein moves back down. So we will simply praise the Lord and wait for more good news then.

God is so good. Won't you praise Him with us?

Same Song, Second Verse

This fall is stacking up to be remarkably like last fall, thus the title, Same Song Second Verse.
Last fall Debbie had improved enough to take some vacation time in Branson and also accepted a speaking appointment for the women's Ministry here. During our vacation the Oncologist called with alarming news from recent tests fearing that her cancer was ravaging her. We had a faith crisis for couple of days, but we decided to trust God, thinking that it was all a ploy by the enemy to sidetrack her from her keynote speech in five days. God was faithful and the oncologist admitted that they apparently misread her MRI and she continued to improve.

Well, this year we had a wonderful week of vacation time in the Northeast seeing fall foliage. Debbie is scheduled to speak again at the RHCC Women's Fall Renewal on the subject of "Healing Prayer" in early November. And guess what? The oncologist is alarmed again. One of the blood tests that serves as a marker for her type of cancer (it also measures many other things so it is not a super accurate marker for Multiple Myeloma) has been increasing over the last 3 months from 0.1 (where it was stable for a year) up to 0.2 in August, to 0.4 in late September, to 0.5 in mid October. So she will go in for a new and more accurate blood protein test this weekalogn with an MRI, which she dreads since it takes about 3 hours of lying on her back time with the pounding machine above and around her.

Our prayer is simply that the M Protein marker is increasing just because of an alternative treatment she did in August and September to strengthen her bones, plus, that treatment could easily be the cause of the increase. Hopefully, this more accurate test will show that she is still in the normal range like she was in August. That is why the oncologist was not concerned with the 0.2 reading then, knowing that it can fluctuate due to many reasons. We should know something more definitive by Friday this week. In the meantime, our Naturopath is having her to again increase the natural medicines she had cut back on, just to get a headstart on any treatment regimen that may be needed. He sees what appears to be a viral attack on her body in the slides that I sent him and does not think it is the cancer, but he cannot be sure. The more accurate test this week with the oncologist will tell us what is or is not going on.