The Back history from this last year.
I'm writing this blog (Debbie) to share with our prayer warriors the journey Paul and I are on.
We will give the medical report but we will also share our specific prayer requests for you to be praying about. We have a LOT of friends who we know are praying and believing God with us. I don't know who I've told and who I haven't told and it's kind of hard to keep telling the story over and over - and keeping track of who knows what. So I thought this might be a way you who are interested can keep up to date with the latest - and the simplest way to give you information so you can support us - because we know you are praying and believing God with us!
Many of you have heard about Paul's journey over the last year. It started with a prostate problem and a scope to correct that. Uncomfortable for sure...and inconvenient. When he took his first shower after all that, a mole on his back that had been there for quite a long time and had recently started to grow - started peeling off. I made him go to the Dr. who took one look and decided to remove it that afternoon and send it away. (We had asked for years for something to be done about it - I didn't like the look of it. And another smaller one of the same type had appeared on his other shoulder) It came back from the lab as melanoma. The smaller one was removed but it was not melanoma. They made deeper and wider incision and found a nodule of m. quite deep in the skin. They found sentinel lymph nodes under his arms were involved. 3 on one side, 2 on the other. Those and all the rest of the lymph nodes under his arms were removed last summer/fall. They determined Paul had Stage 3 melanoma - which means it had spread past the skin into the lymphatic system but they were hopeful they got it all - and called Paul cancer free. All along we have been thanking God for the speed with which they sent us through the process of getting in to see cancer surgeons and oncologists. It was a couple of months but that is fast.
They put him on an immunotherapy drug trial - unpronouncable names - on either one or two drugs in a blind study at Princess Margaret which is the cutting edge hospital in Canada for cancer treatment. We didn't know if he was getting one or two of the drugs. These particular drugs have been used in Europe for a number of years with good results and was better treatment than anything KW hospital could offer. The immunotherapy was to follow up in case of any loose melanoma cells remaining in his body's lymphatic system. He's been going down to Princess Margaret hospital on Monday and Tuesday every 2 weeks since late December 2017. The trial study covered the costs of transportation and lodging at Princess Margaret - for which we were very thankful. Every three months he got a CT scan to see what was going on and look for any progression of the disease. We had him on some naturopathic medicine which changed the levels in his liver and the hospital told us to discontinue them if Paul wanted to remain in the study since it was a trial study for their drugs. He did get to stay on immune boosting vitamins though. And we changed his diet to try to avoid sugar which causes cancer cells to divide.
The only reaction he has had to those drugs was an itchy rash on his back which they treated with cortisone cream. By June he was starting to feel a little more tired. But he enjoyed a healthy dose of walking, hiking, canoeing, skiing several times in the winter and kept active all year. He was feeling pretty good - and still is as of June 2018.
Read on for the next post...https://pauleckmier.blogspot.com/2018/06/june-20-2018-medical-report.html
We will give the medical report but we will also share our specific prayer requests for you to be praying about. We have a LOT of friends who we know are praying and believing God with us. I don't know who I've told and who I haven't told and it's kind of hard to keep telling the story over and over - and keeping track of who knows what. So I thought this might be a way you who are interested can keep up to date with the latest - and the simplest way to give you information so you can support us - because we know you are praying and believing God with us!
Many of you have heard about Paul's journey over the last year. It started with a prostate problem and a scope to correct that. Uncomfortable for sure...and inconvenient. When he took his first shower after all that, a mole on his back that had been there for quite a long time and had recently started to grow - started peeling off. I made him go to the Dr. who took one look and decided to remove it that afternoon and send it away. (We had asked for years for something to be done about it - I didn't like the look of it. And another smaller one of the same type had appeared on his other shoulder) It came back from the lab as melanoma. The smaller one was removed but it was not melanoma. They made deeper and wider incision and found a nodule of m. quite deep in the skin. They found sentinel lymph nodes under his arms were involved. 3 on one side, 2 on the other. Those and all the rest of the lymph nodes under his arms were removed last summer/fall. They determined Paul had Stage 3 melanoma - which means it had spread past the skin into the lymphatic system but they were hopeful they got it all - and called Paul cancer free. All along we have been thanking God for the speed with which they sent us through the process of getting in to see cancer surgeons and oncologists. It was a couple of months but that is fast.
They put him on an immunotherapy drug trial - unpronouncable names - on either one or two drugs in a blind study at Princess Margaret which is the cutting edge hospital in Canada for cancer treatment. We didn't know if he was getting one or two of the drugs. These particular drugs have been used in Europe for a number of years with good results and was better treatment than anything KW hospital could offer. The immunotherapy was to follow up in case of any loose melanoma cells remaining in his body's lymphatic system. He's been going down to Princess Margaret hospital on Monday and Tuesday every 2 weeks since late December 2017. The trial study covered the costs of transportation and lodging at Princess Margaret - for which we were very thankful. Every three months he got a CT scan to see what was going on and look for any progression of the disease. We had him on some naturopathic medicine which changed the levels in his liver and the hospital told us to discontinue them if Paul wanted to remain in the study since it was a trial study for their drugs. He did get to stay on immune boosting vitamins though. And we changed his diet to try to avoid sugar which causes cancer cells to divide.
The only reaction he has had to those drugs was an itchy rash on his back which they treated with cortisone cream. By June he was starting to feel a little more tired. But he enjoyed a healthy dose of walking, hiking, canoeing, skiing several times in the winter and kept active all year. He was feeling pretty good - and still is as of June 2018.
Read on for the next post...https://pauleckmier.blogspot.com/2018/06/june-20-2018-medical-report.html
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