Sorry to have kept you all waiting on this news, but I had treatments last week and it has taken a while to shake them off. I did get good news from the doc last week. I was talking with the office manager and doc came and handed me a report from the lab. He had circled the tumor marker most recently taken and it had dropped all the way down to 42.6. That is a little more than half of what it was when we started in January which was 89. So, as miserable as these treatments may be they are working. Continue to pray as these are the same treatments that worked so well last year and suddenly stopped. Before we knew what had happened the cancer had begun to grow again. Please continue to pray.
Another challenge is on the rise besides the cancer. Dr. Huh wanted to give me sick leave and continue to pay me my regular salary. Well the corporate office of our medical group found out and they told him that he couldn't do it that way and that he would have to process me through the corporate disability program. So we are processing all of the paper work for disability. As many of you may know disability only pays 60% of salary and it takes 30 days for it to take affect. So we are facing 30 days of no salary and only 60% of salary when we do get paid. Well, that looks pretty grim at first, but when I look back at how God has provided in the past I knew that He would do no less for us now. I went home and told Tana the deal, she began to worry, but I reminded her of what God has been doing for us for many years now and that we can continue to count on Him today. Well, He has already begun to move and we are assured of His hand of provision in these matters. We don't know how long this will last, but I'm praying for a very short term situation.
Dr. Huh and the office manager told me that they never intended for this to happen and that they feel just terrible about it. This was my opportunity to explain to them about how God has always cared for us and He will do no less through this. As long as we are faithful to do all that is asked and required of us He will do all that is needed to provide. I said "please do not spend time worrying about us. Let's spend our time finding ways to solve the problem and searching for the direction in which God is trying to lead us." That put us all at ease and they were able to see that we trust God in every aspect of our lives. I'm tempted to believe that God is not only showing Himself to us, but also to Dr. Huh and his staff.
We thank you all so much for your love and prayers. It is so good to read your responses on the blog. Keep the prayers coming. As you can see, this situation is bigger than we may ever know on this side of glory. God, I believe, has a plan for many through all of this. It's not just about the Brokerings. The next time you pray for us think of how great the picture may be and know that God is using you and your intercession to accomplish things of spiritually epic proportions. It also helps to think that I could be healed and live happily ever after.
I want to thank Scott and Michelle Ice for traveling over 2 hours to visit and take us to dinner last Saturday. It was so encouraging and we had a wonderful and refreshing time. God bless you for your sacrifice and love for us. We needed it.
Love and thanks,
Warren and family
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
A mixed basket
Hey all! I just wanted to update you on the last two treatments/doctor visits. I got my first treatment of this regimen 3 weeks ago. It went well. Normal reactions and I tolerated it as ususal. Two weeks later I showed up for my second treatment and I was denied because my white blood cell count was too low. It should be 3.0 and I was only able to muster up a 2.0. So doc said come back next week and we'll check and maybe your count will go up and we can treat you. I did and the count had only gone up to 2.77. Not quite enough to treat me but we did it anyway. After a short line of questioning he decided that we had no choice. We had to resume treaments or we could be dealing with something worse than a low white blood count.
The questions he asked were: "how's your breathing?" it has become labored again; "how's your pain?" it is coming on again; "are you getting sick with the treatments?: not yet (praise God!): "are you having any other extreme reactions besides the skin?" no (praise God). He said "well, we have not choice. Let's do it" So we did, I feel terrible, but I'll be okay soon.
Pray for the white blood count to rise. It is the backbone of my immune system and if I get sick it could potpone my treatments thus affording the cancer a chance to grow. However, if it doesn't go up I'll have to skip more treatments in the future causing the same scenario just mentioned. Funny how one little glitch can cause so many problems. But God can fix a measley low white blood count. I just need your prayers.
Speaking of prayers, I called the office last week to ask a question. After discussing the situation the nurse said "hey, I have some good news" I said lay it on me sister. She informed me that my tumor marker had gone down from 89 to 55 since the last two treatments. Praise God! It was such good news. I'm sorry to not have informed you earlier. That is why this post is called a mixed basket. There was a little bad news to be concerned about, but also some good news. So we pray with praise on our lips and concern in our hearts.
I want to thank my friends, David P. Martens and Timmy Brahs for coming to visit this past weekend. What an encouragement to know that they would spend the money for the cost of the trip, leave their famiies for a weekend and miss out on some much needed rest only to return to the rigorous grind of their jobs on Monday to come here and lift my spirits. And that they did. I thank God for all of my friends who have stopped in to see me and pray with me. It just means the world to me and my family. When Dave and Tim were preparing to leave Maddie said "daddy, where are they going" I "they have to go home now" she said "but why? Can't they stay here?" They even encouraged my children during their stay here. Thanks guys, we love ya.
I Must rest, I have another treatment tomorrow. Pray for the blood count, pain, and labored breathing. Thank you all for your prayers and reponses. It means the world to us to hear from you and that you are praying.
God bless,
Warren and family
The questions he asked were: "how's your breathing?" it has become labored again; "how's your pain?" it is coming on again; "are you getting sick with the treatments?: not yet (praise God!): "are you having any other extreme reactions besides the skin?" no (praise God). He said "well, we have not choice. Let's do it" So we did, I feel terrible, but I'll be okay soon.
Pray for the white blood count to rise. It is the backbone of my immune system and if I get sick it could potpone my treatments thus affording the cancer a chance to grow. However, if it doesn't go up I'll have to skip more treatments in the future causing the same scenario just mentioned. Funny how one little glitch can cause so many problems. But God can fix a measley low white blood count. I just need your prayers.
Speaking of prayers, I called the office last week to ask a question. After discussing the situation the nurse said "hey, I have some good news" I said lay it on me sister. She informed me that my tumor marker had gone down from 89 to 55 since the last two treatments. Praise God! It was such good news. I'm sorry to not have informed you earlier. That is why this post is called a mixed basket. There was a little bad news to be concerned about, but also some good news. So we pray with praise on our lips and concern in our hearts.
I want to thank my friends, David P. Martens and Timmy Brahs for coming to visit this past weekend. What an encouragement to know that they would spend the money for the cost of the trip, leave their famiies for a weekend and miss out on some much needed rest only to return to the rigorous grind of their jobs on Monday to come here and lift my spirits. And that they did. I thank God for all of my friends who have stopped in to see me and pray with me. It just means the world to me and my family. When Dave and Tim were preparing to leave Maddie said "daddy, where are they going" I "they have to go home now" she said "but why? Can't they stay here?" They even encouraged my children during their stay here. Thanks guys, we love ya.
I Must rest, I have another treatment tomorrow. Pray for the blood count, pain, and labored breathing. Thank you all for your prayers and reponses. It means the world to us to hear from you and that you are praying.
God bless,
Warren and family
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
New treatment regimen
Thank you all for praying so much for us and for responding on our blog to assure us of your doing so. It is always an anxious time as we wait to see what the doc is going to do next. So many unanswered questions, so much wondering how the next regimen will alter our lives and how I will be feeling in the months to come. But now all of the waiting and unanswered questions are over and we now know what we face.
The doc has put together a regimen similar to what I went through last spring but with different ingredients. The chemotherapy is called Irenotecan (eye-rye-no-TEE-can-). The cancer "Targeted" medicine is called Vectibix (vek-te-biks-). It is not chemotherapy it is a medicine that specifically targets cancer cells and KILLS THEM! HA, HA, TAKE THAT YE DOGS OF DISEASE! Sorry, I get excited about killing cancer. It's a strange passion of mine.
There is another agent involved called 5-fu and it is a chemotherapy that blasts cancer cells when combined with another agent (I forget the name ... sorry, I have failed you) and helps the 5-fu to bind itself to the cancer cells. It is not cancer specific in that it kills other normal cells that resemble cancer cells.
Normal body cells such as hair, skin, mouth and stomach cells are like cancer cells in that they are all rapidly dividing cells. The difference is that normal body cells know when to stop dividing and die off and are replaced by other cells waiting to go through the same process.
Cancer cells, however, divide quickly and do not know when to stop and will continue to divide until they have formed a cancer tumor. From there the cells continue to divide and grow the tumor until it is stopped, removed or has taken over a bodily organ completely. Am I boring you yet? You can read and research what these agents will do to the cancer and my body at Chemocare.com.
Here is how it will be administered. I will go in on Tuesdays for about a 4 hour treatment and go home with a chemo pump that will shoot shots of chemo into by body in certain time intervals until I get back to the clinic on Wednesday. They will unhook the pump, give me another treatment, hook me up to the pump again for the evening and unhook me on Thursday which will complete the treatment. I will repeat this treatment every 2 weeks.
Doc said "we're really going to get after this cancer and try to put the hurt on it". I said "does this mean that these treatments are pretty aggressive?" and he said "yes, we have to stay on top of this while the tumors are stable and the marker is rising". I said "well, alright, let's get started". So, as usual we left the examination room with a laugh and "I'm praying for ya, Doc. We're both in God's hands. You are His instrument and I'm His project". He just chuckles and shakes his head ... AND SENDS ME TO THE TREATMENT ROOM!!! So not fair!
Well, that's all for now. Thank you so much for your love, responses (which brighten our days so much) and most of all your prayers that strengthen us for the many battles in the days to come. We are so blessed to have God and His people going before us every day and leveling the battle ground in our favor.
God bless you all,
Warren, Tana, and precious children.
The doc has put together a regimen similar to what I went through last spring but with different ingredients. The chemotherapy is called Irenotecan (eye-rye-no-TEE-can-). The cancer "Targeted" medicine is called Vectibix (vek-te-biks-). It is not chemotherapy it is a medicine that specifically targets cancer cells and KILLS THEM! HA, HA, TAKE THAT YE DOGS OF DISEASE! Sorry, I get excited about killing cancer. It's a strange passion of mine.
There is another agent involved called 5-fu and it is a chemotherapy that blasts cancer cells when combined with another agent (I forget the name ... sorry, I have failed you) and helps the 5-fu to bind itself to the cancer cells. It is not cancer specific in that it kills other normal cells that resemble cancer cells.
Normal body cells such as hair, skin, mouth and stomach cells are like cancer cells in that they are all rapidly dividing cells. The difference is that normal body cells know when to stop dividing and die off and are replaced by other cells waiting to go through the same process.
Cancer cells, however, divide quickly and do not know when to stop and will continue to divide until they have formed a cancer tumor. From there the cells continue to divide and grow the tumor until it is stopped, removed or has taken over a bodily organ completely. Am I boring you yet? You can read and research what these agents will do to the cancer and my body at Chemocare.com.
Here is how it will be administered. I will go in on Tuesdays for about a 4 hour treatment and go home with a chemo pump that will shoot shots of chemo into by body in certain time intervals until I get back to the clinic on Wednesday. They will unhook the pump, give me another treatment, hook me up to the pump again for the evening and unhook me on Thursday which will complete the treatment. I will repeat this treatment every 2 weeks.
Doc said "we're really going to get after this cancer and try to put the hurt on it". I said "does this mean that these treatments are pretty aggressive?" and he said "yes, we have to stay on top of this while the tumors are stable and the marker is rising". I said "well, alright, let's get started". So, as usual we left the examination room with a laugh and "I'm praying for ya, Doc. We're both in God's hands. You are His instrument and I'm His project". He just chuckles and shakes his head ... AND SENDS ME TO THE TREATMENT ROOM!!! So not fair!
Well, that's all for now. Thank you so much for your love, responses (which brighten our days so much) and most of all your prayers that strengthen us for the many battles in the days to come. We are so blessed to have God and His people going before us every day and leveling the battle ground in our favor.
God bless you all,
Warren, Tana, and precious children.
Friday, January 25, 2008
More news from the Doc
I talked to Dr. Huh again and he is making plans for the new regimen of treatments and this is what we know so far. He wants to start a new series the first full week of February. He doesn't know exactly what the combination of chemotherapy/cancer medicines he will use. He said he is going to review all of the information in my chart and make a decision as to what will be best. Keep him in your prayers and ask God to direct him as he does this.
The next thing is that when the treatments start he wants me to put all of my chaplain responsibilities on hold. He said to stay home and rest until he says he's satisfied with the progress of my treatments. So basically I'm on medical leave until he says otherwise. Can you say "Praise the Lord!?" I did tell him that I have to have something to do or I'll go nuts and Tana won't want to be married to me any more. He said it will be a opportunity to spend more time with the kids. It will help me to have more energy for them instead of coming home from work and being too tired to play. I insisted that he let me do at least some of the menial tasks of a chaplain. He said "maybe, we'll see. Your health needs to be the priority not your job". Can you believe this guy? Well, it's not hard to see that God has blessed in a wonderful way. I really hate my cancer, but I love how God takes care of us and shows His love and power to us through it all. Keep us in your prayers.
In Christ,
Warren and family
The next thing is that when the treatments start he wants me to put all of my chaplain responsibilities on hold. He said to stay home and rest until he says he's satisfied with the progress of my treatments. So basically I'm on medical leave until he says otherwise. Can you say "Praise the Lord!?" I did tell him that I have to have something to do or I'll go nuts and Tana won't want to be married to me any more. He said it will be a opportunity to spend more time with the kids. It will help me to have more energy for them instead of coming home from work and being too tired to play. I insisted that he let me do at least some of the menial tasks of a chaplain. He said "maybe, we'll see. Your health needs to be the priority not your job". Can you believe this guy? Well, it's not hard to see that God has blessed in a wonderful way. I really hate my cancer, but I love how God takes care of us and shows His love and power to us through it all. Keep us in your prayers.
In Christ,
Warren and family
Monday, January 21, 2008
Scan Results
I talked with Dr. Huh today and he told me that my scans had indicated no change. It may sound discouraging, but not so if you consider what kind of treatments I have been on. The treatments for the last 6 months serve the purpose of stopping and stabilizing the growth of the cancer. It has done that so the news is good news. However, there is still the tumor marker to deal with. He said the marker had gone up, but we are unsure how much until the latest blood work comes back. When the results come back he will take into consideration how high or low it is and make a decision then as to what the next treatment will be. I still have one more treatment to go on this last regimen, but the last one I had on the 11th just about put me under. It came on extremely harsh and kept me down for over a week. I'm still feeble from that one. He may just let the last one go and start me later on the new one. He said he hated to see me suffer again like I did on the last one.
So, Doc has some decisions to make and he is very deliberate as he does so. lease pray for him as God leads him to the next phase of my journey. It comes with a double edged sword. On the one side we expect to see some shrikage in the tumors, but on the other we face a whole new set of side affects and life changing adjustments. It's hard on all of us, even the children. So keep us in your prayers as we await the news as to what's next and what it will do for me. Pray for God's hand to be on me and on the family. There is such a battle on every side of our lives. Physical, spiritual, emotional, mental ... you name it we battle it.
Thanks for you love and prayers.
Warren
So, Doc has some decisions to make and he is very deliberate as he does so. lease pray for him as God leads him to the next phase of my journey. It comes with a double edged sword. On the one side we expect to see some shrikage in the tumors, but on the other we face a whole new set of side affects and life changing adjustments. It's hard on all of us, even the children. So keep us in your prayers as we await the news as to what's next and what it will do for me. Pray for God's hand to be on me and on the family. There is such a battle on every side of our lives. Physical, spiritual, emotional, mental ... you name it we battle it.
Thanks for you love and prayers.
Warren
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Scan date moved
Warren has had a pretty rough week. He has been sick and has not felt well at all. They were doing a scan on the 31st, but today he could not keep food down, so they have moved his scan to tomorrow at 11:45 am. Please pray for a good report, or that if there is another problem that we can take care of it quickly. Thank you for the faithfull prayers.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Time...where does it go?
It's been a while since our last entry. Warren has had a rough month. He is so tired. They have him on another antibiotic and prednisone as he continues to get sinus infections. The prednisone gives him insomnia, so he can't sleep at night, but then he sleeps off and on through the day. The doctor gave him a month off of chemo. It was much needed, because his body is so tired. A month seemed like such a long time, but here it is already up and Warren starts chemo again on Friday, January 11.
December came and went with so many activities. I love the Christmas season!! All the excitement and crazy schedules (well, I could do without the crazy schedule) anyway, we did have a wonderful Christmas holiday. We went to Minnesota with my family. It is a very busy time, but so nice to get away and have a different schedule. It was hard for Warren at times, because he needed to rest but was afraid he would miss out. Dave Martens came many times to my parents house to hang out with Warren when he had to stop. I really appreciated the time he spent with Warren. I also thank my parents for having all of us to their home and having us come in with all the kids and just invade their quiet space. We had a great time. Now we are back to our home and school and doctor/chemo schedule. As I look back over 2007, I am so thankful for what God has done for us. God is good!! He has provided above and beyond our needs and has supplied many of our wants. I was listening to the radio today and heard a song I'm sure many of you know. It is about Paul asking God to relieve him of his suffering, and God says "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness". Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Cor. 12:9 I have asked God many times to heal my husband, but right now he has chosen to keep us right where we are, but He has promised to give us his grace and he has so many times. For that I am truly thankful everyday as he keeps us going forward and allowing us to share our faith with others. We are also so thankful for the many cards and calls and e-mails, etc. that have been sent through the year. What a blessing to recieve them and they give such strength to us. Please keep us in your prayers through the days and months ahead as we go through this journey. Your prayers are greatly coveted. God is good!!
December came and went with so many activities. I love the Christmas season!! All the excitement and crazy schedules (well, I could do without the crazy schedule) anyway, we did have a wonderful Christmas holiday. We went to Minnesota with my family. It is a very busy time, but so nice to get away and have a different schedule. It was hard for Warren at times, because he needed to rest but was afraid he would miss out. Dave Martens came many times to my parents house to hang out with Warren when he had to stop. I really appreciated the time he spent with Warren. I also thank my parents for having all of us to their home and having us come in with all the kids and just invade their quiet space. We had a great time. Now we are back to our home and school and doctor/chemo schedule. As I look back over 2007, I am so thankful for what God has done for us. God is good!! He has provided above and beyond our needs and has supplied many of our wants. I was listening to the radio today and heard a song I'm sure many of you know. It is about Paul asking God to relieve him of his suffering, and God says "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness". Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Cor. 12:9 I have asked God many times to heal my husband, but right now he has chosen to keep us right where we are, but He has promised to give us his grace and he has so many times. For that I am truly thankful everyday as he keeps us going forward and allowing us to share our faith with others. We are also so thankful for the many cards and calls and e-mails, etc. that have been sent through the year. What a blessing to recieve them and they give such strength to us. Please keep us in your prayers through the days and months ahead as we go through this journey. Your prayers are greatly coveted. God is good!!
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