Christmas Miracle of Sorts

We got Exciting News yesterday at Mayo in Jacksonville. It was accompanied by some other messy news.

Kind of like Mary 2000 plus years ago.

The angel Gabriel arrived at her house with all kinds of exciting news—

“Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.” Luke 1:30=32a (NLT)

What came next was the messy part. What would her parents think–pregnant before marriage? What would her fiancé believe–he assumed she was a virgin. How would she handle the whispers? the stares? the joy mixed with the unknown?

Mary’s response… “I am the Lord’s servant . . .” Luke 1:38 (NLT)

I love her faith and trust in God. Her heart’s desire was to humble herself and serve her God.

And today, I find myself right there with Mary—Trusting in Him!

THE ONE who knows my future and knows how all this crazy, messiness is going to work out.

So here is what has been going on behind the scene’s for a little while.

A missionary friend sent me a protocol that she read about that was being used to treat tumor based cancers. I’m not going to give you all the details–if you are interested–click on this link. But the high level is this man who had stage 4 lung cancer had exhausted his options. He was sent home with a diagnosis of 3 months and to call hospice. His friend who was a veterinarian suggested he try a medicine they were finding success with pets that had cancer. He did and long story short–he has been cancer-free for over 3 years.

Ben and I have evaluated every single idea and protocol that has been texted and sent to us. We love that you have wanted to help us. Unfortunately, some of the ones we wanted to try, would not work with my post-chemo, colostomy body. Even some of the ones we thought had great promise–my body couldn’t comply.

So after researching and praying about this protocol Ben and I decided to try it. We didn’t tell many people for 2 reasons–1) We didn’t want to get people’s hope up and 2) we have been in wedding/book season and didn’t want the focus on this cancer.

Here is the basis for the protocol. I take Fenbendazole–a dewormer 3 days a week and then take 4 days off. Yes–it is a medicine designed for a 10 lb. pet. It has very minimal side effects! Yay!

Here’s what happened at Mayo yesterday. The Exciting News . . .

My CA 125 marker went DOWN!!! Let me say that again. .

My CA 125 marker went DOWN!

Here’s a graph that shows the significance the best.

My numbers had been increasing around 100 almost every 3 months for the last 14 months. So for the CA 125 marker to drop—even by 6 points is a BIG DEAL and EXCITING NEWS!

We received this news as we were about to eat our lunch yesterday. You better believe that we thanked God for this Christmas miracle.

But then we went to our appointment with our Oncologist and here’s where the story gets messy.

My scan results were all over the place. Some of the tumors shrunk, a couple got bigger (not much–but by 2 mm), a couple had gone away and 2 new tiny ones appeared in a whole new area (between my chest and esophagus).

Where does that leave us?

Honestly . . . Trusting in God! Because I don’t have any kind of explanation for those results other than to say thank you God that you are at work and I will just continue to watch and see what you are going to do.

I can tell you this–I am hopeful that God is up 2 something.

You know what? He is up 2 something in your messiness too!

What’s your response going to be to what is happening in your life?

Now to wrap up the Mayo visit. At the end of my appointment our doctor who didn’t know I was trying the Fenbendazole, took another look at the CA 125 and asked, “What are you taking?” I laughed a little and asked him what he thought about alternative medicines. He smiled and chuckled and said, “Our patients at Mayo will try anything–what are you taking?” After I told him, and Ben showed him the picture of the box of meds, he laughed and said, “Well the bonus is that you will NOT have worms!” Then he told me to continue taking it and even said that if my numbers dropped significantly by March, he would like to do a study on my results. Next, he asked how much was I spending on the meds and I told him $40 a month. He was blown away by that small amount and said he was looking forward to my March results.

All I know is this. I will trust the Lord in March like I am trusting Him today.

You can too! God will be right there with you in the midst of the mess and excitement!

I’m praying you and your family have a beautiful, joy-filled, Merry Christmas!