The MRI and Heart Scan went well today, both being non-invasive procedures. We should have results on Monday.

Wednesday, December 3rd will be another long day. Lynn is scheduled to have a full body PET scan in the morning, and in the afternoon she is going to have a portacath installed to make it easier for the chemotherapy to be administered. Google the term “portacath” if you want the details.

Everyone who calls and e-mails asks how we are doing, and thus far these posts have not directly answered this question. Here is the short answer: we are a bit stressed – nothing we have learned so far could be called “good news” - but we have many valid reasons to be optimistic and we are not as stressed about this as you might think. It is a lot to take in, in such a short period of time but we are actually coping pretty well.

Lynn and I have had our faith tested before, and the difficulties we have faced have left us with a greater sense of being dependant upon God’s plans for our future.

Still, when an oncologist, holding the results of medical tests, says, “this is not good news”, you realize at a visceral level what David was getting at in Psalm 23:4 when he wrote,

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.”

Having visited the valley before makes subsequent trips more difficult, but keeping passages like John 10:7-18, and John 10:27-30 in mind makes the journey doable.

Lynn and I understand that this is God’s universe. He is sovereign over all things great and small, and nothing that happens takes him by surprise or remains outside of his sphere of power, authority, or control. This includes all of the wonderful blessing granted to our family, all the dear friends we have, our jobs, and this great country in which we enjoy many freedoms, including access to the world’s best medical care. It also includes Andrea’s death, Lynn’s cancer, and all of the things the future holds that we do not yet know about.

The Bible doesn’t say that we are going to be free from worry, sorrow, or pain; in fact it says quite the opposite. The Bible tells us that we live in a fallen world where we will suffer trials, afflictions, and sorrows (John 16:33). I understand that not everybody sees things the way we do, and that’s OK with us. The Bible makes clear in passages like Joshua 24:1-24 that we choose who we serve.

Over the past year and a half, Lynn and I have had many talks about the sorrows and pain that life can bring and the questions of why things happen the way they do. From our perspective, what it comes down to is this: knowing that God is completely sovereign over the entire universe makes us see our personal difficulties as being too small a thing for us to live for. I don’t mean by this that our struggles are less difficult – not at all - but it does allow us to reframe them so that we can see them as events that are part of a bigger picture, one that is unfolding even today. Choosing to see life this way doesn’t alleviate pain or sorrows, it transcends pain and sorrows.

So it is in this knowledge and from this perspective that we continue to pray that God, in His grace and sovereignty, will heal Lynn of this disease.

Martin Luther once said that the baker is God’s mask delivering to us our daily bread. We believe that the doctors and nurses are likewise God’s mask that He can use to deliver healing to Lynn.

You are God’s mask as well, delivering to us grace through your prayers, love, and support – and we appreciate you very much.

Thank you all for the prayers and the calls of support.

Lynn’s tumor is Triple-Negative, meaning that it does not respond to targeted treatment the way most other forms of breast cancers do. About 15% of all breast cancers are Triple-Negative. This is an aggressive, fast-growing type of cancer with a high rate of metastasis.

Lynn will undergo a few more tests to determine if there are other tumors outside the breast area. Lynn will have an MRI tomorrow and a full-body PET scan on Wednesday, December 3rd. We should have test results by Dec 5th.

Lynn will also undergo a heart scan tomorrow because the chemotherapy regime she needs is hard on the heart, and the doctors need to be sure her heart is healthy before they begin. She has never had any cardiac issues so we expect this to come back just fine.

Lynn’s treatment will begin with “Dose Dense” chemotherapy administered once every other week for 16 weeks. Her first treatment is scheduled for the morning of Monday December 8th. Her hair will fall out, likely between weeks 2 and 4.

Once the chemotherapy is completed, she will undergo surgery to remove the existing tumors, followed by radiation in her chest to remove any remaining cancer cells. We do not yet know whether the surgery will be a mastectomy or quadrant lumpectomy.

We are also taking care of issues with leave from work, disability, etc that need to be wrapped up by the second week of December. We should have all this finalized by the middle of next week.

Today we talked to an Oncological Surgeon about treament options, including the possibility of beginning chemotherapy before surgery. Nothing has been decided on that.

Tomorrow we talk to the Oncologist.

Also - the investigation continues as more tests have been ordered.

Wednesday Lynn will undergo an MRI to check for additional tumor sites (pray there are none, and that they find none).

By the end of the week we should have the results back from the ER/PR HER-2 status of the tumor cells. You'll have to Google this one if you want more information.

After all the results are in - the MRI, the ER/PR HER-2 status, (and possibly a full-body PET scan) - we should have a game plan mapped out for treatment.

I will try to post earlier tomorrow. It's been a hectic day.

God is sovereign in all things – nothing is too big or beyond His reach.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 the test results came back: breast cancer, with cancer cells found in the lymph nodes.

We know nothing else now, but we should know more after a couple of doctor appointments Monday (Nov 24) and Tuesday (Nov 25), and we will post updates as things develop.

Our prayer is that God guides the doctor’s minds and hands in a way that leads to complete healing. We are, and have every reason to remain, optimistic that Lynn will achieve a full recovery.

Between now and Lynn's recovery we - all of us - remain very much “in the race”, as described in Hebrews 12.

God has led us through times more difficult than this, and He will lead us through this as well.