Prayer Forum (2)

[jenley]

So he only has to have surgery on one eye and he got to ask all his questions and I think it went well. Thanks all

 

[Tofferer]

Compared to other prayer requests. This may seem trivial. However, I will ask all the same.

The NorthWest District of LCMC is having its annual gathering in Moses Lake, WA this year. It will be May 2nd and 3rd. My pastor has asked me to consider attending. Geographically, no big deal, I'm only about 200 miles from there anyway. However, time and finance are another story. I would like to ask for prayer so I can know if it be God's will for me attend or not. I know it may seem trivial, but still, it is important to me. Thank you.

 

[jenley]

If it is important to you, I don't think any prayer request is trivial.

 

[jenley]

Sleeping like a baby...

My son's eye surgery went well and we are home now.
They said that teenagers will sleep a lot after the anesthesia and he is. Slept all the way home, ate a little lunch and is back asleep in his little nest on the couch.
The nurses said he was really funny when he first woke up, gave them all thumbs up

 

[KimLCMS]

I'm glad it went well.

When I woke up from having all four wisdom teeth pulled, my mom said I was crying like a baby. A couple of hours later, when I woke up for good, I didn't remember it at all.

Anesthesia is weird stuff.

 

[Radiata]

Prayer is not enough. For me at least. I want to do more. I can't take this sitting down, and I feel that I am not doing all I can if all there is to do is prayer. I have a friend who has been fighting cancer for several years now and is now in for localized radiation. Lately, he's been doing worse and all these prayers from many people have not helped him. He is without a doubt, the greatest minister I know, and has helped countless people, including me. He has a lot of support, but it's still not looking good. Surely God must have a greater use for him than this. Any prayer is greatly appreciated.


Here's a list of updates he has sent us.

Here’s what’s up in my life: job’s going well, I’m taking the semester off from school, I’m finishing up reinstalling a tub surround in my bathroom, and God is working to restore my health.

I found out after my gall bladder was removed last December that again there was cancer there. Furthermore I found out in later scans in January that I had more of the same in the back part of my nose. It was so far back I thought it was in my throat. Talking to doctors it seemed like the options were Radiation or Chemotherapy or both, which I have managed to avoid until this now. I wasn’t even opposed to doing them, but I know they work very slowly with Melanoma, so I was concerned on how effective they would be. But surgery didn’t seem to be a good option according to doctors, so I braced for news on what the next step would be.

ln February I was getting details on these options, and praying about what the future may hold, and the next day everything changed. I talked to my main Oncologist, and he told me of a new treatment they had at the hospital since December, called Gamma Knife. Besides sounding cool, it is a kind of radiation-surgery, and is done in a way that gives very little side effects, if any. Also it is much more effective than other radiation methods, and it is a one day and one time event. I was tremendously relieved to hear about this, and praised God for answering my prayers in a way I didn’t even know existed. I had some tests over the last few weeks, because the GK is typically for brain tumors they weren’t sure my tumor was in an area they could get to, but it turned out to be fine.

So I had the Gamma Knife surgery on March 1, and it went really quickly and was painless, with the exception of a crown/ helmet I had to wear for the machine, (I can give you details later if you want). But no side effects to this point at all, and I’m praying that God will indeed make this treatment effective. It still will take about 2 months to know if it worked, at which point I’ll see the doctor again.

What comes next? No treatment for now, but I have made some health related commitments. On Ash Wednesday I was wondering to myself today whether a potato was a fruit or a vegetable. Well, I know it’s not a meat, and as of that day I gave up meat.

This year I decided to make every effort to get healthy, particularly to eat in a way that is healthy for cancer. Having seen the same cancer come back these times over the last year, I think I need to do more than to just try to live normally, as I had been doing. I’m prioritizing my diet, sleep, and exercise to do everything I can to get my body healthy. This means not taking grad classes for now, and as my job has been very flexible on hours, I’ve been working a later schedule. I’m also working out more, and my goal is to plan for my meals better. I may adopt a stricter diet, but for Lent, and probably this year at least, I will abstain from meat as a whole. So far, so good.

As for what I can’t control, my ultimate confidence is in my heavenly Father, who has the power to make me whole.
A friend asked me what keeps me going, how do I deal with things that seem to mount up? The best I can say it is that I trust in God’s power and I feel the peace of Christ in my life.

I sat down for breakfast with a friend about a month ago, and as we talked about cancer we both had, we discussed whether we believed God was willing and able to heal us. Both of us believe beyond a doubt God is able, but is He willing? I responded with something I’d been thinking over the past months, saying that “I am going to live believing God is going to heal me until He tells me He isn’t”. My friend agreed, saying we can’t be double minded about what we are believing God to do. And that is how I’m going to live, for the next year or 100, until God tells me to quit. I will do what I can to be healthy, and look to God to make me whole.

“But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.” James 1:6-8

So pray with me and be glad with me as God continues to show me his Power and Love, and I will enjoy this life until He tells me it’s over. Thank you all my friends who have been so supportive, I thank God when I think of you! Philippians 1:3.

My perspective for a long time was that God will only let me
go so far, and I can get through anything.
Soon I’ll get through this, and get back to normal.

It hasn’t been that easy.
There have been some good long periods of normality, but there’ve been a
number of surgeries and tests since then. God has let me go much further into
this pain than I ever thought He would.

This past winter I finally realized how serious this could
be, that I couldn’t just get through on my own.
Soon after that realization, however, God showed me He is always able to
do more than I can imagine. So back in
March I had the Gamma Knife procedure (in the previous note) that was the
unexpected answer to prayer at a time I didn’t know any good options. And it worked 100%, with no side effects save
from being tired more often. As God
pulled me to safety from what looked to be a very real danger, I learned God is
able to overcome my circumstances, especially when I can’t.

If I’m going to get completely free of this disease, God is
going to have to do it. He has used
physicians and medicine and surgeries in my life to get me this far, but He
will be the one who prevents this from spreading any further and spares me from
further surgeries.

I have a follow up colonoscopy tomorrow to determine if
there is anything to worry about in my colon, I pray that God delivers me even
now. But even if there is more surgery
or whatever else, I know who it is I have believed in, and He is able to get me
through this and take care of me through whatever comes.

My prayer is that I get wholly healed. As Ecclesiastes 12:13 says, “Fear God, and
keep His commands, for this is the whole of man.” Pray that I do fear God, keep His commands,
learn to hate sin, and that I become healthy and whole as I follow Christ
wholly, and live a whole life as He promised.
Along with that, I’ve been catching a lot of mild colds, pray that God
strengthens my immune system.

I said in the last email, “I am going to live believing God
is going to heal me until He tells me He isn’t”. I believe He can, I pray He will, pray with
me that God reveals Himself in my life.

Although l recovered quickly physically from the
surgery l had on my small intestine, l've felt
emotionally drained. For those of you that don't
know, the long and short of what happened is that l
went into the hospital in Nov for stomach pain. l
ended up staying and having surgery to remove some
tumors from my small intestine. lt wasn't urgent
surgery in the sense of my life was in danger, but it
needed to happen and l was in pain so they made it
happen sooner. that happened around 12/1. l spent a
little less than a week in the hospital after that,
and then was at home the following weeks.

Things are better now, l'm mostly healed from that.
There is more to this, however, l'm going to start
taking medicine (called IL-2), starting today 01/15.
There still is some disease around my liver that was
not taken out, and this looks like the right kind of
medicine for it. ln addition to removing the disease
from my liver, it looks like it may be able to cure
the rest of the disease that has been recurring over
the past years. The treatment doesn't sound fun, but
being cured does sound like an answer to prayer.

So, please pray for me, my main request is that l can
stay physically, emotionally, and spiritually healthy
throughout this time. lf my body is not responding
well to the treatment l will be taken off of it,
possibly before l'm healed- so l'm really hoping this
will go for the duration, 3-6 months.

l'll leave you with this verse:
Heb 12:1 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such
a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off
everything that hinders and the sin that so easily
entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race
marked out for us."

l like that verse, we have so many witnesses of Christ
that have gone before us, and you are my witnesses, as
to how faithfully l have represented Christ or not.
May that encourage me to run this race well, and you
too!

with Christ's Love-
Ben

Heb 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and
perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him
endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God.

“I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my
right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my
body also will live in hope...” Acts 2:25-26

Well friends, I needed your prayers before, I really
need them now. In the past months I started doing the
Interleukin treatment (January), and found it wasn’t
successful. The tumor I had in the liver kept growing,
and I got really sick. Sorry I haven’t updated
earlier, but I’ve been sick a lot and it’s been hard
to get some thoughts together.

So 5 weeks ago I quit doing Interleukin and started on
Chemotherapy. That started ok, but got really hard
soon too. I’ve been in the hospital (2 weeks ago) and
sick a lot since then. And still the tumor has not
begun to die.

So in a week and a half I’m going to get localized
radiation, which means it will go directly to my liver
in the form of radioactive pellets injected through an
artery. The treatment looks effective and side effects
are expected to be minimal, so I’m hopeful God will
use this.

In the meantime there are some other tumors, in my
large intestine and possibly my lung, which will not
get any treatment until I can get back on the Chemo,
so pray they do not grow in that time.

I also have had a number of nose bleeds, pray that
that is not a symptom for another problem. Also, I’ve
lost a lot of weight in these months, pray that God
gives me strength to gain it back and eat well again.

This is going to take a miracle, and that’s what I’m
asking God for. Join me in hope!

 

[KimLCMS]

Please pray for my husband's cousin who is having very risky surgery tomorrow. He has the fourth deadliest form of cancer (can't remember the exact name of it). They only found it because he was having some gallbladder trouble. They saw the cancer when they removed the gallstone.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

Please pray for my husband's cousin who is having very risky surgery tomorrow. He has the fourth deadliest form of cancer (can't remember the exact name of it). They only found it because he was having some gallbladder trouble. They saw the cancer when they removed the gallstone.

 

[RadMan]

Prayer is not enough. For me at least. I want to do more. I can't take this sitting down, and I feel that I am not doing all I can if all there is to do is prayer. I have a friend who has been fighting cancer for several years now and is now in for localized radiation. Lately, he's been doing worse and all these prayers from many people have not helped him. He is without a doubt, the greatest minister I know, and has helped countless people, including me. He has a lot of support, but it's still not looking good. Surely God must have a greater use for him than this. Any prayer is greatly appreciated.


Here's a list of updates he has sent us.

Oh God we cry unto you. Hear our prayers

 

[KimLCMS]

I wanted to let you all know that my husband's cousin made it through his surgery and they think they got all the cancer. It had not spread. He's recovery well.

Thanks for praying!

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

I wanted to let you all know that my husband's cousin made it through his surgery and they think they got all the cancer. It had not spread. He's recovery well.

Thanks for praying!

May our Lord continue to Bless!

 

[Radiata]

Ben just gave us another update.

Just wanted to post a quick update, and that is that l'm doing a lot better. Since the radiation l've had no bad side effects, and with the change in Chemo my nausea and exhaustion has almost gone away.
l still don't have a lot of appetite and gaining weight back is going really slow. My current prayer request is that God would take away the pain in my side. l have a lot of pain from the tumor in my liver if l breathe deeply or cough or hiccup. lt may be because the tumor is swelling as the radiation attacks it. l'm praying that is the case, so hopefully that means the tumor is dying and will shrink soon. Pray with me for the pain and the long term effect of the tumor dying.
God has been gracious to me in relieving a lot of the serious symptoms that came with my previous chemo, and l still have my hair for a little longer. l'm looking forward to a good weekend seeing my sister graduate in Illinois. Thanks for praying with me.

This was from 4 days ago. I saw him last night during bible study, but unfortunately I wasn't able to speak because our group divided into 2 with me being in the other group. Ben has to come out of it. If there is one person that actually deserves God's grace, it would be him. God must have better plans for him than this because the number of people that he has helped or ministered to is probably far greater than all the people that I could ever do in a long lifetime. And he's only 30. Prayers would be great.

 

[Radiata]

And he gave us another update. Please pray for him!

[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]It's Friday evening, I'm doing OK. l have lost all my hair now, it was coming out so fast l had my friend Aaron shave it, so l have a new look.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]It's been a long week, my pain has been increasing since my last update which may mean the tumor is growing again. I've also had some nausea this week, but not bad over all. Please continue to pray against these symptoms, that God would once again give me relief as He did three weeks ago.[/FONT]
[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]I'm due for a scan on Tuesday, should get results by Friday, then the following week will decide if we are going to do the local radiation again. Whether God decides to use chemo or radiation, either way l pray it is effective and He shows His power in my life.[/FONT]
l did have a good weekend down in Urbana, IL, at my sister's graduation, thanks for praying!

 

[KimLCMS]

Hey guys,
Please pray for my mom. Her name is Patty. She is really ill. She is having breathing trouble. She has a fever. She hasn't eaten much of anything in three days which is not good because she is a diabetic. She's been in bed for days.
She is at the doctor's office right now. Please pray that the docs will do whatever is necessary to help her, and please also pray for healing.
Thanks!
Kim

 

[WildStrawberry]

Kae

 

[KimLCMS]

Hey guys,
They admitted my mom to the ICU last night with kidney failure. On top of that, I took two of the kids to the doctor yesterday. Turns out they both have pneumonia. Please continue to pray.
Kim

 

[seajoy]

Hey guys,
They admitted my mom to the ICU last night with kidney failure. On top of that, I took two of the kids to the doctor yesterday. Turns out they both have pneumonia. Please continue to pray.
Kim

Oh Kim, so sorry for all you are going through right now.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

Hey guys,
They admitted my mom to the ICU last night with kidney failure. On top of that, I took two of the kids to the doctor yesterday. Turns out they both have pneumonia. Please continue to pray.
Kim

 

[LilLamb219]

Praying for your family, Kim!

 

[KimLCMS]

Thanks for praying everyone. Mom is still in the ICU but her kidney function is improving. She is having trouble breathing and they can't figure out why. The kids are doing better. Their cough medicine really helps them to sleep at night. The antibiotics are working their magic as well.

I'm mostly worried about my mom. She has a lot of health problems. Please continue to pray. Thank you so much!!!

Kim