It was one year ago this week that I started to have symptoms out of the blue.  While teaching, I couldn’t produce certain sounds, quickly progressing to being unable to speak, swallow, see and perform basic motor functions.  A diagnosis of myasthenia gravis followed  and then a hospitalization when inoperable  stage 4 malignant Thymoma was discovered.  The following months were fairly brutal rounds of chemotherapy mixed with blood transfusions.  My body responded impressively to the chemo and  a successful surgery at MD Anderson followed.  Then came 5 weeks in Houston for radiation as well as treatment for red blood cell aplasia as a result of the chemo working so well it destroyed my bone marrow along with the cancer.  The next few months brought blood transfusions every couple of weeks as well as heavy doses of toxic medications to combat the red blood cell aplasia.  Oh, and a random discovery through an echocardiogram of a not insignificant heart issue, severe tricuspid valve regurgitation, that at this time will remain “wait and see” with continued echos every 6 months.   January 2024 started off with a 6 day hospitalization for ATG infusions as Step 2 to address the red blood cell aplasia since the medicine was not working.  It will take 3-6 months to see if this treatment works and regular blood transfusions will be necessary in the meantime (thank you all blood donors out there!).  During this past year, I also lost my father to cancer. 

As I have said before, I cannot look back and say that it was entirely a bad year or that I wish I could erase it all.   Yes, I struggled and I certainly wouldn’t have asked for it.  But God uses our struggles, if we allow him to.  He used mine to draw me closer to him than ever and surrender my plans to His will, to restore relationships,  to make my daughters more resilient, to show me that Brian really meant those “for better or worse”vows, to demonstrate the love of my family and friends in ways large and small, to show me the value of having a church family, to teach me that spiritual strength far outweighs physical strength, to put me in awe of the medical community and gifted doctors, nurses and caregivers, to teach me perspective on what really matters during our short time on this earth  and to appreciate THIS and every day. So while this year has been hard, how else could I have experienced all of that in 365 days??

And today on the anniversary, as I write this, I am traveling home from Houston where I just had my first post surgery scans and there is no evidence of cancer!  Praise God!  I still have a long road ahead of me, but I do not walk it alone.  “Thus far the Lord has helped me”  (Samuel 7:12) and I have faith He always will.  

Happy New Year and Much Love to All!