September 26th through October 10th

Think it not Strange or Explaining the Unexplainable

Today is Monday October 10th. I worked like crazy yesterday to get you caught up to the 25th of September (which is when I started the last update). But tonight I am going to get us all caught up to today and that involves telling you all about the miracle that occurred last Wednesday October 5th. I'm afraid from this point on unless there is a major event I will mostly be updating things monthly, typically the first week of the month, which is when I go to my appointment at the Mayo Clinic each month. BUT my promise is that I will regularly post within a few days exactly what the appointments reveal.

I don't remember much happening between September 25th and October 5th except for two things. First, the tubes coming out of my kidneys got irritated, slightly infected and made it a bit difficult to sleep or sit with my back up against anything. But, with the liberal use of neosporin and the regular replacement of the bandages this passed within about a week. Second, you may remember the weird attack on my left heel from a few weeks ago, well, on Wednesday morning September 28th I woke up with a tremendous pain in my right foot centered around the big toe joint but it wasn't a gout attack (been there done that got the T-shirt). All the same it hurt enough that I called Mayo and left a message for my Dr. asking what my options were. By the time I got a call back a few days later I could tell that it was lessening and we agreed that if it was still bothering me when I got there for my appointment on Wednesday the 5th of October we would do something then.  By Monday the 3rd it had all but disappeared.

While I am sure this seems unrelated, bear with me, it will tie into my story in a minute. I won't go into all of the detail, but, Sherry has been battling a strange lung infection for about a year. It has left her lungs with some "holes" in them (revealed in a CT Scan). After having a biopsy it was discovered that she had two problems. One was a different form of pneumonia (which was treated with a 5 day course of antibiotics). The other appears to be some kind of mycobacteria, but they haven't been able to identify it. It's like a cousin to TB but isn't TB. So she was put on the most logical treatment which is 2 heavy-duty antibiotics and 1 anti-bacterial of some sort. She has to take this for 3 months (and get her eyesight and liver checked monthly). So we figured since we are going to be at the Mayo Clinic monthly for awhile we should get a second opinion from a pulmonary Dr. there. The earliest they could schedule her appointment was December 7th.

So now we are at Mayo and it is Wednesday October 5th. I had my blood work done at 7:30 AM and then Sherry and I went to the building where most appointments take place. We went to the 18th floor so that Sherry could see if she could get into her Dr. any sooner. There is no waiting list at Mayo the only option is to show up and register then sit and wait to see if someone no-shows the Dr. you want to see then if you are the first in line you get to see them. So after a quick breakfast we sat and waited for an unlikely opening with her Dr.

Just before 1 PM I headed down to the 7th floor for my appointment and Sherry stayed on the 18th floor. At about 1:20 I got called into my appointment. Just as I was about to enter my exam room (there are probably 100 of them on each floor at Mayo) I saw my Dr. doing some paperwork on a kiosk in the hall. As he looked up I smiled, shook his hand and he said, "I'll be with you in a few minutes, actually it may be a bit longer than that". I sat down in the room and continued working on a crossword puzzle I had been doing. Within about 5 minutes the door burst open and my Dr. came in exclaiming, "Holy crap I honestly didn't recognize you, you look great, the jaundice is gone and you have put on quite a bit of weight. I don't need to tell you that the last time I saw you 6 weeks ago you were a very sick man! I honestly can't believe the change in you in such a short time." He then said he had to go take care of a few things and he would be back in a few minutes. Then he left kind of shaking his head (in a good way).

The heavy door to my exam room closed and a few minutes later from the hallway I hear him loudly exclaim, "Holy @#$%*, I can't believe it. Hey... come here look at this, have you ever seen ANYTHING like this". I heard other voices say "No I've never seen anything like it" and then some mumbling. I had no way of knowing whether the exclamation had anything to do with me, nor if it was an extremely good or extremely bad report. But it seemed like a good one and I hoped it was for me!!!!! Of course the enemy came right away to plant the thought that Oh it's not for you and it's not good news.

A few minutes later my Dr. came in and confirmed it was not only for me but it was incredibly awesome good news!!! My PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) which he said was off the charts 6 short weeks earlier (meaning it was above 20,000, that's right 20,000) was now 103. Praise God, what an amazing miracle! What a mighty God we serve!!!

The Dr. preceded to tell me that in all his years of practice he hasn't seen this dramatic a result with any patient and that I had both the highest PSA he had ever worked with and the largest lymph nodes. He emphasized that this just doesn't happen, lymph nodes shrinking within 30 days of the first hormone injection and the PSA dropping so dramatically. He stated that something was telling him that it wasn't quite time to let up so we are going to continue to treat this aggressively and "ride this horse as far as it will take us". We also talked about his studies using immune boosters and he said that if we get to that point I would certainly be a candidate for a study and would have a 67% chance of getting the treatment drug(s) as opposed to a placebo. He was awesome and wrote a note to Sherry (who was still waiting on the 18th floor) telling her my PSA count. Of course I ran and told Sherry, gave her the note and we both broke down in tears of joy!!

So, since then I have been on cloud nine (what is cloud nine anyway,  is it not as good as cloud 10, but better than cloud eight? Just wondering.) Celebrating the miracle working power of God through His son Jesus Christ. I have received a miracle. Just what I have been praying and believing for for the last few years. It is happening and I am very thankful. It is amazing. I have a theory on what the catalyst for the manifestation was but the crux of it is that just as the Prodigal Son woke up in the mud in the pig sty and the Bible says he "came to himself" (in other words he had nothing left physically, emotionally, financially, etc., he had spent it all) and like the woman with the issue of blood who for 18 years "spent all she had" (again physically, emotionally, financially, etc.) I had to get to a place that I was at the end of myself, the end of my options, no alternatives or back-up plans left. But God.......had a plan. His ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts higher than our thoughts.

So next month, the first week of November, I will return to Mayo for 2 days of poking, prodding, testing, replacement nephrostomy bags and I am quite sure another great report. I'm told I'll get the all-the-tests-you-can-take-in-a-day wristband. Kind of like an all-access backstage thing.

Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks again for all of your prayers, it's not time yet to quit we need to press through to the end. I love you all and can't wait to see you. Write, text, comment here on the blog whatever you can do. I really appreciate hearing from everybody especially since things are so good. Let me know if you need prayer from us for any reason!

All God's Best,

PD aka Bucky