Updates on Wayne

It has been a while since I shared with you any news about Wayne.  As you may remember from previous posts, he is my Sunday School teacher and deacon in our church.  He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer several months ago and has been undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments since then.

His radiation treatments are completed as are his first round of chemotherapy.   He is currently taking his second round which began about three ago.  He seems to be feeling better and is even gaining back some of the weight he had lost.  Low white cell and platelet counts are a problem and have delayed some of his treatments.

He hasn’t had any new scans since this round of chemo has begun so we don’t know what the cancer is doing, but we are praying that it is shrinking and that Wayne will be restored to health.

He continues to teach Sunday School, sing in the church choir and is even helping to build the new addition to our church.  We are so grateful that he feels well enough to do those things

Wayne and his wife, Glynn, are such an inspiration and blessing to each of us.  We pray for God’s hand to continue to be on them, comforting, strengthening, guiding, and protecting them as they travel down this very difficult path.

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We All Have An Expiration Date

At our recent Mary Kay Leadership Conference I had the privilege of sitting in a career development class taught by National Sales Director Pamela Waldrop Shaw.  She is an amazing woman, a powerful presenter with the experience of one of life’s hardest seasons shaping her message to women.  Her husband, I don’t know his exact age, proabably late 30’s or early 40’s, passed away with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).

Her presentation was strong and powerful and there were many statements that were seemingly pointed directly at me.  The one that has remained in my mind and influenced my mindset since that times is, “I have been eating a protein bar which has an expiration date of Sept., 08.  I will have it eaten long before then, but ladies, I am here to tell you that each of you have an expiration date.”

I have an expiration date and so do you.

There is another truth which follows this statement.  Those who know us may not remember what we do and our accomplishments, but they will definitely remember how we made them feel.

Latest update on Kenny

I received this email today from Kenny. God is so good.

Hello, Deborah,

I apologize for not updating you recently. Things have been extremely busy for us, as you can understand. Throughout the last eight months, we have grown even more certain of several things: God loves us more than we could know…He has a plan for us…His plan is not only for His glory but for our good…God is in control! PRAISE HIM!

Since August, we have been going to San Antonio every four weeks for experimental treatments with Reolysin, a drug containing the virus called reovirus. Although I have experienced flu-like symptoms during each “treatment week”, I have tolerated it well with no real lasting side effects. I am feeling pretty good or better most of the time.

I have had CT scans just about every eight weeks during all of this. Each of the scans have looked virtually the same, meaning there are still tumors or masses there, but they appear to be unchanged (stable) over the past six months. However, this last time, I also had a PET scan (my first one). The results showed “no metabolic activity”, which “suggests” that there may not be any active cancer cells anywhere. Medically speaking, there seems to be little evidence that I have cancer any more, but this could only be confirmed with a biopsy, which is not a good idea because of the risks involved.

There have been many prayers offered up on our behalf. We have continued to trust God in everything. We believe that God has used our faith and these many prayers to sustain us and give us a peace through all of it. God has shown us that if He desires to heal me, He can do it any way He chooses using anything or anyone He chooses. We believe that God has healed me, possibly even using this new breakthrough medicine to do so. PRAISE GOD!

There is one more treatment round for me remaining in the clinical trial I am in, scheduled for the last week in February. There is a good chance that the sponsoring pharmaceutical company, Oncolytics Biotech, will want to continue treatments beyond that.

There are so many opportunities to minister to fellow cancer patients and their loved ones. We are surrounded by so many of all ages with such profound needs. At times, we feel that this is one of our biggest challenges. We need the right words to say.

Feel free to share some or all of this as you see fit. We know that God is using your website to touch many. Thank you for your prayers and concern.

Love in Christ,

Kenny and Helen Scott

When Your Child Has Cancer

 I know what it feels like to grieve when your parents are terminally ill.  I have not experienced (thankfully) and do not know what it feels like when you have a child that is terminally ill.

In our church we have a couple who lost a grandchild to cancer.  He was about 13, I believe, when he passed away. Another couple in our church has an adult daughter who has an agressive cancer and is only expected to live perhaps another year, maybe two. Another family in our community has a daughter who is a young adult, and she is gravely ill with cancer.

My husband I were discussing these families and others who have children with cancer.  I suddenly had questions.  Is the emotional anguish different when you have a child who is terminally ill rather than a parent or even a spouse?  Is it different if the child is young as opposed to an adult child?  How does a parent feel when they realize there is nothing that can be done and their child is not going to live?  I can imagine feelings, anger, helplessness, denial, but I am sure there is much more.

Readers, I would like input from you on this subject.  If you have experienced the grief that comes from losing a child, or if you have a child or grandchild who it terminally ill,  please comment and share with us, how you felt, and how you process through your grief.  Share with us words of wisdom and encouragement, because there may be a hurting parent who would be touched by them.

Mary Kay Leadership Conference

It has been several days since I wrote a post for this blog.  I have been doing Mary Kay ‘things’.  Our Leadership Conference, for directors,  was in Houston this year.  It was an awesome three days with Mary Kay Directors from all over the country.  The presentations, the training, the motivation, the inspiration were all wonderful, once again making me very proud to be associated with this company.