Tune Up Time

We have been in California this past week for Mike to get a “tune-up” and get a plan for the future finalized. We met with his main doctor at Cancer Center for Healing, Dr. Ptak, as well as their new Chemo doctor Dr. Gama, both are brilliant and we feel very blessed to have them heading Mike’s care team.

Although we had a zoom consult with Dr. Williams who does intra-tumoral immunotherapy, they feel like we should wait on that and first try a few added supplements that are showing great results with brain mets and even with Glioblastoma. So that is what we are going to do.

I have been praying for God to clearly show us what to do and what path to take and feel he did exactly that because for some reason (God wink) Mayo was never able to successfully get Mike’s PET scan results to Dr. Williams! They sent them both electronically and also sent a physical copy but…. God!!! Another answer to prayer was Mike getting a bad upper respiratory “thing”, so Iowa City cancelled his shoulder surgery that was scheduled for April 15th. To clarify, I didn’t pray that Mike would get sick, but I was praying that God would show us clearly if the timing for the surgery was right.

Since Mike wasn’t having shoulder surgery we decided that it would be a good week to return to CA for some more testing., doctor consult’s and some healing therapies. The timing was also such a God thing because not only did we meet Matt and Sarah, a couple that we had talked to on the phone about our experience here, but we also got to see our amazing friend Taylor Dukes who was at Hope 4 Cancer with us last March. Taylor “just happened” to fly into John Wayne airport because of an event in Temecula, CA and she “just happened” to be at H4C the first time she went there with Matt and Sarah….. Anyway, Taylor paid $3.00 to change her flight to a later flight so she could come to the cancer center and see us…. God at work!!! Nobody would choose to be in the “cancer club”, but the people we meet along the way become close friends because we understand each other. We talk often either calls, texts, or just thru social media, but we feel blessed to have them all in our lives.

While at the center Mike had some IV’s along with something called endorser (light therapy) after the IV. He had EBOO which stands for “Extracorporeal Blood Oxygenation and Ozonation” with Tanner. This is a specialized blood filtering treatment that improves blood flow, cellular healing and cellular oxygen utilization. He also had EVOX with Lilliana, which is a computerized software system that utilizes your voice changes and energy, while a therapist helps you work through things. Mike also had quite a bit of bloodwork done again, including Dtar testing which tests your blood against all kinds of supplements as well as chemotherapeutic agents, so treatments can be more specific. We also had great discussions with Dr. Roney, nurses, and other patients. We loved our short time here, but are ready to get back to “normal life” in Iowa.

Dr. Gama told Mike that he needs to write a book to give other people hope. He has actually had a lot of people tell him to write a book over the years, but I think he is really thinking hard about it. Mike has a gift of encouragement among others and I know a book would encourage people. I pray he gets to live a long life encouraging, not only our family, dealership family, and our town, but others around the country! Once again we leave here full of hope and trusting His plan for our lives!

I love this Elisabeth Elliot quote: “ There have been some hard things in my life, of course, as there have been in yours, and I cannot say to you, I know exactly what you are going through. But I can say that I know the One who knows. And I’ve come to see that it’s through the deepest suffering that God has taught me the deepest lessons. And if we’ll trust Him for it, we can come through to the unshakeble assurance that He’s in charge. He has a loving purpose. And He can transform something terrible into something wonderful. Suffering is never for nothing.” I will keep reminding myself of this on hard days when I feel like I am drowning, because hard days come to us all.

Be blessed,

Paula