JOLLYBLOGGER

Some Good News

With all of the bad news floating around the blogosphere about people with cancer I am happy to report some good news that I got today.

Different cancers have different tumor markers that show up in the blood and one of the markers for colon cancer is called the CEA.  Those of you who are healthy have a cea of 0-3, sometimes heavy smokers may have have a CEA of 3-6, so anything above a 6 is a cause for concern.  It shows that tumors are active.

When I first started chemotherapy in January of '09, which was about a month after my colon resection, my CEA's were in the 50's.  By the end of my last course of treatment in July of '09 my CEA had gotten into the 30's.

And now, drumroll please, today I got my most recent CEA results - 6.4! 

I'm not out of the woods - CT scans will tell the most, but my nurse said this is definitely something worth being happy about.  This at least means that the cancer is being suppressed.

So, thanks be to God and thanks to all of you for all of your prayers and encouragement.

Update on Michael Spencer

Many of you probably know the name Michael Spencer, the Internet Monk.  Michael was recently diagnosed with cancer and today his wife Denise is reporting that his oncologist does not expect him to recover:

It is with a heavy heart that I bring my latest update on Michael. We have learned that his cancer is too advanced and too aggressive to expect any sort of remission. Our oncologist estimates that with continued treatment Michael most likely has somewhere between six months and a year to live. This is not really a surprise to us, though it is certainly horrible news. From the very beginning, both of us have suspected that this would prove to be an extremely bad situation. I don’t know why; perhaps God was preparing us for the worst all along by giving us that intuition.

She goes on to share about his faith during this time and God's blessings to him and the family.  Please join many of us in thanking God for Michael's ministry and praying for God's peace to be on him and his family.

Just last night I read the following words from the book "Grace Upon Grace" by John W. Kleinig, on p. 32.  These words were a balm for my soul and seem appropriate given Michael's situation.

God's gracious presence, the treasure of His glory and power, is hidden away out of sight inside us, like olive oil in a plain clay lamp.  We do not generate spiritual life and power but receive them from God as we expend them.  Paradoxically, His life, the life that we have in Christ, is most evident in our suffering, aging and dying.   Thus, "we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh" (2 Corinthians 4:11).  Glory in insignificance, life in death, strength in weakness, riches in poverty - all these mark our life in Christ.  Nothing is possessed, everything is borrowed from Him.

The life of Christ has indeed been evident in Michael - may it be also in all of us.