The “C” Word 1 year plus 153 days More twists and turns

 “God can suddenly shift things” (quoted just now as I watched Joel Osteen).  Truer words were never spoken.  In 2014 George was doing well until a kidney stone scan showed cancer.  He was doing so much better after 15 months and, bam, a fall causes a neck break. 

I had a couple of “kisses from the King” today in the form of messages from televangelist Joel Osteen.  We have found some of his weekly messages to be spot on with where we are.  Today, even his daily message spoke to us.  It went as follows:

“Delivered from All

Everyone has times when they feel overwhelmed or “outnumbered” by the things that are coming against them. You may have heard the saying, “When it rains, it pours.” For example, just about the time the air conditioner needs repair in your house, the transmission goes out in your car. It seems like one thing happens after another. It may feel as if all of the forces of darkness are coming against you. But the scripture promises that with God on your side, you have all the resources you need to have complete victory. You are never outnumbered because the Greater One lives in you!

The next time you’re feeling anxious, fearful or worried about anything, remember, He’s on your side. If God is for you, who can be against you? He promises to guide and protect you and lead you into victory in every area of your life!

“Father, thank You for Your faithfulness to me. Thank You for Your peace even in the midst of the storms of life. I know that You are with me, and I can stand strong because You will lead me into victory all the days of my life in Jesus’ name. Amen.”  “

Wow… that IS our life.  Just when we think things are under control something else comes up and throws off our course.  A saying that can be heard around here lately is, “We just can’t seem to catch a break!” 

The past seven weeks have been tortuous for George.  The brace he has to wear 24/7 is bulky and uncomfortable.  It constantly irritates his chin.  He can’t take a decent shower.  There are a few areas under the brace that haven’t had a super good cleansing in all this time.  He gets bored sitting at home all day, all week and looks forward to Fridays when I am off and I can take him with me for a couple of small errands.  The highlights of his days are when people drop by for a visit – or when is able to take a walk around the block with a buddy.  Companionship. 

This week we found out that the brace has not worked at all.  In fact, after his CT scan on Tuesday he got a call early Wednesday from Lan saying they were ordering an MRI stat – for that afternoon and they moved his appointment today up from the afternoon to the morning.  Needless to say, we were quite alarmed by the sense of urgency. 

We met with Dr. Menon this morning to find out what is going on.  It turns out that George’s neck is bending too far.  Since his neck is one long bone, the break is acting like a lever and the top is starting to bend.  He has gone from a 10 degree angle before the accident to 27 degree angle now.  The photo is quite disconcerting. 

Dr. Menon recommends a surgery called a “corpectomy”.  Described in spine-health.com as follows: “ When the cervical disease encompasses more than just the disc space, the spine surgeon may recommend removal of the vertebral body as well as the disc spaces at either end to completely decompress the cervical canal.”  It involves two separate surgeries hopefully performed on the same day.  The first surgery goes through the front of the neck and addresses the removal of some of the vertebrae bone which would then be replaced by a “piston” and packed with some of the bone material.  Then a plate would be put in place to stabilize the front. The second surgery would be done from the back where they would put screws in the bones to stabilize the back.  Surgery would take approximately ten hours.  That is a LONGER surgery than his CRS/HIPEC surgery. 

The goal of surgery is to restore the neck to where it was before the accident.  They will never be able to make it better than that.  There are risks involved as they will be very near the spinal column. 

We talked more about the disease in George’s spine.  He has DISH disease.  Diffuse Ideopathic Skeletal Hyperostosis.  Ideopathic means “of unknown origin”.  There is no known cause and no know treatment.  It is rare … I told George, “Honey, you really don’t have to be unique and have all these rare diseases!”  Most likely the disease has affected his whole spinal column which would explain why he cannot bend over very well.  His back may well be fusing into one long bone as well.  Gee, isn’t that great.  L 

We have an appointment with another surgeon recommended by our new “friend”, the nurse practitioner.  We will see if he has the same opinion and recommends the same surgery.  Then, we will need to plan a date for said surgery. 

 “God will lift you out of the pit.” (again, Joel Osteen).  Yes, we definitely need to be pulled out of this pit.  On the one hand we are grateful that George is alive and that we do have the option of the surgery and seem to have, once again, found a great surgeon (though we haven’t met him yet).  But on the other hand a ten hour surgery means long anesthesia and we know that wreaks havoc on George’s mental capacity. Not to mention the fact that we are facing another 7-8 hour cancer surgery once the neck issue is sufficiently healed.  Double edged-sword.  Really need help out of this pit!

As we watched Joel Osteen yet another nugget was spoken.  “The enemy cannot stop your path in life, God has the final say.  God hasn’t brought you this far to leave you.  The “second touch” is coming…. Anybody can give up, that’s easy.  Doubters are a dime a dozen.  Faith believers say “I may not see a way, but I know it will be shown to me.”” 

He then says that you need to be bold.  So we are asking for your second touch, dear Lord… give us a miracle again.  We know you have destined us for bigger and better things and are not done with our lives on this earth.