A Good Week of Answered Prayers and Continuing Wonder

“Which are the magic

moments in ordinary

time? All of them,

for those who can see.”

--Tim Dlugos, “Ordinary Time”

This has been a week of good news, visits, gifts, a graduation, and much happiness. We are truly blessed and very grateful each and every day. And blessed also for the wonder of another starry, starry night.

The good news was reported on Facebook right after we received it from Dr. Robin on Wednesday afternoon – my CA 19/9 marker is reduced by half, from a high of 1900 to 908 – which is a good sign as this marker has been an accurate index of my rogue cells. This week’s treatment will be followed by another blood test in 11 days, just before the “final” treatment, by which time – fingers crossed – we hope to be cancer-free again and get a little time off from chemo.

We had a wonderful evening on Wednesday following that good news, as our colleagues Sarah Jane Tracy, Belle Edson, and Dan Brouwer came over for a visit, some fine wine, cakes, and conversation. They entered the house carrying a large package that had been left earlier – a delightful (and so far delicious) array of goodies representing the UK’s best cookies, candies, and other treats, as well as a wonderful new cookbook, A Girl and Her Pig, April Bloomfield. This “care package” was from my editors/friends at Bedford/St. Martin’s, Erika Gutierrez and Simon Glick. They had read my post about not being able to participate in the UK Summer Abroad Program this year and wanted to provide some sample treats.

On Thursday our beloved niece and her wonderful husband, Tori and JohnCarl Hastings, flew in from North Carolina for a long weekend visit, just hanging out and enjoying our time together. This is a nice respite for a couple of hard working divinity students (Duke U) who return next week to take up respective summer internship posts at two different churches in North Carolina.

Yesterday Alyssa graduated from the University of Arizona with a BS in Psychology and a minor in Sociology. She is graduating a year early – hurrah – and will enter the MA program in Communication at the U of A in August, complete with generous teaching assistantship. Nic leads her cheering session, but we are all very proud of her.

All in all, an excellent week!

*** 

On the Clinic side of life there was also good news for so many others who are getting treatment. Our pals Felicia and Don are doing exceptionally well a month off of chemo. Dustin, who did not look or feel good the last time we were in was in much improved spirits and had his smile back, as did Amber, his wife. Other patients we also know are doing well and the only downside to the Clinic this week was seeing how busy they are with returning and new patients. It’s a mixed blessing, for although we know there isn’t a better place for care, it is also sad to see so many of us needing it.

Yet once again we have to give a big shout out to the oncology team and staff at Four Winds. No matter how busy they are, they make sure all of us feel personally cared for and valued. We also learned that the practice is expanding to a new facility later this summer, larger, and that Dr. Robin is bringing in a new doc as well.

I just wish that the cancer business, the expansion of it, wasn’t quite as necessary.

***

That said, if you follow cancer treatment research there is lot of good news lately, as new ways to fight this damned disease in all of is manifestations are being found and tested.

Perhaps the biggest breakthroughs are occurring in the genetic research that extracts cells from a body, “teaches” them to recognize cancer cells, and are then re-injected into the same body of the patient. Why is this big news? Because the main reason cancer is so insidious is because our bodies don’t recognize these rogue cells as foreign. So our immune systems don’t attack them. If scientists can find ways to teach our own cells to recognize and to fight them, we will have “cures” that work “organically” with our own individual DNA. This is, of course, my own non-scientific description, but I think you get the gist of it.

There are many other new approaches that also show promise. One study was passed along to me by my colleague and friend, Pauline Davies. She and her husband Paul are part of an innovative interdisciplinary team bringing the world of advanced theoretical physics and other non-traditional theories and methods to bear on cancers. Just back from a conference, Pauline had attended a lecture about the surprisingly positive results of a “fasting” approach to reducing or even eliminating brain tumors. When she approached the presenter and asked about whether or not this approach might be successful in treating pancreatic tumors (thanks, Pauline!), the answer was “I don’t see why not.”  The biggest obstacle? No financial support from pharmaceutical firms for field tests; there isn’t a drug to be manufactured and distributed, so there is no discernible profit to be made.

That is not the first time I’ve heard of this response. To be fair, pharmaceutical firms are for-profit entities and to remain viable as businesses they rely on what they can discover, test, and sell. It is an enormously expensive undertaking, the risks are high, and results are never certain. And improvements in cancer treatments via chemotherapy and other means that require drugs have allowed people like me to live better and longer than ever before. So while I do understand their reluctance to go into partnerships for cures where there is no profit in it for them, I also am proud to live in a country that uses even a relatively small portion of tax revenues to support scientific research, especially research that could not be conducted without those monies. I would like to see the government invest even more.

In 2011 the U.S. government spent 17% of the Federal budget on health care, including the money for Medicaid, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and related programs. Of that total, $5.1 billion was given to cancer research.

So the next time someone you know balks at our government spending money to support cancer research (as well as programs that pay for Medicare/Medicaid and other services for cancer treatment), remind that person that no all paths to cures are funded by the private sector. And then tell them that you’ll pray they, or someone they love doesn’t have to suffer from one of the cancers that may be successfully treated or even cured by non-pharmaceutical means.

Given the growing number of cancers and cancer patients, is this a gamble that anyone ought to take?

*** 

Sunday is Mother’s Day! In our home, Nic is in charge and we will be celebrating in high Rabbit style. I don’t care if it is a “Hallmark Holiday” and yes of course we should all treat our mothers as the special people they are each and every day of the year. But this year, for a lot of reasons, Nic and I are especially happy! San has had one of the most trying years of her life, has kept a positive attitude and love in her heart, and has done everything she can do to make our lives a joy every day.

I am – we are – also celebrating grandmothers. In our case that is Martha Bray, wife of the lucky man known as Clarence, and mother to three children: San, Rick, and Kate. For those fortunate enough to know her, Martha is a force of nature, a “can-do” attitude and loving heart teach us how to live well and fully by example, and her fun-loving nature provides all of us with many memorable times.  I am also remembering my own “granny,” Nellie Grimm Saylor, who told me I was “a happy soul,” a line that helped me understand a spiritual part of myself, particularly when I was in doubt about all of that.

I am also celebrating my own mother, Naomi May Alexander Saylor Goodall. I am remembering the amazing and difficult life she led, the good mother she was to me even when times were tough, and I am newly appreciative of those last months of her life when, as she lay dying from stomach cancer, we had those “final conversations.” It was December 22, 1983; she was 66 years old. I held her hand when I finally agreed to take no more measures to prolong her misery – for her life was miserable by then, with a body no longer functional without the aid of machines and bloated by heavy does of morphine – and she blinked her assent. For her it was over almost instantly. For me, well, honestly, I’ve never gotten over it. But this year I have learned many lessons that have helped me do exactly that. And along the way to forgive myself for making that final decision, that necessary decision, and to sign the papers so my family won’t have to.

Hospice care and end-of-life issues these days are better managed and understood. Here again research is useful –particularly health communication research – and newer and better approaches to death and dying – as well as learning how to live with cancer – are every day being found. A “terminal” sentence isn’t what it used to be. And Jan – this one’s for you – reminded me that her father (or was it her mother?) lived 30 good years with a terminal sentence. 

So on Sunday let’s remember our mothers and grandmothers and stepmothers. Let’s remember the best of their lives, the lessons they taught us, the love they shared.

*** 

I am feeling very good, my friends. This has been a terrific week! Now the school term is behind me and I look forward to the summer ahead, even though we won’t be visiting the UK. There are plenty of good things to do. Friends to see. Meals and good times to share. Movies. Books. Who knows? If this cancer treatment works as we hope it will, we might venture out for a road trip or two. It’s all good. It’s all very, very good.

Thank you – all of you – for your continuing love, friendship, prayers and support. It takes just such a community to make all of us well.

Each gorgeous morning and starry night please join me as I give thanks for another day of this good life and all of you who help make it possible … and for the mystery and continuing wonder of another starry night.

“I've loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”

- Galileo Galilei