Status 3/22/17

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We got more confusing news along with some good news today from the Physicians Assistant to the thoracic surgeon we have been working with at MD Anderson...

The confusing news is that after 2 weeks in the lab, the top pathology doctors in the land, in Houston, TX still do not know what I have in my lung, outside of it being an 8cm tumor.  At this point, they are hoping that cultures (which take more weeks) will reveal more.  Obviously, not knowing creates a lot of questions about what it may be.

The good news is that the PA told us that the Pathologist said that it was certain that it is NOT cancer.  So the net net is, they want to go through with the invasive left lung lobectomy surgery (pull back pectoral muscle, crack open left side ribs, and remove lobe of lung), but they do not know what it is, and need to pull it out to clear up my coughing and wheezing, and obviously do more lab work on it.

Even after all that we have been through, the eternal optimist in me celebrates this victory in faith that it is not cancer in the face of all of the experts saying there is no way that it wasn't.  However, with the looming unknowns, we remain prayerfully optimistic in the bigger picture in that we are praying that God will remove the tumor without any need for surgery.

Aside from all of that, the one absolute is God.  God is, and has always been, omnipotent (all powerful), omnipresent (in all places), and omniscient (all knowing).  God is truth 100% of the time, and is the only absolute in our lives.  Humans are not, and will never be, absolute in anything except that we are imperfect and not God.

Our next step is to speak with the surgeon and line up plans which sound like they may be surgery in the first or second week of April followed by a 6-8 week recovery period.

A little about the timeline and doctors involved which helps explain at least some of the uncertainty...

• 1/17/17 - woke up with wheezing issues and scared myself to death on WebMD all night
• 1/18/17 - went to doc in the box.  Great health, except XRay showing big thing in lung
• 1/20/17 - Pulmonologist sees tumor and calls for an immediate CT Scan, also on the 20th.  He advises that this is usually not good. 
• 1/24/17 - CT Scan guided needle biopsy.  It is notable that we later found out from a local oncologist that we saw, that the Radiologist thought that this was such a bad tumor that he went the extra mile to make sure to collect a good sample.
• 1/26/17 - Pulmonologist recommended and we set a proactive appointment with oncology
• 1/27/17 - news back that the tumor was benign.  Cancelled an Oncology appointment that we had proactively made.
• 1/31/17 - Pulmonologist recommended that we speak with a thoracic surgeon and schedule a lobectomy of my upper left lung.  He also went on to say that he has only seen 3 of these that were not cancerous in his 20+ year career, and the other two were in young people.  Upon further research online, benign is extremely rare (<1% of the time), and it happens in young people, not middle-aged or older people.
• 2/2/17 - appointment with thoracic surgeon and set up surgery for 2/13.
• 2/13/17 - Surgery aborted due to identifying metastasized atypical cells on my chest wall and diaphragm.   The cells stained as positive for stage 4 Non Small Cell Lung Cancer by pathology in the OR.  Samples sent to UVA for labs for research on what kind of cancer or genetic mutation it is.  
• 2/14/17 - Another oncologist gives me a 50/50 shot a living another year.
• 2/15/17 - Discharged form the hospital
• 2/24/17 - Appointment with a new Oncology doc.  He says that we need to get the results back before making any decisions, but in his career 100% of the time this has been NSCLC carcinoma.  We also found out that he called the radiologist, when we cancelled the first appointment in late January, to check to see if he got a good sampling for the biopsy since it was a slam dunk case of NSCLC.  The radiologist concurred on the slam dunk cancer case and said that he went the extra mile to make sure he got a good sampling of cells from all locations.  We hear that UVA is not coming up with anything and plan to go to MD Anderson
• 2/27/17 - official inconclusive results come back from UVA Pathology
• 3/6/17 - 1st appointment at MD Anderson - Oncology says based on the UVA results this is not an oncology case and refers me to a thoracic surgeon there.
• 3/7/17 - met with Thoracic surgeon who calls for a new MD Anderson full work up including a 2nd CT Scan guided needle biopsy
• 3/8/17 - another CT Scan, blood work, and some appointments
• 3/9/17 - CT Scan guided needle biopsy.   The radiologist took 8 samples and checked each of them with an onsite pathologist to ensure active cells.  5 of them had active cells present.  biopsy go to labs.
• 3/22/17 - Lab work conclusion is that there is no caner present of any kind, but they still do not know what the tumor is.

Kelly and I give praise to God who continues to work in every facet of our lives, and of course on my lung.  We are blown away by the incredible outpouring of prayers all around us which has caused God to build a wall around us shielding us from worry and fear, strengthen our faith, healing, and changed what the experts said was a slam dunk 100% cancer case into a benign case affirmed by the best in the world.  God is good.  We continue to pray that He will remove this tumor and restore my lung to 100%, and shock the best in the world medical people to the core.  I look forward to giving testimony, to any of them willing to listen, about what God can do.

I was so honored to get a call from a close friend who's 40 year old brother went into the hospital today with a stomach issue that the docs are now saying could be cancerous.  Keep Scotty and his family in your prayers.  They need that wall, and he will need to be healed for his wife and young kids.  He has more to do on this earth.  As I was told in the beginning of my blessed plight by a stage 4 NSCLC 10-year survivor, warrior, hockey dude from Buffalo named Todd, and his brilliant wife Andrea, IT IS NOT CANCER until the labs prove it.  As my brother Nate said that his father did, I think that when a situation like this presents itself, it is important to thank the doctors for their hard work and their medical report, but as it is written in Isaiah 53:5 by His stripes I am healed.   Prayer works.  As Mark 11:24 says "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours."

#Isaiah40:31