It has been over a month since my last post, I decided that it is time to continue telling the story of the cancer journey. The world is in much turmoil at the present time and we have friends in Ukraine who have either left the country or are remaining in the areas they live in. We maintain contact daily with some of the people, and it is so amazing to see the positive outlook that they have. It has also shown Roxanne and I that are hearts are in Ukraine and with the people. We have been to nation 6 times on mission trips and we look forward to being able to go again in the future. Until then we will continue to pray for the situation and for all the people.

I left off the story of the journey in February 2021. At that time the oncologist decided to stop the immunotherapy treatments to see if my vision would be restored. I wasn’t making as many trips to the cancer clinic, those were being made up with appointments with Dr. S-3 the Ophthalmologist. We moved from weekly to bi-weekly appointments as he continued to watch what was happening. Steroid injections behind the eye were added to the list of things occurring.

March turned into April and the vision was fluctuating continually. Some days I could read letters on the eye chart, on other days I could see nothing on the eye chart. I had never worn corrective lenses so this all new to me. It truly was a shock to sit there and not be able to read anything on the eye chart. Somewhere during that time line, they considered me legally blind.

In April, a pain returned to my side, almost like the pain I first had when the diagnosis occurred. They ordered a CT scan and found that the tumor on my liver had started growing again, and was now bigger than when first discovered. This was caused by being off the treatments, the cancer was trying to win the battle.

They restarted the immunotherapy treatments and they also ordered 5 radiation treatments. We were continuing to learn so much, and every medical worker remained so amazing and so committed to explaining everything that was happening.

Dr. J. the radiologist met with us before the 1st, 3rd and last treatment of radiation. The intent was to kick start the immunotherapy in the liver. After the 5 treatments, and the restarted immunotherapy everyone waited for the next CT scan. The CT scan was completed. The tumor was once again reducing in size. I won’t ever share in this post how big the tumor was, but I was shocked that something could grow to the size that it did. I really began to understand the aggressiveness cancer growth. With the tumor getting smaller we Praised the Lord, as we had confidence that medicine and God were working.

It was now late June 2021, no real progress with the vision, but time for another MRI of the brain. The call came the next day. “Gord there is another lesion on your brain” The call came on a Thursday, I was back at the Gamma Knife Unit on Monday.

Well that is enough writing for today, I want to thank all of you for continuing to read my BLOG. As I said before I am not a writer, I just want to be able to tell a story, and hopefully encourage some one, somewhere in this big world.

Isaiah 41:10 New Living Translation

¹⁰ Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
    Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
    I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.