Sat 3-13-10

We show up an hour early for my appointment and get all the prelim. stuff done fast. So at 11am we think we are going to be out by at least 1pm. At 12:30 I asked the guy sitting across from us since we arrived, what or who he was waiting on. He said his friend went in at 9am with Dr. Rushing. So now we know when I will be next. About 12:45 they call my name and we go in to see Dr. Rushing. The thing we love about him is that he sits and talks to you like no other doctor we have ever met. He must schedule his appointments 2 hours apart.



When he comes in he says: Hello Survivor, how are you feeling today. So Sharon and I figure he has looked at the CT Scan and all is well. He then sits and talks to us and asks all the questions that were marked on a questioner that he has you fill out before he see you. After spending about 45 minutes on all that information he tells me to hop up on the examination table for a look see. He then goes over your entire body pressing down to see if there is any spot on y our body that might hurt. When that was finished, he talked to us a bit more and then said he had to go look at the CT Scan. Sharon and I at the same time: You haven't looked at the CT Scan results yet? No he said, if you reveal the results of the Scan first, then the rest of the appointment is about the CT Scan results. If I examine you first and get all the information that I need from you, then the appointment has been successful for me. Once I read the Scan results and then we can talk about what we are going to do next.



He then leaves and said I'll be back in about 20 minutes. When he returns he says that he now has to go down stairs because he couldn't read the report because it had to be read on a MAC. I know Maura, you think MAC is the best. Apparently Dr. Rushing doesn't see it that way!!



As Sharon and I sat there we didn't say much, but we were both thinking the same thing. Why is this taking so long. About 45 minutes later he come back into the room with the film. He just very matter of factly handed us the film and say: It all looks good!!! there are still only 5 spots and they are still the same size. Sharon and I just looked at each other and both could hardly hold back the tears.



He also then explained that the infection they thought I had was not an infection at all. Remember what I say about doctors: They practice medicine and if you let them they will practice on you. What it was is a Radiation recall. What actually happens is, the are of my incision reacts as though I just had radiation. It swells up and has to be treated both topically and with steroids. Since they know it will happen, they can control the symptoms, but they can't stop it from happening.



I will now need to get three to four more bouts of chemo before they do the surgery. They want to try and kill any small sarcoma's that don't now show up on a Scan.



Just so you guy's know. I just talked to Larry, who is just back form the Wine country of California. As he hung up Bev called and we just talked for 20 minutes.



I was at the Essen House this morning after the infusion to see how Sharon had decorated the back room for a wedding shower. One of the servers said: Sharon if I ever decide to get married, I'm going to hire you to decorate and do the wedding. She has a great way to make a Barn Like atmosphere look like someones dining room. She used purple and silver that matches the color of the backdrops we use to cut off the different rooms.



I saw Louis Lengacher at the Essen House also and he came over to congratulate me on the good CT Scan. It whispered in my ear: Isn't it amazing what prayer will do. I know his entire church prays for me. As a matter of fact he sent out a voice mail yesterday to all his people to pray for me and another Amish fella who also has cancer. Maura also felt that she helped by telling me to tell my body not to feed the sarcoma's. I know that the Lord works in mysterious ways. Just like Maura telling me to tell my body not to feed the sarcoma's. Maybe that's the instrument he used to have his miracle happen. Who's to know!! All I know is I was ready to hear that I only had a small time left. I very happy to hear from Dr. Rushing that we are just going to do some chemo and they take the sarcoma's out. As thought he never had any doubt.



He then told us a story of a real miracle as he says. He was helping a cancer patient that needed a special medicine that was only available in certain trials. He searched the internet and everyplace else to see if a trial was possible for this man with this medicine. After several days he had just about given up when he got a call from the company that owned the drug to see if he would be willing to do a trial on their new drug. As he said: That's how miracles are performed. That man would not have lived without that trial.



That's all for now folks. Thanks for all your prayers and