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Still Praising God

I can’t believe its been over three years since I was first diagnosed with cancer.  I am blessed to report that I am still cancer free and doing fantastic.  I decided to write something here today because I was talking to a coworker yesterday who reminded me how amazing my experience with cancer was to him.  Imagine that, someone who heard about my experience amazed with my story!
Of course it all because of God that I am where I am today.  His power to heal was and is amazing! I am so excited to know that people are still benefiting from this story of my encounter with Jesus through the my walk with cancer.
Praise the Lord

I’m bringing Xanga back – drop a comment if you’re with me!

Is Anyone Still Reading This?

I have been so bad in not updating you all who supported me in the last year.  As I sat down to write this final chapter in Xanga, I decided to read every entry I wrote from way back in June.  WOW, what an adventure that was.  Reading some of those entries brought back so many memories, good ones and bad. The best part of reading the entries was rereading comments left by you all.  What a great support unit each of you are.

Let’s see now, where should I start.  Since December 25, 2006,  my weight has gone from 142 lbs. up to 152.  I still need a few more pounds to get up to 155 for my height.  I have seen all three of my doctors and they all concur that the cancer is in remission and my recovery is going great.  I was released back to work full duty on February 5, 2007.  After going to training classes to get current and updating my shooting and motorcycle skills, I went back to the Airport Station and started where I left off a year ago.  It is a great feeling to be back to work again. 

Jody is doing great, working part-time and helping us with our daily lives.  Chase got his drivers license and is getting ready for graduation.  Jason is working and comes home weekly to wash clothes and eat and visit.  We miss him being here everyday but he enjoys being out of the house.  Noelani is plugging away at learning to drive, school, soccer starting for spring and managing her many friends relationships.

As for me, I am so thankful to God for being a part of our lives.  You all know what I think already about my cancer treatment and how God took care of everything.  Without trying to sound callous, I just want to make this last entry plain and simple because no matter how many words I type describing how great our God is, I could never write enough.
In closing, I know that I have been witness to a miracle.  A miracle that can only be from God.  I live to serve Him each day and am forever thankful that He sent his son Jesus Christ to live and die for me.  What a blessing this journey has been!

Mahalo Nui and Aaaaaloha

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.  Jesus, the Messiah is all of this and even more.  He is our God, the Savior.  This is the message I heard today at service. 
Today reminded me so much of what happened the very first time I was told that I was sick with cancer.  Today, I thought back to being told by Dr. Barber that I had a cancerous growth on my tonsil that he could feel. He wanted to scrape my tonsil and throat for tissue samples so he left to get his tools.  I was alone in the examination room and decided right then to pray to God, got down on my knees and spoke out saying “Mighty God, I thank you for all you do for me”.
Mighty God…Indeed God is mighty. Because of his might, I am able to write in this journal and update you with the latest.  Last week, Dr. Goodman recommended that I be cleared to return to work in a light duty capacity, better known as a desk job. I had to petition the department to try to get a desk job as my current position does not have a desk job. I have heard that the Chief of Police is trying to find something for me to do so I can get back to the job. My health continues to improve each day.  I have been in physical therapy the last two weeks, working M-W-F to get back my muscle tone and gain weight.  I am also getting therapy to help with the scar tissue build up forming in my throat and neck.  The scar tissue makes me stiff and sore in the jaw, throat, neck and shoulders.  I am learning how to do stretches, massage and exercises to help relieve the stiffness.

On the eve of His birthday, I give thanks for all things in my life.  I feel so blessed to have come this far in my life and look forward to what God has in store for me.  I have seen, felt, lived and now witnessed the awesome power of our Mighty God.  Thank you God for giving us your son, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.

Just When I Thought All Was Good…

I know it has been some time since my last update.  Things have been progressing so well that I really had nothing to update about.  Well, up until last week that is.  Let’s catch up on the latest.

Last month I left off with the plan to have my feeding tube removed as I was no longer using it.  Well, after some pleading with Dr. Goodman, who wanted to leave the feeding tube in for four more weeks, he agreed to have it removed.  Now, I began to eat in earnest, as I was under direction to put some weight back on.  Jody and I were able to enjoy many lunches exploring new or favorite restaurants!

I began to also work on building up my muscle tone, strength and stamina.  I started running some and even tried refereeing some soccer games.  All of this was going just fine. Some days I was tired but most of the time I was feeling OK.  About two weeks ago, I was shaving and nicked the side of my face.  Nothing major, some tissue, some pressure, bleeding stopped, go on with my day.  Well, the following day I noticed a large red spot where the shaving cut had been and it was itchy and swelling.  By the middle of the day the spot was turning into an oozing open sore.  I also noticed two other spots on my face and felt some pimple like spots on my lip, eye brow and nostril.  I talked with Jody about what was going on, and she suggested going to the doctors office.  I told her that I could just put some antibiotic creme on the face, band aid the open sore and heal everything myself.  The next day when my ear stared hurting real bad, I decided to go in and see a doctor.  After an examine, I was told that I had a case of shingles, a type of viral infection, asssociated with the chicken pox virus.  The doctor said that my body was already fighting off the effects of the virus but he put me on antibiotic medicine anyway.  Shingles are something radiation and chemo patients are susceptible to as our immune system is compromised by the treatments.

Anyway, I am healing. This was a reminder to me that I am still in the recovery mode, that I need to take things slow and give my body time to heal.  I don’t feel like I was rushing anything, but maybe I was.  I thank God every day for all He does.  I continue to pray for His guidance and healing.  I thank God for the many lessons learned in the past nine months. 

I was reading our copy of The Daily Bread and on September 27th, I was reminded about bearing one another’s burdens, Galatians 6:2.  I thank all of you for your kindness, concern, calls, cards, visits and prayers.  Most of all, thank you for bearing my burden, for picking me up, for keeping my family in prayer. “Bearing one another’s burden helps make the burden bearable.” 

Still Struggling

It has been a struggle for me, in more ways than one.  I have been frustrated by the up and down days of my recovery.  My patience was wearing thin, feeling great some days and than barely being able to get out of bed on other days.  I have also been struggling in my walk with Him as evidenced by the above statement.  Impatience comes from relying on oneself and forgetting who is in charge.  Trying to speed things along is again, forgetting who is in charge.

About six weeks ago, I talked Jody into going with me to Texas, to be part of our friends, Pastor Yuya and Liz’ wedding.  Isaac Kama was all set to join us, we bought airlines tickets, made hotel and car rental arrangements and were all set to go to Texas last Friday.  About a week and a half before the trip, I start having fatigue and sleep problems, feeding tube problems, weight loss and anxiety periods.  I wanted so much to go to Texas that I tried to will myself to get better, tried to convince myself I was doing better and prepared myself to go.  Jody was so patient with me and tried hard to help me recover however, things were not going well and recovery was slow.  Finally, I began to pray about the trip and really seek His will in the process.  I began to see that I was trying to take control of my recovery instead of relying on God’s timing.  I understood the timing of all of this and called Isaac to tell him that I would not be able to travel to Texas and then told Jody that we would have to cancel our trip.  Boy, was she relieved that I finally came to my senses! Thank you wife for letting me figure things out!  To make a long story end, Isaac went to Texas without us, and had a wonderful time. I stayed home and rested up, began to get better and today I feel so much stronger for it, both physically and spiritually!  What a great lesson for us.

Today, I am feeling much better.  My head and neck doctor, Dr. Barber confirmed my CT scan showed no signs of the cancer that used to be there, and proudly announced that I am in remission! Praise God, the greatest healer, the true miracle maker and our Father!  I am eating more and more each day and look forward to getting rid of my feeding tube.

Thank you all so much for your continued prayer and encouragement.  It is also because of your faith that I have been able to get through this very tough time in my life. 

It’s been awhile….

Yes it has.  To tell you the truth there hasn’t been much to update until now.  As I last told you my next appointments would be for a PET scan, a full body high intensity x-ray and an MRI.  Well, last Tuesday I had my PET scan which went well except it took longer to finish than I remember the last one did.  Results usually take a few days and I was scheduled to review the two results with Dr. L in early September.  Thursday rolls along and I went to my MRI appointment.  Remember the last time when I had an MRI and had a bad reaction to the contrast they injected into me for the x-ray?  Well, I told the x-ray tech that I was allergic to the gadolinium die and he said “you didn’t get the pre-med?  I told him no, no one mentioned anything about pre-meds.  He explained that I still needed the gadolinium for the MRI, but that I was supposed to have some counter acting pre-med before I got there.  Anyway, my appointment was canceled and I was instructed to contact Dr. L for further instruction.  I decided to stop by her office at St. Rose radiation because I wanted to weight myself on the electronic scale and I figured I could talk to her about the gadolinium because I was not real keen about getting injected with something I am allergic to and landed me in the ER the last time I took it.  Dr. L was in and I told her about the MRI appointment.  She was not to sure about pre-meds for something I am allergic too and then told me some great news.  Dr. L said that I could just skip the MRI because she had just finished reviewing my PET scan and it was so clean, she said she did not need to see an MRI.  Dr. L offered her hand in congratulations and told me the cancer is no where to be found in my full body scan!  I actually was stunned to hear that, I guess deep inside I was prepared for round two of the treatment that was mentioned in the beginning.  Wow, what great news, thank you God for continuing to surprise me in so many awesome ways. 

I will still have to get a CT scan done instead of the MRI, to check my brain area.  Dr. L is confident there is nothing there, just a precaution.  I don’t have the date yet however I will update everyone when I do.

I am continuing using my feeding tube until my throat gets better.  It is still very hard to swallow so that will take time.  The pain is all but gone and I am reducing the pain patch slowly so as to not get anymore withdrawal problems.  I am also eating very soft foods and some soup.  Thank you all for your continued support, it is greatly appreciated!

Thank You Lord for I’m Doing Fine

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated so here I am to tell you I’m doing fine.  It’s been a long ride but I can feel the end coming up.  I’m about a week away from being completely off pain medicine.  I have been drinking water from a cup for the last week, slowly getting my swallowing back to normal.  There are some moments of choking because the swallowing timing is not all good yet, but it is getting better.  I will start swallowing soft foods next and then on to some steak and lobster!

I want to thank each of you who have been following my journey, praying, writing, calling, stopping by the house, giving rides, sending food and just keeping me in mind.  Your faithfulness has kept me from going crazy, God has been with me all the way and between the two of that, I’ve been covered every step of the way.

My radiation doctor, Dr. L is getting me some appointments to have an MRI and full body scan completed.  These tests should confirm what the doctors have said already.  Pray with me for complete healing and no stray cancer cells!  Thanks again.

News to Japan

I had to write this message below to my friends about traveling to Japan in October.  Although today was a day of great news from my primary doctor, Dr. Barber, it was with sadness I had to tell my friends I could not travel to Japan, God has different plans for me.  Dr. Barber’s great news is that the tonsil that started all of this cancer stuff is completed reduced to nothing, as if a tonsillectomy was performed and the tumor that gave the original cancer biopsy result in the beginning is completely gone.  Dr. Barber shook our hands and said “congratulations, we got it all” with a big smile on his face.

Praise you Father for watching over me in my time of need. Praise you for your answered prayers. Praise you Father for all you do each and every day in our lives!

 

Hello friends,

Today I visited my primary doctor treating my cancer and I asked him his thoughts on me going to Japan in October.  My doctor said he is against me traveling in October because I will still be getting treatment.  Although I will be getting stronger by then and probably will feel much better, my doctor said it would be safer if I was near the hospital during my recovery, in case something goes wrong or I get a set back.

So, I regret to inform you all that I will not be traveling to Japan in October.  Maybe some time later when I am completely healed.  It saddens my heart because I wanted to be there for the missions trip and the wedding, but God obviously has other plans for me right now.  I wish you all the best and pray for you in the coming months of planning and preparation for the upcoming wedding day. 

 

Aloha,

Mike R.