A Great Weekend!

What a great weekend it has been!  Praise God for the wonderful weekend weather and for making me feel pretty good!

After two days of no radiation, I feel pretty strong and refreshed.  My chemo nausea has all cleared up and I have been off the anti-nausea meds for three days now.  My nursing team claims that I have remarkable stamina, and that they expected me to be sick for a week more than I was.  We know why I recovered faster than the average man right!  Thank you Lord for answered prayers and for watching over my health.

Not all great news though. Today marks the official day that I lost my sense of taste.  This I knew would happen, my taste buds have been slowly losing ground to the radiation/chemo treatments and this morning I could not taste anything I ate or drank.  Oh well, maybe I’ll start eating that liver and bacon my mother always tried to feed me as a kid because “it is good for cleaning your system out” and I may even throw in some of that lentil soup she cooked too!  Can’t taste it so it can’t be all that bad right? NOT!!!!

Soon, my throat will begin to burn and feel very raw.  This will prevent the swallowing part.  Please be in prayer that this part of my treatment will come later than sooner.  The longer I can swallow, the better things will be.

Please pray for the doctors to be able to see what is ailing my liver. Test results arrived in the mail Saturday and stated “negative for any hepatitis”. The numbers have come down and I am awaiting more blood test results and will schedule a liver ultra sound Monday morning.

Radiation treatment continues M-F this week.  Pray for effectiveness in treatments, skillful operation of  the laser machine by the lab techs, there were some new techs last Friday, and recovery after treatments. Thank you in advance for your prayers!

Saturday night Jody and I were talking and I told her I wanted to go to church so bad Sunday morning.  She gently reminded me that I had to avoid crowds, my immune system deficiency, doctor’s orders and all the other stuff.  I guess she sensed my longing to go still and so she suggested that instead of going the regular time, maybe, if I really wanted to come to church, I should come in later and leave real early before anyone really saw me.  What a great lifting that was to my spirit!  So, today, about 10 AM, I jump in the car, drive over to the community center where we meet for service, and get there late.  I am never late, but today I plan to be late and get there about twenty minutes into the service, communion is just finishing up and worship is about to start.  I am standing at the back door of the room, looking in the open door and we start to praise God in song! What an awesome feeling that was, just standing by myself, eyes closed, hands lifted, singing softly to our God about how much He is loved and being lifted in His mighty arms! Pastor Joe must have saw me, because he came out and stood next to me and together we sang   “How great is our God, sing with me, how great is our God and all will sing how great, how great is our God”

Later in the evening, we went to San Lorenzo JCC to pick up Chase from night worship service and I got a chance to see Pastor Shimada, Kevin and Judy with Traci, Emily and Tim, Stan and Judy and a few of the students. What a great weekend indeed!

Thank you Jesus, for giving me new life,

Mike

 

A Long Day

Hello,

Just got home a few hours ago from the hospital.  I woke up this morning feeling bad, cold sweats, chills and nausea.  My doctor told me to come in and I got there at 9 AM.  My liver is apparently still a problem, what kind of problem is unknown.  Many blood tests today, consults with other doctors and a trip to x-ray, still no answer.  Blood counts are normal, slightly low blood pressure and some temperture spikes.

  I received some IV liquids and then was set home with a future appointment to have an ultrasound done on my liver.

We are trusting in God’s will and await His healing!

Thanks for keeping us in prayer.  Yeah, no radiation for two days!  Talk to you soon.

Mike

Latest Update 06/01/06

Hello to All,

My (our!) friend Jessica Tekawa suggested I start this site to give everyone easier access to my updates.  She suggested that this will be easier for you to track the updates and prayer requests, so this is my very first entry!

First, thank you all again for keeping me and our family in prayer.  Althought I don’t see all of you, please know that you are helping me in a great way by praying.  Our God is a great God and He hears all that we pray.

It has been a few days since I last updated you.  I told you that I was going to have a feeding tube put in which is now completed.  The procedure was quick, about 30 minutes and I was admitted to the hospital for an overnight stay to keep me hydrated as I could not swallow food for 24 hours after the install.  Everything is fine now.  I don’t actually have to use the feeding tube yet, but there will come a time when my throat will be so raw from radiation that I will not be able to swallow, so this is advanced preparation.

It was brought to my attention, by my wife,  my doctors and friends, that I really need to rest and take things slow.  Unfortunately, I have been resistant to that advice because 1) I am a male, 2) I think I am indestructable, and 3) I have a coconut-head mentality from the Hawaiian side!  Seriously, I need to follow the advice of the professionals and not try to do to much.  The one thing I really must avoid is catching someones else’s illness, which means I will be going out a lot less from now on.

So, my prayer request would be for humbleness to abide by my wife’s, doctor’s and friends advise.  For continued strength during radiation treatments, and for healing. Thank you so much.  Until the next update, may our Lord keep each of you safe and sound!

Aloha