Maintenance Cheomotherapy Completed

Today, December 20, 2007, I completed my final maintenance therapy treatment at the oncology office. It took 2 & 1/2 years to get here and to tell you the truth, I am very tired. First it was the horrific 6 months of very harsh chemical treatment that gave me 44 days of hospital time, with my blood count so low they though I might just leave the earth at any time. In fact, I was not able to complete the entire protocol as there should have been 6 treatments and I only had five. They should have been at 100 percent and I only had two at 100 percent dosage. The remaining 3 treatments were cut back due to the bad reaction I was having to the CHOP therapy.

And so we got through that and then we started the 2 year maintenance therapy treatment which required "Rituxin" which was a less harsh chemical. I handled this treatment without even one hospitalization, however, the treatment knocked me down for a few days each week. The treatments went on for 2 years (once per week for 4 weeks every 6 months).

Praise the Lord God in Heaven, it is finally over! And it is only through His strength that I have gotten through all of this. I have tried to maintain an attitude of gratefulness throughout this time and feel I have done rather well. Oh, there have been times when I moaned and groaned, cried and slept (mostly slept). There were some lower moments as you watch your youthful life change and see that there are things you have always done in life that you cannot do anymore. Sometimes just taking out the trash seems like an 8 hour work day. I have felt every kind of emotion possible to mankind, I believe. I have felt good and bad, I have felt happy and sad, and yes, I have felt depression during this process. There have been times when I have asked God why He was keeping me here. And of course, He always had a great answer, like someone else needed me. There have been so many "someone Else's" in my life since this all began and I couldn't be more thankful. I have helped people with new shoes, with food to eat, and OH YES, God even granted me the grace to lead a few to Him during this time frame.

So I suppose, to sum it all up what I really feel like is that I have been blessed beyond human recognition. I know that sounds hard to grasp or understand, but throughout all of the ups & downs, the good & bad times, the "great attitudes" and the "grumpy ones", God has never left my side. He has shown me a side of Him that I may never have seen otherwise. So don't feel sorry for me (your going to die someday too). I have been living with the King in my spirit like few people get a chance to experience. And it has been wonderful. My faith has grown to such an extent, that I cannot express it to you in words (you just had to be there).

You have all prayed for me and I am thankful(by the way, I have incurable cancer, so the prayers shouldn't stop). People I have never met have sent me well wishes, knitted angels (boy did they come in handy) and yes, some people are still sending financial gifts to see that Barb and I get by. You see, this is a side of God that few of us get an opportunity to see in our lifetimes, unless our physical health faulters and these faithful ones go into action and they give of their lives in such a way that it is difficult to explain. Barb and I have even had the opportunity to drive to Denver Colorado, and personally meet a couple (Bill & Mimi) who have been holding us up in prayer for so long and supporting us in unbelievable way that we wonder WHO is holding them up. It reminds me of Moses and Aaron in the desert. When Moses held his arms up the army would win and when he could no longer hold them up the army would lose, so Aaron took over for Moses, holding up the arms of Moses until victory. It is people like these who have held our arms up for so long and now we have reached a milestone in this disease. You know, they say we can't beat it, but after 2 & 1/2 years of this kind of support, I think we have a chance; a great chance since God is on our side.

Well, it was important for me to recognize this milestone in my life with cancer and our prayers now are that these cells just fall off to sleep like Rumpelstiltskin and never wake up again. We (Barbara and I) are very grateful to be able to call all of you "our friends" and more importantly, our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.

"If we don't see you down here, we'll see you in the air!"

We love you...Dave & Barb