BREAST CANCER: PLEASE KEEP PRAYING FOR HEALING - 12th Taxol Treatment, by Lorilyn Roberts

At 1:30pm today I have my 12th and final Taxol treatment. I so appreciate everyone's prayers. I've gone through three months of chemotherapy with normal cell counts, worked full time, and have had so few side effects that I can only attribute it to God. The Adriamycin may be far more difficult, but for now, I’m praising God.

The best part is that I’ve been able to make a lot of progress on the editing of The Prescience. I finished chapter 35 last night out of 49 chapters.

I want to thank Manisha for all her help. Every day she comes over and cleans the litter boxes for me, and each Friday she takes me to my infusion. She has been such an encouragement in so many ways. Thank you, Manisha. I have the most wonderful daughters in the world. Joy has been in Alaska now for over a month working at a Bible camp. Two more months to go. Miss her lots and can’t wait until she comes home.

Please keep praying for healing and that all this poison does its job.

BREAST CANCER: TENTH TAXOL TREATMENT AND GOD STILL HAS MY BACK: Devotional by Lorilyn Roberts

I had my tenth Taxol treatment today and all my numbers were normal! The PA said up to 85% of patients have neuropathy, and is amazed I haven't had anything. I continue to praise God and give Him the glory. I think the cold gloves are also helping, although, to be honest, it's torture wearing them.

Food still tastes good also, which is a bonus. I'm wearing the arm sleeve through chemo treatment as the physical therapist said it would help to prevent lymphedema. I use it with captioning - most of the time. It's very hot to wear in Florida. The radiation will increase the risk of lymphedema, so I need to do what I can now to prevent it.

Only six more chemo treatments. Two taxol followed by four Adriamycin and Cytoxan. The Ariamycin doesn't cause the neuropathy, so I should not have to worry about that once I finish the Taxol until I start radiation. But Adriamycin can cause LOTS of other problems.

Joy drew this for me for Mother's Day during chemo treatment

In the meantime, I feel attacks in other areas. I've had major on-air tech issues while captioning -- things becoming strangely unplugged, communication issues with printer and computer, that suddenly start working after many many attempts, icap issues with audio (I heard I'm not the only one with this one), incredibly slow issues with my internet provider, computer lock-up, captioning software lock-up, and I've had disappearing files (never happened) requiring me to rewrite shows that I've cleaned for repeat shows. and a couple of brain freeze things.

I came back from the infusion today and went to sleep for three hours, turning on my alarm to wake me up before MLB captioning. I woke up, looked at the clock, and it said 7. I thought it was the morning and didn't remember why I set the alarm, so I turned it off. I woke up ten till 8pm. I went on the air at 8. Well, that's a terrible thing to do. So I worry about stuff like this.

My car is also on the fritz. I'm pretty sure it's the transmission. I had it repaired once which cost $3,000 about five years ago. How much more money should I put into it with 230,000 miles? Last year I lost a few thousand because a company ripped me off. I was fixing to file a lawsuit with their corporate offices when I was diagnosed with beast cancer, so I ended up settling out of court with their corporate offices for $2,000, but I gave half that money to a retired lawyer friend that got my car fixed. Otherwise, I would have been forced to buy another car because of the shop's malpractice. The worst part is my car was unreliable and broke down all over town the entire summer as we tried to figure out what the store did to it. We did find everything they screwed up and fixed it, but I just can't go through the stress this summer of a unreliable car when I'm dealing with cancer treatment.

Another prayer request. In my last post, I loaded an excerpt from "The Prescience" and sent a copy of it to a good author friend in Indonesia who is involved in Muslim-Christian relations as a missionary. He pretty much ripped apart my chapter, and, to be honest, I think he's right. So I spent hours reworking it, and then got another email from a good author friend in England who loved it. So then I questioned if maybe I should rethink everything. Both authors had great insights, and they aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, in some respects, so please pray for me to find the balance I need in this chapter.

I continue to keep my eyes on Jesus, knowing He is the Author and my Redeemer. I have to remember that all redemption may not occur in this life. But I also know Hope never disappoints, and the Comforter's ways are better than mine. So with prayers and God's wisdom I hope to beat every attack on me and give God the glory. He is teaching me many things though all of these struggles, and that brings me supernatural joy.

BOOK EXCERPT: SEVENTH DIMENSION – THE PRESCIENCE: A Young Adult Fantasy, “Did Jesus Really Die on the Cross?”

Since the Jewish festival of Shavuot and the Christian religious day of Pentecost is upon us, I decided to share this excerpt from Seventh Dimension - The Prescience, which takes place on Pentecost in the first century. The question I asked myself before I wrote The Prescience was, what would happen if a Muslim convert from Hinduism heard Peter at Pentecost? What would be his reaction? 

God continues to encourage me with the editing as I finish my chemo treatments. I pray that this excerpt will help you to think about how you would witness to a Muslim. The excerpt includes one of the common questions that Muslims have about Christianity.  

The Berean Study Bible admonishes us:

So we aspire to please Him, whether we are here in this body or away from it. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive his due for the things done in the body, whether good or bad. 11Therefore, since we know what it means to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is clear to God, and I hope it is clear to your conscience as well.

EXCERPT FROM THE PRESCIENCE

**********

Love motivated Jesus. He died for all of us. We deserve death, but Jesus died in our place so we could spend eternity with him.”

Nidal glanced down at his sandals and pushed a loose stone aside. “You know, Islam tells us that Jesus didn’t die on the cross.”

Daniel scooted up closer. “Do you know that no one in history, out of the thousands who were crucified by the Romans, survived the crucifixion?”

“What do you mean?” Nidal asked.

“There isn’t a single recorded case of anyone ever crucified by the Romans who came down off the cross alive. Every person who was crucified by the Romans died. Don’t you think that if one person, especially someone as controversial as Jesus, had managed to survive, it would have been widely known and reported? Plus, think of the eyewitnesses who saw Jesus die. The scriptures also tell us the Roman guard speared him in the side to make sure he was dead.”

Nidal reflected on Daniel’s words but remained quiet.

“Crucifixion is torture,” Daniel said, “and if by some chance Jesus did survive the crucifixion, do you think he could have made a full recovery based on the crude medical methods of this time period?”

“But how can you be sure?”

“As far as I know,” Daniel said, “there is very little dispute among most historians that Jesus died on the cross.”

“I wish I had a computer. I’d search it on Google, but I have a counterargument.”

Daniel brushed his hair back from his forehead. “What’s that?”

“I heard an Imam claim that Jesus’ body was replaced with the body of Judas.”

Daniel shook his head. “That would be impossible. Judas had already died when Jesus was crucified. The betrayer’s entails spilled out on the ground. That’s why the Jews had to sell the land. His blood had defiled it. Besides, dozens of people witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion, and Roman guards were present at his crucifixion the entire time.

“They took down Jesus’ dead body and gave it to his friends so they could prepare it for burial. They would have declared Jesus dead before they delivered his body to Joseph of Arimathea and the women.”

Daniel added. “Believe me when I tell you this. There is no way the Roman soldiers could have removed Jesus from the cross alive, retrieved the body of Judas that had been ripped wide open when he hung himself, and then nailed Judas to the cross in place of Jesus. That contradicts the historical record, and there were many people who stood by and watched. History would have recorded events differently.”

*~*~*~*

CREATIVE WRITING INSIGHTS: “#Iwritebecause” by Lorilyn Roberts

BREAST CANCER: HOW WE SHOULD VIEW OUR BODIES: Devotional by Lorilyn Roberts

My comments were made in reference to the link below.  Confessions and Lessons by R.K. Patel

If you would prefer just to read my comments, I have copied and pasted them here.

As someone who just had a double mastectomy for breast cancer and undergoing breast reconstruction, I now have a new appreciation for my body. Like you (R.K. Patel, see article referenced), I had been critical of myself, and I have many scars also. It's strange now that I don't have my old breasts, while I'm thankful for the fake ones, I wish they were real.

Sometimes we don't appreciate what we have until we don't have that thing anymore, like good health. Cancer takes that away, especially when you are late stage. Now, I'm thankful for what God has given me, and I'm taking better care of my body, like eating healthy, getting enough sleep, and exercising regularly. I'm making the time for a healthy lifestyle. 

The one thing I would add is that the Bible says our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it's incumbent to take better care of it so that the Holy Spirit can thrive. When we take better care of our physical bodies, we feel better spiritually and mentally. We make better choices. We live better, and since we aren't running out of gas, so to speak, pulling ourselves down with negative thoughts and critical beliefs about ourselves, we have more to give to others. We will love better. We live out of abundance, not limited by our own personal needs.

Boundaries are important also. With healthy boundaries, we will know what we are comfortable with, and we won't compare ourselves to others. Our bodies are holy, so we should be holy, in all our ways. When we do that, we will glorify God, and that should be our highest calling.

BREAST CANCER: AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR WOMEN WITH DENSE BREASTS: Christian Blogger Lorilyn Roberts

I pray that the information I share in this video, while difficult to talk about, will help women with dense breast tissue and/or prior breast biopsies and surgeries to receive the best possible care. 

Talk with your doctor about getting MRIs on a routine basis in addition to mammography. It could save your life.

BREAST CANCER: FIFTH ROUND OF CHEMOTHERAPY - WORTHY IS THE LAMB: Devotional by Lorilyn Roberts

 

How I spent my Fri.  @michaelwsmith #breastcancer https://t.co/EbkSpAwKBf pic.twitter.com/o8wgvnD8c7

— Lorilyn Roberts (@LorilynRoberts) May 6, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPBmFwBSGb0  - Agnus Dei by Michael W. Smith, my song!

Is God not worthy of me going through chemo? Can I glorify Him through this? Absolutely. Jesus died on the cross for the fallenness of our world. While we have momentary afflictions now, there is nothing that can ever separate from the love of Jesus Christ. Our God is an awesome God!

BREAST CANCER: WHAT IT’S LIKE TO HAVE BREAST CANCER: Devotional by Lorilyn Roberts

Lorilyn With Her Mom Finishing Treatment 2017

My first chemo treatment was easy. But the two days leading up to it were not.

When I went to Moffitt to get a second opinon, the doctor recommended I have a CT scan performed on my lungs for a pleural effusion that showed up on the PET scan. She had never seen a pleural effusion caused only by surgery. 

So, of course, that gave me something else to worry about. None of my doctors had mentioned getting a CT scan on the lungs. The X-ray had been clear before the surgery.  

The CT scan was set up for the next day, a welcomed surprise it was accomplished so quickly, but the CT nurse didn’t know how to access my chemo port correctly. It was the most painful procedure I’d had done yet - unbearable. She didn’t flush out the port afterwards, and apparently when the contrast was put into the vein during the CT scan, it didn’t go into my vein but extravasated into the surrounding tissue. Talk about painful, I could’t quit crying. 

I was afraid I’d never get through the sixteen weeks of chemotherapy. Later, the infusion nurses told me never to let anyone access the port but them. The CT nurse could have damaged the infusion site. This could have caused a blood clot, infection, more surgery, and skin grafting. She also didn’t flush it.
  

The CT nurse took me back to the waiting room where I cried some more. Another patient asked if he could pray for me. I thanked him. That was the lowest point of my cancer journey. If I couldn’t handle the port being accessed, how could I handle the chemo treatment?

On the way to my CT appointment, one of our cats had something wrong with him. He was walking around the house groaning. We had taken him to the vet the week before for urine issues and an obstruction. He didn’t have an obstruction then, but I was certain he had one now. 

With male cats, it’s an emergency. I was afraid he would die without immediate care, but I was on my way to my CT scan. They squeezed me in because of the concern raised by the doctor at Moffitt. The procedure also needed to be done before I started chemo.

I called my oldest daughter. She left work and came to get Anakin to take him to the vet. Otherwise, I could not have made my appointment. The vet said he would have died within an hour without being seen. He’s still at the vet being treated. Hopefully he can come home Monday. We have switched to a prescription cat food that should prevent this from happening again. 

The next day, following the CT scan and endoscopy procedure, I hadn’t received the results, so I was anxious for the infusion appointment. I had my highest blood pressure reading ever. 

When I met with the PA, she said the lungs showed no signs of cancer, and the endoscopy biopsies were related to heartburn. Talk about relief. That would have pushed me into a stage 4 breast cancer. It’s hard for me to believe I’m a stage 3 because I had a clear mammogram and sonogram. No spread to nodes was visible on MRI or exam. The spread to the lymph nodes showed up microscopically on the biopsy.

I am now in my fourth week of Taxol treatment. I have eight more weeks to go. This will be followed by eight weeks of Adriamycin (four treatments in all on this one, every other week.)

I’m thankful I’ve started chemo treatment, and I'm thankful that through four treatments, I haven't had any side effects. 

I attribute the good outcome of my surgery and the ease so far of the chemotherapy to God’s faithfulness and prayers of so many saints. 

I hope all the additional treatments go as easily as the first four infusions, but I’ve heard people say the side effects get worse. In the meantime, I like to think the drugs are hunting down any cancer cells in my body and killing them.

The doctors have said that it's highly unusual a 1.7 cm tumor to be in as many lymph nodes as shown in the pathology report — 11 out of 15. That’s just a little larger than half an inch. 

Someday I hope to share this story — my cancer is like sin. Something that small in my body is deadly. Without Jesus Christ, a tiny bit of sin will keep us out of heaven. Something to think about, isn’t it?

Thanks again for your prayers. I really appreciate it. And if you love animals, pray that our little kitty that was found abandoned a few years ago will be restored to health. His name is Anakin.

Addendum:  Little Anakin is doing very well now:)