Waiting Transfer: 20 March 2021

Dear Praying Friends,

Thanks for the prayer support. 

I was under observation in March as the tumor did not appear to have grown from January to February. However, in March there was tissue ingrowth into the duodenal stent. It is assumed to be caused by the cancer. I am currently at low body mass, so not a good candidate for chemotherapy. I am also currently an inpatient at Hershey Medical Center awaiting transfer to Johns Hopkins to explore a GI treatment to improve nutrition. Doctors have advised an EUG-GJ stent attempt to make an alternative connection between the stomach and small intestine to bypass the duodenal constriction. If this does not work, another option is to go onto a feeding tube, likely placed through the abdominal wall. The first option would offer a better quality of life and nutrition, as I could still eat. The team at Hershey thought this was a risky procedure from their end due to high vascularization around the stomach, so I am waiting for a transfer, hopefully Monday, pending an open bed and insurance approval of the transfer, to Johns Hopkins as the GI team there are willing to look at it themselves to see if they are willing to try it. 
We continue to thank God for health and strength despite low body mass and what appear to be a very slim set of medical alternatives for treatment.
We thank God that healing comes from him and trust him for his gift and miracle of healing.  
We have been encouraged by the mentorship of a woman who is a 5-year survivor of pancreatic cancer and who has been supporting us in prayer and in her story of alternative nutritional treatments and supplements. At the moment, I am denied these in the hospital setting, but trust God for his gift of life here too. 
We are also encouraged by Brian Wills' Ten Hours to Live in which he shares his testimony of being diagnosed with terminal cancer and then miraculously healed as he held onto God's promises of life. He was again treated with an experimental chemotherapy from which he was miraculously the only survivor.  During his ordeal, he continually claimed God's promises in his Word. We seek to likewise claim God's promises, especially Romans 8:11: "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you."
I have also been encouraged that during Lent I am on an enforced fast--albeit now finally with an IV TPN nutrition line. Just as God sustained Jesus through his 40-day fast, he sustains me by his miraculous power. Jesus responds to the temptations of the devil in Matthew 4:4 "But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”"
We have been tremendously encouraged by God's day-to-day miracles and guidance. 

Please do join me in praying for life and full, complete healing!
Please pray for the right doctors and treatment at Johns Hopkins and wisdom on the best course of action there.
Please pray that God would be glorified in this amazing story of grace that he is writing.

Thank you for your prayer support! God is good. 

Blessings and love,

Timothy Hagen

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