Overcoming Pancreatic Cancer

Dear friends, Thank you for your prayers as I started chemo and radiation last week. Side effects have been minimal. I had some GI upset and pain, but the pain subsided midway through last week. Radiation sessions were initially challenging, as it was painful to be strapped down tightly to a hard surface, but modifications were made to alleviate that, so sessions are going better now. Exercise does help in boosting spirits and in reducing fatigue! I am taking my second chemo infusion now and continue to pray that it and the radiation will be effective in fighting the tumor while having minimal side effects.  Yesterday was Pentecost. May God give us his Spirit anew to bring life, unity, and fruitfulness:  "'I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act," says the LORD." -Ezekiel 37:14 "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to wal...

 Dear friends and family: This has been an eventful week. Last week my daughter, our third child, was born! It was a delight to hold her in my arms and welcome her into the world. I was able to be in the delivery room during the C-section and be next to my wife as she was being operated on and stitched up afterwards. I was also able to cut the cord and sing for and bless my daughter. What wonder to see her open her beautiful eyes and look around for the first time! On the afternoon of the delivery, I came down with a fever. I had been chilled in the operating room and then found my biliary drain had been somehow locked in the "off" position, causing bile to leak out around the tube and soak my shirt. Remembering fever as an indicator for sepsis in January, I called into the hospital and was referred to the emergency room.  That was the last place I wanted to be on the day my daughter was born. Yet I went. I ended up staying five days in the hospital as blood and bile cultures...