When Dad was told he was in remission in May 2018, the doctor had suggested doing a little more chemo just to hopefully keep the cancer away. As I have said in earlier posts, the T-cell Lymphoma that Dad has is very rare and the doctor was not sure how long it would take to come back. They just say that it will recur.
Dad said he wanted a break. He wanted to regain some strength and enjoy some good days. And he has had some good days along with some not so good days. He has problems with arthritis and some bulging and ruptured discs in his back, so pain is often felt when he moves around a lot. He was able to get some shots in his back that did relieve some of the pain for a while.
He went for CT scans every three months. Each time many prayers were prayed in hopes the cancer would remain in remission. Each time, prayers were answered.
The financial burden had been great over the year and a half he was undergoing treatment. My dad had been self employed for many years and so did not have medical insurance. He had always been very healthy until he got cancer. His church put on a barbecue meal and I ran a Go Fund Me campaign for a while to help with their expenses. We all were very appreciative of everyone who willingly gave to assist them with the cost of all the treatments.
When open enrollment for insurance came around in October, dad was able to sign up for insurance since he was in remission. That has relieved a lot of the stress when it comes to thinking about the cancer returning.
So Dad had 10 months of being able to do some things. Because of his age and the damage taking chemo had done to his body, he is not the same agile and strong man he was before 2017. Yet on good days he would get out as much as possible. Christmas was especially wonderful since he was well enough to enjoy getting together with family, children, grandkids and great grandkids.
With the new insurance in place the beginning of the year, when it came time for another scan in February, the insurance dictated that the CT scan be changed to a PET scan. God is working all things in the details together already. The PET is more thorough anyway to detect cancer, which it did. Had he just had a CT scan, it may not have shown up as clearly and the PET scan would have had to be scheduled. A couple spots showed up in 4 lymph nodes in his chest. It has been caught early. The doctor recommends beginning chemo to keep it from spreading and growing anymore.
Dad’s break time is over.
He began chemo on March 4th. The same type of drug that was used successfully before is being used again. He will once again do chemo five days straight, have three weeks off, then repeat the five days of chemo. This will last for six months.
As I think about the end of a break, to me it means going back to work. Getting back to the labor that was being endured before the break.
When I was young, I never really enjoyed reading much of the Old Testament. Some of the well-known Bible Stories were interesting, but when it talks a lot about the Children of Israel building the tabernacle and then later the temple, there was so much detail that I wasn’t really interested in. Yet, when I became older and tried to really gain understanding of the whole Word of God, I looked at the Old Testament in a new light.
God ordains work. Even from the very beginning, we are told in detail about what God worked on for 6 days, before He rested from His work. When the tabernacle was being built, God gave skillful workers the ability to make beautiful works of metal and tapestries. God gave specific instructions about how the artisans were to mold certain flowers from metal and coat with gold. He gave specific instructions of what color thread to use in the tapestries and in the garments to be worn by the priests. Every detail was carefully explained to every worker. And when God instructed the people to have moments of worship, he instructed the people to restrain themselves from working. Restrain from working? I don’t have to restrain myself to stop working. But obviously the people took their work seriously and saw it as something they were doing for God, so much so, that stopping to take a break meant laying down something they loved doing.
In the New Testament, Christ came to be busy doing the work of the Father. He instructed His disciples to be busy working. The thought is stated that if you don’t work, you don’t eat. How well would that work in today’s society?
There were times when Jesus had to take His disciples away to a quiet place to rest from their work. But they always returned to that work. There is so much more that can be said about working for the Lord. But for now, God has a plan and what my Dad is going through once again, I believe, is part of that plan. God blessed Dad with 10 months of rest, but now the work and battle against this cancer is starting back. God faithfully brought Dad through it before and I know He will do it again.
So many people prayed for my Dad and many, many people were touched because of Him. We saw God working in so many details the whole time he was sick. We saw things that could only be explained by saying it was a God-thing. Perhaps now there is someone new that needs to be touched through everything that is going to happen. I know it is going to be hard. We didn’t know before what all to expect. Dad knows this time much of what to expect from enduring chemo. And it’s not a pleasant anticipation to have. However, knowing my Dad and knowing my Abba Father, with the two of them working together, it’s going to be something amazing to watch!
So for now, break time’s over. Get to work, Dad! You have a battle to win!
(If you are new to following along with my Dad’s battle against cancer, you can read all previous posts under Dad’s Journey.)