Two angels

I am driving into Atlanta on Mondays and then back home after my treatment. On Tuesday, I am driving back to downtown Atlanta and will return home on Fridays for the next five weeks. Today’s drive was awful. Anyone who has driven in Atlanta knows what a mess the traffic is. Well, when it rains, it is exponentially worse. It rained all day, so it was a stressful day.

Complicating the stress level was visiting my friend in the hospital. Dr. Walter Mills is a retired dentist, and he had his third stroke in the last few weeks last Thursday. He and his wife of 60 years, Sue, are dear friends of Cheryl and me and our entire family. Walter’s situation is not good, and it breaks my heart to see him lying in the bed with a feeding tube and unable to talk or move his left arm and leg. Sue and Walter lost both their children in their early 50s from heart attacks—just one year apart. 

While visiting with them today, a nurse came in to get his vitals, and he spoke English with an accent. I recognized that he was probably from French-speaking West Africa, so I just randomly spoke to him in French. He turned quickly to me in a big smile and spoke to me in French. Raoul was from Cameroon, and he had been in the USA for 4 years. We had a good visit, and as it is in most cases when I meet a West African in the US, it is like we have been friends for a long time. Raoul lifted my spirits on a dark day. 

Each day when I arrive at Emory Proton Therapy Center, I go to the men’s dressing room, put on my gown and wait for one of the therapists to call me back. Today, a new face appeared in the doorway calling for me. I introduced myself to him and he told me his name was Ndipku, so I greeted him in French, and his face lit up with a huge smile as he responded to me in French. He was also from Cameroon and had been in the USA for 12 years. As we entered the treatment gantry speaking French with one another, the other two therapists were asking what we were speaking. I don’t think either of them knew that Ndipku spoke French. 

During my treatment I was praying and thanking the Lord for making me feel so much better about the dreary, stressful and painful day by sending two angels to brighten my day. While praying I realized that I was wallowing in my dreary day while making no effort to encourage  anyone else. Our problems and challenges are never too big to keep us from encouraging others in Jesus’ name.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, - Romans 15:5

Cats

I’ve never been really fond of cats. I think it has something to do with how quietly they move about – almost like stalking you. I’m not allergic to them although two of our children are. However, they all know I don’t like them!

Over the years cats have done some very nasty things to me – like in my car, like in my luggage, like in the bed of the guest room of friends where Cheryl and I were supposed to sleep, etc. Don’t think I need to go into more details here!

When the girls were young we had a few cats, and I tolerated them as outdoor cats. One of them had a habit of climbing up under the hood of the car to get near the warm engine in the winter time. Usually, when we came out of the house to get in the car, the cat would quickly exit the car. One morning when I cranked up the car there was this giant thud. I knew immediately that the cat had encountered the fan belt of my car. Not a good ending for that cat.

Cheryl was completely surprised 12 years ago when I brought home a cat. A farmer had a goat I wanted to add to my herd, and when I was ready to buy it he said there’s one condition—you have to take a cat home with the goat. He told me to be careful because the cat was wild.

So, I showed up with a solid black cat that the farmer had put in a mesh bag with the top securely tied. I carefully untied the mesh bag because I was afraid with my luck that the cat would attack me. I turned it upside down and the cat fell out and jumped out of the truck and hit the ground running with both of our dogs right on her tail.

The cat ran up a tree to a height of at least 25 feet. Cheryl looked at me and said, “Well, aren’t you going to get it down?” That was the wrong thing to ask me. I responded that I had no intention of getting it down and when the cat was ready to come down that she would come down by herself.

Of course, that sparked a bit of family anger as I was the bad guy who wouldn’t get the poor cat down out of the tree. There was little consideration given to the fact that I couldn’t even touch the cat with my 24 foot ladder much less get it down. The next day the cat was still up the tree. And, then the next day it rained and the very wet cat came down out of the tree. 

One of the granddaughters named the cat “Viola.” I don’t know where the name came from, but 12 years later we still call her Viola. By the way, I have learned to love Viola because she keeps rats and mice out of our garage. On cold winter nights Viola sleeps with our two dogs—one which chased her up that tree 12 years ago. If only people were able to forgive and forget like animals. 

If you are tired of my cat stories, you can stop here. If you are game to read one more, please continue...

When we were leading workers in Northern Africa and the Arab world region, my good friend, John, and I were visiting a family in a country in the Sahara. They were having some challenges living in a very desolate, dry and dirty place, and we had come to encourage them and to talk about the future for their family. 

John sat down in a chair in their living room, the couple sat on a sofa and I sat on a love seat. After only a couple minutes of sitting down, all of a sudden some wild thing jumped on my back and dug its claws into my neck and scalp. I reached up and grabbed the varmint and slung it with all my might across the room. The wild thing was the family cat! 

With no regard for my welfare, the couple ran to their traumatized cat and started loving on it. And my colleague and friend, John, well, he was so startled that he was just staring back and forth between the couple holding the cat and me. The only apology I received was this statement: “He’s never done that before.” Wouldn’t you know it—the feline fanatic chose me to attack for the first (and probably only) time

X-ray vision

When I was a young boy, like most of my peers, I loved comic books. Television was in its infancy, and the most popular kid’s program was Howdy Doody. Most boys want to be entertained by more adventurous programs than Howdy Doody. Fortunately, at one of the local movie theaters on Saturday afternoon I could watch a double feature of westerns for the admission price of six RC Cola bottle caps. To this day that was the best bargain for entertainment ever! 

So comic books provided most of the entertainment for 8-12 year old boys while I was growing up. My two favorite comic books were Superman and Mighty Mouse—two superheroes. Mighty Mouse started coming on TV on Saturday mornings and no longer was Howdy Doody the King of kid’s TV.

One of the things I like best about Mighty Mouse and Superman was that both of them possessed X-ray vision. I was so intrigued with this superpower. Cereal boxes and special offers on the back of comic books offered promotions on “real X-ray glasses.” Yes, I fell for them, and, yes, I was totally disappointed with the product.

X-ray vision meant that you could see through something or someone. I was reminded of all this while I was waiting for my proton treatment today. Surprising what all goes through your mind when you are about to be zapped with a daily dose of radiation.

I could have had all my radiation treatments in Rome, Georgia, and slept in my bed every night if I had chosen the traditional external beam radiation therapy. Those beams are measured doses of photons that go through your body. Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre, are responsible for discovering this medical procedure over 100 years ago. Treating tumors and cancer cells with proton beam therapy is only a couple decades old.  

Traditional x-ray treatments are more of a blast that goes through your body just like Superman’s x-ray vision. Proton therapy is more like a laser that stops at its target. Therefore, with protons less damage is done to tissues, organs and other vital functions that may be near the radiation. 

God doesn’t want to see through us like traditional x-rays. God’s gaze on our hearts is more like proton beams. His gaze does not see through the heart; he looks inside the heart. He just wants to cast His holy eyes into our body and focus his examination on our heart.

The condition of my heart is critical to my walk with the Lord. 

It does matter

This is not my first proton therapy rodeo. I had proton therapy treatment for my prostate cancer in 2012. At that time there were only nine places in the USA where one could receive this type treatment. The closest to us was Jacksonville, Florida.

Some friends had a beach house in Jacksonville beach and offered the house for us to use during my six weeks of treatment. It was a radiation vacation for Cheryl and me. The time together was sweet for our marriage and for our spiritual growth-and it was fun to walk on the beach everyday.

A takeaway from my first treatment at Emory this past week was this: OK, I met my radiation oncologist, and he has been practicing head and neck medicine for 30 years, and I felt really good about him being my doctor. But, where did these kids who are actually administering the proton radiation come from?

On Friday for my second treatment, I entered the treatment gantry and this lovely young lady, who was one of the radiation therapists who would administer my treatment, greeted me and asked what type of music I would like to have played during my treatment. I was not focusing on music! I was focusing on how to keep from moving, how to keep my tongue pressed against the bite block in my mouth, how to keep from coughing and most of all how to focus on something other than the discomfort and claustrophobic sensations of the mask. I replied, “It doesn’t matter.” She said, “Would you mind if we played Christian music?” I said, “Of course not.” 

The music helped relax me, and the time passed much more quickly. It did matter! I was so grateful for the young lady, but I was also grateful to the Lord for using her to help me feel so much more relaxed for the second treatment. From now on, I will tell them that I want Christian music played during my treatment. 

Isn’t it great how the Lord uses people to help us in our time of need. I was also very mindful of the training and expertise that these young therapists possess to enable them to administer radiation from a $180 million cyclotron in just the right places to rid my body of any cancer cells. 

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”  Colossians 3:23-24

32 to go

I had my first proton therapy treatment for my salivary gland cancer today. Being an alum of proton therapy, I thought I had this down. However, I realized it’s the other end of my body that’s being zapped so things are going to be different.

After I lie on the table in the radiation gantry, the therapist inserts my bite block in my mouth. That keeps my mouth in an open position and insures that my mouth does not move while depressing my tongue. Sound unnatural? Yes indeed!

I have a custom-made Spiderman mask that they snap down to the table to keep my head from moving. I’ve always thought the Spiderman character must feel very claustrophobic and uncomfortable in his get-up. Now I understand. My cheekbones are still aching from the pressure that the mask put on my face to hold my head in place. The whole process took less than 40 minutes.

Putting this all into perspective, my whining about this being uncomfortable and causing me minor pain has to be balanced with the fact that, hey, they are blasting me with radiation to get rid of my cancer.

I am grateful to the Lord for the provision of this technology as well as all of the staff who are attending to me and for their many years of training and expertise in dealing with whiny people like me.

What is Ton Tenga?

A few people have asked, “What is Ton Tenga?”

As a part of our family’s overseas service, we lived in Upper Volta (Burkina Faso since August 1984) for 7½ years. In addition to speaking French we had to speak the language of the Mossi people called Moré. In that language “ton tenga” means “our land” or more loosely “our farm.” 

When we purchased land in northwest Georgia in 2006, we named it Ton Tenga. We built our new house on this land and for the past 12 years, Ton Tenga has been our home.

Restart

I started this blog in 2007 when we were building our house because we wanted to share the building process with our kids and their families. At that time three of our four children were living overseas. The most activity on this blog was during my proton therapy treatment for prostate cancer at the University of Florida hospital in Jacksonville during 2012. 

Once again I am dealing with cancer, and the Lord has led me to do a restart with this blog to keep family and friends posted on what’s going on with the cancer treatment. 

A nodule developed under my left mandible last summer. I went to urgent care for an ear infection in June and pointed the nodule out to the PA, and she said that was due to the ear infection.

The nodule became bigger, but I did not worry about it. My dad fell the first week of August and resulting injuries and complications confined him to the hospital and nursing home until he passed away on September 8. I was in Mississippi for a great deal of the month of August, and once while sitting with my brother I mentioned the nodule, and he said, “Look, I have had one under my ear for the past 15 years.” He went on to say that his doctor told him long ago not to worry about it, so I just decided not to worry about the knot in my neck.

During my annual physical in October I told my doctor about it and after a quick exam, he said that he was sending me to get a head scan right after my visit with him. That was when things started moving fast—needle biopsy on the salivary gland showed poorly differentiated carcinoma; CT scan of chest showed no metastasizing in the chest; surgery on November 15 to remove the left submandibular salivary gland and tumor; pathology report revealed mucoepidermoid carcinoma; another needle biopsy on right thyroid because a scan showed a spot on the gland; neck dissection surgery on December 6 to remove 19 lymph nodes and then post-surgery problems with a buildup of serum in the neck above the incision resulting in reopening of the incision two times to drain serum.

I will begin 6-7 weeks of proton therapy treatment at Emory Proton Center in midtown Atlanta on Thursday. Treatments will be every day Monday – Friday. Those who have tackled Atlanta traffic know those experiences can produce a lot of emotional stress, and at my age I want to avoid as much emotional stress as possible. Therefore, I will be staying overnight for much of my time in Atlanta so that I can be more productive with my work.

Many of you will remember that I had proton therapy treatment in Florida for my prostate cancer in 2012, and I was very pleased with that treatment and the minimal side effects. At that time there were only nine proton treatment centers in the USA, but now there are many more and Emory’s center opened a year ago. I am very pleased with my radiation oncologist at Emory. He is the head and neck professor at Emory. He gave me his mobile phone number and email address in our first consultation with him. How many doctors do that!? And, he answers texts within a few minutes of receiving them!

Cheryl and I have received a wealth of prayers and encouraging support from family and friends from all over the world. So many are continuing to ask for updates on my treatment, so I have decided to restart this blog and post periodic reports and stories during my 6-7 weeks of treatment. 

Thank you for your encouragement and prayer support during these days. I would be grateful to learn of prayer requests that you have, so Cheryl and I can intercede with you and for you. 

On the day before I learned that I had this cancer, I sent this verse to a friend who was having a difficult health challenge and the Lord has affirmed that I should claim Joshua 1:9 during this season: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”