Yesterday Nancy and I spent the morning at the hospital. She was scheduled to have her chemo ports removed.

Early on in what normally is a fairly routine, simple procedure, the doctor discovered that the catheter of the port placed in her abdomen had gotten dislodged somehow. That meant he had to scramble to put some new equipment together so he could go laproscopic for its retrieval. That meant general vs. local anesthetic as well. No big deal except . . .

The doctor asked to see me following the procedure. While scoping for the catheter, he took a quick look around the region. He discovered visible signs of cancer on her diaphragm and at least one other place. He didn’t look everywhere, so we don’t know as of yet how pervasive a threat exists. That was not the purpose of the procedure and he was already overtime for getting to his other cases. He took pictures and even showed them to me. So apparently my previous post regarding her progress was premature.

But I was puzzled. We had acted positively of late based upon the last two blood tests checking her CA-125 levels, which proved to be well in range. I asked him about that. He used the word “meaningless” to describe that test’s significance at this point in the recurrence process. Imagine my shock. Neither Nancy or I ever got that memo. She had started to back off on aspects of her natural protocol thinking she was out of the woods. She is not. He took biopsies in several places to confirm the diagnosis, but I could read it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. He has no doubt. Cancer has grown from microscopic to visible in her body in the last eight months.

Where does that leave us? Nancy has resumed an all-in campaign for morning, noon, and night therapy of the natural kind to battle her cancer. I’m afraid that means she will not be returning anytime soon to a more mainstream pastor’s wife life or to her part-time work out of the house with her supplement customers. Her full-time job for now remains to get well.

We are investigating additional natural methods which have come to our attention. As always, we covet your prayers for healing and the grace to fight the good fight with the joy of the Lord as our strength.