March 28, 2008
Dear CCAM Partners and Friends,
Many thanks to Joe for sending out my original update message yesterday when I couldn't get to a computer.
One clarification---we WISH that the new IMRT program would have started today (Friday), but it is actually scheduled for Monday morning. This is both good and bad.
Good because it usually takes a week for doctors and technicians to plan this sort of radiation therapy. However, at my persistence, they are trying to get their act together quicker because of the emergency situation. So please pray that they will be able to carefully design Buntheep's therapy program before our appointment Monday morning.
Bad because the tumor is "encamped" at the periphery of both Buntheep's eyes, even touching the tip of the left optic nerve (I saw the MRI scans). As you all know, the right eye has been blind since last October (although we continue to pray for restoration), but after the first surgery, the left eye made a dramatic come-back to perfect vision (which is still the case as of now). But if the tumor should continue to encroach upon the eyes over the weekend, Buntheep might become totally blind within a matter of days. And even with the multiple lower doses of radiation (IMRT) as planned, there is no guarantee for success (humanly speaking). She might still go blind from the radiation. In addition, no one knows how the tumor is going to react to the radiation either. But for sure, if the tumor is not stopped from growing soon, Buntheep will first go totally blind and then lose her life within just a few weeks.
This morning I awoke with some scripture about God's creation illuminating my mind. Proverbs 8:29: "...He set for the sea its boundary, so that the water should not transgress His command." And Psalm 104:5-9: "He established the earth upon its foundations, so that it will not totter forever and ever. Thou didst cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters were standing above the mountains. At Thy rebuke they fled; at the sound of Thy thunder they hurried away. The mountains rose; the valleys sank down to the place which Thou didst establish for them. Thou didst set a boundary that they (the waters) may not pass over; that they may not return to cover the earth."
Although I already know these general truths, I believe that the Lord has given me a personal word for TODAY (and, oh, how I needed some encouragement!). Since God is in control of the ebb and flow of the sea and the rise and fall of mountains, He is most certainly in control of the growth or demise of tumors. Whatever He commands will be done! And based on the fact that He has already saved Buntheep's vision and her life so many times in the past five months, I still believe that He will somehow miraculously bring her to total healing in the end for our good and His glory.
Please continue to plead for the Lord to protect Buntheep's eyes and life once again, by setting the boundary for this tumor and commanding it to stop advancing and even to retreat in the name of Jesus. Even though the ideas and plans of men have miserably miscalculated about how to deal with this demented tumor, our God is still in control! There is still hope! She is still alive and she still has perfect vision in her left eye!
In His Hands,
Gioia and Buntheep