It all started when I went to the doctor to have my blood drawn to check my hemoglobins for my anemia. After they drew my blood they had me wait for the results. The results came back at 11.7 which was up from 10.3. At first I was actually disappointed with the results until I realized that I have more energy at 11.7 then I have had in years. Also, I remember during one of my stays in the hospital that my level got above 12 but I did not have this kid of energy. I can only imagine how I will feel when my level is up to 16 where it should be.

What this tells me is that there are some things that are no longer going on in my body. Those things are the side effects from chemo, radiation, and namely cancer. I have turned the corner on all of these things. It has been a long time in coming .

The other thing that gave me an ah-ha moment is when I was leaving. I checked with the scheduler as to if I had an appointment to go over the scope that I am having next week. The scheduler said no and the nurse that was standing there said no, you will get the results the day of the procedure from that doctor, the oncologist does not need to meet with me.

I then asked the scheduler if I had any appointments in regard to the cancer at all. She told me that I just have a standard follow up appointment in April. That’s it, a follow up appointment. Not a “test this” appointment, or results appointment, or a treatment appointment. It’s a “how are you doing” appointment. Awesome.

The reason that these two things are so significant to me is that I am so used to going to appointments, taking treatment, taking tests, and waiting for results. Now that I don’t have to do all that stuff it means one thing -

I am done with cancer!

I am just in shock. It is not that I never thought this day would come but I guess I just really didn’t think about it. Now all of a sudden Boom! It’s there. It is so crazy. Literally I don’t know what to do with myself.

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That’s a strange and scary ministry to be a part of you may think.

Yes, for most folks it is absolutely terrifying to go inside the walls of a jail or prison. How do you think the inmates feel?

So why would I want to do that?

Well, because I was one of those guys in there. In fact it was 14 years ago that I gave my life to God in a chapel service in jail.

The History

I had a couple of wild years in my teens where breaking the law seemed like the thing to do. I obviously wasn’t very good at it because I got caught, a few times. It was the third time that I realized that if didn’t change that I would be spending a lot of time behind bars.

I didn’t know it at the time but God was setting me up for a divine intervention that would change my life.

The God Encounter

One night I was in my dorm with a hundred or so guys and they called for a chapel service. I really wanted out of the dorm so I went. While I was there I listened to the guys talking, kind of, until I all of a sudden had this overwhelming feeling come upon me. The only way that I can describe it was that I felt like the worst person in the world. In my mind I could see all the wrong things I had done in my life all the way down to little lies I told my mom when I was a kid. I didn’t know it at the time but it as the presence of God coming near me.

Since I was in jail I did all that I could do to fight back the tears that wanted to overtake my being. Shortly after that the service ended and we headed back to our dorms where I followed one of the guys that had been in the service back to his bunk. I asked what this feeling was that I was having because I did not understand it. I honestly do not remember what he said or told me but I do remember praying with him and accept Jesus into my heart. He gave me a New Testament bible and I went back to my bunk.

The Impact that had on My Life

It has been 14 years since I gave my life to God in that Jail.

To say that the people who volunteered their time to minister to me is an understatement. Up until that time, at the age of 19 years old, I thought that my life was over. It was giving my life to God and learning about Him that gave me hope and helped me to change into the person that I am today – A husband of 10 years, a father of 3, a man who serves God.

Now it’s Time for Me to Give Back

In the last 14 years God has done some amazing things in my life and I am happy to say that I live a lifestyle that is totally opposite then the one that got me into jail. Jail is one of the most hopeless places in the world. Life is happening on the outside but is standing still for you. That is how I felt. I lost everything when I was in there.

I want to let guys know that there is hope in Jesus.

When I am done with this training on Saturday then I will need to go to a prayer training session at my church. From there I should be clear to go and minister in any jail or prison in Texas. It will be really different to be on the other side of the fence for once.

Pray for me that I can impact men’s lives that the way that mine was impacted.

Lonely road picture by Greenery via flickr.

As if being told that you have cancer is not bad enough there was another battle brewing in the midst. We did not have health insurance. I’d like to say that the reason for this was that we were independently wealthy and we had no need of such insurance. The reason was actually the opposite.

I was diagnosed with cancer in September of 2009. Back in January of that year I was laid off of my job of 3 years due to the recession. I was offered Cobra through as apart of my severance package but at nearly $1000/month that was not an option especially with being out of work. Besides, my wife had recently started working and she would qualify for benefits soon after that.

A month or two after I was laid off my wife did receive her benefits so we were once again covered. Unfortunately about a month after she started receiving benefits she was also laid off. Now we were both unemployed and uninsured. My wife applied for Medicaid for us and the kids. The kids were approved but we were denied. At least the kids had insurance.

Cobra to the Rescue, or Not

Shortly after her lay off we actually got some good news in the mail. The president had signed into law that they would extend the qualification period of Cobra insurance and also pay for 66% of the premiums for families. This brought our out-of-pocket cost down to around $350/month. While this would be tight with both of us being unemployed it would be worth it. We filled out the paperwork and sent it in the mail.

A week or so later we got a bill from Cobra for $1000. I thought for sure that this must be a mistake until I looked closer. Cobra was charging us for the three months that we did not have insurance. In the letter it stated that we needed to pay this bill to get up-to-date and then we would be insured. My wife and I were still not employed and did not have $1000 to pay for coverage that we never used in those months. I tossed the letter in the trash. We still did not have insurance.

I Finally Get a Job

After 8 months of being unemployed I finally secured a full time job. It even paid slightly more then I was making at my previous job. The only catch was that I was hired on a temp to hire status. This meant that I would work without benefits for three months and then if all went well I would become a regular full-time employee with benefits. It seemed like a small technicality at the time so I excepted it.

It was 3 weeks into the new job that I went to the doctor and ended up in the hospital with the cancer diagnosis.

At the Hospital

It was at the hospital that we began to realize that not having insurance was going to be an issue. While the hospital took us in and treated me for my anemia and the Oncologist diagnosed the cancer it was treatment of the cancer that became the issue. Unfortunately the doctor and his practice would not treat me without insurance. They tried to to get me qualified for Medicaid and a local county insurance benefit but we were denied for both because I was working and made too much money.

The doctor was nice enough to write us a referral to another cancer center in the area that would take us without insurance.

Where was God in All of This?

In all honesty it is and was really hard for me to see where God was during this time. I was in the initial shock of being diagnosed and having the lack of insurance thrown on top of it did not help. I know initially I thought that it would be better if I was dead then have to fight this without insurance as I actually had a pretty good life insurance policy. Those thoughts faded quickly as we understood that even without insurance there were options available for us.

I know that in those first few days in the hospital that God was with my wife. I do not recall ever seeing her waiver during that time. She did not see cancer as a death sentence, she saw it as something that we were going to need to deal with. She saw the lack of insurance as the same thing, just another item that we were going to have to put effort in to. God was with her giving her strength which in return gave me strength.

They always say that hindsight is 20/20 and I have to say that I see what God was doing at that time in regard to the insurance and even the treatment. I would be a terrible writer though if I gave the ending up right now. Continue reading to find out what God’s plan was and how he did it.

Next Post in this Series: The Treatment Plan – Coming Soon!

The first indication that the results where good is that they gave them to me over the phone (docs don’t usually give bad news over the phone). The second was that the “activity” level in the area was very low which they are not concerned about at all. They attribute the little bit of activity to the radiation that I received only 8 weeks ago. Usually you need to go at least 3 months if not longer before that activity drops off the scope.

Needless to say I am very happy about the results .

From here I am going to have an EDG done to take a visual inspection of my esophagus. When that comes back clean then I have a clean bill of health. I will probably need to follow up with both tests at 3 or 6 month intervals for a while but that is it.

I have to say that I am breathing a big sigh of relieve and am happy to not have cancer in my body any longer.

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The article is from The University of Maryland Medical Center and has a couple of different methods outlined. Both are done via an endoscopy and I believe they do not require chemo or radiation.

The first is called Cryotherapy Ablation and  uses liquid nitrogen where it is sprayed on the bad cells to kill them. This procedure is repeated every 4-6 weeks until all the bad cells are gone. They say it usually takes 3-4 treatments.

The second is called Photodynamic Therapy and uses a laser which kills the bad cells. The article mentions that this is a more accurate treatment but does not mention how many session are needed. The major side effect of this is that it uses a light sensitive drug and so you cannot go out into direct sunlight for 4-6 weeks after treatment.

Here is a link to the article:

http://www.umm.edu/gi/cryotherapy.htm

Also, they have a cool little video on the right side of the article on how the Cryotherapy Ablation is done.

Here are some other resources that I found as well:

• Testimonies of patient treatments who received Cryotherapy Ablation - http://www.lancastergi.com/index.php?pID=99
• Actual video of the Cryotherapy Ablation proceedure – http://daveproject.org/ViewFilms.cfm?Film_id=604

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This morning I woke up and had the oppertunity to spend some time with God. While I was with Him I felt him tell me that it was easier then I thought. While that made me feel a little better I wasn’t convinced because I still did not know exactly what I was going to do.

After that I checked my email and read the daily message sent to me by Joel Osteen. The title of the email was "The Great I Am" and started off with the scripture:

"God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you’ " - Exodus 3:14

The email went of to talk about how big God is and how He is on our side. It explained that God is saying "I am everything you need. I am your strength. I am your wisdom. I am your protection. I am your provider. I am your way maker. I am your problem solver."

He backed this up with the scripture:

"Though I am surrounded by troubles, You will bring me safely through. Your fist is clenched against my enemies. Your power will save me." – Psalm 138:7

God is our problem solver no matter how big or small.

It does not matter whether we are battling cancer, debt, or how to figure out a smaller issue for a project at work – God is there to help us out.

So I start today optimistic that I will be able to solve this issue for my project and that it will be easier then I thought it would be yesterday. This is all because I have the creator of the universe on my side and He is willing to help me out if I ask him.

Update 2/2/10

I did start that day out with the right attitude and I was able to get the task done that I needed to get with relative ease. It is amazing how things work out so much better when you have God helping you out. All the glory to Him!

I am not currently looking for a position but as soon as I get the good results back from my PET/CT scan next week I plan of starting to look. My energy has been great and I am expecting that it will continue to stay that way.

If you know anyone that is looking for a web or software product manager I would appreciate you giving me an honorable mention .

You can see my resume on the resume page here.

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The first you may notice is a new design or what we like to call in the blogosphere as a “theme”. I would like to take credit for the design but unfortunately I did not design it. Cozmos Labs did and I think they did a great job. I made some enhancements here and there for my liking.

Another change that I did to the site was to eliminate the  daily Twitter rollup posts. They were kind of redundant and annoying so they are all gone. You can see my tweets in the column to the right if you are really that much into Twitter.

The last thing I did was to add my resume as a page again since I will need to be getting a job here in the near future. It is kind of up-to-date in that it is the resume that I used to get my last job. It does not have my last job that I had for a whole 7 weeks on it though. The reason for this is long and irrelevant to probably everyone in the world so I won’t bore you with the why. I will say that I will update it soon.

Enjoy the updated site and please let me know if you come across anything that doesn’t work properly.

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I would say that the tube and I had a love/hate relationship during the time that I had it but honestly I hated it the whole time I had it. I am thankful that it kept me from starving and dying of malnutrition but other then that it and I were not friends.

The procedure to get it out was quite simple. The doctor just cut the top off the tube, let the saline drain out, then he gave it a yank and I was free. Ah, the sweet feeling of freedom.

PEG tube – you kept me alive and I thank you for that but if our paths never cross again I will not be disappointed .

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