Having Faith Through It

Our view from the Brooklyn Bridge

It is one thing to have faith.  Living with faith during everyday life is certainly something we are called to do – and should do.  Much harder, but more important, is living with faith through it – including the more challenging times in our lives, when doubts arise or fear and uncertainly takes hold.

Treatment Underway

Jarod and I have been in New York since Wednesday for a handful of appointments and scheduled for tomorrow morning – a liver ablation procedure aiming to burn my last targeted tumor.  It’s a procedure that I have known has been coming for a few weeks now, and while I have all the confidence in the world in my doctors, the idea of being put under, and having needles near my lungs certainly makes me uneasy.

Image Source: American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)

PET Guided Ablation
The team at MSK will be leveraging cutting-edge ablative techniques that are very interesting, and also encouraging.  In short, they will be doing on-the-spot biopsy and testing of the ablation target (before and after), both to test for aspects like somatic mutations, but also to check if the targeted tissue is achieving desired ablative temperatures, and later, if it is properly destroyed.  They will also leverage on-the-spot PET scanning, to better detect if any nearby tissue requires attention before completing the procedure.  So, while it in the end results in a longer procedure, the concepts behind it sure make a lot of sense and do provide more confidence.

SBRT Done
As mentioned in my prior post, we just wrapped up my SBRT sessions last week, entailing 10 sessions, 5 for each lung, directly targeting the lung nodules with intensified radiation in a compact zone.  As of now I do not have any side effects from this treatment, but I know it is expected that if any issues do arise, it will probably be a few more weeks.  So I am glad that after Monday, both treatments will be done, and we can start thinking about a few great LYB events coming up and holidays with the kiddos.

The Abscopal Effect
In the meantime, we’re also investigating an aspect of SBRT and ablation therapies that is not often talked about – called the abscopal effect.  Again, attempting to be brief, this effect occurs when the body’s immune system notices the tumor cells dying from radiation and ablation, and in a way starts to learn more about how it can recognize and attack any similar cells throughout the body.  In fact, there are studies that showed through targeting tumors in one location with radiation, tumors in another location in the body can also be destroyed or shrink, as a result of this effect.  So, anything I can be doing to help foster that abscopal effect, that’s what I’ll do!

Jarod at the John Lennon Memorial in Central Park

Celebrities and 17 Miles of Walking

While we’ve been in NY again, we have walked a TON.  On Saturday, we walked through Central Park almost in its entirety, including a half lap around the Jackie Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, and for Callum, checking out Strawberry Fields, and the John Lennon Memorial.  Just before that, we ate some delicious gluten free pastries at Noglu, and we saw Geoffrey Zakarian walking around the Upper East Side! 

Later, we saw the 911 Memorial, walked to and halfway across the Brooklyn Bridge, and then walked through Lower Manhattan, all the way back up to Midtown to Hope Lodge.  Lower Manhattan was such a different feel than Midtown and the Upper East Side. 

Crazy enough, while walking down there we saw Maya Hawke, from Stranger Things!  I had been complaining to Jarod that we hadn’t seen enough celebrities in our visits to New York – well now we did!

Finding Faith Through It with Hillsong

Back to the title of this post… On Sunday, we of course slept in because we were exhausted by walking almost 17 miles.  But our primary plan for the day was to go back to Hillsong NYC.  We had attended a service last year as well – and it truly is a unique experience.

Today, the pastor spoke about the concepts of Faith For It, and Faith Through It. He spoke at length about how important it was to live with faith in God, and that good deeds are meaningless, if they aren’t done with faith as a foundation.  And as timely as a message could be – in our hardest moments - of doubts, fears, anger or sadness - living through those moments with faith - is where miracles happen.

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