Keep The Faith

A second post this week feels a bit like I am spamming you, but I know that some of you, perhaps many of you have responded to my prayer requests regarding access to a chemo drug called Isatuximab. We heard late this afternoon that the drug company has allowed me access to the drug on a compassionate basis and that details are being worked out with the Cancer Centre in Red Deer! We are so #thankful. The drug company that has granted this compassionate access is called Sanofi Genzyme and the commercial name of the drug is Sarclisa (though in the treatment rooms they will only use the actual drug name--Isatuximab) Thanks to all of you for your support and prayer.  The book of Isaiah spoke to a nation but as an individuals, thousands of years later, we also find comfort in these words from Isaiah 41:10: So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

I have a few books on the go right now. One of them is Suleika Jaouad’s account of her battle with leukemia: Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted . I am certain that this won’t be the last time my writing finds its beginnings in this book, but today I feel most connected to the idea of “life interrupted.” I won’t (for now) dig deep into what a life interrupted by cancer has meant for us or deal with the more philosophical question of whether interruptions are actually interruptions at all, or whether they are life itself. Instead, let me simply update you. My treatments this month were interrupted and put on hold because of illness. Chemotherapy has made my body particularly open to viruses. Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) took advantage of that opening during my last chemo cycle and hit me, and subsequently Kathy, pretty hard. I was hospitalized for a short time and was preemptively treated for pneumonia. I am #thankful that recovery was quick for both of us and that...

Cycle two, Day 8 of the third treatment protocol attempting to keep the plasma in my body from duplicating and behaving erratically. This day will once again involve a "healthy" dose of steroids and an IV needle delivering a chemo drug known as a proteasome inhibitor. We had hoped that by this time that needle would also carry a second drug using a different mechanism to attack the cancer. That is still pending. To be honest, this chemo treatment has been more challenging. I haven't written much. Interesting, intelligent sentences are harder to find in this chemo fog. The steroids alter my moods, and while the anti nausea meds have done their job to hold sickness mostly at bay, the cumulative affect is three or four days each week where life is lived in black and white rather than full colour.  A while back I heard a podcaster talk about a conversation she had with Amanda Held-Opelt about life after the death of her sister and well known author Rachel Held-Evans. Held-Ope...