More Than Conquerers

We received some discouraging news from the doctor today. Jerry's blood platelets have dropped some more. The doctor is worried that the leukemia blasts are coming back. Our oncologist here in Greenville is  going to call the doctor at Duke and see if he should go ahead and do a bone marrow biopsy before they do any more chemo or if they should try another kind of chemotherapy. We believe they are doing everything possible for Jerry to receive the transplant.

We're wanting to live each day a life of faith and victory.

We are encouraged  by something we read by Jack Trieber, Pastor of North Valley Baptist Church:

In fact, our circumstances at times seem as bleak as when the children of Israel were met with the obstacle of the Red Sea. As you know, the Red Sea lay before them, appearing impossible to cross; and the children of Israel were trapped. Even as the Egyptians were bearing down on them, God performed a miracle. Even when the future seems bleak, as it undoubtedly seemed to the Israelites thousands of years ago, remember that we may continue to hope and trust in our Lord.

“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."

(Romans 8:37)

God Bless and thank you for prayers!!!

We're Waving Our Hankys

We're waving our hankys and praising the Lord!!

Duke Transplant Clinic called this afternoon and they found a donor for Jerry. And the great thing about it -  Jerry's brother, Bobby, is the match. They also said there were nine other possible donors in the national registry

They have already scheduled an appointment for the preliminary work up on September 19 at Duke Transplant clinic. This will determine if Jerry is physically strong enough to go through the transplant procedure. Of course the leukemia has to be knocked back to a certain level before they can do the procedure. Please continue to pray about these things.

We know this is another part of our journey that the Lord has chosen for us and we're going to trust Him in it.

"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."

-Corrie Ten Boom

God's Power

We weathered our first hurricane. It was very interesting. We thought the wind would never stop blowing and the rain would never stop pouring. We decided we didn't like hurricanes.

Jerry will be going to the oncologist here in Greenville Tuesday. Please pray that he'll get a good report on his blood count.

 Through the storm we were personally reminded of God's power and might. We know that he is more than able to heal if He chooses. We still know that He is a good God whatever He does choose to do.

Psalms 8:1  

O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

'Til The Storm Passes By

'Til The Storm Passes By

In the dark of the midnight
Have I oft hid my face,
While the storm howls above me,
And there’s no hiding place.
‘Mid the crash of the thunder,
Precious Lord, hear my cry,
Keep me safe ‘til the storm passes by.

Last night I had a hard time sleeping. I heard the rumble of thunder in the distance and the shadow of leaves on our window blowing in the wind and I was reminded of  this song that Mosie Lister wrote.

It was  a reminder that we need to look to the Lord in faith no matter what kind of storm we are going through.

It seems hard sometimes. We both struggle at times and it was especially hard today. We did not receive a  good report on Jerry's blood count today. The doctor said it could be the effects of the chemo, but he was concerned. We go back to the doctor next Tuesday for another blood count check and he will schedule the next chemo treatment.

It will be the first of October before Jerry has another bone marrow biopsy to see if this chemo is holding back the leukemia.

Please pray that we'll have the faith, grace, and strength we need to weather this storm.

Hope

Our son Neal and his wife, Amy, are expecting a precious baby girl in October. They told us what they were going to name her - Brylee Hope. They said because there is always hope from God in our situation.

Hope is what were holding on to right now. Hope for a cure, or if God chooses, Hope for Heaven. The last couple of days,  we have been thinking and talking about hope and today I wrote a poem about Hope. I want to dedicate this to our soon to be here grand daughter, Brylee "Hope."

HOPE

Hope is a light that shines in the dark

It is a burning from one little spark.

When you can laugh even through tears

It gives you courage from all of your fears.

Hope gets you through another day

And tells you that there’s always a way.

It makes you reach for the highest star

Even though it may seem too far.

It’s holding on to a life long dream

No matter how impossible it may seem.

Knowing that there’s a brighter tomorrow

Even though your heart’s full of sorrow.

Hope gives you the words to a song

Even when the night seems so long.

It’s knowing there’s a God in heaven above

Who is merciful and full of grace and love.

-Patricia Rice

Romans 15:13
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Thanks again for your love and prayers.

An Ugly Word

It's a strange thing, but I still have a hard time saying the word CANCER. I can say acute leukemia, but for some reason the word cancer is a hard word to say.

When my husband and I got married, we decided we would never say the word divorce. If we never said it, we would never think about it and it would never happen.  We should have banned the word CANCER from our vocabulary, maybe it would never have  happened.

I've noticed that even our doctors never use the word Cancer. I think because it's such a scary word. A couple weeks after Jerry was first diagnosed with AML and before we started the treatment, I was helping our son, Neal, in Junior Church and a little girl asked me "Does Dr. Rice have cancer?". I think I stood there in shock for a few seconds.  I think for the first time I realized that ugly word was now part of our vocabulary.  No matter how many times I want it not to be true, it's a real word. Never a day goes by without us thinking about it or the effects of it and how our lives have been changed by that word CANCER. We know there are so many other people whose lives have been changed by that word.

Through this the Lord has made us more mindful to pray for people more and to be more thoughtful of others that are going through trials.

Pray that our faith can withstand this trial in our lives. That we can be a good testimony even when our hearts are heavy and we don't understand all that God has for us. We're so thankful that we have family and friends that love us and that are there for us. We seem so undeserving of God's love, but He's always there. We see His love, mercy, and grace every day in answered prayers and blessings.

We love you........

Waiting for Healing

Right now it's like we're playing the waiting game. There's a battle going on inside Jerry's body with the chemo drug trying to knock down the leukemia blasts. We won't know until October  if the drug is doing what it's suppose to do.

Jerry is suffering from some of the side effects of the chemo drug. He tires easily and hasn't a very good appetite. He's lost a little more weight. We're still trying to take a day at a time. We know we have a good God who is still in control.

Grandchildren sure help raise our spirits. A cherished moment with PawPaw and Hayden.

They were watching Beauty and the Beast.

Please don't stop praying. We need your prayers more than ever now for this alternative treatment that they are giving Jerry. If it works, they can consider doing the transplant.

Also we want to thank everyone who brought meals last week - Murriel Stiltner, Dorothy Huggins, LaRue Jones, Jack & Edith Pope, and Mary VanCleve. Your thoughtfulness means a lot to us and it was a great help last week with us being at the hospital every day for the treatments.

We love you and thanks again for the prayers, love, and support.

In His Hands.....

God's Plans

I always marvel at people who have their whole lives planned out ahead of them. When they were going to retire, where they were going to live, how much money they were going to save, how many kids they were planning on having. They forgot to include in their planning an almighty God who is in control of our present and our future.

It helps me to know that He is in control, because I don't think we have ever been able to plan anything in our lives. Whenever we did, God always had other plans for us. I have always been amazed at that. Even when we didn't understand the why behind it, we knew that God loved us and He always had something better for us.

Even through this, we want to question God and say "Why"? But we know that through personal experience in our lives, God's plan is bigger and better than any that we have. We know He's a good God Who loves us.

Today was the last day of chemo for three weeks. We go to the oncologist here in Greenville on Monday for them to check Jerry's blood count. Our prayer again is that this alternative chemo treatment will work and knock the leukemia blasts down. Please continue praying.

In His Hands.....

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

It was two months and one day ago that Jerry was first diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Since then it has been like we have been on a Merry-Go-Round ride that just doesn't stop. We have felt every emotion - good and bad. We have cried and we have laughed. But through it all, we have continually brought our focus back to the Lord Jesus knowing He's the Author and Finisher of our faith. And we have never wanted anything but His perfect will for our lives.

When I first got saved and Jerry rededicated his life, one of the first hymns we learned was -

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace.

God Bless and We Love You,
Jerry and Patricia

The New Chemo Treatment

Today was the second day of the alternative chemo treatment for Jerry. It is a 5 day treatment We go to Pitt County Hospital each day as an out patient. The treatment takes about 2 1/2 hours. The good part about it is that they were able to do it here in Greenville which is definitely a lot more convenient for us.

Our prayer is that this chemo drug will knock down the leukemia blasts enough that they might be able to do the transplant. Also pray that Jerry will not have a lot of side effects from the drug. So far he is doing good with it.

We are still so amazed by the way God is working in our lives. We realize as we come to each phase of  the treatments, He's already working things out for us even before we know our needs.

As we were leaving  the hospital today, we saw  Bro. Sam Harris. What a blessing and encouragement he is.

I know we say this over and over, but we are so grateful for family, friends, churches,  and all their love and prayers shown to us.  Also we always look forward to the encouraging words people post on our blog.

Keep Going Forward!

Blind Eye to the Telescope

When Lord Horatio Nelson was fighting the Battle of Copenhagen, his senior officer, Sir Hyde Parker, also known as “Old Vinegar,” hoisted the flag signaling retreat. Nelson was blind in one eye. Nelson deliberately put his telescope to his blind eye and said, “I do not see it.”

If he had surrendered when it looked like defeat, he would not have captured twelve Danish ships.

I don’t see defeat. Do you?

            When you’re fighting the Battle of Perspective, Satan will hoist his flag, trying to discourage you. Remember to put a blind eye to the telescope. Refuse to see the retreat flag. Keep going forward.

This morning we went to Duke Clinic to see Dr. Diehl, Jerry's regular oncologist. He always gives us the bad news first, so at first we were afraid he might not continue treatment. He said the heavy dose of chemo in the hospital did not work and that was the strongest chemo available.

He said Jerry had two other choices - to do nothing or to try another less invasive chemo drug, the one recommended by our transplant oncologist, Dr. Chao. Dr. Diehl agreed with Dr. Chao that this drug would be worth a try.

We couldn't just sit by and do nothing. So we decided to try the other chemo drug.

It will be a 5 or 7 day round of injections of a chemo drug called vidaza. After 3 weeks, he will undergo another round of injections. Then after another 3 weeks, he will return to see Dr. Diehl and have another bone marrow biopsy to see if the drug is helping with the leukemia. Jerry might have to receive another round of injections, if the drug has not knocked the leukemia down.  If the drug knocks the leukemia down to where they can do a transplant, then we will continue with the transplant.

The good news is that they set it up to do the injections here in Greenville. We will not have to travel back and forth to Duke for the injections. That is going to be so great.

We are still taking a day at a time. We know that we have a good God and He's Already In Our Tomorrow! He put it in two doctors hearts to be in agreement with this new treatment. We were told there are no guarantees with this, it's an alternative treatment, but we need to try. We need to KEEP GOING FORWARD!

We appreciate your prayers as we begin this treatment.

 

Thank You!!!

I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks.  ~William Shakespeare

It's hard to know how to say Thank You to people who have been so kind and have given a part of themselves to be such a blessing to us.

All the wonderful visits, cards,  and good meals these past few days while we have been home have been such an encouragement to us.

We had some long time friends from Kentucky, Perry & Judy Newcom, come for a couple of days. It was so nice. We had a wonderful visit and hated saying good-bye.

And what a sweet time of fellowship we had with Bro. Johnnie Brown. Even though we know he had a broken heart and missing his son, Ryan, who went home to Heaven recently, he was such a blessing, encouragement  and testimony to us of God's love.

And thank you, Bro. Lee Johnston, for keeping Jerry stocked up with Chocolate YooHoo Drinks and Gatorade. He's very happy!

And all the wonderful meals this week  - From Carlton and Carolyn Smith, Dawn Brown & Family, Lisa Aldridge & Tina Speight. Thank you all so very much.

We have so enjoyed everyone's visits and support and the love and support from our family and church family. 

In the morning we'll be headed back to Duke Clinic. We are praying that they will be able to do the 7 days of chemo and start the transplant process. Please be in much prayer about this. We are very hopeful.

In His Hands.....

 

Hope

This morning as we drove to Durham for the appointment with the new oncologist, we had no hope. We had been told by our regular oncologist that they would not be able to do anything else because the leukemia was coming back too aggressively. We were wondering why we were even going -  just to hear more bad news. But we went ahead and met with a bone marrow/stem cell transplant oncologist. After checking Jerry's bone marrow biopsy, he came back to the room and told Jerry that he felt that he could do the transplant. It will be a less invasive chemotherapy treatment, but it will target Jerry's particular problem with his leukemia.

If our other oncologist agrees and they are sure he will, Jerry will receive an injection of a chemo drug for 7 days straight and wait 3 weeks and receive another round of the chemo drug. Then after another 3 weeks, they will check Jerry's blood to see if the chemo had worked. And if it has, they will be able to do the stem cell transplant.

They are already working on obtaining a donor through Jerry's siblings and through the national bone marrow registry.

It will be a long process. If they are able to do the transplant, we will have to move to Durham for about 3 months.

We left knowing there was hope once again.

We want to Praise the Lord and to thank everyone for their  love, support, and prayers.

Psalms 71:14

But I will HOPE continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.