When my friend, Hal Christensen, proposed creating this blog
as a sort of clearinghouse of information about my status with aggressively
growing melanoma tumors I said it was a great idea provided he keep it brief,
keep it as positive as possible, and don’t let it become a memorial
I'm about to break the first two rules, but for a purpose.
I do this as a tip of the hat to my friends who are praying
for me. As I've said, it’s enabled me to attend work. But now, it
has worked on circumstance. I’ve learned a lot about evangelicals in the
last weeks. They don’t pray solo or in families. They recruit their
entire congregation. Baptist buddies get their congregation to send cards
listing all their names. I have emails, voicemails, and cards from
friends telling me I'm on the prayer list for their church. I knew to
expect great support from my Mormon friends, and the additional support from other
faiths has been touching.
Back to my story. Each weekday I have radiation with
technicians. Once each week I meet with the radiation MD. Wednesday
the radiation MD said “You’ve lost 5% of your body weight in one week.
[10% over three weeks.] You need to start gaining weight.”
Mark “I have no
appetite, dry mouth, and nausea.”
MD “What
nausea medication are you taking.”
Mark “I don’t
know the name. It was prescribed by the surgeon two weeks ago. I
will call you with the name.”
I left a message later with the name, ate a big dinner, and
lost it all by 9 PM.
I awakened hungry at 2 AM Thursday and ate tangerines and
yogurt. It all came up before leaving for work in the morning.
I took my nausea medication to my radiation appointment, left
it with the nurse, and asked her to track down the MD and get an alternate
prescription while I was in radiation. After my treatment, the nurse said
she had conveyed the prescription and they would get back to me.
I got back to work and drank my usual 32-ounce anti-cancer
green smoothie. When my nausea hits, it is immediate. This time it hit
during a speaker-phone call. After the cleanup, I left for home quite
discouraged.
On the drive home, I called my brother, an MD, and a close
friend, a dentist,, and asked them both to bring me alternate nausea
prescriptions Thursday night.
When I pulled into our driveway, I saw a car out front and
thought we might have guests. Feeling too fragile to chat, I went up the
back stairs to go straight to my bed. As I passed our entry, I heard
Porter, my son, say “Thank you Brother Whipple!”. I quickly called
Porter “Was that Gary Whipple?” “Yes.” he said. “Please
go ask him to come back.” Porter ran down the street in bare feet to
bring Gary back.
Gary is a friend from church that I only see every few
weeks. But Gary is the only Radiation Oncologist I know personally.
He is the one person who “happened” to come by my house at the very instant I
desperately needed his specialized advice.
Within five minutes, Gary said, “Mark, no alternative
nausea medication will help you. Your brain is swollen from
radiation. In some, brain swelling triggers vomiting. I will
prescribe a steroid for you and you tell your attending Radiation MD what I've
done.”
Within an hour I had taken the steroid. In the past
22-hours I've packed down five calorie-laden meals without losing any. I
disclosed the steroid use today at radiation and they encouraged me to keep
taking as needed.
My secular friends will see this series of events as a happy
coincidence that (a) the one person I know personally equipped to help me, (b)
happened to think the Sykes might like some ice cream, and (c) chanced to be
within earshot during a 30-second window when I might have heard his
name. I hope my praying friends will take this as a confirmation to keep
praying.
