It sucks.
It sucks.
It sucks.
It ... sucks...
And finally...well, you get it.
Please do not send a, "Gosh...are you angry?" email. I am angry right now. In my world, if it makes God angry, it's OK to be angry about it.
God did not intend for my husband to work hard to put his family back together and grow further into a man of God only to be diagnosed with cancer. God does not intend for anyone to suffer. That was not part of the plan.
And He has rescued us so many times during this process, that I can't deny His presence and care over our family. I am thankful for that, and for family, friends, teachers...even people we barely know...who have allowed Him to work through them to show His love.
We are so thankful for your care, and your prayers.
Siteman Cancer Center asked me to put on paper Dan's story, so I did. The idea is to point to the fact that cancer does not discriminate (neither does suffering in this world...it's universal...) but ultimately to point to hope. Which we still have.
DAN
FRIEDMAN, ST. LOUIS MO, 45 years old, husband and father of three…
Dan Friedman was 43 in late 2010 when he began to feel a
little short of breath while exercising. It was fall, and he enjoyed working
out often, at the gym four or five days a week. But the crisper weather had him
running outdoors. He was enjoying life, enjoying
being a husband, and a father of three.
Since Dan appeared so healthy, and is a non-smoker, doctors
assumed he had a case of exercise-induced asthma. It was early 2011 when more tests were
ordered. Eventually a CT scan showed some abnormalities in his lungs, and most
alarming, a large amount of fluid around his heart and lungs.
Dan was told to go to the hospital. And by the end of the
week, the first week of May 2011, it seemed the diagnosis was more clear: a
surgeon said he believed it was probably lung cancer, and if it was cancer, it
was bad. A biopsy was scheduled and within a few days confirmed that it was
Non-Small Cell Stage Four Adenocarcinoma of the lungs. Dan, a non smoker who
appeared healthy and lived a healthy lifestyle, had cancer in both lungs, all
throughout, and surrounding the lungs and heart. A PET scan later revealed he also had some
small spots on his brain.
Meeting with Dr. Ramaswamy Govindan at Siteman Cancer
Center, St. Louis, put Dan and his family’s minds at ease. Despite a frightening
diagnosis, they offered hope in some newer treatments for late stage lung cancer.
As Dan’s family and friends prayed, his cancer cells were
being studied more closely. A gene study of his cells showed that he had the
EGFR mutation. This very specific mutation was the answer to some very specific
prayers. A drug called Tarceva had recently been approved as a treatment for
lung cancer patients with this mutation, and this meant Dan’s treatment would
be simpler than traditional chemotherapy, and most likely more effective, since
the drug targets a mutation within the cancer cell more accurately.
Dan’s cancer receded by more than 90 percent by just 5 or
so weeks after he began treatment with Tarceva. Dan and his family, his wife,
children, are so grateful for this reversal and the health and happy times it
has brought. Dan’s treatment has included a pill a day, so he and his family
were able to serve on a mission trip to Ecuador, take vacations, visit their
son in the Air Force, and live life easily even with a stage four lung cancer
diagnosis. They are so thankful doctors at Siteman knew to do this test, to see
if Dan had this mutation. And so thankful for that answered prayer that he did.
Dan’s treatment now includes chemotherapy in addition to
Tarceva. His cancer was showing some regeneration, which was expected. But a
new biopsy was ordered, and a new gene study is being conducted to look for
additional clues as to how his cancer has changed. So, additional prayers are
being said, and he and his family are hopeful. And thankful….for amazing
doctors and staff, researchers, caring friends and family, and a God who is
bigger than cancer.
