Ana Mae, No More Pain

There is just no easy way to put this.  Ana Mae went to be with Jesus today.  I was with her and her family when she passed from this life to a much better one this afternoon.  She had declined rapidly since I saw her yesterday.  Yesterday she was in pain, similar to the pain she's been experiencing for months, but she could move her limbs and even sat up to drink water to take medicine.  I honestly thought she had months left and I had planned to figure out the best way to care for her over the next while.  When I arrived this afternoon (we had planned to bring her to hospital) she was paralyzed, eyes rolling in the back of her head with labored breathing.  The family decided to keep her at home. 

My good friend Tabitha joined me today.  We anointed Ana Mae with oil and prayed.  We worshiped.  We invited God's presence and peace and rejected fear.  Ana Mae tried to speak at one point but wasn't able to.  I could see her trying to focus her eyes on me and the others around her.  I just held her hand and we told her how well she had done, how brave she is and how Jesus is here and she is safe.  We prayed with her family to surrender her to the will of God.  We began to take communion together when her breathing became very slow and each breath became a gasp.  Then she sighed with a slight grin on her face and was gone.  She was surrounded by her grandmother, parents, sisters, aunties, classmate and cousins.

About ten minutes before her last breath a verse from Romans popped into my head and I felt the Lord was saying that he was going to bring good out of this, for this family and for this community.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  Romans 8:28

I really did not expect this to happen and so soon.  I had hoped for healing till the end, but despite my lack of understanding about why and how this happened, I saw God's grace in this - the timing and quickness of it.  There is some comfort in knowing that her suffering is done and did not drag on for months. 

We hope in the Lord not because we are sure we will get what we want.  We hope in the Lord because he is good, faithful, powerful and loving. 

Thank you for caring for Ana Mae from near and far, for praying and for sending money.  It is nice to know the family does not have to stress about money right now on top of their great loss.

Ana Mae's MRI result

I've been dreading writing this post for the past two days.  We got news of Ana Mae's MRI result on Saturday.  It's about as bad as it can be.  Cancer in her brain.  Cancer in her spinal cord.  Cancer all over her liver.  I hate cancer!

Doctor says he believes the progression of the disease went like this:  From the nose to the brain, across the blood-brain barrier to the spine and then to the rest of her body.  There is narrowing of her spinal cord and a compression fracture in her thoracic spine. This explains the pain in her back and her difficulty walking.

At this point further treatment would be palliative only, or treatment can be abandoned and supportive care can be given.  Ana Mae and family will meet with the doctor tomorrow to discuss these options.

I honestly did not expect this.  It is quite a shocker for me as I know it is for Ana Mae and her family.  As tempting as it is, we must not give up hope.  It is not up to the doctor to decide how long Ana Mae will live.  Until the Lord tells me something different, we will continue to pray for complete and miraculous healing.  I am not willing to accept that this is God's will for Ana Mae.  We will press in and pray intensively over the next weeks.  Please join us in asking for revelation, wisdom and breakthrough as we pray.  Let us not be discouraged but ramp up our prayers and exercise the authority afforded to us by Jesus' death and resurrection to overcome the power of the enemy.

As you pray if you get any insight or words of encouragement, please send them along.

Ana Mae - Treatment Resumed

Here's the latest on Ana Mae:

She was discharged from hospital on Friday. She was admitted for the day at a different private hospital on Saturday so that we could access their blood bank and she could receive the blood transfusion. Everything went well with that. She seemed to be feeling better so her doctor resumed her treatment.

I saw her this morning at the cancer center where she received radiation and chemo today. Tomorrow should be the last radiation in this round and next Tuesday will be the last chemo. We have just enough money to cover the remaining treatment after paying for the hospital admission and blood transfusion last week. We always seem to have just enough, for which we are very thankful for.

Ana Mae still complains of weakness and pain in her legs and lower back. The x-ray she had last week did not show any structural damage from the fall she had a while back.  The doctor says we need to rule out anything affecting her spinal cord and gave us a request for an MRI to be done next week.  She will also need another CAT scan next month to check the effect of her treatment on the cancer.  We're not sure yet where the money for this will come from but we are trusting God for it. He has provided everything up to this point so I'm not going to worry about it.

Thank you for your help on behalf of Ana Mae.  Please keep praying with us for complete and miraculous healing and for the on-going cost of her medical care.

Quick Ana Mae Update

You're prayers have helped. Ana Mae is feeling much better.  The results of the tests that were done came back normal except for her low blood counts. The doctor said she could go home later today if the blood transfusion went well but we were not able to find blood in her type.  I drove around most of the morning and went to four blood banks but no one had type A+ or was willing to share it with us. I learned that the private hospitals prioritize the blood for their patients only, so since they didn't have any "extra" and because Ana Mae is in a different hospital (which has no blood bank), we couldn't get it from the private hospitals I went to.  So we brought 3 healthy-looking males with type A+ blood to the hospital this afternoon for screening as potential donors and all three failed the hemoglobin test.  Darn.

So as of now, we just need blood. If we can't find more potential donors in the morning we will see about getting her transferred to a hospital with it's own blood bank so we can access the blood there. After the transfusion she can be discharged. The plan is to see how she does at home for about a week and during that time the doctor will decide how urgent or necessary it is to have her get an MRI in order to see if there has been any metastasis to the spine or brain. More time for us to pray!

Urgent Prayers Needed for Ana Mae

I saw Ana Mae yesterday at the cancer center after her 33rd radiation treatment. As of then she only had 2 more radiation treatments and 2 chemo treatments left in this course. She was supposed to have her weekly chemo after the radiation session but begged the doctor to let her do it the next day instead. She was very upset and crying and clearly very agitated and uncomfortable. She had recently developed a nagging cough.  Her skin on her face and neck is burned and her mouth is full of ulcers, which are side effects of radiation therapy. She has reason to complain. The doctor agreed to let her postpone the chemo till today.

The plan was for her to come back this morning for her second to last radiation treatment and her second to last chemo treatment. A few of us from our congregation were going to visit by the time she got back later this morning. When we arrived Ana Mae's family told us that she refused to go for treatment today.

We went inside and saw her lying down, clearly very weak, in a lot of pain and emotionally distressed. Her mother told me that she hasn't eaten much since yesterday. Ana Mae told me through tears that she couldn't sleep last night, that she has pain in her back and legs and is unable to walk. She still has a cough.

We prayed for her and she seemed to settle and experience peace. The pain lessened. I helped prop her up so she could take some cough medicine. 

I called the doctor and informed him of her situation and he told us to bring her in to be admitted. He will stop the treatment for now and wants her on fluids and close monitoring in hospital. We brought her in and they did some tests. She needs another blood transfusion.

The doctor told me there is a possibility that due to the toxicity of the cancer cells, some may have leaked to her spinal cord and/or brain. He said it's called micro-metastasis and if this is the case it would not look good. The good news is, it might not be micro-metastasis. We don't know that that is the case right now. In fact, she had a fall several weeks ago that may explain the pain in her back and legs as she has been complaining of such pain since then.

Please join us in praying for:

• Every cancer cell to be gone. 
• His peace to surround her and comfort her.
• Resolution of any back/leg pain. 
• Continued provision for her medical bills (I have a couple hundred dollars left)

Last Sunday morning my friend in our congregation talked about the story of the persistent widow in Luke 18.  What I learned is carrying me through this week.

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

18 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. ² He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. ³ And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

⁴ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
⁶ And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸ I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

I always thought this story was about justice and couldn't necessarily be applied to praying persistently for other needs or wants. But in the first verse, Jesus' reason for telling this story is clear - to show them (his followers) that they should always pray and not give up. Other translations say they ought always to pray and not lose heart. The other part that stuck out to me in a new way was the last verse about when Jesus comes back, will he find faith on the earth?

And this is how I am challenged to exercise my faith this week. To pray and not give up and to not lose heart. Even when I am tempted to give in to discouragement and therefore pray less and with less faith because I have not yet instantly seen what I have asked for.  No.  I will not be limited to pray for those things that seem possible to my limited human mind, knowing that God's thoughts are higher than my thoughts and his ways higher than my ways and knowing that nothing is impossible with God.

I also know that Jesus said, "All who have faith in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these..."

We know that Jesus went through towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he sent out the 12 disciples and then the 72 it says he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

The results are up to God but I must do my part and pray for healing.

So join me! Let's not lose heart but keep praying with faith in our loving and powerful God.