What i WISH I heard doctors say...

In case anyone has any doubt, the following is all intended to be humourous and the answers are not endorsed by any doctors I know of...
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Q: Doctor, I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life; is this true?
A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it... don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.

Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of grain. Bottoms up!

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A: Can't think of a single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No Pain...Good!

Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?
A: YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!! .... Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they're permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?

Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.

Q: Is chocolate bad for me?
A: Are you crazy? HELLO Cocoa beans! Another vegetable!!! It's the best feel-good food around!

Q: Is swimming good for your figure?
A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Q: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle?
A: Hey! 'Round' is a shape!

Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets. AND... For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

Prayer Request

The doctors informed us yesterday that there was nothing more they could do for my mother at the hospital. So they released her to go home. Visiting nurses and hospice are our connection to the medical community now. The doctor thought we only had a couple hours but so far she has gotten her strength back a little. The cancer in her lung is NOT gone, and the tumors that spread to her brain have been somewhat controlled by the radiation... but it is her heart that's doing her in. Her heart is simply racing most of the time... sort of burning her out. They tried the medicine that they use for that with other people, but then her heart rate started to have 20 to 30 second stops where the EKG was literally a straight line. So she's at home, and she feels better just by being able to get some rest and by having family home. My brother lives close to her and his daughter, her boyfriend, and my brother's granddaughter are all up from Demopolis, Alabama. My sister got in on Thursday from Montgomery, Alabama with her son. Josh and I are hanging out as much as possible... I'm taking vacation for a while in order to be with her as much as I can.

Please pray for a peaceful end and for healing and comfort in our family.

Cancer Update

I went yesterday afternoon for my follow-up appointment with the urologist and got the results of all the 6 month follow-up testing... just to make sure there aren't any surprises with the cancer. RESULTS: Everything looks good! No sign of anything abnormal! YAY GOD!!!

A Year To Be Thankful

“… So I will go about Your altar, O Lord, that I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all Your wondrous works.” —Psalm 26:7 (NKJV)

At this time last year, I was oblivious to the fact that a cancerous tumor had invaded my left kidney and had already begun the process of killing me. But a sudden kidney stone attack in the other kidney forced me to the ER where a visiting urologist just happened to be on duty… and he just happened to notice a shadow on the cat scan that prompted him to do further testing. And because of several of those “just happened” kinds of moments, the surgeons were able to remove that affected kidney and effectively killed what turned out to be a rare form of kidney cancer before it ever made it out of the collecting duct tubule where it had implanted itself. We caught it so early that I didn’t even have to do chemotherapy or radiation treatments.

Most of you already know that story. In fact, many of those who read this letter were actually ones who were actively praying for me as I went through this process. You prayed, you called, you visited, you wrote. And again, I thank you. You can’t possibly know how much healing came into my life and my family just through your love and care. I truly thank God for this congregation.

Now for the challenge that you look for in a reflection like this… As I remembered this past year, and all of the seeming coincidences and “just happened” kinds of moments, I marvel at how God was quietly working behind the scenes. In the same way that God sort of egged on Satan in the book of Job, and Job then endured testing and trials, I see a similarity here. Yes, God allowed Job to be tested by Satan, but only because He knew that Job could “pass the test.” Satan wasn’t permitted to lay a finger on Job until God knew for certain that Job would be able to face the trial of his faith successfully.

In the same way, it seems that somehow Satan got permission to afflict my body with that tumor… I hope I dealt with it as successfully and graciously as Job did with his trials. But it hit me… God set me up to find out about it. I shouldn’t have known it was there until a week or two before I died. And there would have been nothing I could have done at that point. But here I am. God set me up with the right doctor visiting at the right hospital at the right time to treat the presenting problem of a kidney stone AND to spot the secret tumor. Coincidence? I think not! God set me up!

I’m not the only one to experience this phenomenon, am I? I’ve heard different ones share stories about how there seemed to be coincidence after coincidence in their life, and they recognized it was simply God, behind the scenes, setting them up for blessings!

In the scripture passage above, the psalmist goes to the altar. Old Testament worship suggests that when they would go to the altar they presented a gift to God. And then, with the “voice of thanksgiving” he goes out to proclaim all the wondrous works God has done in his life. This year, I’m following the example of this psalmist. I’m making a special Thanks Offering and then going out and sharing how awesome our God is… and how much we can trust Him and lean on Him… in whatever circumstance we find ourselves.

How about you? How has God been working in your life? How can you offer Him thanks? How can you share the good news of His wondrous works? How about joining with us and giving your thanks?

A Final Diagnosis...FINALLY!!!!

On Tuesday I got a call from Pittsburgh and the pathology report came back after being reviewed by Johns Hopkins Cancer Center and then on Friday I got the paper copy of the report itself.

YES the mass in my kidney WAS a cancer. A Renal Cell Carcinoma that they hadn't seen before... it looked a lot like an oncocytoma (just a benign non-threatening kind of tumor that you shouldn’t have to worry about), yet it was really a malignant cancer.

BUT... it was caught so early that it apparently hadn't had a chance to even invade the surrounding kidney cells, let alone make it to the urinary tract or the incoming arteries or the outgoing veins... or any of those other places. AND since we just simply removed the whole thing, it CAN'T spread!

No chemo, no radiology, nothing but get double checked every 6 months for the next three years... (like a CT scan and an ultrasound). THAT's IT!!!!

We're praising God on this end!!!!

DAYTON

Recovering from my boo-boos

OK... I'm up in the middle of the night. I was sound asleep and my three year old son (who had apparently climbed in to mommy & daddy's bed sometime prior to this) all the sudden sat up with a sigh or a cough or a something and leaned against me... against my left side where my surgery was. I was INSTANTLY AWAKE!

And couldn't get back to sleep.

Of the two weeks I've been home from the hospital though, I have to admit that this is the first time Josh and I have 'collided.'

While I was in the hospital, his sisters, his mom, and Gay's mom, Sherry, all talked about how Daddy was sick and had "a lot of boo-boos." So when he saw me in the hospital bed, it seemed to click... even though all he could see then was bandages.

When I got home five days later, the first thing we did was raise up Daddy's shirt and show him the boo-boos (with bandages off by that point... just staples on four separate incision sites).

Understand, Josh still crawls into our bed in the middle of the night every so often, and as long as he starts in his own bed, we haven't made a big deal of it... lots of transitions, moves, first time with his own room, etc. So, in anticipation of that possibility, Gay bought me one of those giant human size bed pillows to put on my left side... as a safety buffer in case he crawled in.

I knew he had pretty much gotten it the night that I heard Gay about 3 am say to Josh that he needed to go to the other side of her (which would be between Gay and me so she could get out). And this mostly asleep little toddler said, "NO! Daddy has lots of boo-boos!"

I'm pretty much over the need for the giant pillow and actually, with care, can sleep on my left side again (which has always been a very comfortable position for me). However, this morning I was on my back and Josh must have started dreaming or something and thus I am here e-talking with you!

All in all my recovery has been pretty good!

Starting on the first day in the hospital I knew that I couldn't eat or lose all the tubes and stuff until I could tolerate consciousness without having to use lots and lots of pain medicine. So, I figured since they gave me a pain med pump (I'm sure there's a real name for it) I would try not to use it unless I was really feeling out of it. Relying on my vast knowledge of medical procedures I knew that no matter how times I pushed the button on the pump it would only give me real pain medicine when it was really time for me to have more. I figured that was probably about every two hours... so i tried to only push the button every three hours or so. And I just 'roughed it' the rest of the time... cause I wanted to prove that I could handle being conscious so they would want to let me go faster!

Turns out it was set to allow me pain medicine every 8.5 minutes! And by Day 2 I was hurting big time! By that following evening, I swear I lived out something between "dark night of the soul" and/or waking dead nightmares! (I learned to push the button OFTEN very very QUICKLY on Day 2!)

On top of all that, being perceived as a heavier person (nobody ever said FAT to me), they had arranged for a special bed for "larger" people. Frankly, someone who weighed three times my weight could have enjoyed that bed! But for me, it was an absolute struggle to get out of it... and I had to get out to be able to go to the bathroom (I consider this a non-negotiable!).

Now remember this is now about half way through the black pit of despair night after day 2... I finally roll/jump and get on my feet at the side of the bed... and my privacy gown (boy, there's an oxymoron!) fell... and I couldn't bend over enough to even pick it back up! So there I am in nothing but an IV standing next to my bed when I realize that whoever came into my room last, left the door open (and I'm the visible room from the visitor's lounge). AND I can't get my gown, and I can't unplug that stupid IV to get to the bathroom so I finally ring the stupid call button.

In walks some nurse/aide/someone, who isn't Bill (my nurse for the night) and she starts to ask how can I help you? when she stops halfway through the sentence and asks "Can you tell me why you're standing naked in the middle of the room?" For the record, I DID NOT share the many thoughts that came to my mind in that instant. I simply said, "I'd love to... but the short version is that my gown fell and I can't reach it to put it back on."

The next day we got rid of that gigantuan bed and replaced it with a normal one and I could get in and out and even make to the bathroom without help... and with a degree of modesty.

I find it MUCH funnier now, than I did at the time!

Upon getting home, I've pretty much been sleeping like a baby (up for a few hours, down for a few hours, and occasionally feeling like crying). Gay and the girls have gone out of their way to make sure I have had what I needed and just helped wherever and whenever they could. Michele even learned how to help apply my bandages (cause I can't see my side to do it myself) and, despite her nervousness, learned how to get all that tape off to remove old bandages without completely making Daddy cry! (Although she uncontrollably laughed nervous laughter the whole way through the first time!).

The people of the Reynoldsville church have been phenomenal as well! They've sent cards and notes and meals and even loaned DVD's!!!!

I did have one set-back... this past weekend I started 'leaking.' It turns out that obese people sometimes (OK, often times) will have difficulty with their incisions staying closed... there's just too much fat and the two sides of the incision start to separate... and leak a bloody, serus fluid. So I spent some time in the DuBois ER just to make sure I wasn't going to completely come unglued or whatever... I didn't and my doctor double checked me again today and I'm doing fine.

One last story... again involving Josh. He regularly asks to see how Daddy's boo-boos are doing and so I'll lift my shirt and he'll look and give his assessment: turning to Gay or Michele or Sarah and saying, "Daddy's got a lot of boo-boos!" But one day, whe we were just getting up he got up on my bed and saw my side and wanted to help Daddy get better. So Gay and I told him he could GENTLY lay his hand ON TOP of my belly and pray for Jesus to help heal Daddy... and he did! Gay led him through a basic prayer of healing and Josh literally bounced away afterwards. The next day, when it was the very first day of him staying with me part of the day instead of going to the babysitters, we both laid down for nap time (I was ready LONG before he was) and he saw my side and asked "I pray for daddy?" I said yes and he gently laid his hand on my stomach like Gay had showed him and whispered something like "Jesus, heal Daddy's boo-boos."

I recognize that the main purpose of this whole thing was to remove a potentially cancerous tumor that had invaded my kidney... but I'm learning a lot about the love of my family and my church, about my own faith, and especially about having the faith of a little child.

Dear God, help me not to forget.

I'm Home!

Just got home... I'm GLAD I was discharged, but had I realized what Pittsburgh travel is like on Routew 28 North on a Friday afternoon at supper time, we could have stayed at the hospital for a couple more hours and THEN left... and gotten here at exactly the same moment!! (OK... maybe I'm exagerating a little bit... Frankly, I'm just praising God for a wife who is an EXCELLENT driver with TONS of patience...Thanks Gay!!! Thanks GOD!!!!)

I'll write more later on!

Hospital Notes

on Monday, Gay & I got to Pittsburgh at about 5:30 am with my surgery set for 7:30.

the surgery went well (or so they told me). I now have some laproscopic holes and some normal incisions on my left side where the kidney actually came out.

and LOTS OF STAPLES!

a friend (Keith) met us there, so even after I left, she didn't have to wait alone.

People from ALL OVER have sent cards, flowers, phoned, and visited! WOW!!!

THANKS!!!!!

When I see the blood... a.k.a. Passover

I took my wife to her doctor yesterday afternoon and as we got back into the van I cracked my head on one of the little doors hanging from the ceiling that normal people use for sunglasses. Impaled is probably a more accurate term.

When I finally was able to pull my hand away from the intense pain, Gay informed me that I was bleeding... in fact, profusely bleeding down the side of my head, neck, and onto my shirt. I put my other hand back to check and literally had a red hand.

So we traded places and she drove me across the street to the emergency room.

I learned a few things in the next 30 minutes:

1. The head is a VERY vascular area! LOTS and LOTS of blood!

2. Profuse bleeding seems to get you moved to the FRONT of the line in the triage area.

3. Even when the calendar says it's the day of Passover, my wife still can NOT appreciate my jokes about "when I see the blood" people will allow you to "pass over" the line ahead of you.

The long and short of it is that I was treated, stitched up (four stitches... at the front of my ever growing bald spot), and the nurse and student nurse were cleaning up the blood from my hair and neck before registration was able to get back there and have me sign for treatment and 'admit' me to the ER. Literally three minutes later I was discharged and walking out.

Oh... and I was EXTREMELY cautious about getting back into the van to come home.

I'm fine... just embarassed... again!

Well, gotta go... today is the day the local men gather at the local restaurant for a 6:00 am prayer breakfast.

A Matter of Perspective(s)

My kids (at least the two older ones) have told me for years that I am OLD! "Da-a-ad, you're SO old!" (You know they're really trying to make a point of their message when a three letter word gets four or five syllables).

Well, now I guess I'm really getting there... I now have bifocals. My eye doctor talked about the way my eyes get 'locked' in at the close range focus (like the distance from my eyes to my computer screen or my Palm Treo... yet I need to be able to see clearly a bit further away (like for driving or seeing the words on the wall during our congregation's contemporary worship service every Sunday night. SO i have bifocals.

They're the progressivce kind, so you can't really tell by looking at me, but from the inside looking out I truly have a new perspective on life. The entire top of the lens is for far away focus. The bottom is, bit by bit, sort of like an inverted pyramid for the varying degrees of close work. The crazy part is that the edges (particularly on the bottom half of the lens) is mostly just distortion... which is how they pull off that pyramid thing I guess.

So I have to not only lift or lower my chin to look out of the appropriate half of my glasses, but I also have to remember to 'point my nose' towards whatever I'm trying to look at... cause looking out of the edges is just freaky.

I got these on thuirsday afternoon, and spent the rest of the day almost nauseous. Yesterday was pretty good, but I took both rails on the hospital stairs as I went up and down when doing rounds.

Oh well, aging isn't really that bad I guess. After all, what other option is there?

It is my GOAL to get old! (So far, it's the one goal I am most successful at accomplishing!)

Sleeping...

I slept last night.

Seriously, I REALLY slept well!

You see, last Thursday I went to my doctor and asked him to set me up for a sleep study... I didn't really want to do it, but my wife was insistant. The next available appointment with the sleep disorder/pulmonary specialist was MID-MAY! UNLESS I was available right then, because there had been three different cancellations that very morning.

I went and they set me up for this past Wednesday for an initial sleep study... but because of other cancellations, I ended up going for the initial study on Sunday night and the followup study with the settings adjustment on Tuesday night. And a full diagnosis of sleep apnea. Essentially, I stop breathing at night, so my brain wakes me up so that I take a breath... which keeps me alive, but I never get the deep REM sleep that allows you to rest.

And so yesterday, I ended up with a CPAP machine (continuous positive air pressure). My setting is really high (18 out of a possible 20). When I went to bed, I went to sleep. I slept from about 10:30 to about 3:30 and I feel WONDERFUL!!! (I woke up because the humidifier unit wasn't completely filled when I went to bed and apparently it ran out of water... 'cause I woke at 3:30 with the dryest mouth and dryest throat I've ever had... so much so that it hurt. Gay was still asleep and Josh had crawled in between us sometime during the night, so I just got up when I woke up, rather than trying to turn on a light and learn how to refill the water unit).

I can't tell you how good I feel! I feel alert and have NO headache!! I should have tried sleeping years ago!

Try it!

The Health Saga Continues...

OK... I realize there are a few people who follow this blog from some of the far away places where we used to live just to keep up with the Mix family health situation.

(to view ALL health updates PLUS this one, click HERE)

What an update we have today!

Gay is fine.

Michele is fine.

Sarah is fine.

Josh is fine.

I, on the other hand, have several things going on.

Sunday night I did a sleep study. I went to the hospital and they put wires and cables and monitors on me and watched (and listened and recorded) me sleeping. Turns out that I have a pretty severe sleep apnea condition... helps explain the falling asleep accident last month and all of the headaches and yawning and feeling tired that I've had for such a long time. Tonight I go back to be calibrated for settings on a CPAP machine (continuous positive air pressure). That should help a lot I'm told.

A month ago my local urologist called and wanted me to have a biopsy done on my kidney. He was concerned that the Pittsburgh hospital had not repeated the ultrasound that had caused the DuBois hospital to suspect kidney cancer to start with. SO... they did a CT guided needle biopsy on Feb. 7th. Took quite a while to get test results back, because the limited amount of tissue in the needle biopsy wasn't quite enough to be definite about a diagnosis... So they shipped the slides off to Pittsburgh to UPMC for a second opinion. Three different people there came back with three different opinions. One was that the alleged cysts were actually an oncocytoma (a benign tumor). The other two opinions were both kidney cancer. What was certain, though, is that what had appeared to be cysts were solid and you can't just watch them forever.

At this point, the plans started to change... you see, research is now showing that most kidney cancers start as benign tumors... so the recommended treatment for ANY of the possibilities is removal of the mass/tumor/cancer. I went today to Allegheny General Hospital and met with the urology surgeon I met with before and he agreed.

SO... once Easter is over, and I have time to do the pre-op stuff that needs to be done, I'll be having my left kidney removed.

WELL... I have about 5 minutes left before I have to head for the hospital for this followup sleep study. Sometime I'll share what a miracle it has been (or agnostics might say what an amazing set of 5 coincidences all in a row).

gotta go!

AND THE RESULTS ARE IN...

This has been a remarkable week! God has used his people and the medical establishment to humble me... and bless me.

FIRST, on Friday (12/15) The Rev. Dick Burns, one of our Western PA UM evangelists and one of my personal heroes and mentors in the ministry, stopped into my office to see me and because he wanted to lay hands on me and pray for me. I was so humbled and in awe... He shared words of encouragement, a loving embrace of brother for brother, and, as only Dick can do, he shared laughter with me. What a blessing this man of God is!!!

SECOND, on Sunday (12/17), the Reynoldsville church family here at First UMC surprised and humbled me... and left me speechless all at the same time! (And making a preacher speechless is a pretty amazing feat!)

They presented a handmade prayer shawl to me as a constant reminder of the fact that THEY were praying for ME as I went through the medical uncertainties of my life right now... In fact, the prayer shawl itself had been prayed over before it was presented, that it would be a healing blessing every time I prayed with it. Turns out that this is one of the many ministries here at this church that go on in the background pretty silently... and yet faithfully.

Then, after the service was over, about 50 some people stayed after and waited until I was done shaking hands and stuff and came and got me and asked me to meet them at the altar rail. Led by the retired pastor we have in residence here in Reynoldsville, The Rev. Leo C. Cramer, this group gathered around and laid hands on me and prayed... for God to expose anything hidden as I was about to go for further testing and then planning for expected surgery and possible removal of my kidney if things were as bad as they seemed to be. And then they prayed that God would just bring about healing and surprise everyone.

Finally, it turns out that as I was in Pittsburgh all day today (12/19) for the testing and the consults, they were having a prayer vigil throughout the day here at home. They had divided up the day into half-hour increments and there was at least one person praying for every minute of this day. WOW!!!

THIRD, today, we actually went for the tests and the surgical consult. When all was said and done (and we're talking leaving home at 7:00 am and returning at 9:30 pm) the tests exposed that there wasn't one mass, but rather two. One mass is about 2 centimeters and the other one is about 4-5 centimeters. But, both were diagnosed as cysts... benign cysts is all they are! So the hidden has been exposed and all that had looked to require surgery and removal has either been healed or they made a big mistake to start with!

With this diagnosis, they don't have to do anything! They'll have me redo the tests in six months and then, if the tests are clear, we'll repeat it again in another six months... but that's it!

I probably need a lot of time to completely process all of this... but WOW! What a week!

Strange Way To Save The World

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose... " --Romans 8:28, NKJV

"That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. " --Romans 8:28, The Message

In the early 1990's I worked part-time as a DJ at a Christian radio station near Erie, PA. I was finishing college, working as a part-time youth director at a local church, and even pumped gas as well for a time... and spent two to three nights a week DJ-ing. Oh, and got married during that time as well. (Let's just say I wasn't bored.)

In any case, while I was working at WCTL-FM, I encountered a music group called 4Him. Phenomenal music, great harmony, awesome writing. When the radio station brought them into the area a couple of different times, I actually got to meet them and be back stage some. I really appreciate their music... A LOT.

Well, over the past few days, I've been thinking a lot about the strange way God seems to work in our lives... Even when everything seems to be falling apart, He's there...

Well, this one particular 4Him Christmas song came on the radio the other day and the words (along with the GREAT tune) have just been resonating with me ever since. It's off their 1993 Christmas album "Christmas: The Season Of Love" and is titled: "A Strange Way To Save the World."

The lyrics go like this:

I’m sure he must have been surprised
At where this road had taken him
Cause never in a million lives
Would he have dreamed of Bethlehem

And standing at the manger
He saw with his own eyes
The message from the angel come to life
And Joseph said

CHORUS
Why me, I’m just a simple man of trade
Why Him with all the rulers in the world
Why here inside this stable filled with hay
Why her, she’s just an ordinary girl

Now I’m not one to second guess
What angels have to say
But this is such a strange way to save theWorld

To think of how it could have been
If Jesus had come as He deserved
There would have been no Bethlehem
No lowly shepherds at His birth

But Joseph knew theReason
love had to reach so far
And as he held the Savior in his arms
He must have thought

REPEAT CHORUS
Why me, I’m just a simple man of trade
Why Him with all the rulers in the world
Why here inside this stable filled with hay
Why her, she’s just an ordinary girl

Now, I’m not one to second guess
What angels have to say
But this is such a strangeWay to save the world
Such a strange way, this is Such a strange way
A strange way to save the world
A strange way to save the world

Dave Clark, Mark Harris, & Don Koch / Copyright © 1993 John T. Benson Publishing Co./First Verse Music/Paragon Music Corp./Point Clear Music/A-Knack-For-This Music/ASCAP. All rights reserved.
Lyrics from: http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/lyrics/new/track.asp?track_id=1813

Anyways, as I said, I've been thinking a lot about the strange way that God seems to work in our lives. What seems like a calamity (like my having a kidney stone acouple of weeks ago) was in fact, also a blessing... it exposed a hidden problem within my body. What seemed like an offense, a king being born in a stable, was in fact, a well-planned strategy of a very meticulous God who wanted to offer a gift to EVERYONE, not just for nobility and such.

God had a strange way in which He chose to save the world... and God has ways of working in our everyday lives today that seem to be strange as well.

But I wouldn't change a thing... His ways are ALWAYS the BEST!

My prayer is that I begin to be flexible enough to allow God to do whatever He wants in my life, in whatever way He chooses, to accomplish HIS will in me and through me! AMEN!

Followup with the doctor

OK... Yesterday, I went to Pittsburgh and saw the urology specialist. He looked at my CT scan and ultrasound from DuBois and agrees that there is SOMETHING there. Maybe a cyst, maybe a benign tumor kind of thing, maybe a full-blown kidney cancer on my left kidney.

The thing is, the DuBois testing was all centered around finding out about a kidney stone in the right kidney and they 'just happened' to notice this other thing. But for the specialist to really hone in and explore the options and possibilities, he needs some more specifically focused testing on the actual left kidney now. Makes sense. The various testing offices at Allegheny General were all closed by the time I got done with my appointment, so we can't even try to schedule these tests until later today.

He did say that whatever it is, it LOOKS like it's pretty deep into the kidney, so if it is something that needs to be removed, we probably need to take the whole kidney.

As for feelings and such, I've had a pretty calm sense of presence through this whole thing thus far. As I've already posted, I'm pretty convinced that God's got his hand in all this... even to the point of drawing people's attention to this hidden disease that grows without visible symptoms.

But I confess there are moments when I wonder 'What If...?' If this were the absolute worst news what would happen? I'd die. OK, for me that's not so bad... Heaven, Christ, Eternity. I guess that means I win! (Not that I am in a hurry to get there! And I sure hope God hasn't finished with me here on earth yet... It's hard to believe I've already accomplished all he had in mind for me!)

But two things sort of stick in my throat, if you will, about what if I were to die. First, at three years old, my son wouldn't even remember who I was. That's a tough thought to swallow.

Secondly, my family would be homeless. As a pastor, my living arrangements (and my family's of course) are provided for as a part of my job. If I were to die, then they have no place to live and their source of financial support is gone. I have not done a good job of providing for my family in this area. I (currently) have no will, no guardian set up for my kids if something happened to both my wife and I, no savings set up for them to be able to buy a place to live... nothing.

I was especially convicted about this when I got to the Bible this morning and stumbled on Proverbs 13:22 which says: "A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children, but a sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous."

What have I left for my children? Let alone their children?

I suspect I'm not alone on this. As pastors, we need to get ALL the details of ministering to our families into the IMPORTANT TO DO list as much as reports and parishioner visitation and church budgets.

I continue to covet your prayers and will continue to post as we continue on in this journey...

Thank You God... For Kidney Stones!?!?!?!?

OK... Saturday evening, around 8:30, my kidney stone passed! I'm sure friends of mine in far off places could hear the strains of HALLELUJAH! on the wind!

In any case... It was just a couple of weeks ago that I preached that we should be "Thankful in ALL things." Now I've been challenged, how am I giving thanks for this past week? Specifically, how do I give thanks for a kidney stone?

Well, after my recent doctor's appointment, I have a found a way to do that very thing. It seems that when the doctors were running all their tests, particularly a CAT Scan, they noticed something like a cyst or something over on the other kidney. I didn't think much of it (as you may recall I was entirely focused on the 2 mm. kidney stone in the right kidney).

I have met with the urologists and my own physician since then and it turns out that kidney cancer starts out like that. It seems that kidney cancer is not easily spotted in its early stages. And by the time actual noticeable symptoms of kidney cancer appear, it's usually far too late to do anything. The only way the docs can successfully treat kidney cancer is IF they HAPPEN to notice a cyst or such while doing some other procedure or test. So there I was with a kidney stone and they did the appropriate tests and saw this cyst-looking thing on the other kidney! And they noticed it only because I had a stone! So... THANK GOD FOR A KIDNEY STONE!!!

Now, before we go any further, nobody says I have kidney cancer... I might... I might not. It might be just a cyst (in which case they do nothing) or a benign tumor kind of thing or perhaps cancer itself.

But now, at least, we know that there is a chance... which gives us the information we need in order to follow up and go through other tests. The point here isn't do I or don't I have it. The point is that God Almighty can use any situation for his glory and I believe this recent experience with a kidney stone is further proof of that.

I see a urology specialist next week in Pittsburgh to decide how to proceed and to see how they interpret the tests. I imagine we'll have more tests to do.

I invite you to keep me in your prayers...

Being Stoned...

I've spent much of this week sick.

I was driving home from Pittsburgh on Monday evening and started having a lot of pain in my groin and lower back. By the time I got home, I couldn't stand it, so I went to the Emergency Room in nearby DuBois. Turns out, I'm trying to pass a kidney stone. OUCH!

Because of the amount of vomiting and such, they kept me as a patient for a couple of nights to make sure I wouldn't get dehydrated. But now that that particular phase is over, I'm back at home... but still have the stone... and the pain.

I remember seminary classes where they invited us to 'think theologically' about the events of life... and I haven't had a lot of anything constructive that I could accomplish, so I've tried to see where God is in the midst of this situation. Gotta admit, this is a hard sell.

As I understand it, kidney stones come from the God-given function of the kidney of filtering out impurities in your food as you process that food into nutrition. The kidney picks up the little pieces of irritant and stuff that your particular body can't process and begins to coagulate those impurities in order to pass them out of your system. Seems simple enough. Except if you are like me, and you get too big of a 'coagulated ball of impurities' then it's PAINFUL to pass the little buggers out of your system! If you have too many impurites, they coagulate into stones that don't fit so easily down the plumbing pipes of the kidney and the bladder. The more impurities, the harder to pass.

I'm having to use a strainer for all of the output from my bladder in order to try and catch this little stone. If we catch it, then they can analyze it, and then we can figure out what my body treats as an impurity... that is, what does my body make stones out of? Cause if we know that, then I can simply AVOID that food or drink.

How many times is that like our spiritual lives?

We watch a television program and hardly notice the four letter words or the excessive violence. Our spiritual self just tries to filter that stuff out. Or the music or the movies or the magazines or the pictures. A little bit now and then can't really hurt you, right?

Except that when a little bit of sin and a little bit of vulgarity and a little bit of lust are tolerated, it begins to accumulate... making a spiritual "stone" if you will extend the expression a bit. And the more of those impurities we allow in, the more difficult and painful it will be when we try to be free of the influence of all that crud.

I don't yet know what I need to avoid in my physical diet in order to prevent future kidney stones... but as soon as I find out... I WILL AVOID it! Because I don't want the pain of not being able to pass a stone again.

You and I DO already know what kinds of crud we need to avoid to keep our spiritual lives free from the crud that builds up from exposure to all the sin around us. WILL WE AVOID IT?