The week after my surgery I was scheduled to be admitted to the hospital for a week to start chemotherapy and radiation. The reason for the hospitalization was the daily duration of the chemo. I was to receive 5FU chemo for 16 hours a day for the first five days, have a day off, then on the last day I would get Cisplatin for 8 hours. The infusion center at the cancer center I was going to was only open regular business hours so they could not accommodate me. The other part of it was that they were giving me so much chemo that they wanted to keep their eyes on my.
While that was meant to be comforting, it wasn’t.
Going into the hospital I was scared. Maybe not as much as when I went into surgery, but I was scared. I think we have all heard of the nasty side effects of chemo in which the chief is nausea. I had not been eating very much since my esophagus was now full closed at this time but I still did not relish the idea of being sick.
The night before I went into the hospital my wife was a little scared too. She went on one of the cancer boards and asked for any advise about dealing with chemo and the side effects. Someone came back and told her that if we expected to get sick and have a bad experience then that is what was going to happen. But if we expected the opposite then that is what was going to happen.
When my wife told be about this it reminded me of the scripture “Let it be according to your faith”.
Here is the scripture in context:
27 When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, “Son of David, have mercy on us!” 28 And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” 29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.” 30 And their eyes were opened. - Matthew 9:27-30
In my mind it made sense. If I expected that I was going to get sick and nauseated then that is what was going to happen. But if I believed the opposite, the opposite would happen. In fact it was this hint of light that started to really spark the faith for healing in my body from cancer as well.
Now understand my faith was not in the power of my mind. There are a lot of “mind over body” concepts out there and honestly I believe them to an extent. But for me it was that I had faith in God’s ability to heal me and have dominion over my body. I was yielding to Him and expecting His influence in my body.
That first day as they hooked me up to the chemo bag I was still a little nervous but I expected God to be there with me. He was. I had a good night of sleep and woke up the next morning without any nausea. In fact I went through the whole week without any nausea. I truly felt it was a miracle and even the staff was surprised. I was the exception to the rule thanks to God.
It was during this week that I also started my 6 week regimen of radiation. I really did not know what to expect from the radiation as no one had really sat down to tell me. A few days into it I felt like my skin might be burning a little. I mean why wouldn’t it be, they were basically microwaving me!
I asked the nurse at the radiation center if I should be feeling these side effects and they said no. The looked at the area of my skin that I said I felt the slight burning and they did find something – dry skin. I needed to put some lotion on – not because of the radiation but because of hard water. See the power of the mind/faith works both ways. I ended up having no side effects that week at all from the radiation.
After going through that first week of chemo and radiation my faith began to increase in that I believed that I as going to make it through this. I think part of that came from the fact that we were now in treatment as opposed to testing and planning. Another part of it was the fact that it was not as bad as I thought that it was going to be. The final and most important part was that I had asked God to help me and I had seen Him come through for me.
I wish I could say that I was full of faith from the beginning and that this was just proof of my awesome faith and dedication to God but that is not the case. I was weak, I was scared. They said I was going to make it through this but I did not always believe them. I really believe that it was the support of my wife and all the people that were praying for us. they helped me get to the point that I could start to see the manifestation of their faith and mine.
Next Post in this Series: Treatment – Lots of Radiation – Coming Soon! Or Start at the beginning:Having Cancer as a Christian
Treatment – The First Week
Previous Post in this Series: My First Surgery
Or Start at the beginning: Having Cancer as a Christian
The week after my surgery I was scheduled to be admitted to the hospital for a week to start chemotherapy and radiation. The reason for the hospitalization was the daily duration of the chemo. I was to receive 5FU chemo for 16 hours a day for the first five days, have a day off, then on the last day I would get Cisplatin for 8 hours. The infusion center at the cancer center I was going to was only open regular business hours so they could not accommodate me. The other part of it was that they were giving me so much chemo that they wanted to keep their eyes on my.
While that was meant to be comforting, it wasn’t.
Going into the hospital I was scared. Maybe not as much as when I went into surgery, but I was scared. I think we have all heard of the nasty side effects of chemo in which the chief is nausea. I had not been eating very much since my esophagus was now full closed at this time but I still did not relish the idea of being sick.
The night before I went into the hospital my wife was a little scared too. She went on one of the cancer boards and asked for any advise about dealing with chemo and the side effects. Someone came back and told her that if we expected to get sick and have a bad experience then that is what was going to happen. But if we expected the opposite then that is what was going to happen.
When my wife told be about this it reminded me of the scripture “Let it be according to your faith”.
Here is the scripture in context:
In my mind it made sense. If I expected that I was going to get sick and nauseated then that is what was going to happen. But if I believed the opposite, the opposite would happen. In fact it was this hint of light that started to really spark the faith for healing in my body from cancer as well.
Now understand my faith was not in the power of my mind. There are a lot of “mind over body” concepts out there and honestly I believe them to an extent. But for me it was that I had faith in God’s ability to heal me and have dominion over my body. I was yielding to Him and expecting His influence in my body.
That first day as they hooked me up to the chemo bag I was still a little nervous but I expected God to be there with me. He was. I had a good night of sleep and woke up the next morning without any nausea. In fact I went through the whole week without any nausea. I truly felt it was a miracle and even the staff was surprised. I was the exception to the rule thanks to God.
It was during this week that I also started my 6 week regimen of radiation. I really did not know what to expect from the radiation as no one had really sat down to tell me. A few days into it I felt like my skin might be burning a little. I mean why wouldn’t it be, they were basically microwaving me!
I asked the nurse at the radiation center if I should be feeling these side effects and they said no. The looked at the area of my skin that I said I felt the slight burning and they did find something – dry skin. I needed to put some lotion on – not because of the radiation but because of hard water. See the power of the mind/faith works both ways. I ended up having no side effects that week at all from the radiation.
After going through that first week of chemo and radiation my faith began to increase in that I believed that I as going to make it through this. I think part of that came from the fact that we were now in treatment as opposed to testing and planning. Another part of it was the fact that it was not as bad as I thought that it was going to be. The final and most important part was that I had asked God to help me and I had seen Him come through for me.
I wish I could say that I was full of faith from the beginning and that this was just proof of my awesome faith and dedication to God but that is not the case. I was weak, I was scared. They said I was going to make it through this but I did not always believe them. I really believe that it was the support of my wife and all the people that were praying for us. they helped me get to the point that I could start to see the manifestation of their faith and mine.
Next Post in this Series: Treatment – Lots of Radiation – Coming Soon!
Or Start at the beginning: Having Cancer as a Christian