Sunset over Charlotte Harbor, Florida; BJ Gabrielsen, photo.
During February, 2015, I was personally experiencing several trying physical issues and was feeling overwhelmed at times. From past experience, it is precisely during such times of stress that God especially provides messages of peace and encouragement through His Word. This was the case again for me and I was prompted to write about these experiences in website blogs of February 16th and February 19th. Upon reading these posts, my pastor asked if these messages could be put on a 5-minute video to be shown in our church and placed on the church’s website. The video can be accessed below. Since that time, several issues have been resolved. However, when one reads about God’s leadership and interactions with His people Israel in the Old Testament, He specifically tells them to make physical markers of stone to be permanently placed in locations wherein He has miraculously delivered them. These markers would serve as continuous reminders of God’s care, presence and deliverance in future times when obstacles were encountered. It is my prayer that this video serve a similar purpose in my own life and as a reminder to you the reader that God cares about each of us and desires a personal relationship with us. Thank you for reading and viewing this.
Cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may help slow prostate cancer in men who are taking drugs to reduce their hormone levels, i.e. androgen deprivation or hormonal therapy. In a study presented at the recent Orlando meeting of the American Association of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Center cited that taking a statin drug concurrent with hormone therapy slowed the progress of prostate cancer by about 10 months. Statin users were also less likely to be initially diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer. It must be noted that the study did not show a direct cause and effect but merely an association between the two treatment regimens. The study involved 926 prostate cancer patients on hormonal therapy. For more information about the study and potential ways that statins might affect prostate cancer, see the linked article.
As I write this, I need to provide some background information. My own prostate cancer was initially treated in 1995, recurred in 2002, and has been kept in check since then although I may be getting resistant to conventional, sustaining hormone treatments. I am totally asymptomatic but when my PSA starts rising uncontrollably, it doubles in just two months, hence my physicians consider my cancer to be aggressive. God’s protection and excellent medical care have brought me to this point, but cancer is obviously located somewhere in my body. State-of-the-art sodium fluoride bone scans and sit-down MRI’s have failed to detect it anywhere. So next week, I am scheduled to undergo a carbon-11-labelled choline PET scan at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota details of which can be seen in the linked video. The goal is to find area(s) of metastasized prostate cancer and hopefully eliminate them. Meanwhile, in 1991, I had my right hip replaced as a result of a near-fatal automobile accident. In 2007, surgical modifications were performed but the original hip works well to this day. Over the years, I had favored this right hip and in conjunction with spinal scoliosis, I was now experiencing a small degree of intermittent lower back pain which was accentuated by a recent fall which produced muscle strain in my buttocks and thigh areas. I was being treated by an excellent local physical therapist. All this brings you up to date. The pelvic area is one of the areas to which prostate cancer metastasizes. Yesterday, I was reviewing an e mail I had received from a trusted physician friend which stated that pain in the lower back, buttocks, and groin areas were indicative of metastatic prostate cancer. Immediately the “black depression cloud” descended over my mind and I spent a sleepless night convinced I had serious pelvic metastases. The next morning I fervently asked the Lord to specifically give me a word of assurance that He was in control of my condition. One of my devotionals for that day cited Jesus’ statements concerning the Holy Spirit found in John 14:26 as follows, “but the Helper,the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” Upon reading this verse, immediately my heart and mind were focused on all the previous times that God had taken amazing care of me, and specifically reminding me of the words He had spoken to me on several occasions, most recently February 16th and February 19th, that if I remained faithful to His mission for my life, He would take care of my body. Then turning the page in my Bible, I unexpectedly came upon the next verse John 14:27, “peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled nor let it be fearful.” This was the same message I had been given many times previously. The bottom line is this. In these two verses, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will teach us all things and remind us of everything Jesus has said to us and done for us. The Holy Spirit will therefore bring God’s word to my heart and mind, and apply it to any current conditions in my life. As Isaiah 28:29 says, “all this comes from the Lord Almighty, wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom.” In this context, I proceed to the Mayo Clinic.
