God has hope for your prostate cancer!
If you are like me, we often pray to God about our health status, specifically our prostate cancer. It is indeed an amazing privilege to have that personal relationship with God the Father through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ and be able to bring our needs, anxieties, fears and uncertainties, to God Himself and seek His wisdom, healing, love, security, comfort and specific plans for us. But how do we hear His response? If you were seeking advice from a trusted friend, would you simply keep talking without stopping to focus on their response? The answer is found in Psalm 46:10, “be still” or “cease striving” and “know that I am God.” The Hebrew word translated “be still” can also be translated “become helpless”, “collapse”, “cease”, “fall limp” and “relax”. The sense is to stop striving. Personally in my haste to prayerfully communicate my thoughts to God, I have to stop, clear my mind, be silent, shut off external stimulii, and ask God humbly “what would You have me to hear?” The command to “be still” calls us to totally silence ourselves and listen to God often in the face of great turmoil. In Psalm 46:1, we are also reminded that God is “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” When we learn to practice silence before God, we position ourselves to listen carefully to Him. We purposely quiet ourselves so that we are in a listening mode. We turn away from the constant chatter of our minds and digital world in order to grasp the mysterious ways God speaks to us when we turn our attention fully to Him.
But what of we are not sure if we even have a personal relationship with God? If I wanted to enter the White House, I’d need to know someone. In a way, we need a “pass” to obtain entry into the presence of a holy God. Not one of us is good enough on our own to do so. He is perfectly holy and righteous and perfectly just in all He does. We certainly are not. But when we accept by faith God’s offer to credit us with Christ’s righteousness, we have a “pass” that allows us to “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). We don’t have to worry about earning that grace; Jesus did it once and for all at the cross. Do you really want to hear from God personally? First you need a “pass” and His name is Jesus. Then express your praise, thanks and needs, and “be still” or otherwise translated “cease striving” and “know that He is God.”
Portions of the above were adapted from two February 16th, 2016 devotionals; “Today in the Word”published by the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, IL and from “Anchor”, a devotional from Haven Ministries, Riverside, CA. The latter was written by a man currently serving a 6-year Federal prison sentence.
The emerging new model of prostate cancer care recognizes the important role you can, and should, play in your recovery. The emerging model comprehends that simply attacking the cancer is not enough. Greg Anderson, who after surviving “terminal” lung cancer founded the Cancer Recovery Foundation, has said that “Retaining a medical team without doing everything you can to help yourself is like attempting to walk on one stilt.” So what do you need to know in order to take charge of your recovery?
There are three common misconceptions about prostate cancer: a) The assumption that the disease is as dangerous as other cancers; b) The assumption that the urologist who did your biopsy may be a prostate cancer expert; and, c) The assumption that a quick treatment decision is necessary before the cancer spreads.
First of all, prostate cancer is unique among cancers because the mortality rate is so low. Around two hundred thousand men in the U.S. alone are diagnosed with the disease every year, and less than 15% will eventually die from it, usually over a decade down the line, while a majority of men who have the far more common low-risk, slow-growing prostate cancer can anticipate living a normal life span, or dying of something else.
Your local urologist has a busy medical practice that involves treating multiple problems like impotence, infections, incontinence, and kidney stones. He also does biopsies. But the average urologist may perform fewer than five prostate removals (prostatectomies) a year–far too few to be considered proficient. He may be a talented doctor, but he may be an unlikely prostate cancer expert. So once you have your biopsy results, it is best to consult a prostate cancer specialist, either at a major medical center, or at a high-volume prostate cancer clinic.
As for the third misconception, it is essential, before committing to any form of treatment, that you do your own research, and are convinced the treatment you choose is the right one for you. Do not let anyone rush you into making a bad decision. Once your category of prostate cancer is identified (Low, Intermediate, or High Risk), get on the Internet and learn about every treatment option–including no treatment whatsoever–for your type of disease. If you are over 70, and have low-risk disease, my advice to you is to find a doctor who has experience monitoring an active surveillance protocol.
Your role in your recovery, however, doesn’t end with choosing your treatment. The emphasis on lifestyle changes has been one of the most significant shifts in cancer care in the last decade. A study at UCSF showed that improving your nutrition, reducing stress and getting more exercise, can lower PSA levels. According to a relatively new field of health psychology called “illness representation,” your beliefs and expectations also impact the outcome of your disease. So take charge of your recovery, and have faith in your choice of treatment. (Added note from this website: Make sure you have a personal relationship with God and then place your faith in His hands.)
The book of James 1-24 state: “2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Prostate issues such as cancer are indeed troublesome trials. Are you wasting your troubles? Any time God allows trials to enter your life, He has a purpose for them. He wants you to squeeze out every ounce of spiritual growth instead of letting difficulties force you into despair and discouragement. If you’ll just respond in the right manner, the trial that looks as if it could destroy you becomes an instrument of blessing.
The most natural response to adversity is to groan and plead with the Lord to remove it. If that doesn’t work, we might get angry and say “why me?” But in truth, ultimately God allowed it. No matter where affliction originates by the time it reaches you, it’s been dipped in the Father’s love and shaped to accomplish His good purpose. The question is, will you cooperate with Him, or will you resist?
Perhaps the key word is found in verse 4 of the verses above. God wants to use our trial to develop spiritual maturity, but unless you let it do its work, that opportunity will be lost. If we could foresee every benefit the Lord designed our trials to accomplish, maybe we’d be more cooperative.
Although we can’t see all the specifics of God’s plan, we know that His goal is to use our adversity to supply something we lack so we can be mature and complete. Even though the experience is painful, rest in the Father’s comforting arms, and let Him do His perfect work in you.
If you are not sure how these scriptural truths can apply to you, or if you are not sure whether or not you have a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ, please see the following linked website section.
The above message was excerpted and adapted from the In Touch devotional by Dr. Charles Stanley, August 17th, 2015.
P.S. If you are not sure of your relationship with God, and how Romans 8:28 applies to you individually, please see the website section entitled “How to enter into a personal relationship with God.”
Discussing a Painful Subject: Fear of the Process of Dying
Posted: 09 Jun 2015 09:55 AM PDT
Many men tell me that they fear the process of dying—suffering and experiencing pain—more than they fear death itself. While I am no fan of pain, as a medical oncologist I have been responsible for the treatment of hundreds of patients with terminal cancer. I have learned that with good communication and proper medical management, pain can almost always be effectively controlled.
However, when reviewing the results of a recent patient survey at a meeting sponsored by Bayer Pharmaceuticals with a number of patient advocates, healthcare experts, and other physicians, it became sadly apparent that many patients are not being managed expertly. The survey indicated that many men with advanced cancer are suffering needlessly, mostly due to a lack of good communication with their doctors.
This survey of 410 men with advanced prostate cancer reported that two-thirds of men are trying to handle their pain by ignoring it! One-third of all the men surveyed felt that acknowledging pain made them more fearful, raising anxiety about the possibility that their cancer is progressing. A quarter of the men said, “It was difficult to talk about their pain,” relating that such discussions made them feel weak.
In other words, these men are using a common psychological defense mechanism called “denial.” One thing I have learned from years of experience treating patients is that denial can be a wonderful approach, but only if the situation is totally hopeless. I have observed men who appear to be in denial who are quite happy even when everyone knows that they are dying.
On the other hand, denial is a serious problem if what is being denied, in this case pain, can be fixed or remedied. If men who are in denial fail to discuss pain with their doctors, their access to a solution is blocked.
Using denial can effectively control pain for short periods of time, however, using it on an ongoing basis is psychologically exhausting. Also, while denial might work for the patient, it can’t fool their surrounding loved ones. They see the effects of pain in the patient manifesting as fatigue, depression, inactivity, impatience, insomnia and hopelessness. Ultimately, the caregivers who are not shielded by denial end up suffering even more than the patient.
Cancer patients experience pain from multiple causes, not just their cancer. Invariably, life itself is painful. However, most types of cancer pain can be resolved. The first step is to acknowledge its existence. The second step is to diagnose whether the pain is cancer-related. In the prostate cancer world, cancer-related pain is usually the result of bone metastases. Of course, not all bone pain is from cancer and not all bone metastases cause pain. If a man has pain in one of his bones and a bone scan shows a metastatic lesion in the exact same area as where the pain is occurring, then the probability is high that the pain is cancer-related.
The third step, once it has been confirmed that the pain is cancer-related, is to undertake the appropriate treatment. How to treat cancer-related pain is a topic big enough for another blog all its own. In my next blog I will also elaborate further on the correct medical approach used to distinguish cancer pain from non-cancer pain.
Someone has said, “Not knowing what to do is the worst kind of suffering.” Helping men find a workable solution for pain not only relieves their pain, but it also releases them and their caregivers from the uncertainty and anxiety that comes from not knowing what to do.