Enjoying Good Health and Family

It has been quite awhile since I added to my blog, which might cause my long distance friends to wonder if I was too weak to write. But the truth is: I have been too busy to write. I am so grateful--my health has continued to improve!

My doctor allowed me to switch from femara to tamoxifen. Both drugs are taken by mouth daily to prevent the recurrence of estrogen driven cancers. My bones and joints began to ache after taking femara for a year. It even hurt to shake hands at church. Now that I have been on tamoxifen for a few months, the pain has subsided. I still do not have as much strength or endurance as I had before cancer, but I can see a definite improvement, and I thank the Lord!

Here are some of the things that have kept me busy: When our son and his family came to visit from South Carolina, my mom and sister and brother and a couple neices came too! They wanted to meet our new grandchildren--Trail & Aliyah and see how much Broolynn and Josiah had grown. We spend as much time as we can enjoying our grandchildren.

AND Sharon and I have been busy this summer is discussing wedding plans! She is getting married to Kyle Blair on December 20, 2009. We have gone to Little Rock a couple times to help Kyle move and to fix up the home where they will be living while Kyle goes to medical school at UAMS. He has already moved to Little Rock, but Sharon is back in Oklahoma and she plans to complete her master’s degree in piano pedagogy December 18. This is going to be a busy semester!

I thank all of you for your prayers. Some of the friends who were in cancer treatment with me have died. Others have heard the news: “The cancer is back,” and they are on chemo again. Cancer tends to make a person consider life and death and all the days in between. Sometimes I feel a type of survivor’s guilt as I consider their struggles and pain. If health were like an apple, then I could cut mine in half and share it with those who desperately need strength. But even though I may want to--I don’t have the power to extend a person’s time on earth; that is God’s department. My first response to illness is to pray for healing, but the same Bible that teaches about God’s power to heal the human body, teaches that there is a time to die.

Sometimes death comes suddenly, without warning. A neighbor, Robert Brammal, died of a massive heart attack last week. Please pray for his family; his funeral was August 3, 2009.

But most of the analogies the Bible uses to describe death imply a gradual progression. It compares our life to a vapor that fades and to flowers or leaves that wither. You can see the change, and anticipate the day the blossom falls to the ground. The Psalmist did not say, “And when I am struck by the lightening bolt of death…” He spoke of a “WALK through the Valley of Death”.

So as I visit and pray for these dear ones, I wonder, what miracle is God going to provide? Is he going to restore them, and let them spend a few more months or years here on earth in a mortal body that has limited health at best? Or is he going bring them home and give them the immortal body that will never experience pain or death again? God is the one who knows the answer to that question.

For those who are plodding through the Valley of Death 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 is especially relavant: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

I have a new appreciation for the song by Kathy Troccoli
‘My life is in your hands.”

Pure Joy Update May 4, 2009

There is reason for joy in the Holloway household!

We have another grandson!

Trail David Holloway was born March 27, 2009. He weighed 8 pounds 10 ounces. David and Brittney and Brooklynn are not the only ones who are proud of the new addition. Trail is a delight to all of us.

This year is flying by—It is hard for me to believe that Trail is already one month old.

And it is hard to believe that four months have past since the last Pure Joy update. At that time I was preparing for my reconstruction surgery on December 30. That surgery went well and I am grateful to be done with that. I am so grateful for your prayers. And to tell the truth: I still need them.

Before I had cancer my body felt strong like a Cadillac. Most of the time I had a reserve of get up and go and a very comfortable ride. But the cancer detour forced that “car” off the interstate highway where I had enjoyed smooth sailing to a very bumpy road. Just about the time I recovered from one bump, another would hit. After the biopsy, I had a MRI, six chemo therapy treatments, and 30 radiation treatments, and four trips to the operating table for six surgeries in just 1 ½ years.

So I am delighted to report that I have not had any major bumps since that last surgery. I long to put the cancer detour behind me and start sailing down life’s interstate where the road is smooth. I’m moving at a pretty good clip. I'm enjoying my family-especially the grandchildren. I'm working full time, attending church, teaching children on Wednesday nights and helping with a Bible club Friday evenings.

But it takes a lot more effort to get where I’m going, and the ride is not as comfortable. Even though the road I’m traveling right now is pretty smooth, it seems that I've traded my high powered Cadillac for a sputtering Ford Escort.

Some of the lingering aches and pains are directly related to the surgeries—my right arm aches because lymphnodes were removed. I have not developed a bad case of lymphedema, but there have been times when I have noted some swelling. I have had two manual lymphatic drainage treatments recently, which did help.

There are other aches and pains that may or may not be related to the cancer or its treatments. Lots of people have arthritic pain without having cancer. But Femara (the anti-estrogen drug I am supposed to take for five years) is known to cause osteoporosis and achy joints. So I recently stopped taking Femara and started taking Tomoxifen in hopes that my body will tolerate it better. Time will tell.

Evidently, my resistance to infection is not as good as it used to be either. The last cold I had hung on over six weeks and required two rounds of antibiotics, and I have another bad cold again—which, as bad as I hate to admit it--may mean I am trying to do too much. I have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow. So please pray for healing for this cold, and pray that I will have wisdom to know how to pace myself.

I grew up singing a chorus based on Isaiah 40:31 "But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and now be weary, They shall walk and not faint." The last line of the chorus added this refrain: "Teach me Lord, Teach me Lord, to wait."