In September of 2009, Tim was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells in the blood. Our prayer is that we will display God's sufficient grace throughout our test of faith. We have come to a deeper understanding of II Corinthians 12:9a which says, "...My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness..."

Friday, May 21, 2010

20 days of radiation (Sept-Oct 2009)

For as long as I have known Tim, I have never seen him get sick to his stomach. During the days when he was receiving radiation, he was sick. The beam that was working to shrink the tumor was also grazing his stomach and that is what caused the nausea. He had little to no appetite as well, and ended up losing 22 pounds during the course of treatment. It also made him very tired. He was only able to work 1/2 of a day and then would have to lay down for a long afternoon nap.

During those difficult days, you have to find humor some where or you may loose your mind - we kept talking about the fact that now Tim knew how I felt during my pregnancies. I was so very sick all the way through to delivery. While it's not something I wish on anyone, Tim has a whole new appreciation for how awful I felt. It was a little running joke that we had between each other.

The results of the radiation were good results. After a couple of months, the pain began to subside and Tim was gradually able to manage the pain better and decrease his medication. He still required pain meds to sleep and to preach each Sunday (standing for long periods made the pain worse). Our church people talked about how his sermons kept getting better and better -even on the medication. God gave grace and allowed him to preach passionately every Sunday during the radiation treatments. Mondays were very hard because of all the energy he had exherted the day before. I did my best to keep him laying low --but I didn't have much success! Tim is a go-getter and was determined not to let this get him down!

~Stacie

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