Family all Together - August 2010

Here is the photo we promised. It is very difficult getting 16 people, 9 of them children, to all look at the camera at the same time and smile but Granddaddy and Grandmommy love the photo anyway!

Finally, David Speaks

David here.

I finished my 30 sessions of radiation therapy on Tuesday and have a few days off from the chemo. The chemo will change somewhat. Soon I will begin doing the chemo for one week per month to continue for a year. I’m still feeling the fatigue from the radiation and the chemical feel from the chemo but trust that will subside with time.

Everyone’s comments on this blog have been a blessing to me and especially their prayers. God is faithful and has given me a continuous joy at the thought of standing in the midst of the glorious scene around His throne.

Having no fear of death has allowed me to find some humor in some of the happenings of the past three months. I think the funniest was in the radiation room one day. Now I am aware that God can and may heal me of this cancer, and I welcome whatever His will may be. But in the natural, I know this is terminal cancer, the average life expectancy being from one to two years. So one day I find myself lying on the table under the radiation machine, my head fastened down under a mask so I can’t move. The technicians move to an adjoining room from which they operate the machine. There is always a radio in the radiation room playing popular hits from the 60s and 70s. I’m lying on the table, hearing the machine moving over my head, stopping periodically to hit me with a long blast of Xrays that are to attack the cancer cells. What do I hear playing on the radio? The Bee Gees singing, “Staying alive, staying alive, ooo ooo oooo . . .” Talk about irony.

Below you will find a photo of me with the radiation mask. I added the sunglasses to it for entertainment purposes.

Enough of the trivia of this world. Let me end with a quote from one of my favorite theologians, Loraine Boettner. In his book Immortality, as Boettner discusses the eternal future of all who have embraced Jesus Christ as Lord and therefore Savior, he writes:

“The grave, then, is not a blind alley, but a thoroughfare, leading to a much richer life beyond. This life is but prologue; the primary sphere of our existence lies in the future. We can attain completeness only in that other realm where there is no more sickness nor death and where progress is always onward and upward.”

Looking forward to the onward and upward.

David

His Mercies are New Every Morning.

Great is His faithfulness!

We are so very thankful for God's continued mercies to our family:

We enjoyed a week with Philip & Angela and children up from Florida.

A wonderful Sunday with extended family, including David's brother Bill & family, Philip sharing the Word at church, a Senegalese meal together & our family photo (to follow).

David reconnecting with some cousins that he had not seen in years.

Making it to radiation treatment number 24, including daily chemo.

Hannah and friends being spared serious injury from a car accident that totaled her car this past Saturday.

David having the strength and clarity of mind to preach yesterday and share why he is facing eternity with joy. (That is his Powerpoint slide above. Don't you love that stick man?)

Every morning the strength to drive to Raleigh, then come home and work all afternoon. What a blessing this has been for me (Pam) to have a boss who has allowed me to do this and keep my job AND care for my husband.

Great is His faithfulness!

Posted by Pam

The Family is all Together

We thank the Lord our whole family is going to get to spend some time together. Philip, Angela and their children have arrived from Florida and will be here a week. Nine children ranging in ages from 8 years to 13 months - what fun they are going to have and what memories we all will make! Our prayer is that everyone will stay healthy & happy.

This coming Sunday, August 1st our family of 16 will be at Mom & Dad's church, Fellowship Bible Church in Fuquay-Varina. Dad will lead worship from the piano and Philip will be preaching and sharing his call to ministry as a Navy Chaplain. Mom will be sitting there praising God and smiling from ear to ear because she has all of her family around her. We would love to have you join us Sunday (10:30 - noon) as we worship & praise God for who He is and His many, many blessings to us as a family.

We're hoping to get a new family photo to share - Dad with his bald head and 9 little children all looking happy and at the camera!

Pam's story: part 3 and an update

...the phone rang....

It was the neurologist, Dr. Bowman. He informed me that David had a brain tumor and we needed to get to the ER immediately. I called the ambulance, got David ready (grabbed that hotdog he was about to eat), and called my daughters, Lydia and Hannah.

Dr. Bowman was waiting for us when we arrived in the ER at Wake Med. David was given an ER bed and prepped as if for surgery. We really thought that he would be going into surgery that night. Lydia and Hannah arrived with friends from their churches and began to make phone calls for me. They called our son, Philip, who lives in Florida as well as talked to my siblings who are in Georgia. From what I could understand from the neurologist and neurosurgeon, David was close to death and things did not look hopeful.

After a couple of hours in the ER, David was moved up to the neurosurgical intensive care ward. We still thought surgery would take place that night. Family and friends kept arriving to pray and support us. Philip and his family began the long all-night drive up from Orlando area. My brother and sister and their spouses packed to come and be with me from Georgia.

While I was visiting David in the ICU, Lydia and Hannah came in and noticed the nurse offering David a meal. Lydia immediately confronted the nurse, asking why he was being given food if he was going into surgery. The nurse could not tell us much, or didn't want to, but she did let us know that David would not be going into surgery that night. We were very confused. Here, we had been led to believe that David would die without this surgery and now they were telling us that he was not having the surgery. We did know that David has been put on anti-seizure meds as well as steroids to reduce swelling in his brain. Otherwise, we were very confused because we were being told so many different things. The conclusion we finally came to at that time was that the surgeon thought that surgery wouldn't do any good.

Now we know otherwise! We have been told since the surgery (that took place two days later), that if surgery had been performed that night, it would have killed David. The swelling was so bad, that one cut would have caused an aneurism or brain bleed. It would have been fatal. Praise the Lord that the surgeon knew this and took the time to really look over the MRI results and study the tumor. Praise the Lord that the steroids worked to reduce the swelling enough that surgery WAS possible two days later.

And now we continue with research and recovery. David is doing well after two weeks of radiation and two months of on and off chemo. He is really starting to feel fatigued and we are limiting our time with groups of people as his immune system is really poor. We have to be so careful of what he is exposed to, we have even posted a warning notice on our front door.

Yesterday, we had Lydia's family over for lunch. Guess what we had?

Hotdogs!

New feature on the blog

So, those of you that only know a portion of the family might be wondering what Dad has had to live with for 34 years. Trust me, it ain't all pretty. However, in order to introduce ourselves to you, I have added our individual blogs to the sidebar.

Now, this could be very incriminating so please view at your discretion and then quickly forget everything that you have seen. Most importantly, and please don't forget this detail; if you happen to stumble across Lydia's blog at certain times of the year (June 13), there may be pictures posted of a less than attractive adolescent female. These pictures are to be quickly forgotten and never talked of again.

cheers!

Hannah

Independence Weekend

"Suppose a nation in some distant Region should take the Bible for their only law Book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God ... What a Utopia, what a Paradise would this region be."

--Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, Vol. III, p. 9.

Yesterday was a day spent with family and friends. It was a day spent celebrating, more than anything, the freedoms that we have in Christ. We are free from fear and hopelessness. No matter the circumstances of our lives, a carefully constructed plan has been designed and whether that design is difficult or easy, it is all joyous because it was designed by God.

"There is never a fear that has not a corresponding fear not." - Amy Carmichael

There was much joy in the Carson household yesterday as we were joined by Uncle Mike (mom's brother), Aunt Sandra (his wife) and my dear friend Lindsey (my long lost twin). There was also much eating in the Carson household because, well, that's just what we do! We also sing, much like the Von Trapp family but with less twirling on mountain tops and other such nonsense.

Mom had been witness to the decline in Dad's piano playing in the weeks prior to learning of the brain tumor. He would have difficulty leading worship at church and would stumble through pieces that he has played with precision for years. We were afraid that his ability and coordination would be affected by the tumor and surgery. There have been so many things that we were told to expect and we are filled with joy each time recognize God's healing touch.

Dad plays as well as he ever did. No stumbling. He bounces around on that piano bench like he has for the past 50 years. It's a good thing that he can play again because even though my voice rivals that of Aretha Franklin's, I sound much better with accompaniment.

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This week starts the radiation-chemo treatments. These will be five days a week for six weeks. Dad has been fitted for his radiation helmet which in my mind looks like this...

We have been told that the treatments will be very exhausting and could make him feel very sick but we have hope that the Lord will continue to strengthen him through this next trial. The Lord has been so faithful and we pray that Dad will rest and heal in the coming weeks.

I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O Lord. make me dwell in safety - Psalm 4:8