2007 April » Jarretts Ministry

Sat 21 Apr 2007

Update on Marty

Posted by paulejr under Uncategorized
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Dear Friends and Family:
Thanks so much for your prayers. Marty is slowly recovering from the chemotherapy. Dr. Lee and people who have gone through it estimate six months to a year, particularly for the neuropathy symptoms [numbness in the hands and feet].
We visited with Dr. Lee on Monday. He termed Marty’s response to the chemotherapy “miraculous.” There is no current evidence of active tumor in her body. I think this can be termed medically as a â€œremissionâ€ of the cancer.
Her blood count parameters were all good with the hemoglobin rising to 11.7 [normal is 12-14]. Dr. Lee drew another 2729 antigen marker test. The bone scan did show something in her left knee on the end of the femur that is probably an arthritic change, but she will have a MRI done on May 8 to be certain. He also didn’t think Marty would lose her discolored fingernails; the newer growth appears normal. We don’t return to see Dr. Lee for another month.
Marty started a daily pillâ€”Femara, an aromatase inhibitor, to combat any hidden tumor by blocking estrogen production in her body; it is envisioned as a lifetime medication. It has a downside: it doesn’t offer any protection against osteoporosis, or bone thinning, for which Marty was already slightly at risk; she will have to watch carefully her calcium and Vitamin D intake, get exercise, and do a scan in six months to see where her bone thickness stands.
We conferred with Dr. Tigges, our breast surgeon, on Friday, discussing the possibility of removing the site of the primary breast tumor. Although it showed degenerative changes on the mammogram and ultrasound tests, he felt there were more positive benefits in removing it than there were negative risks of leaving it alone. We will probably schedule this sometime in late May, but please pray with us about this. The amount of tissue he would remove would be about the size of a ping-pong ball; this would be done under local anesthesia with sedation similar to when Marty had her central venous-access port placed in December.
Unless worrisome symptoms intervene, the next round of scans will be six months down the road. This should allow us time to plan a return trip to Kenya in January, 2008, if everything continues to go well and Marty recovers her strength.
Current prayer requests are: pain control by the lowest effective dose of medication and lack of side effects from these patches; at the present time, Marty has maintained reasonable pain control with one-third of the dose she was taking last week. We hope she can eliminate it altogether. Numbness and weakness of her legs and hands are major issues; for example, she has difficulty opening medicine bottles or buttoning clothing. Wisdom for planning long-term mission service is needed.
The seemingly never-ending saga of the Tenwek Area Education Fund wire transfer continues. We again had an incorrect number for the local bank account, so our bank re-sent the wire a third time eight days ago. Please continue praying that it will go through. Pastor Kilel reported that the school children were â€œreally suffering.â€ In the past when we’ve not had funds at the time tuition payments were due, the children were â€œchased away.â€ Donations were insufficient for current needs for this quarter. Please pray for God’s provision for all of the children.
I did get reports from two of the orphanage directors. Bosto Children’s Home now has forty children in residence, and Kenduiwa has twenty. Bosto needs a little more money to complete construction of the new boy’s dormitory. Both homes struggle with water issues. The water discovered at Kenduiwa wasn’t good for drinking, but is fine for construction and washing. Both homes need more local support; all the children are doing well and send their thanks.
Thank you so much for your prayers.
In Christ,
Paul

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Fri 13 Apr 2007

Friday April 13 update on Marty

Posted by paulejr under Uncategorized
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Dear Friends and Family:

Thanks so much for your prayers this week and for the past four months; I am reminded of a scripture passage that seems appropriate:
2 Corinthians 1:3-11
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. NIV

Although our appointment with Dr. Lee was postponed until Monday, we completed all of the imaging tests over the past three days. I’ve spoken with the radiologists and have a truly remarkable report to give you.

The mammogram and ultrasound showed no growth in the original tumor, and some degenerative changes had appeared in itâ€”flattening and calcification. The three lymph nodes under the left arm previously showed tumor; they now look more like inflammatory reaction, normal sized, and no longer active on the scan.

The PET scan done Thursday shows NO active tumor in Marty’s body; the liver looked completely normal on the CAT scan. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I reviewed the scan with the radiologist, Dr. Wiegel, who had done the original liver biopsy.

The bone scan, the MRI of Marty’s head, and the skeletal survey were all still normal as in December.

We’ll see Dr. Lee Monday afternoon for a review of all tests and hear his advice on continued therapy, but I have reason to believe he will stick with the original game plan and start the hormonal therapy soon. I suspect that he or Dr. Tigges may recommend removing the original little cancer from the breast that started all the trouble, even though it has changed in shape and character.
I’m not sure that we’ll ever hear the wonderful â€œcâ€ word, â€œCure,â€ but I didn’t even dare hope for such a good report given the antigen level from two weeks ago. Marty reminds me that God is bigger than antigen marker levels.
Please continue to pray for wisdom for all of us, for relief from the side effects of the chemotherapyâ€”pain, weakness, shakiness, nausea, and light-headedness. I hope to see Marty get off of the pain patches soon, but she still has some requirement for them. They produce their own side effects. Although we’re seeing some return of hair growth, it looks like Marty may lose her fingernails. Recovery from the chemotherapy may take many months.
We are praising God! Marty commented to me, â€œI didn’t cry when I found out I had cancer, but now I can’t stop shedding tears of praise for God’s mercy and grace.â€

In Christ,

Paul, of little faith (but restored once again by a patient, loving God)

PS: I still have received no confirmation of the wire transfer reaching Tenwek even though the bank indicates it wasn’t rejected. As always, communication with Tenwek remains inconsistent. Please remember our orphans and the other missionaries there in your prayers.

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Sat 7 Apr 2007

Update on Marty’s condition

Posted by paulejr under Uncategorized
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Dear Friends and Family:
Dr. Lee returned our call this Saturday morning. He tried to answer all of our questions about our schedule and treatment plan. In contrast to my reaction, he wasn’t surprised by the slowing of the downward trend in the tumor antigen marker with the chemotherapy. He says that the chemotherapy eliminates a fraction of the tumor each time, but never gives a total eradication. The percentage usually drops as the tumor develops resistance.
The theme of his message was patience:
It takes three weeks to see the maximum effect of each treatment; hence, the repeat studies shouldn’t be performed before three weeks.
The hormonal therapy should wait 4 weeks because it may interfere with the effects of the chemotherapy treatment. This treatment is more than just keeping the tumor from growing. Since the tumor is dependant on the estrogen hormone, blocking that hormone will, in effect, starve the tumor. He has seen very good responses from the therapy in patients with this problem.
Marty’s bone marrow needs a break from the suppressive effect of the chemotherapy. Starting another front-line chemotherapy at this time may be too hard on the bone marrow.
An ultrasound at this time wouldn’t change anything that we do.
The stereotactic radiation surgery therapy may be effective against visible tumor that has been resistant to chemotherapy, but it’s not yet time for it.
His realistic goal remains control, not cure of the cancer; in other words, cancer of her extent is rarely cured, so a prolonged remission is a more realistic expectation and hope from a medical standpointâ€”hence our prayers that God will cure Marty.
We should advance our next appointment with him to a time period immediately after the tests are backâ€”probably postponing some of our trip to visit family.

We had a better day today; pain and nausea were fairly well controlled. Appetite and energy were slightly higher, although very few things tasted good enough to eat. Marty enjoyed the family gathering and watched the freezing Easter egg hunt from inside.
Thanks so much for your prayers, and â€œHappy Easter.â€
In Christ, Paul

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Fri 6 Apr 2007

Good Friday update

Posted by paulejr under Uncategorized
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Dear Friends and Family:
Thanks for your prayers for Marty. She has had some improvement in her dizziness and fatigue, but pain and weakness continue to be daily companions. I feel like we’re at a crossroads in our situation, which I will explain. I feel like we need your prayers as much as ever; please don’t grow faint or weary.
We visited the oncology center on Tuesday for our follow-up labs; the nurse also gave Marty some IV fluids since she hadn’t been able to eat or drink very much due to the bad taste in her mouth. This has improved slightly through the week.
Only the blood count was reassuring; Marty’s Hemoglobin was 9.4, the white blood cell count was 6,600, and the platelets were again adequate. However, the 2729 antigen result from last week reflecting her status at the end of three Taxol treatments was 146. Whereas this is a decline from the previous level, the amount of decline was fairly small from 154 to 146. Previously, we had seen about a 25% drop each time. To my way of thinking, this means the remaining tumor is more resistant, and we may not see much change as a result of the final Taxol treatment last week.
The schedule calls for a repetition of all scans and tests on April 24th and 25th. In the meantime, Marty is receiving no treatment. And we’re not able to see the doctor until May 8th, particularly if we make a trip to see family. Now we’re wondering about the wisdom of making an extended trip at this time.
As the realization that the aggressive cancer is still around has sunk in, we’ve become uncomfortable with the idea of waiting three weeks for tests to confirm what the antigen test suggests and waiting at least five weeks to act on this information. This seems like a very critical time in Marty’s life.
I’ve called the doctor’s office today to arrange an appointment for Monday or Tuesday to discuss our concerns but haven’t heard back from them. The doctor had mentioned targeted radiation therapy as a possible option for the eventuality of visible residual disease but hasn’t mentioned another round of a different chemotherapeutic treatment, which others with cancer treatment background have suggested. We may even need to consider a second opinion from a regional medical center.
Would you please pray for wisdom for us during the coming days? We don’t want to be running in fear but also don’t want to ignore the reality of what the antigen test suggests. Please pray that the medical personnel will be receptive to our concerns and facilitate all appointments and consultations and\or referrals so that critical time isn’t lost.
And please don’t stop praying for God to heal Marty completely. That is still our desire until He tells us to stop praying for it.
I’ve heard nothing on our wire transfer which was sent ten days ago. Hearing nothing negative gives me hope that next week we’ll hear a confirmation of the arrival of the money at Tenwek. Please continue to pray about a home for abused women if God wills.
Please pray for Amy. She wants to go on a short-term mission trip to Japan the last two weeks of May; she would go through our church and participate in the ministry with Laura for two weeks before returning for summer school. She’s decided to take summer classes and push on to graduate at the end of first semester this fall. After graduation, she desires to join an athletic ministry using her athletic training skills. Please pray for God to open doors or redirect her as she pursues these goals.
May God bless you all as you celebrate His resurrection. He is risen, indeed.
In Christ Jesus,
Paul, for the Jarretts

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Tue 3 Apr 2007

Note from Bill Chapman

Posted by paulejr under Uncategorized
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Dear Friends:
Thank you for assisting the Jarretts. The Christian Foundation of Indiana has asked me to request donors NOT to write any designation in the memo line of the check. This is a violation of the IRS regulations they work under. Please write on a separate piece of paper for any donations to the Christian Foundation designating whether support is for the Jarretts or the Tenwek Area Education Fund. In the future, they will return checks with designation on the check itself.
Checks payable to and send to: Christian Foundation of Indiana, 8445 Keystone Crossing Blvd, Suite 200, Indianapolis, IN 46240.
Sincerely,
Wm. Chapman MD

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Friday April 13 update on Marty

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