Be The Match

 

  As a Good Morning America addict I was shocked to hear that our dear Robin Roberts was facing a bone marrow transplant for pre-leukemia. As I follow her story I am so impressed with the way she is taking a very personal, painful struggle and using it for good. It is apparent that this is not easy on her, but heroes like Robin know that what's best and what's easiest are  not always the same thing. Many cancer survivors can related to this desire to take something as dark as a cancer diagnosis and use it for good- she is doing just that, and doing it so well!
 I would like to take this opportunity to join her in her mission to advance the cause of marrow donation...
As one of the fortunate ones, two of my siblings were deemed to be perfect matches...TWO (a brother and a sister).
I was truly blessed.
The docs determined that my sister would be the best choice. Asking her to donate was not easy. As the mom of 4 young children, and a foster parent, she had her hands full. With no hesitation she agreed to donate and did everything in her power to convince me it was no big deal. In fact, after all was said and done she confidently told me that she would to it again for anyone.

 If anyone is considering registering but would like
more information on the process you can check out this link
http://marrow.org/Home.aspx or contact me. My sister or I would be glad to share our experience. 

You might be surprised to know that the bone marrow donation process has changed over the years and in most cases it no longer involves being anesthetized and having marrow extracted from the hip area. In my case, prior to the extraction of stem cells,  my sister Tracey took medication to increase her body's production of stem cells. A few days before the transplant date (day -2, I believe) Tracey entered out patient surgery and had a temporary port placed  in her chest (currently they may be able to use an IV instead of a port, making the process even simpler). On the day of the transplant she was hooked up to an apheresis machine.

 

apheresis machine

Her blood was circulated through the machine (via the port), stem cells were extracted and stored in the machine then the blood circulated out of the machine back into her body via an IV in her arm. Shortly after that the bag of extracted stemcells (in the millions) were brought to my hospital room and given to me via an IV drip.

The whole process for the donor takes awhile...around 4-6 hours, I think. Shortly after the donation the port was removed from her chest by one of the medical team. That was it! 

As I stated previously I was one of the fortunate ones...to have two perfect matches is nothing short of a miracle.

 Imagine this scenario in your family-your loved one is stricken by a blood cancer with only one option for a permanent remission- a transplant. Imagine all family members being tested with no match. Imagine needing to rely on the kindness of a stranger to save your loved ones life. waiting...and waiting...

(The fact is that if you are of Caucasian descent the likelihood of your finding a marrow match is 80%.  If you are of minority descent your likelihood of finding a match (all minorities as a group) is less then 30%...check out this link for statistics on ethnicity and bone marrow donation. 

http://www.helpingtami.orgasian_stem_cell_transplant_ethnicity.html)

 This scenario plays out daily in our country. It doesn't have to be this way.

 Will you learn more about donating by visit this link?   http://marrow.org/Home.aspx

 Will you use your voice to encourage others to do the same? 

If you are a cancer patient reading this blog and looking for a donor, or know of someone who is, I'd love to share your story. Just shoot me an email. 

Together, we can all make a difference!

 It's a matter of life or death...

ashes to beauty

There are a lot of things in our world that our unpleasant, ugly even. Many of our pains seem to come right out of the dumpster of life. Cancer is ugly.  A cancer diagnosis is tragic. Every survivor knows this to be true. But when all is said and done can anything good come from this great tragedy?

Our message at church yesterday beautifully encouraged  us with God’s truth on this subject. Romans 8:28. says “And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God”

Now before you click away from this page with an emphatic “yay, right”, let me explain…

This text teaches us that our great big God is able, and WILL rise to the occasion. He promises to make sense out of all the trials of our lives, even something as ugly and tragic as cancer.

Only He can take our greatest pain, the darkest part of our lives and make something beautiful out of it.

The greatest blessing God can give us in these hard times is HIMSELF.  Only He can take all the pain of our lives and turn it into good.

The passage says that ALL things work together for good- that means everything, ALL our sufferings, are used by God. He doesn’t protect us from ALL suffering, He doesn’t take it ALL away, but what he does do with ALL of it is use it for good in our lives. When tough times come we can most assuredly wait with anticipation to see God do his thing….

Yes,God is WORKING hard to take our pain and make something beautiful of it. Sometimes we complicate things, and make his work harder with our self pity . We act as if no one else has any problems. We act as if our pain is so much more severe than the next guys. We take on the role of the persecuted rather than working WITH God to accomplish His purposes.

Remember that God is working for our GOOD. But what does he mean when he says all things work together for GOOD? What does goodness mean? Is it only materialistic “goodness” ? What is the primary good God wants to bring to us through our suffering? It’s not a circumstantial good, but a  transformational good! He wants to change us into beings who are more like Him and more able to accomplish spiritual good.  
In our difficulties we are gifted with an intimacy with God we might not otherwise know. It seems like the closest people to God are often those who have suffered the most. In pain we run to God, we cling to him.  

 Another “goodness’ our pain will provide is  character development. Ask yourself “What character flaw in me is God tweaking through this trial... what is broken in me that He is fixing through this difficulty...what are God and I working on together in this hardship?" 

 Lastly, our pastor explained that God wants to use our hardship to bring goodness and spiritual change to others. Every time you are able to smile, and be pleasant, despite your pain, others will see Christ in you.

God wants us to be dependent on him and our pain forces us to do just that. When we get to that place of dependency on Him He can then use our pain for good in our lives and in other’s lives. Our pain gives us a voice that others will listen to because they 

know  of our suffering.

  

   





I am thankful for the hope my faith brings me, for the comfort God’s Spirit provides and the knowledge that my great big God is more than capable of taking all the ugliness that is cancer and making it into something beautiful in my life. I pray that each of my cancer survivor friends will know His peace, His comfort and His provision. He wants to help you make sense of it all in a perfect way that only He can do.  

(for the full sermon go to www.chapel.org video podcast 8/5/12)

Brittany, Petra and Kim

Britt and I Christmas morning 2010

I'd like to introduce you all to Brittany...

a beautiful young woman we are blessed to call our "second daughter". She loves the Lord and is an inspiration to all who know the story of her life. She's done a lot of living in her 25 short years. Her life thus far has been dedicating to taking the difficult life experiences she has been through and using them to help others. As one of my daughter Bree's best friends, we have grown to love and admire Britt. Last August when our daughter  moved to Colorado to pursue a master's degree  on a whim, Britt decided to move to Colorado too. The past year has had it's share  of difficulties for both girls but Britt seemed to be in a pretty good place of late. She had a new job, a new place to live, ministry work she is passionate about and a boyfriend I hear is nothing short of amazing. During an airport layover in Chicago a few weeks ago we were able to spend 3 hours catching up with her over dinner. It was so good to see her and hear about all that was going on in her world.  Fast forward a few weeks to the day I read the following post on Britt's Facebook wall.

July 19 via mobile

Dark knight rises tonight? Aurora 16 is only $6.50 who is in? I will go by myself if I have to!

 

Yes, our Britt was in theater 8 the night of the Aurora Movie Massacre. Before I go any further, I must tell  you that she is fine...physically. Bullets were shot through her theater wall from theater 9 injuring a few people in her theater but she was unharmed. I do not have the words to express  how surreal it is to know she was in that theater. My heart breaks for the emotional pain she must now endure but I am so thankful that her life was spared and so proud of her bravery. Like all of you, I'm sure, I pray for the families of all those who were less fortunate than Britt. 

As the details of that tragic night were revealed I was made aware of others within my daughter's social circle whose lives had been touched by this unimaginable nightmare. Below is a blog post by a pastor in the Denver area about a young woman some of Bree's friends went to church with. I have been praying for Petra since I heard about the her injury and today came across Pastor Strait's eloquently written blog telling Petra's miraculous story. I am especially compelled to share her story on my blog for cancer survivors because her mom Kim is in the midst of a serious breast cancer battle. Here is their story... 

A Miracle Inside the Aurora Shooting: One Victim’s Story

Posted on July 22, 2012

Shooting Victim Petra Anderson

At Columbine, I have seen this before. But not up close.  As a church pastor in Denver, I have worked as a chaplain with several police and fire departments. I was privileged to counsel parents just hours after the Littleton Columbine shootings. However, in this new tragedy at the Aurora Theater Dark Night shooting, one of the victims was a 22 year old woman from my church, Petra Anderson (pronounced Pay-tra). Petra went to the movies with two young friends who are biking across America.  You and I have been inundated with news about what happened next. A joyful movie turned into bloody, unbelievable chaos. Petra was hit four times with a shot-gun blast, three shots into her arm and one bullet which entered her brain. This a bit of Petra’s miracle story.
With awesome people from our caring and pastoral team, I spent all day Friday in the ICU with Petra and her family. Her injuries were severe, and her condition was critical. A bullet had entered Petra’s face through her nose, and then traveled up through her brain until stopping at the back of her skull. The doctors prior to surgery were concerned, because so much of the brain had been traversed by the bullet. Many areas of brain function were involved. They were hoping to keep her alive long enough to get her into surgery. The prognosis was uncertain—if she lived, Petra might struggle with speech, movement, and thinking due to considerable brain damage. With Kim, Petra’s mother (who is in the final stages of terminal cancer), we simply cried, hugged, and prayed.
It is pressed into my memory now. Motion and emotion…
Other families come and go into the ICU waiting room. Some sit with us, and we talk. Others are visited by doctors with “Family Advocates” in tow. The families listen, sob, and then are moved like stunned cattle to a more private space to grieve. We pray. Petra is finally taken into surgery, using two different surgical teams. One team of neurosurgeons will open up the back of her skull to remove the bullet and clean up brain damage as best they can. Another ENT-specialty surgical team will then work through Petra’s nose by scope to follow the bullet’s path up into her brain.  Their hope is to remove bone fragments, clean up damaged brain tissue, and reseal her brain to reduce infection.
If you have lived any of your days in a hospital waiting room, you know how long the enduring process is. It has a woeful pattern to it. Sit. Walk. Grab a drink. Sit. Walk. Answer a phone call. Sit. Walk. Hug someone. Sit. Talk to the FBI. Sit. Pick at the food. Sit. Walk. Go down the hall, but not too far because you’re afraid to miss something. Back. Hug. Pray. Sit. Sit. A picture of a five year old waiting for next Christmas from January 1^st comes to my mind. FOREVER. Only this feels worse: a heavy forever, with no promise of presents, Santa, or good news at the end.

Petra Anderson and her world class violin.

After the waiting drags for over five hours, tired doctors and nurses spill back into the room, one or two at a time. I look for “Family Advocates” but can find none. I exhale. The doctors update us: “It went well, and she’s recovering now. We found very little damage to the brain, and got the bullet out cleanly. It went better than we hoped for.” Each brings a warrior’s smile, and a bit of information—information that we turn into hope as we regurgitate it over the next hours.  Still, the medical team remains professional and reserved, “Something might still go wrong. We just need to wait and see if she makes it for the next 48 hours.”
Tears and thank you’s abound. We are so thankful for these men and women. We hug. Everyone hugs. Then, round two. Sit. Wait. Pray. Fully dressed people cuddle into small snails and try to sleep on the floor. Some are shuttled to a room donated by the Holiday Inn across the street. Thank you, Lord, for every little thing. We sit. We pray. “We’ll understand better tomorrow.”
Petra is moved back to ICU. She looks, surprisingly, wonderful. With a small hole in her nose, and her arm wrapped, she almost looks uninjured. She is medicated and sleeping when I come to visit her on Saturday. I sit, talk, and pray quietly with Kim amid the darkened room, lit by glowing medical screens and power switches. Nurses, like quiet soldiers posted on guard, come in, march attentively through the machines, and go out.  These men and women really care. Finally, one of the surgeons comes in to check on Petra. He has had some sleep, and looks more like a movie star this time. As Petra sleeps, he retells the story of the surgery, and we ask questions.  The doctor reads the perfect script, as if he is on Hallmark Hall of Fame. He fills us in on the miracle. Honestly, he doesn’t call it that, he just uses words like “happily” and “wonderfully” and “in a very fortunate way” and “luckily” and “we were really surprised by that.”  Kim and I know a miracle when we see it.
It seems as if the bullet traveled through Petra’s brain without hitting any significant brain areas. The doctor explains that Petra’s brain has had from birth a small “defect” in it. It is a tiny channel of fluid running through her skull, like a tiny vein through marble, or a small hole in an oak board, winding from front to rear.  Only a CAT scan would catch it, and Petra would have never noticed it.
But in Petra’s case, the shotgun buck shot, maybe even the size used for deer hunting, enters her brain from the exact point of this defect. Like a marble through a small tube, the defect channels the bullet from Petra’s nose through her brain. It turns slightly several times, and comes to rest at the rear of her brain. And in the process, the bullet misses all the vital areas of the brain. In many ways, it almost misses the brain itself.  Like a giant BB though a straw created in Petra’s brain before she was born, it follows the route of the defect. It is channeled in the least harmful way. A millimeter in any direction and the channel is missed.  The brain is destroyed. Evil wins a round.
As he shares, the doctor seems taken aback. It is an odd thing to have a surgeon show a bit of wonder. Professionally, these guys own the universe, it seems, and take everything in stride. He is obviously gifted as a surgeon, and is kind in his manner. “It couldn’t have gone better. If it were my daughter,” he says quietly, glancing around to see if any of his colleagues might be watching him, “I’d be ecstatic. I’d be dancing a jig.” He smiles. I can’t keep my smile back, or the tears of joy. In Christianity we call it prevenient grace: God working ahead of time for a particular event in the future. It’s just like the God I follow to plan the route of a bullet through a brain long before Batman ever rises. Twenty-two years before.
While we’re talking, Petra awakes. She opens her eyes, and sits up, “Mom.” Movie-star doctor spins to grab her, to protect her from falling. The nurse assures him she’s been doing this for a while. He talks to her, and she talks back. He asks questions, and Petra has the right answers. “Where do you hurt, Petra?” “All over.” Amazed, but professional, he smiles and leaves the set shaking his head. I am so thankful for this man.
Petra is groggy and beat up, but she is herself. Honestly, I look worse before my morning coffee. “I’m thirsty,” she proclaims.
“You want an ice cube, honey?” Kim replies.
“Please.”  Wow. She lays down, back to sleep, a living miracle who doesn’t even know it yet. Good flowering out of the refuse pile of a truly dark night. “Thank you, Jesus,” I whisper.

Kim and her daughter.

Petra, you are amazing. Kim, you, too, are amazing. I am so proud of you both. But God, you are in a league of your own. (Duh.)
There is much ahead. More surgerys. Facial reconstruction, perhaps. And for Kim, chemo therapy to stretch every moment out of life. But life remains.The ending is yet to be written for this family.
One final note: I am told Petra will take her first steps today. Time for the miracle to go for a walk.

Kim and Petra need our help. For more on the Andersons, or to help with their medical costs, please visit 
http://www.indiegogo.com/readytobelieve?a=915169. 

Blog written by Pastor Brad Strait


Please consider going to this link and making a donation to help Petra and Kim. As you pray for all those involved please remember Brittany and all those like her who may be fine physically but whose emotional wounds run very deep.