Person of the Year

The Time Magazine award for “Person of the Year” was a recent topic of conversation on a local radio station I listen to regularly on my way into the office.  The radio hosts were asking callers to respond by letting the station know who they would name as person of the year.

As I was presented with that question, it didn’t take me long to think of who I would name as the Gordon Family “Person of the Year”.  We do not even know this person’s name.  Somewhere in the greater Grand Rapids area is a Radiologist who first detected the anomaly on Val’s mammogram results back in March of this year.

The reason this Radiologist holds such a special place in our hearts is that Val’s tumor(s) were of the rare “lobular carcinoma” kind.  These types of tumors are extremely hard to detect on a routine mammogram such as Val’s.  Since the do not originate in the ducts of the breast, which is much more common, they do a good job of hiding amongst the tissue.  It was feasible that Val’s cancer may have gone undetected for much, much longer.

Val ended up having three small tumors which did not fully reveal themselves until much more extensive testing was performed.  Even though those three small tumors were later determined to be very slow growing, they had managed to migrate amongst her lymph nodes and were found to be in a total of four.  This was the main reason her cancer was determined to be at “Stage 3” of four.

When we finally figured out the classification of her tumor, the extent of it and made a game plan on how to kill it, our Oncologist mentioned that we should be very thankful for this unknown Radiologist who made the initial discovery.  We are extremely thankful!!!

Remember this Radiologist probably has no idea what he or she actually did for our family and may never this side of Heaven.  I am continually reminded that we have an impact on people’s lives in ways we could never comprehend.  The smallest thing we do, that we may not even notice, may have the greatest impact on one of our fellow human beings.  I am challenged, intimidated and thankful that God uses us, broken vessels that we are, for having a positive impact on His world.  Even when we have no idea…….

The scary thing is that this goes both ways…. both for the positive and also for the negative……  That is a sobering thought for me and a good challenge!

Now onto an update on Val.  Her last radiation treatment is tomorrow and we are very thankful that this part of the process has been remarkably trouble free.  The medical folks keep telling her to expect redness and sunburn symptoms which has not happened.  She has been going to Lemmon Holton five days a week, gets zapped and then heads out about 30 minutes later.  No fuss, no muss.  Unless you get lost in the hospital and accidentally get locked into a restricted area waiting for someone to let you out (not naming names Val).

People who know my wife, know that it is hard to tell when she is hurting or doesn’t feel good.  That woman has more grit than anyone else I know.  She is tough!  When she felt absolutely horrible during chemo, the best way to tell how bad she actually felt was to evaluate how much laundry and grocery shopping I was doing.  By the way, Sam and I got pretty good at speed shopping through Meijer for a full grocery run!  We were continually seeing if we could get could a better time than last time.  Well I haven’t done a load of laundry in way over a month and no grocery runs.  The other way you can tell how good she is feeling is to know that we are now fostering 6 kittens for the next several weeks.  They came from the shelter where she has volunteered the past couple of years.  She has gotten pretty good at chasing  those kitty’s around the house!

We have made a game plan for the next treatment program, which is a long term project.  Her cancer was 95% receptive to estrogen, which is what was feeding her tumors.  Because of that, shutting down her estrogen production is a great way to lower the risk of recurrence.  This is normally done by taking a pill once a day for 10 years.

As in most things medical with Val, her case is a little different.  One of the other drugs she is on does not play nice with the normal drug utilized for this treatment.  So, she gets the added bonus of getting a shot in the belly every 28 days while also being put on a different pill for 10 years.  The good thing is we learned this treatment plan is a particular effective method of accomplishing the goal of shutting down her estrogen production.

Thank you again for upholding our family in prayer and we ask that you continue!  Having our family and friends upholding us in prayer is one of the most encouraging things for us!

The Lord has really provided for us in some cool ways this past year.  We are learning and growing!  Growing closer to each other and closer to Him.  May His name be praised through this experience and may we all go and do some small gesture for someone else which changes their world!