Dear Praying Friends,
Thanks for your
prayers for my bout with pneumonia last week. Since both my lungs were
affected my recovery has been slower than I'd hoped but I thank the
Lord I didn't have to enter the hospital. I have been very weak but
feel
a little better every day. I had to cancel two mission's speaking engagements,
which was a real disappointment to me.
My treatment strategy
has changed significantly. I was going to be starting on a new experimental
drug trial for renal cancer being offered at University of California
- San Francisco (UCSF). Since the two combination drugs I would have
been trying are already FDA-approved for other cancers I was going to
be able do this locally rather then traveling to San Francisco.
However, due to
the significant but not out-of-control lung lesion growth in the last
three months, both my local oncologist and the UCSF doctors are moving
me rapidly in the direction of a allogeneic stem cell transplant.
This is still considered experimental for kidney cancer patients but
they feel this is my best chance for long-term survival. My brother
Nick in Colorado has given blood samples and is a 90% match. This is
quite remarkable since there was only a 25% chance he would match at
all.
This option has
a success rate of 40% but also carries the highest degree of risk. The
idea is to replace my immune system with my brother's. The hope is that
the foreign immune system will not attack my normal tissue excessively
but that it may be able to recognize the tumors as abnormal and destroy
them, even though my own immune system does not. This treatment is considered
a form of immunotherapy.
Final testing of
my brother's blood is taking place now and I still must meet with the
UCSF hematology department before things are finalized and a treatment
date is set, which will involve several weeks of hospitalization at
UCSF's Comprehensive Cancer Center at Mount Zion hospital.
In other news,
I am scheduled to be the keynote speaker at Christians in Action's (CinA)
annual fund raising banquet in Visalia on November 7th, which I consider
quite an honor. Additionally, a local newspaper is interviewing me next
week.
Becky is doing
very well in the RN program and has just passed the halfway mark of
this semester. Just one more semester after this! Jeremy is living in
Santa Barbara finishing a few classes at UCSB. Bryan is out to sea on
patrol off the California coast. Kim is doing well in 10th grade at
Woodlake High.
Romans 8:35-39
(NIV) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or
hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As
it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we
are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am
convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither
the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Specific prayer
requests:
For God's direction
and timing for the stem cell transplant. (Bryan will finally get some
leave from the U.S. Coast Guard during part of November and we want
to have some special time together).
That God would be glorified through my testimony at CinA's banquet and
in the newspaper article.
Strength and wisdom for Becky with her studies in the registered nursing
program.
Resting in Him,
Doug Sutherland
