Praise the Lord for Good News!

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I am thrilled to report that when Ray had his six-month post-radiation check up on Wednesday, his PSA was non-detectable. This is just what the radiation oncologist was hoping. We are praising God and, as I like to say, “jumping up and down excited!” Thank you for your prayers for Ray.

Actually I am not physically jumping up and down excited because I have a super bad cold. I have them rarely so I definitely cannot complain. My cold did make things very interesting on Wednesday. When Ray and I left home about 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning, we were packed and ready to spend the night near Nashville so it would be easier for us to get to his Wednesday morning appointment. I was having some mild cold symptoms when we headed out for a packed day of appointments and responsibilities at company headquarters. When we pulled out of headquarters in the late afternoon to get on the road, my symptoms had worsened. By Wednesday morning, it was clear that there was no way I could walk into the cancer center and expose all of those cancer patients with compromised immune systems to my bad cold. The problem was what to do with me during Ray’s appointment. If I waited in the parking garage, I might not have a cell phone signal and therefore couldn’t listen in to Ray’s appointment by phone.

We decided that it was important to know if I had COVID or the flu, so Ray dropped me off at Vanderbilt’s walk-in clinic close by the cancer center, and he went to his appointment. It was definitely one of our “never a dull moment” experiences, when I sat in an examining room at the clinic while he sat in an examining room at the cancer center and he called me so I could hear his results on the phone. The situation reminded me of what our son John called us after another of our adventures. He said that we are “magnets for adventure!”

We were elated when we heard the words: “Your PSA was non-detectable,” which was down from over 10 before his radiation treatments began and down from the .14 reading at his three-month check up in January.

Ray rings the bell at the cancer center when he finished his 26 radiation treatments last October.

Ray rings the bell at Hope Lodge, our American Cancer Society home away from home for five weeks last fall.

Ray cuts the last link of his countdown chain in our Hope Lodge room.

All packed up and heading home!

Praise the Lord God who has been so kind to us! Ray continues on his two- to three-year medication. He doesn’t have to return for another PSA test and check up for six whole months. Praise the Lord again! As my friend Sara said on Wednesday after I texted her the news: “What a peace-bringer!!”

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, my soul!
I will praise the Lord while I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Do not trust in noblemen,
In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.
His spirit departs, he returns to the earth;
On that very day his plans perish.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
Whose hope is in the Lord his God,
Who made heaven and earth,
The sea and everything that is in them . . .
Psalm 146:1-6

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