That's great news, Bill, and congrats on a clean bill of health!

Unfortunately, my news isn't as good. I went in this morning and my platelets had come up some, but my white blood cell count was down, so the on-call oncologist requested some tests (more bloodwork) to see if there was an underlying cause. Due to this and the infection along with the port re-work yesterday, this week is out the door now.

The doctor said that usually they see these kind of numbers after a patient's 5th or 6th cycle and it is unusual to see after only 2 cycles. So, he is recommending to my oncologist (who is away this week) that the dosage be dropped to 80% and will have the "extra" test results back next week as well.

I had a hunch that it would be postponed and didn't even put on any of the numbing cream (lidocaine) before going in this morning.
So, I'll finish this week with the antibiotic for the infection and hope for a better week, next week.

The chemo (folfox) meds are some really nasty drugs that hit me very hard, especially that oxaliplatin!

Better days are coming....I hope.

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Hang in there pal! I guess it has to get worse before it gets better. At least that is how it goes in every Disney movie I have ever watched!

Keep a positive mental attitude! But don't go mental!

Keep the faith brother!

_________________
Bill

"Show me a crowd where the band is loud and my drunken ballet is in fashion!" Jerry Riopelle

Mike, sorry to hear that. Keep the faith and it will get better. The same thing happened to my father the first time he went through Chemo. It all came out good in the end he just had to find ways to shake the frustration. Be positive and enjoy all the little things that happen everyday to put a smile on your face that is where you need to focus.

_________________
I played on stage once, they kicked me off when the band arrived

Hello Mike,

My apologies as I have been away for a long weekend and have not had a chance to get caught up until now. I have been reading all that everyone has had to say and your replies... I am sorry to hear of this minor set back and know you will get over this wall to continue toward a good recovery.

Stay strong, stay inspired by music and the good things in life!

_________________
BP

Hats Off To You Blessed Musicians

• '07 Fender Standard Strat HSS (Midnight Wine)
• '03 Epiphone LP Special (White)
• '86 Charvel Model 2 (Black)

www.myspace.com/brattscovil
www.starvingpencil.com

Mike, I know what you mean about how those chemo drugs hit you. As I sit here and write this to you, several years later, I'm very tired and suffering quite a bit of the muscle pain they call fibromyalgia. It started with chemo and it comes and goes, but I'm very happy to be here to feel discomfort.

I'm sorry to hear that you've hit a bump in the road, Mike. Just keep going, doing what the science says is best. One thing I often thought during my treatment was why did I have cancer at 29, diagnosed at 35 after years of being sick? Why should I have been so lucky? This passage gives a lot of good thoughts on these questions. It's being posted at Harvest.org because the Pastor there just lost his son in a car accident. Our current point of view and our current pain isn't the way we will see things forever.


God is in control of your life, and involved in all the details.

Your suffering has not escaped His notice. Your situation has not somehow been buried in His inbox. He is intimately aware of everything going on in your world, and no detail is too small to escape His attention. The word "oops" is not in God's vocabulary.

. . .

Okay, you say, but if He's in control, why does He allow these hurtful things to happen to me and to people I love?

1. Suffering makes us strong

The apostle James tells us:


"When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don't treat them as intruders, but as friends. Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. . . . you will find you have become men of mature character, men of integrity, with no weak spots." (James 1:2-4 PHILLIPS)


God allows hardship in our life so that our beliefs will become more real to us, and less theory. We can start living out our faith-life in the real world.

I'm reminded of all the people you see driving SUVs. Most of these fancy rigs have 4x4 capabilities. Some guys take it a notch above that, putting lifts in their rigs, buying those big gnarly tires, and mounting huge lights on top.

And what do they do with these powerful vehicles? They brag to their buddies, and say, "Yeah, just look at this thing. Look at what it can do. I could drive this baby up the side of a building."

"Well," someone might ask, "do you want to go out in the dirt?"

"Are you kidding? Do you know how much I paid for this thing? No way! In fact, I was just on the way to the car wash."

So they never want to actually use that vehicle for its intended purpose—what it was actually designed to do.

We can be that way with our beliefs. I can imagine God saying, "You know, you have a lot of really great beliefs. You talk about them all the time. I think it's time you started putting some of them into practice. You talk about how you trust Me. You talk about how you believe I can provide for your every need. Let Me put you in a situation where you have no other resources and really have to trust Me for that provision."

You see, God can allow these hardships and trials and shortfalls in our lives so that we will exercise our faith muscles, and step out on trust alone. We need to transfer our faith from the realm of theory to reality.

2. Suffering can bring God glory

Any fool can be happy and peaceful when the sun shines down from a blue and cloudless sky. But when those qualities shine out from the midst of a dark and destructive storm, that's another matter entirely.

That, in essence, was the challenge Satan laid before God. "Job follows You because You have blessed him in every way, but if those things were taken away, it would be a different story. He would curse You."

In order to show the falsehood of Satan's argument—and to strengthen Job's faith at the same time—God allowed these multiple tragedies to crash into Job's life.

The result? Job not only refused to curse God, he actually blessed Him. What a rebuke to the enemy! What a witness to the world.

It is a powerful testimony when a believer can praise God while suffering. Remember the story of Paul and Silas, arrested for preaching the gospel in the city of Philippi? The Bible tells us that the jailer had them stripped and flogged. Then they were put in a dungeon, where their feet were fastened in stocks.

How did they respond? Here's what the Bible says:


"But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." (Acts 16:25 NKJV)


That word "listened" could be translated as listened with great interest. Why? Because they had never heard anybody sing praises to God in such a place. And that's about the time the Lord sent an earthquake:


"At once the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!" (Acts 16:26-28 NIV)


The jailer responded by saying, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" In effect, he was saying, "I've been watching you guys. I've seen how you have taken such terrible punishment without cursing. I've seen how you can worship in the worst circumstances, and how you could have escaped but didn't. All I can say is, whatever you have, I want it."

Your circumstances may not be as dire as those of Paul and Silas. But people are watching you. If you're in the midst of a hardship or a difficulty, they're watching to see if you will really practice what you preach, and live out what you proclaim. The way you handle suffering in your life can bring great glory to God.

Paul the apostle also suffered from an unnamed "thorn in the flesh." No one really knows what it was, but he spoke of it in his letter to the Corinthian church, and said that he had asked the Lord on three separate occasions to remove it.

But God said no. Even though God had done miracles through Paul, bringing healing to others, He chose not to bring that healing in the life of His loyal servant in this particular situation.

When Paul asked why, God gave him this answer: "My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT).

Was Paul discouraged by this answer? It sure doesn't sound like it! He goes on to say, "So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may work through me. Since I know it is all for Christ's good, I am quite content with my weaknesses and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (vv. 9-10).

So God can be glorified through your weakness. His light and power can shine through the chips and cracks in your life, drawing others to Himself.

_________________
"Now, bring me that horizon."
-Capt. Jack Sparrow

Thanks again so much for your positive comments, posts, prayers and general good thoughts. It helps to keep me upbeat and positive during this time of crisis in my life!

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Hi Mike,

This from the Harvest.org website today is so close to your situation that I want to share it with you for any comfort it can provide.


Suffering as Preparation

"Suffering can also be used by God to prepare us for a special task ahead of us.

. . .

Maybe the Lord is allowing you to go through some difficult circumstances right now to prepare you for something He wants you to do tomorrow. I realize that thought might not comfort you all that much in your present distress. You may be thinking, "No, this suffering doesn't make any sense at all. It's meaningless. There's no point to it."

Joseph might have thought that same thing at several points in his life journey. It's certain that Job did! But the truth is, God might very well be preparing you to touch someone else's life in a way no one else could.

If someone just found out they have cancer and you are a cancer survivor, you have no idea how much encouragement and perspective you can bring to such a person, who feels as though he or she has been handed a death sentence.

You have no idea how much comfort that can bring. And it would be something that only you could say. No one else could say those words with the same kind of credibility.

Once, we had a man named Brian Birdwell give his testimony at our church. Brian was in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, when those planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Many of Brian's friends were killed that day. He survived, though he was burned over much of his body, and had to go through excruciating, multiple skin graft operations.

Afterward, I had lunch with Brian, and we had a lot of fun together. He is very witty and a great pleasure to be with. In my opinion, he is also a genuine American hero.

Before we finished our meal, I asked him if he wanted to do something with me that afternoon. He thanked me, but then said, "Greg, I'd love to, but I can't. I have to go to a hospital."

"What's going on?" I asked him.

"Well," he said, "whenever I go speak in some location, I always find out where the local burn ward is, and I go and visit the patients."

I remember thinking how wonderful that was. Who could have a more effective ministry to burn victims than someone who had been through the agony of skin grafts and burn treatments as Brian had?

Imagine being an individual burned over most of your body, and thinking, "My life is over." But then a survivor comes along and says, "Look. I know how hard it is. I have been there. But I got through it! And here is what God has been doing in and through my life since I got out of the hospital. He can do the same for you!"

Paul, who had his own serious issues with suffering, wrote: "He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. You can be sure that the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ" (2 Corinthians 1:3-5 NLT).

God will give you that comfort—over and beyond what you can personally contain—so that you can share it with others.

_________________
"Now, bring me that horizon."
-Capt. Jack Sparrow

Thanks for sharing that, strat58cat.

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Keep yourself up, Mike, it'll get better!
Mojo & positive vibes again!

-David

_________________
"#1"Highway 1 Strat - Sunburst
Classic Vibe Tele
Squier Strat -GFS 60s P'ups
Hot Rod Deluxe
Pearl Export Series Drum Kit
Rogue Ukuleles
-----------------------------------------
The only guy on FLF who plays reggae

I haven't posted in this thread before (been watching in though).

I don't have any exciting stories to share, I'm still pretty young and haven't seen as much as some of the other members. I just wanted you to know that you are in my thoughts up here in Norway, and while I don't pray I wish you all well as you battle your disease.

Rock on!

_________________
Wang Dang Doodle?

Thanks again for the show of support...you really don't know how much it helps just to read other musicians posting good thoughts, mojo, well wishes and positive comments.

Thank you!

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Today is starting off pretty good. No aches, pains, bleeding, neuropathy, etc. I'm hoping that my bloodwork is okay to continue treatments next week.

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

That's great news, Mike! Keep it up... we know you can!!!

I just read this and it reminded me of a funny situation:



A couple years ago, I was out on one of our local beaches that you can drive on... I was in my old 1984 Ford F-150 4x4 that I had just purchased for a whopping $200. Came across a BRAND NEW Lincoln Navigator SUV that had sunk down to the axles in the sand. I towed him out and laughed: "pretty sad to be rescued by a truck that cost less than 1 week's worth of your car payment. LoL"

Anyway... no matter how beat up and run down you might feel sometimes... we all know you have the strength to pull out of this.

_________________
Well, yes, I am a pirate
A few hundred years too late
The cannons don't thunder
There's nothing to plunder
I'm an under 40 victim of fate
Arriving too late...
Arriving too late...

Thanks for sharing that story, Ziggy. It put a smile on my face when I read it. Also, thanks for the positive comments!

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Hey Mike, I'll be checking back here to follow your progress. My prayers are with you. I hope you beat this!!!