The Empire Strikes Back

The enemy struck again. On the 6th of June 2019, it was confirmed that my brain tumour had returned, and not only that but there was now more than one.

The area that last year was suspected to be a recurrence when we where in Australia visiting my brother-in-law and his family, which only there brand new scanners showed as highlighting on the MRI scan,

and ours back here didn’t, was now highlighting strongly on the scan here, plus there was a new tumour above and to the right of it which wasn’t on the previous scan (SA or Australian).

The Australians had recommended an MRS (which is an MRI with Spectrography which shows the composition of the highlighted area on the scan to see if its cancer) scan to confirm it when I was there.

The hospital there where I had the scan (which was 1.5 hours north of Sydney) couldn’t do the MRS, I would have to have gone to Sydney for that. So I tried to email the images back to my neurosurgeon back home but got no response (I later learned he was in the USA at a conference).

So I emailed them to my oncologist and he said that that the area on the Australian scan was there on the previous scan, but it wasn’t as strong as the previous, but he wasn’t convinced it was a recurrence so he said it was safe for me to fly home.

When I got home my neurosurgeon also got home, and so I met with him and he agreed, in the end, to send me for an MRS scan at the SCP at Panorama Medi-Clinic, as that was the only MRS capable MRI scanner in Cape Town.

The results of that said the affected area was cancer, although my neurosurgeon was still not convinced.

But he agreed to do a craniotomy to remove it, but he said he would have a pathologist in the operating theatre with him to biopsy once he had opened me up to see if it was indeed cancer before he cut anything out.

So on the 6th of December 2018, I had the craniotomy, and when I woke up I was told that the pathologist took four biopsy’s from the 4 corners and determined it wasn’t cancer so my neurosurgeon closed me up again.

Given that he didn’t cut anything out this time I recovered much quicker and was released from the hospital in only 3 days, instead of the 3 weeks I was there the first time 1 year and 1 month before.

So we were happy that it wasn’t back, and tried to resume to normal life again quickly.

My next scan was on the 6 months later, on the 6th of June 2019, and that is where it showed it was actually cancer — despite what the pathologist determined from their biopsy.

The original highlighted area, which is in the same vicinity of the original tumour, was now highlighting strongly, and not only that, it was now 3cm x 2cm, whereas on the previous scan it was 2cm x 1cm. And now there was a new 1cm tumour that was only a spec on the previous scan.

So now my neurosurgeon conceded that it must be a recurrence, but wanted to wait 3 months to watch and wait — unless my oncologist said otherwise. My oncologist was on holiday, so we had to wait a week before he got back.

Once he was back I met with him and he looked at the scan, read the report, and said we needed to start radiation because the speed that it had returned, and therefore the fact the chemo last year didn’t work, meant that it wasn’t behaving as the friendly slow-growing tumour it was supposed to be.

The speed of recurrence indicated that it had likely mutated to a higher grade — danger Will Robinson!

This meant that there wasn’t time to wait and that radiation was the only option left.

This was devastating news, as radiation was the one thing I was hoping to avoid. Its the one thing your body is supposed to never be able to recover from, it merely kills cancer for now and buys some time — how much time, and what quality of life you will have during that time can be different for every person.

He recommended 3D-CRT radiation, which allows targeting of the tumour from multiple directions, but specific targeting so that as much of the healthy brain is preserved as possible.

However, it is still like a bullet — and so everything in the line of sight is affected — so, therefore, the right-hand side of the brain, which up to now had not shown any tumours at all, would end up getting radiation in the places that were within the line of sight of the radiation beams.

Much like the image above of the lasers hitting and going through the millennium falcon, there would be collateral damage.

The enemy’s empire had struck back, and much like the rebellion in the movie “The Empire Strikes Back” it was not clear if the rebellion could win this time.

Interestingly the rebellion is a good analogy for what Christians are. We are rebelling against the prince of this world, we are not accepting the sin he so cunningly enticed us with as the end, but have accepted the free for us (though not free for Jesus) gift that Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross won for us.

We are living in enemy territory, where the enemy, who is the prince of this world, is constantly trying to win us back to empire. He does not care much about those who are already in his empire but is obsessed about taking back those who have been saved by Jesus.

The enemy wants glory and worship that is only due to God alone and Jesus His Son and the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent to us once he ascended to heaven after he had died and risen again defeating sin.

He is a liar and the father of all lies as it is written in scripture:

‘You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.

He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ‘

John 8:44

https://my.bible.com/bible/111/JHN.8.44

Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees when he said this, but He spoke the truth when he revealed more about the enemy and his history.

The truth that the enemy does not want any man to know is this:

We are free if we are in Christ - if we have accepted Him as our Lord and saviour and if we believe He died for our sins and rose again on the 3rd day defeating death for once and for all.

He set us free, a price He paid for with his blood.

This is the external redeeming sacrifice, for sacrifices of animals could never truly cover our sins.

No animal was perfect enough to be that sacrifice. No man has ever been either, only Jesus is.

And Jesus did an amazing thing now visibly which I have never experienced before — He has healed me.

About 2 weeks ago our church was hosting a conference we have annually called “Western Cape Equip”.

Relating churches from all around Cape Town and the Western Cape came to be apart of it, and leaders from relating churches throughout South Africa came to preach and teach us all.

On the Friday night, after the preach, they offered for people to come up to the front for prayer. One side was prayer for healing.

I went up, and 2 of our elders and a leader from a church in Vryheid prayed for me. They asked me if I felt anything afterwards, and I said no, but I said I wasn’t scared of death, but only that I wanted to fulfil the purpose God has for me before I go.

After that my wife and I went to pray for someone and a guy from my church come up to us and said that while I was being prayed for healing he and the guy sitting next to him saw that my the front half of my head was glowing strongly and visibly red when they prayed for me — almost like fire.

He said they believed I had been healed.

Now to be clear the guy next to the guy who was from my church had no idea I had cancer, let alone brain cancer, and they both witnessed the fire.

Praise Jesus.

I had never been given a testimony like that.

So on Monday I went to my oncologist and asked for a scan. He agreed and I managed to get one at 12:00 that day. He warned me that during radiation the tumours actually look bigger on the scan because of “radiation effects”

At 15:00 the report came in my email.

It said that all the tumours had shrunken — which is a miracle in its self as brain tumours are not supposed to shrink from radiation but merely stop growing.

Plus I realised because of the radiation effects the tumours were likely even smaller than they were showing on the scan.

This is the exact summary of the report:

“Significant improvement since the prior exam. Two discrete areas of suspected recurrent tumour both demonstrate volume loss since the prior study. Specifically, the area of recent recurrence involving the anterior inferior aspect of the left frontal lobe has dramatically decreased in volume. The more chronic presumed residual tumour in the deep left frontal white matter, which persistent, has also slightly decreased in volume”

So is not it fully gone — not according to the scan. But it has shrunken, and is likely even smaller than is showing on the scan which my oncologist confirmed due to “radiation effects”.

My faith is that it will continue to shrink as I continue to have faith and people continue to pray for me and Jesus continues to heal, like when Jesus prayed for the blind man and it took 3 prayers for him to see completely.

My next scan is scheduled for 3 months, which is normally when the radiation effects should have subsided and therefore shows what has truly happened.

So my faith is that it will show there is no evidence of tumour at all then, and I look forward to writing another post then to testify to that.

Whatever Gods plan is will happen as I walk with Him, and He will do what He purposed:

‘However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”

— the things God has prepared for those who love him —

these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ‘

1 Corinthians 2:9–10

https://my.bible.com/bible/111/1CO.2.9-10

Amen