June 30, 2011 - Hello, Everybody! Sorry I’ve been away so long but a lot has happened since my last post. As mentioned previously, the procedure to draw the fluid off my lung was partially successful. During my follow-up visit with the pulmonologist, he said the fluid would return so he recommended a procedure to put a small tube in the lung. I can then drain it at home myself, whenever I need to! So I had that procedure on May 6, and it really worked! Al and I drained 250 cc out the day after the procedure. 3 days later we tried it again but NOTHING CAME OUT!! only about 2 or 3 drops. "Oh, No," we thought, the drainage tube has slipped out of place! Of course, it was after hours by now but Al called the doctor's office and we were told to come in the next day for an x-ray. We expected bad news - to be told I had to be rescheduled for a revision - but just the opposite happened! When the doctor came in, he said, "Ms, Cherry, you're not getting any fluid out because there is no fluid in there. Your body has stopped making it!" HE was just as surprised as we were, to see such dramatic results so quickly! (I guess I really shouldn't be surprised anymore - God always comes through for me.)

Because the original fluid they drained out had cancer cells in it, the Dr. is putting me on a new chemotherapy drug, just to be on the safe side. He stopped the one I was taking by mouth and he is giving me one intravenously, every 3 weeks. I had my first treatment of this new drug on May 25 and my second treatment on June 15. So far I am tolerating it well.

Sometimes when I am falling asleep at night I can hear those cancer cells talking to each other. They say,

Cell # 1, “Darn it all, we could fill up her chest cavity with fluid but she would just drain us out!”

Cell #2, “Yeah, if those doctors hadn’t have put that tube in, we could fill it up with 1000 mls and knock her flat on her butt!!”

Cell #3, “Wait! I’ve got an idea! Let’s lay low for 2-3 months, till the doctors take the tube out. THEN we’ll attack her!!!!!”

Cells 1 and 2, “Yeah, that’s a great idea! We’ll do that!!!”

Bobby, “You cancer cells just don’t get it, do you? Don’t you know that I have God on my side, and He sends me to the finest doctors in Jacksonville?

You are like the wind, rain and hail storm that we had Monday night. It flattened ALL MY MEXICAN PETUNIAS!!! All 3 stands of them were lying down on the ground in the flower beds. But the next day, 2 of the stands had sprung back up into place on their own, and ALL 3 STANDS WERE BLOOMING!!EVEN THE STAND THAT WAS STILL FLATTENED ON THE GROUND!!! Altogether they had over 100 blooms on them!! Two days later, they were all still blooming, with over 150 blooms. That night Al repaired the flattened ones by staking them up with twine. Early in the morning of the third day, another wind and rain storm came through. But THE STAKES HELD THE PLANTS UP, ALL 3 BLOOMED AGAIN WITH MORE BLOOMS THAT EVER – 16O BLOOMS!!! AND 63 OF THOSE BLOOMS WERE ON THE STAND THAT HAD BEEN FLATTENED AND REPAIRED!!!”

1. The rain/wind storm represents the cancer cells

2. The Mexican petunia plants represent my body

3. The blooms represent my faith and belief in God’s truth

4. The stakes and twine that Al used to repair the plants represent the doctor’s medical treatments (the latest research-based developments)

5. Al represents my support group of family and friends

6. The many bumble bees that pollinate the petunia blossoms all day long represent God working in my life

(And remember, bumble bees aerodynamically are NOT supposed to fly!! Just another one of God’s miracle creations!!)

May I remind you, cancer cells, what God told me last summer in Isaiah 58:11, ‘And thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.’”

Pictures show my Mexican petunias in the new raised flower beds that my husband and son-in-law built for me.