Friday, April 9, 2010

My cancer kids

As a missionary physician, I am daily faced with a wide variety of patients and their illnesses.
Some of which I received training to care for and many more I have learned by doing it. Oncology is one of those things I have picked up while here, and something I have enjoyed. It seems there is a never ending stream of cancer here, from cervical, to liver, to leukemia, to breast, to suspected brain tumors, to lymphomas and more. Some of these cancers we can treat and cure, some we can help for a period of time, and some we can only alleviate symptoms. It isn't easy to face these patients and their families knowing there is little hope of survival in this life, but the hope of eternal life is something we can share with each of them.
Jema and Eunice are two little girls I am trying to help. Both have quite disfiguring facial tumors, that, currently, are responding to chemotherapy. We don't know what kind of specific cancers we are fighting, but we are using what chemo we have and what seems to be most likely, while we await biopsy results. Pray for them and their families. Pray for wisdom to know how to treat them and for them to see God's love demonstrated as we care for them.
If you would like to contribute to a fund we use to care for patients with cancer you can go to NCM website and this link
Just before I finished this post, I got to see Eunice in followup - she is doing great. Keep praying for her.