A Health Update, At Last
Dear friends:
We apologize for not being in contact with you since the middle of January, but we have been waiting for reports and recommendations from a variety of individuals. The waiting has been the hardest part. Late yesterday, after consulting with our local doctor, a decision was made. It is a decision based on a number of factors and one that we believe will bring a relative degree of peace to our lives.
By our count, more than fifteen doctors (from Lincoln to Springfield to Poplar Bluff to Cape Girardeau to St. Louis) have weighed in on my case. I am told that I am unique (no commentary, please) and that my situation remains a mystery to many medical specialists. Accordingly, we have had to weigh a number of options. The overwhelming majority of the doctors have made it clear to us that a biopsy of any kind has been ruled out; we are told that there is too much risk. What this means is that we cannot know for certain if there is a malignancy or not. And yet we have received encouraging news which has led us to make a decision.
We recently found out that the tumor/mass showed no signs of growth from late September to mid-December. This is encouraging because a malignant tumor usually continues to grow. Second, I remain asymptomatic. After visiting many doctors’ offices, we know what the physicians are going to ask us with regard to symptoms, and except for some severe stomach spasms from time to time (caused by nerves, most of the doctors believe), my answers indicate that there is no malignancy. As a result, we have decided to hold off on any other testing, save one. Beginning this month and every three months thereafter for up to a year, I will be undergoing a CT Scan in order to track any change in the tumor/mass. After a year, if there is no change, then we will assume that there is no malignancy. If at any point there is a change, then options will be considered. Marilyn and I are at peace with this course of action. Our family physician is at peace with it as well.
On behalf of my family, I want to thank you for your cards, your words of encouragement, and above all your prayers. We ask that you continue to pray. I have decided to share with you a note from one of my students, a man whom I have known for several decades. He has partnered with us in prayer on this matter, and a few weeks ago I received a very moving message from him:
We continue to pray for you and your family. My prayers are also for the continuation of your work, both at the school and in your writing. I hope you understand the intensity of my prayers, since I feel that our friendship precludes our relationship as mentor/student. I feel sure you are already aware of this, but a story from the life of Luther expresses my deep feelings. While I am certainly not entertaining the thought of losing you, the potential severity you have expressed caused me to think of you when I read the following.
It seems that Martin Luther’s good friend Friedrich Myconius became sick in 1540 and was not expected to live. On his deathbed he wrote a farewell letter to Luther. When Luther read the message he immediately sent a reply:
“I command you in the name of God to live because I still have need of you in the work of reforming the church… the Lord will never let me hear that you are dead, but will permit you to survive me. For this I am praying, this is my will, and may my will be done, because I seek only to glorify the name of God.”
Rather brash words, to say the least, but at that point Myconius had already lost the ability to speak. Soon after he read Luther’s reply he began to recover. Myconius lived six more years and finally died two months after Luther. I am praying that you will outlive me so that I will always be able to benefit from the work that you are doing.
Words like these can only be written because of knowing God’s grace and the power of Christian community. These lines made me weep and rejoice at the same time. They were and remain humbling words rooted in love and grace and truth.
Thank you for being with us on this journey. We will keep you appropriately informed. We continue to sense God’s hand in all of this, and we continue trusting him and pray that he may be praised.
Related posts:
We pray also that God continues the work that He has begun in you, Dr. Lowery. Thank you for your inspriration and teaching.
Well, that isn’t the best news I’ve heard all year, but I think we’ll take it. By the way, I just noticed that, alongside the Pantagraph online spread on the book and Dr. Bob, an ad appears titled “One Hot Muffin.”
Readers, you decide.
-Steve Arney
I am so thankful to hear things are looking up and that you and Marilyn have peace about it all. We, your friends and mentorees, cannot fathom what we would do without you. I so agree with the above quote that our world needs you and we will continue to pray for God’s grace for you so that you can spread His grace and glory in amazing ways. I thank God what he had done with your life and what He is yet to do. Blessed be the name of the Lord (as the song says, in times of good and of trouble).