The results are in from my 2^nd brain surgery, an awake craniotomy. I have great news to share. Our MRI’s prior to surgery showed signs of tumor growth, but the doctors didn’t know if it was new cancerous growth or simply what they call:

1) Pseudo growth – swelling from chemo  

2) Treatment effect – swelling caused by radiation treatments

GREAT NEWS:

The surgeons couldn’t find an active growing glioblastoma tumor. All they could find was “necrosis”/dead tumor. Chemo had been effective in killing the tumor.

Our God has done Ephesians 3:20:

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

3) I’m not cured or cancer free

BUT I have more time and treatments are working.  I will be on oral chemo pills 5 days a week for the next 3 months to continue to build on what God has done. We continue to trust in God for His healing and his grace over our Mayo team of doctors and nurses. There is no need for me to apply for new clinical trials at this time since my chemo treatment is going so well.

4) Join with Team Phelps

in thanking our heavenly Father for this great gift of healing and hope. We are very humbled that God would do this for us. We are beyond thankful. We are overflowing with praise to our great God. He is with us in the valley and He is with us on the mountain top.

Psalm 103:1-5 is my favorite Psalm along with Psalm 23

Praise the Lord, my soul;
    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,
⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

It is very safe to say that this is true of me and my soul.  Friends opened their gorgeous home in Highlands, NC for our entire small group of 25+ years to enjoy together.  I wondered at times if I would ever see the mountains again and ever be together again with my life giving, soul nourishing friends:

All four couples gathered together in Highlands, NC. God blessed those of us who rarely see snow with a light dusting of snow. I call that a little “god-wink”. I needed this time away with good friends to refresh my soul and laugh a lot. 

I had an MRI on Monday, March 28^th and we made the decision to have a second brain surgery, but this time I will be awake (mildly sedated so I can respond to questions).  Did you know the brain has no pain receptors? I guess I will find that out the hard way for a fact.

Surgery will happen the Monday after Easter, April 18^th at 6:30 a.m.

I have been doing physical therapy to help with my balance.  My therapist is from Brazil, and she is quite good at what she does.  My balance is improving with her help. 

Thanks for your prayers.

All of this is so hard on my wife and kids. 

Pray that God will comfort them. 

Please surround them with your love and prayers. 

They need you.

We all need you!

Sincerely,

John, Karen & Team Phelps 

Have you ever prayed for something and it didn’t happen?  What emotion did you feel? If you are honest or in touch with your feelings, you probably felt sadness or even some anger. There is a category of Psalms called Lament Psalms – 44, 60, 74, 79, 80, 85. They are Psalms of sadness and sometimes anger. God teaches us how to process our emotions honestly. He can handle our painfully honest emotions and prayers. 

I have great sadness around this month’s MRI. It showed growth that confused our treatment team.  The MRI results were not conclusive.

There was some growth but our team couldn’t tell if it was what is called “treatment” growth (growth as a result of radiation and chemotherapy). There is also a thing called pseudo growth which means it is not real tumor growth. My oncologist called together the Tumor Board at Mayo which included other oncologists, radiologists, and neurosurgeons to evaluate just what they thought this MRI revealed.

They concluded it is highly likely that I will need a 2^nd surgery to better determine the exact state of my tumor and to clean things up. I was hoping and praying that God would clean things up with a miracle. I found out that a second surgery was always in the cards from the beginning. I will need to be awake in surgery to ensure that surgeons are not cutting into the good stuff that would cause motor function impairment. They will be aggressively cutting away tumor that could grow and put pressure on my brain and create all sorts of bad side-effects like headaches, seizures and so on. For that reason, I will be awake to give them immediate feedback as they cut into the tumor that is located very near a main artery in my brain. Doing further study of my tumor would be helpful in receiving further treatment, and I would also qualify for some clinical trials based on a second surgery. I would qualify for a new immunotherapy trial that my genetic markers and the 2^nd surgery makes possible.

You now know as much as I know. If you are a little confused, then join the club.

I will start the next cycle of chemo this month (March) and we will do another MRI in April to see if the chemo has shrunk the tumor any before doing the surgery. Then around the first weeks of April, I will have another brain surgery. Not what we hoped for or prayed for but as a good friend of mine who is a doctor reminded me, years ago when you receive the diagnosis of Glioblastoma, they sent you home to die. Now, there is so much more that the medical community can do, as you can see from this update.

Pray that God would give our family and our doctors continued wisdom and discernment. Continue to pray for a miracle through the doctors or through faithful Father. We’ll take one or even both. I just want to live to continue to share the truths of God’s Word and take care of my children and my beautiful wife, Baby Luv. 

Sincerely,

John 

Since I last posted:

1. The Elders from my church prayed over me (James 5:14-15)
2. Two women with the gift of healing prayed over me.

Big Issue:

1. The ministry I work for had to change insurance from Cigna to United Health on short notice.
2. On the very positive side there was no lapse in coverage.
3. On the challenging side, we are trying to manage deductibles with a very sudden change in our insurance coverage.

It feels like we live from one MRI to the next. I feel anxiety around theses MRI’s. My next MRI is Wednesday, February 23^rd at 1:15 pm. I will meet with my oncologist on that same Wednesday at 4:15 p.m.

I may do some recording of a video class on the gospel Feb. 15-18. Pray that the video shoot goes well. 

Sincerely,

Dr. John Phelps