Cancer

Cancer's a funny thing. It eats away at you from the inside and slowly drains your strength.

Cancer treatment's an even funnier thing. It devours you from the inside and instantly swallows your strength.

How did we figure that one out?

Jess was in the middle of a course of chemotherapy when I arrived in Maine. After 5 days of pumping poison into her system to slow down the growth of her tumors, she was exhausted. Her blood counts were frighteningly low and it wasn't long before she picked up a secondary infection. We've had two 5-day hospitalizations in 2 weeks now, both due to complications secondary to the cancer and its treatment. I was relieved when her doctor said that he wanted her to take some time off from chemo to let her body recuperate a bit because he was afraid the treatment would kill her long before cancer could.

I've never done this before. When people have cancer in Haiti, they simply die. There are only 2 or 3 hospitals that can treat cancer and they are many hours from Gonaives. It's amazing to me that in developed countries we can prolong life this way, but it's sad that the cost must be so high.

Pray for strength. Pray for relief from pain. Pray for peace.