More of God at Work

Many of you know all the trouble I went through to get into the clinical trial I participated in.  I needed a liver biopsy to determine whether I had the right cancer gene for the trial, but my platelet count was too low and they weren't going to do the biopsy if it wasn't high enough.  I managed to get the count up just before the biopsy so it could go ahead.  Then the lab lost my sample not once, but twice.  When it was finally found, it was determined that I did not have the gene, but my oncologist said that the other properties of the cancer were close enough that I could participate in the trial.  This whole process took more than two months, when it was only supposed to take a couple of weeks. So after everything, I was admitted into the clinical trial, and we hoped that this was the miracle treatment we had been looking for.  It consisted of two medications: one was an immunotherapy drug and the other was a cancer blocker.

After the clinical trial did not work and I ended up in the hospital with acute liver failure, my husband and I wondered why on earth God had allowed me to be accepted into it when it likely almost killed me.

We got a bit of an answer when I went for my blood work last week, which I do before every round of chemo.  The nurse who was in charge of the clinical trial came to see me for some followup.  Since I was one of the first people in this clinical trial, they didn't have a lot of information about results when I started.  However, the nurse told me that they are now finding that for people who are on the immunotherapy drug, chemotherapy is more effective afterwards.  We have been amazed by how well my chemo is working now, and it is likely because of the immunotherapy.  Plus, she said the immunotherapy lasts for several months even after you stop taking the drug!  So God knew all along that I would need that immunotherapy drug, even though the trial wouldn't work for me.  He is now doing an amazing work of shrinking my tumours with chemotherapy combined with the immunotherapy!  How awesome is that?!

Our God's timing is perfect.  He sees the whole picture even when we don't understand why we are going through something, and He has a reason for everything that happens to us. What an awesome God He is!