As you probably already know, my mom was diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer this past week. Upon learning of the original tumor in her colon my dad called and asked me to come to Ohio as soon as I could get there. I caught a direct flight just 3 hours later and went straight to the hospital. My brother arrived a few hours later. When he arrived he hugged dad while dad cried. Jason never said a word. He just held him. He was just there.
Over the next few days several other family member arrived.
On Monday, a number of pastors from around Northern Ohio, where mom and dad serve, came to the hospital to sit with us during surgery.
Surgery didn’t go as we expected and we received unexpected news about the location and progression of her cancer. I called my wife, Corrie, and asked her to get to Ohio as soon as she could. I just needed her to be with me.
On Tuesday I received a call about 11 am from my Pastor. He asked if I was at the hospital. I said I was, and he informed me that he and our Administrative Pastor were in the lobby. They had flown up that morning, rented a car from the airport, and driven to the hospital just be with me and my family for a few hours. They spent some time with my mom, and took me to lunch before catching a later flight back home.
Throughout the week some of our closest friends called to tell us they were on the way. Some just showed up at the hospital and surprised us.
Some of dad’s colleagues and pastors helped pick people up from the airport, bring us food at the hospital, brought food to the house, came to sit at the hospital, or called to check on us.
As I type this, some of mom and dad’s friends just left, and another couple is planning to arrive tomorrow…just to help!
Some of the people I mentioned said profound things. Others prayed incredible prayers. Some of them sat in the quiet of mom’s room to give one of us a break so she wouldn’t be by herself.
This week, more than ever before I discovered the power of presence!
Yesterday (Friday) was a dark day in the history of our family. My mom was diagnosed with colon cancer.
Below are updates as information changes. Feel free to bookmark this page and check back or subscribe to it in your RSS reader so you get updates. Thanks
UPDATE #1: (Saturday morning)
Surgery will be on Monday at 8am. We don’t yet know if the cancer has spread, infected other organs, or been isolated, though doctor felt confident he could get the tumor. He will also run tests on her lymphnodes and blood to see if and where it has spread. We should know those results within 5-7 days after surgery.
Update #2: (Saturday evening)
We received several good reports on mom today. First, the upper GI scope revealed no tumors or abnormalities in her stomach. The CT Scan showed the same in her liver and lymphnodes. This doesn’t mean there isn’t anything there, but that there aren’t large masses. On a microscopic level they may show up after Monday’s surgery. Thanks for all the texts, Facebook messages, and calls that mom, dad, Jason, and I have. Thanks also for understanding if we can’t get back to you right away. More than anything it’s comforting to know we aren’t alone. Thanks for your prayers.
Update #3: (Sunday afternoon)
Mom is doing well today. We had another conversation with the doctor, and we are continuing to prepare for surgery. We watched the internet stream from the Mt. Paran North service where Pastor Mark led the congregation in prayer for mom which was a huge blessing to us. We also watched Rivercity to hear Jason preach. The Lord’s presence filled the hospital room where mom, dad, and I were. If you are looking for specific prayer requests, I would ask that you pray for peace and rest for mom and dad. As you can imagine, and some of you have experienced, the waiting causes your mind to think a lot of crazy thoughts. Our faith is strong!
It’s not just words…our family of minister’s have prayed these kinds of prayers for people for years…we believe God is going to come through on our behalf.
Update #4: (Sunday Night)
Dad has written an open letter HERE. I encourage you to read it. We are believing that God will show Himself mighty in the morning at 8am. Thanks to those of you who will be joining with us in prayer!
Update 5: (Monday 8:30 am)
Mom has been taken back to surgery. We aren’t supposed to hear anything for several hours. Our spirits are high today and we are believing God for a miracle!
Update 6: (Monday 4:30 pm)
On Monday, April 20, 2009 Kathy Isaacs had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in her colon. Upon completion of the surgery we were notified that the tumor was removed, but an aggressive chemo therapy treatment within the next few weeks will be needed. Our family will have a long road ahead, but we are optimistic that Kathy, with God’s grace, will come through with a greater story to tell. We need and appreciate your prayers and support. We are receiving your emails, however please direct all phone calls for the next few days to the Northern Ohio State Office (330-668- 9995) As you can imagine we are unable to respond to all the messages and calls, but please know how much the Isaacs family appreciates them all.
Update #7: (Tuesday 12 pm)
Mom is doing so well today recovering from such a big surgery yesterday. She’s been up walking around, and her spirits are up. We’ve seen some of the doctors already today. We are still waiting to see the oncologist in the next day or so. Mom plans to start blogging and providing facebook and twitter updates soon to communicate with well wishers and prayer partners. I’ll give you those URL’s and addresses when she begins that.
We just met with the Oncologist to hear the pathology report. There really was no new information. He confirmed that it was Stage 4 Colon Cancer that had spread and not another type of cancer. She has one of the most common types of Colon Cancer which was encouraging for us because it allows us to make use of a larger base of knowledge and testing. She will go home in another few days and then continue the healing process from her surgery. Within a few weeks, once she has healed enough, she will begin chemo therapy.
Though no brand new information was revealed, we were encouraged by the confirmed information and the proposed therapy to follow.
We appreciate all your prayers to this point, and ask for continued prayers for strength in mom’s body and her healing!
Here are the words mom asked me to type on the wall of the Facebook prayer group that was started for her:
“This is day 3 after surgery. I’m on the mend. Thank you for your prayers. You are so kind for joining this group, and praying for me. The doctors and nurses have been wonderful, but some of their reports haven’t been what we wanted to hear. But you and I know that God is ultimately in control. I am still believing for healing. If God chooses to do that through Chemo Therapy, so be it. I ask for your prayers for strength to do that. I don’t believe the Lord’s through with me yet! And I can’t wait to tell the story.”
Mom got to go home from the hospital today. I have come back home to Atlanta, so dad’s giving the best updates over on Forwardleadership and through the Facebook prayer group (which just passed over 2300 members…wow!). I’m going to stop the updates on this specific post, and resume writing new posts, some of which will be about mom, her journey through chemo, and our family’s journey with her. If you choose to follow along with me, you may want to change your bookmark or RSS subscription to MY HOMEPAGE. I started with THIS POST today.
Thanks again for all your prayers, comments, and support!
-Jeremy
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God is with us!
We woke up today to find enough grace for today. I trust that God will do the same each morning!
Here is the latest promo video for my brother’s church. Obviously they were inspired by LifeChurch.tv. The devil is a good friend of ours. Very funny. He serves as the Mission’s Pastor at Trinity Chapel here in Atlanta.
I realize this isn’t a job board, but I thought I try to tap into our growing network.
I am in the process of acquiring resumes from people interested in our Middle School Pastor opening at Mt. Paran North in Marietta, GA. This is a full time position that reports to me as the Director of Student Ministries. The position will be filled by the first week of July at the conclusion of this year’s Middle School summer camp in Myrtle Beach, SC. At that time our current MS pastor will be leaving to launch a traveling preaching and worship ministry. If you or someone you know might have interest feel free to pass along my email address jeremy at mtparan dot com.
This past Sunday I had an incredible opportunity to speak with my Pastor. He has asked me to do this before and it’s always a lot of fun for me. He did a great job as usual. I contributed, but I also had a little bout with tongue-tied-ness.
The reference to a painting of me has to do with a presentation of a painting of Pastor Mark to him on Sunday that someone in our congregation had painted.
Last week I asked our worship band to cover the Justin Timberlake/T.I. song “Dead and Gone” in the middle of my message. Uber-talented Billy Langley created a track that mimicked the grammy performance a few weeks and then a group of college students and one of our leaders, Allon Sparks, did a great job. JJ is the one with the awesome task of singing the Timberlake melodies and Allon does his best T.I. impression. It was a great moment, and our students loved it!
This is my personal blog. Most of what is written is my opinion, observation, original thought, or things I find interesting somewhere else. While I am employed by Mt. Paran North, the things expressed here are not endorsed or necessarily accepted by Mt. Paran North or it's leadership. So don't go sue the church because you don't agree with something I write. Just post a comment and tell me I'm an idiot. It'll just be better for all of us.
