A message from Sam

Hello all!

Yes, it’s me in the flesh – Sam. I’m writing to thank all of you personally for your prayers and support. This really has been a strange year for both Maddy and me.

Being treated for cancer has been really difficult, especially the chemo which made me sick to my stomach for months… but God got me through that as well at the “being burnt” with radiation on my neck, face and inside of my mouth.

My recovery is going slower that I hoped. Isn't that the way it always goes?

Food… I love to eat and the most frustrating part of it for me is that I’m still learning what I can and cannot eat…. Soups, ground meats, pasta noodles and liquid, I can handle. It’s hard when you’re not producing saliva. I have to sip water every time I take a bite of solid foods and that makes me so full that it limits the amount I can eat.

I think my favorite meal so far was the tuna tartar and wontons; next was chili and then pureed soups. A lot of the sweets I love, like Reese’s cups for example, turn out to be too sweet for my teeth. If I could tolerate them it would help to add more calories to my diet. Ice cream burns my throat – go figure – I don’t do so well with meats as they don’t break down enough for me to get down my throat unless they are ground. Shrimp didn’t do so well and eggs either. I have yet to try fish but I’m hoping fish and crab meat will give me some variety. I would love to be able to enjoy bread so I could have pizza and hoagies – but lunchmeats failed the tests, too.

At least I still have a desire to eat, but I’m not giving up hope that some day I’ll be able to produce enough saliva, now that I've started taking some medication my E/N/T prescribed to help with that problem.

Obviously, I don’t know if I would be feeling so well if it wasn’t for the 5 cans of Crucial formula I take through the feeding tube every day, but the catch-22 is that it leaves little room for me to feel hungry or to consume mass quantities of table food. So, I guess this is part of the reason that recovery takes so long.

As for my spirit; what God has done and is doing for me is tremendous. He has and is showing me how he can bless me and answer our prayers. When I was first told I had cancer, I felt all alone inside and scared. It’s only when I reached out to God in prayer that I started feeling confident of his helping hand in this. Evident now in the way things moved and the confidence I felt in my medical team and yes, prayer team; God has challenged my faith and brought me to a higher level of trust in His grace and mercy for me and my family. It has brought Maddy and myself closer to Him and to one another. Each night before we turn in, after doing a short devotion we spend our last waking hour with the Lord in prayer and thanksgiving and that has made us feel extra blessed.

Maddy and I are more at peace with God at the helm and we ask Him daily to lead us into the future and bless us with good health and continued joy in our hearts.

So, thanks again for being there for us. We love all of you and pray that you will be blessed this year with knowing what’s truly important in life.

Sam

P.S. I hope to see some of you Christmas Eve as I plan to attend service at North Park Church.