E-mail Prayer Chain

Mike’s platelet count continues to be not so great and just bounces around. Yesterday it was at 59,000, but today it’s back down to 49,000. Our doctor talked with the doctors at Duke and they were pretty adamant that Mike’s platelets need to be at 75,000 before he begins the Avastin. So, while the original plan was to begin the Avastin today, we’re going to give Mike the weekend to try to build up his platelet count then go ahead with it on Monday. There is a bit of calculated risk with him going ahead and taking the Avastin, but neither our doctor here nor I see that there’s really any other option—we can’t afford to wait any longer. Mike is going to get some extra steroids this weekend to prevent his brain from swelling, so our Avastin plan can come to fruition.

Mike definitely seems to be getting weaker to me. He hasn’t spoken to me since last Friday. We certainly didn’t have any conversations before then to where we were solving all the problems of the world, but usually he could respond to questions and say at least a few words at a time. Eating seems to have gotten to be more of a chore and brushing his teeth has become more difficult over the last several days.

I’m not normally a fan of forwarded e-mails, but this has been on my heart for quite a while, so I’m asking for your help here. The combination of everything I wrote above and the finding of the new mass that has developed over the last month has led me to ask y’all to help me start on e-mail prayer chain. Obviously, I don’t have all of your e-mail addresses, so I’m asking you to copy and paste the message below and create an e-mail to send to everyone in your address book. We all know that prayer changes things—that’s the only reason Mike is still with us now, but I feel like we need as many prayers as possible and e-mail is a pretty simple way to make that happen. Results for others taking the Avastin have been great, but there is no guarantee that it will yield the same results for Mike. Fortunately, our God is greater than any tumor, and He is truly the only one who can make Mike’s tumor go away. I just think that we need to have as many people as possible asking Him for that miracle. Lots of you have asked what you can do for us over the last couple of months; well, this is it…copy, paste, and send it out!

Subject: Pray for Mike

My husband, Mike Starnes, was diagnosed with a brain tumor—glioblastoma multiforme, grade IV—in January of this year. The prognosis for this type of cancer is not good—living for two years is considered long term. Mike and I thought we would at least have a few good months to spend some time together with our daughters (ages 6 months and almost 3 years), but he unfortunately took a turn for the worse and has been hospitalized since January 28.

On February 5, I was told Mike only had a few days to live, but because of the faithful prayers of many, he is still with us. Since that time, he has been through chemotherapy and radiation which has taken a toll on his body. Those treatments did shrink his tumor, but earlier this week it was discovered that another mass has formed in his brain. Prayer has already extended his life by two months, and I’m asking for your prayers to extend it even longer. Please pray for my husband’s healing and that he will recover well enough to have some quality of life. He is scheduled to begin a new treatment next week that has been successful with many brain cancer patients, but there is no guarantee it will work for Mike. Please pray for God to use this treatment to work wonders and glorify Him.

One other request is to pass this e-mail on to as many people as possible. Your cat will not catch on fire if you don’t pass it on nor will something good necessarily happen to you in ten minutes if you send it to ten people. You may, however, just may be a part of making a miracle happen. I have been keeping a blog on my husband’s condition, and you can read about our journey thus far and continue to read to discover how your prayers are working.

http://www.thelatestonmike.blogspot.com/

Sincerely,
Diane Starnes