ROLLER COASTER LIVING!

Walla Walla, WA October 30,2010 Misty, cloudy morning 48 degrees.

Cancer is a roller coaster ride of highs and lows, sudden changes of direction and relief at the end of the ride. I'm far from the end of this ride, but we got some highlight news this week that is encouraging. The results of my PET scan of 10/21/2010 were very good. All previous tumor sites have been reduced to being described as clear. Lungs and major organs appear cancer free and the bottom line is my cancer is in a state of remission. That was and is the goal of the SCCA transplant team. They want me to return to Seattle without any active tumor sites so that all of my energy and their treatments can go towards a successful transplant procedure. Dr. Press from the SCCA (Seattle Cancer Care Allilance) spoke with me on Monday and after hearing the results of the PET scan agreed that I would do best with another round of R-CHOP Chemo.I received it this past Thursday October 28. I am recovering from that 7 hour process this weekend, but will go ahead and preach at all three worship services on Sunday. I also have a graveside service Monday afternoon and a Session meeting at the church Monday evening. My Prednazone pills will end on Monday, so I will start feeling the full effects of the Chemo after that. Dr. Press also informed us that we have found one match for my transplant from among the first five donors who submitted blood samples. It happens to be my sister Patsy Pagiotas who lives near Albany, New York. She is the matriarch of the family and would be willing to come out for the transplant if another younger and closer donor can't be found. This is a great act of love and sacrifice on her part and we appreciate it very much. We should have results from at least 2 other possible donors next week who are the next two older siblings after me. You wouldn't believe the number of people who have offered to be tested as possible stem cell donors. It is a testament to the value of friendship. It reminds me that my greatest net worth is not financial but relational. You cannot buy that level of devotion. It is the result of years of walking together through the best and the worst of times. We have been blessed to have been able to serve Christ at College Place Presbyterian for over 32 years. By the grace of God, we hope to be able to continue in that service for many years to come. The coming 14 months will demand great patience and perseverance on the part of all of our biological and church family. We hope to get all the pieces of this transplant puzzle in place so we can return to Seattle mid November and keep the process moving forward. There is a treatment option we can follow if the transplant isn't feasible given the age and health of the donors. We would prefer to go forward with the transplant, as that affords the greatest chance of long term complete recovery. However, it also introduces the bottom of the roller coaster ride of trading one potentially fatal disease for another. I might eliminate my cancer, only to have a Graft vs. Host complex that can be equally fatal if it gets out of control. That is why we will have to remain in Seattle up to 4-5 months following the transplant so they can monitor those potential risks. We would covet your prayers for all those decisions and outcomes. The best possible scenario would be to have a successful stem cell transplant that would cure my myleo-dysplastic syndrome, eliminate any residual cancer cells floating around, and replace my deficient immune system with a healthy and vigorous new one. That is why transplant patients often celebrate the date of their transplant as a new birthday. It has the potential to be a complete renaissance of physical life and is worth celebrating. The only thing that has greater power and eternal consequences is the day of conversion when God's Spirit makes us a new creation in Christ Jesus. The old is gone and all things become new. The righteousness of Christ is imputed/transplanted into our mortal bodies and we become the vessel of God's Spirit, grace and love to serve God and others. The correlations between my stem cell transplant and our spiritual rebirth will become more and more evident in the coming weeks and months. In my Junior Year of High School in Wapato, the fruit of the Spirit became more and more evident in every facet of my life.

Wapato Senior High School, FAll 1967

I returned from my second and final summer of work in Alberta via the Greyhound Bus Line. I knew what to expect the second time around and it wasn't nearly as stressful. I was looking forward to getting back to High School. God had blessed me with a good start my Sophomore year and I was more committed and devoted to serving Christ than ever before. In fact, I told my mother that I had decided to stop attending the Community Presbyterian Church where she was an elder and I was a member, and start attending the same holiness denomination that my brother and his wife attended in Medicine Hat. Occasionally my mother surprised me with deeper insights than I would have expected. I guess that after raising 10 other teenagers she had acquired some level of wisdom. She didn't have any significant problems with my decision. I think she knew that the pastor of the holiness church had a cute daughter my age and that this might be as much of a motivation as the theology or worship. She was probably right.

School started right away and I was busy and active from the get-go. I played Fall tennis and beat the number one singles player on our team in a challenge match. I was in training to make the Varsity Basketball team. I continued to be active playing the trombone in the band and Jazz ensemble. I was taking  the most difficult academic courses available and I was active in many christian youth organizations in the church and community. I kept up my very disciplined study schedule and continued to get straight A's the entire year. That got me inducted into the National Honor Society and I was voted Vice President at the end of the year. I was also inducted into Modern Music Masters and was elected President for the following year. The topping on the cake, academically, was to be chosen Outstanding Junior Boy by the Masonic Lodge. It was a really big deal in schools of our size and I was probably considered a dark horse, unlikely to win considering the competition. However, the essay they had us write was about service and values of character and spirit. That was probably where I gained any advantage and everyone was pretty shocked when my name was announced as the winner. Ironically, my wife Kriss, who attended White Swan High School and was a year younger than I, won the same award her Junior Year. Our children had a lot to live up to and they far surpassed us in many many ways.

Sports, however, were still the biggest form of nortoriety in small towns then and now and I had some amazing experiences that Junior Year. I made the Varsity Basketball Team and though I didn't play a great deal, I was a significant part of the team and we were very successful. It is hard to imagine the level of athletic talent we would encounter during the course of that year. One of the A.C. Davis players in Yakima would end up running in the Olympic Games as a sprinter. Many of the players in the league would end up at Division I basketball programs. At the District Tournament the end of the season we played Pasco High School in the second round and faced off against a Sophmore phenom, named Ron Howard, who was a man among boys. We only lost to them by one point and the next night they beat Richland, the number 1 rated High School Team in the state by 20+ points. Pasco went on to finish second in the state tournament a couple of weeks later and the Sophmore Phenom would end up playing tight end for the Seattle Seahawks of the NFL. We were a Senior dominated team and I was slated to be one of the starting guards the coming year. Tennis was even more exciting for me personally and as a team. We had a truly talented team and I rose in the ratings to second singles. I had numerous unexpected highlights throughout the year and finished forth at the District Tournament. My friends were beginning to respect my spiritual life as well as my academic and athletic accomplishments. But Wapato was a fairly small pond and I was becoming a bigger and bigger fish. It was a recipe for pride and disaster. Little did I know that God had other plans for me my Senior Year in High School.This would all be revealed to me during my summer months, living with my oldest sister, Patsy Pagiotas and her husband Paul and their three children near Schenectady, New York. Just when you think you suspect you know what God is all about in your life, there comes a curve ball that puts you on the seat of your pants and you have to get up, dust yourself off and start over. In the coming months in New York, God would challenge me with the most difficult choice I could have ever imagined.