The Gloves are Off

 

The gloves are off. Now the battle is engaged.

At least, that’s how I felt yesterday, in my first session of immunotherapy at Belfast City Hospital’s Cancer Centre.

Sitting comfortably in a reclining chair, one of four in the ward, with a tube in my arm.

Various solutions are being fed in from a drip. First Nivo, then Ipi, and, in between, drips of saline flush. 

Each one takes between 30 to 90 mins, so the whole process lasts about 5 hours.

The doctors and nurses are amazing in their care and professionalism.

The sessions will be every three weeks, so I am back here at the end of August

Nivo and Ipi - not their real names, which are unpronounceable - are my two collaborators in this fight. 

These two chemicals are being sent in to reawaken my body’s natural immune system to the dangerous cancer cells 

that have been lurking in my body.

Thats the crazy thing about it. Cancer cells are actually my own body cells, that have gone rogue. 

They refuse to perform in the way for which they were created.

They have become rebels, and as such are doing everything to work against my own body.

Including inhibiting my own immune system from being able to detect that they are even there and that they are a threat.

Bill Bryson, in his book “The Body” puts it this way. 

He says “Cancer is, appallingly, your own body doing its best to kill you.”

That’s why I see all of this as a battle. Frontline are my two collaborators.

Plus my own self maintaining a positive attitude and healthy lifestyle. 

Behind this is all the technical support provided by the medical team.

Behind them are several cohorts of prayer supporters, in Ireland, in Portugal, in Greece, and elsewhere.

Our own wonderful family as well. And of course, my amazing Anna.

And, over of all this, is a loving, powerful God who deals in the supernatural

So let's see where all of this goes.

Yesterday, my friend Manuel in Lisbon sent me 

a reference from Psalm 16. It was brilliant because 

it stood in stark contrast to my earlier meditation on Psalm 23.

That psalm spoke of the 'valley of the shadow of death'

Here, it talks of 'the pathway of life'.

They are in fact one and the same thing. 

God's pathway to life often takes us via the shadow of death

What better way to celebrate this pathway of life

than to go down to the sea at Castlerock today!

          “You make known to me the path of life 

             And fill me with joy in your presence.”