Dear friends,
After being
diagnosed with cancer, I always feel a special bond when I meet another cancer
patient or survivor. The cancer club is the club you never want to join, but
it's also one that connects you to a beautiful community of people. One of the most
amazing people cancer connected me to was Molly Remmert Rossell, a beautiful
young mother from Alabama who is also battling metastatic melanoma. If you follow my facebook page, you’ve seen my
post about Molly, and maybe you have even prayed for her. Molly has inspired
thousands with the way she has battled this disease so gracefully, always with
a positive attitude. Her strength and dignity have been such a testament to her
unwavering faith and has brought glory to God. Though I’ve only known her a
short time, and only via phone calls and text messages, she continues to be a
blessing and an inspiration. Friends, please take a moment and pray for Molly
and her family. The latest update is not good. Molly has been fighting with the
best medical care and newest drugs, but the cancer has been relentless. Medical
attempts have been exhausted, and Molly is being moved to palliative care in the
morning.
Here is an excerpt
from her sibling’s latest update: “So, how do we proceed? Molly will be moved
to palliative care in the morning. In that venue, the focus will be on making
her as comfortable as possible. There will not be additional medical attempts
to combat her cancer and surrounding complications, as those attempts have all
been exhausted. More significantly, how
do we proceed with the prospect of her (likely imminent) departure from this
life? Simply, we do so as she would want us to. Prayerfully. Hopefully. Trustingly.
Joyfully. For those traits are the characteristics she’s shown us throughout
her entire life. And in about as graceful a manner one as one is humanly able, if
we might say so. She would also want us to focus on the eternal peace she will
realize in her home ahead, whenever she may enter it. For she is an Easter
Person, and we are Easter People who put all of our trust not in this fleeting
world, but in the resurrected Christ and in His everlasting world of Heaven above.”
I was grieved to
read this update, and shed many tears tonight. I am also inspired by the faith
of Molly and her family – as they are grieving this news, they are still
trusting Jesus with Molly’s future. They know Molly belongs to Him, and that He
will carry Molly into complete healing and restoration, if not on earth, than certainly
in Heaven. Their hope is anchored in Jesus, who brings beauty from the ashes
and makes all things new.
Thank you for
praying for Molly and her family, and thank you for your continued prayers for
us. We received some unexpected news last month. Long story short, there is
actually a clause in my clinical trial paperwork that says any complete responder
has to exit the trial. This was only discovered after the scans I mailed to Boston
got lost somehow, and the protocol office didn’t want to clear me for my
November 16th treatment that I showed up for. This was a shock for
my medical team and for us. So, as of November 16th, I have been
officially out of the trial and off of treatment. I told my mom I feel a little
like someone took my training wheels off before I was ready to ride my bike on
my own.
We are flying to
Boston on Tuesday of next week for an early morning meeting with my oncologist
on Wednesday. There are a few options for us – though I can no longer be in the
clinical trial, one of the drugs I was taking has recently been FDA approved,
so I have access to it (street name Opdivo). The other option is to do nothing
for 12 months. If I stay off of treatment for 12 months, and the disease comes
back, I can reenter the clinical trial. We will see what my medical team
advises on Wednesday and go from there. The good news is that I can get Opdivo
anywhere, now that it is FDA approved. So, that likely means no more back and forth to Boston every other week.
We will have to travel there for a few follow up visits required upon exiting the trial (30 days
after, 60 days after, and 100 days after). Possibly more. We just don't know yet.
I’ll share the longer version of this story
at some point, but we are thankful no one caught that clause in the paperwork in
June when I got the official NED report. I was able to get two more complete cycles
of treatment that I technically should not have received. The crazy way I
actually got into this trial, and the crazy way I got out of it are too
extraordinary to not be divine. I believe God’s hand has been all in it and
through it, and that has really given me an extreme peace about whatever my
treatment plan is moving forward.
And an even stranger/funnier/awesome thing
that happened on that trip to Boston was my cab ride from the hotel to the
airport. I was still in a little bit of shock after receiving the news of my
abrupt end to treatment when I got in a van to head to the airport the next
morning. My Haitian driver was very chatty and asked me where I was from. When
I told him Mississippi he asked, “Well what church do you go to? I know
EVERYBODY in Mississippi goes to church.” I told him ALMOST everybody does, but
that I HAD to go because my daddy was the preacher. ;) We chatted a little about church
and he asked what I was doing in Boston. I told him I was here for cancer treatment
and he got really quiet. After a few moments of silence, this precious man
started praying the most beautiful, fervent prayer for me. Not knowing I was in
remission, he thanked the Lord for healing me. He prayed me all the way to the
airport and ruined my mascara. I’m telling you right now that Jesus showed up
in that cab.
And as I look back over this entire cancer experience, that’s been
the case. Jesus has just shown up for me. Through every high and low place, He
just keeps showing up. Whether I ask Him to or not, and regardless of what I have done or haven't done. He is that good. Even in
the hard, awful, sad, tragic things, he shows up. I’m thankful that there is
more to our story than just this life on earth. But I am thankful that He gifts
us with this life too. And I am so eternally thankful that He gifts us with you all,
who have prayed for us and carried us through the past year. There is just no
way I could not make it without your support. Thank you for the incredible ways YOU continue to show up for us.
I will update you with the new treatment plan
after our meeting on Wednesday.
With much love,
Meredith
