Monday, 1 October 2007
Houston, Texas

A father’s report

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

On September 13, our son Everett, who just turned 22, was diagnosed with a highly malignant tumor of his pelvic bone and referred to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for treatment. Cindy and I immediately flew back to the United States and met Everett in Houston just in time for his initial appointment. His physician, Dr. Patrick Lin, an orthopedic oncologist, met with us to review the first x-rays that show extensive disease. Everett then underwent a series of scans, including a PET CT scan of most of his body, and a biopsy of his tumor. He has Ewing’s sarcoma, an uncommon type of bone cancer seen in young people.

The past two weeks for us have been marked by both desolation and consolation, and at times, the two mixed in painful yet joyful experiences. As Everett has made so much progress in his own personal life in the past two years, it was the hardest thing for me to hold him as he wept on my shoulder. Yet I have never felt closer to my son. I have been consoled by other events, such as driving with him on Interstate 10 with the music turned up loud, eating sushi with him on his birthday, and seeing him fall into his characteristic uncontrollable giggles as I joked with him in the recovery room after his biopsy.

The finest consolation came on Friday: Dr. Lin called to report that Everett’s scans reveal no evidence of metastasis, or spread of his cancer to other parts of his body, so common in this disease. Given the extent of Everett’s cancer in his pelvic bone, that news is miraculous. It means that Everett has a better chance for a cure. Chemotherapy, the first step in the treatment of Ewing’s sarcoma, will begin this week.

I approach Everett’s situation as I do for every patient I care for as a physician—with the conviction that life is more than the result of the laws of nature, that God, our Father, is with us in our suffering, and that he has the power to heal. As Everett’s own father, I will be with him all the way.

Yours,

Les

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 115