Health Scare

August 17, 2021

Friends

We wanted to let everyone know that we are in the middle of a health scare.

We thought about waiting to invite people in, but are eager for the saints to be praying... and are counting on it.

In January, my left shoulder started to hurt and I chalked it up to a repetitive motion injury from driving a semi in the yard at UPS. Exercises, physical therapy, rest led to no substantial change. Mostly I was managing pain with Advil. We finally decided to head back to the doctor and had an MRI on Friday, Aug 6th. Strangely the doctor called me into his office to go over results on Thursday, August 12th.

"Dave, you have a small tear and a little arthritis in your shoulder. That doesn't matter... the scary part is a 7cm x 4cm mass in your shoulder blade. Could be a large cyst. Could be a degenerative bone condition (like termites that eat you bones - nice, right?). Could be cancer."

My doctor is awesome. Straightforward and clear.

A few days previously, I had a picture come to mind - call it a vision, call it whatever - but it was from the Lord: me and my doctor in his office praying about me.

I looked at him and asked if he knew Jesus. He said yes. I said, "Doc, we are going to pray right now." And I did. We prayed... and surrendered my future to Jesus.

August 13 (Friday the 13th), we did a lot of blood work and talked to (too) many specialists... most likely we are looking at some sort of cancer. It could be manageable. It could be bad - cancer doesn't usually start in a guys shoulder blade, so it will have traveled there from somewhere else (not good).

So, here we are.

The next steps look like this:

• CATSCAN guided biopsy Thursday morning at 10.15

• September 1, I'll meet with my surgeon to go over results of blood work and biopsy (that's two weeks away ~ feels like a long time!)

• We make a plan for the next steps

In the meantime, we have had this week off of work and are being together as a family. The grace of God has been sustaining us ... and we ask for your prayers.

As we are starting a church right now, we believe God has work for us to do and we are going to be about it. Please pray that God heals my shoulder and my body. Please pray for Amy and the boys (we haven't communicated any of this to our 3 year old Charles or, obviously, our 4.5 month old Owen).

Of course, we want healing. Of course, we want this to be behind us. But more than anything, I find myself wanting to tell people about their Father... who loves them... knows them and has a place for them.

Thankful for you everyone. We'll be less personally communicative than we may normally have been, but I hope to send an update out on Mondays for the next few weeks.

He lives. He reigns. He loves.