December 23, 2008

Dear Family and Friends:

We know that you are praying for us and we thank you. Yesterday morning, 12/22, Anne and I met with Dr. Wayne Pinover, Radiation Oncologist at Abington Hospital’s Rosenfeld Cancer Center. He is most personable and well trained in his field of Prostate Cancer treatment. He is suggesting IMRT Radiation which will consist of about 39 daily radiation sessions five days per week for almost 8 weeks.

We are most comfortable with him and this treatment plan. This decision also means that we will not be going to Florida this winter. We believe that it is more important to move forward with treatment.

On Wednesday, December 31st, I have a TREATMENT PLANNING SESSION or SIMULATION to make the necessary preparations for the radiation treatments. During this session 3 gold markers will be implanted to guide the actual treatments.

As I realize afresh that God is in control and that He owns every cell of my body, Psalm 139 becomes even more powerful and personal to my heart. Let me share some of it with you:

Psalms 139 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. 5 You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

O LORD, YOU ARE NOT ONLY MY CREATOR, BUT YOU KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT ME. THUS I CAN COME TO YOU AT ANY TIME WITH ALL THAT IS ON MY HEART AND IN MY MIND. I AM OVERWHELMED WITH YOUR LOVE AND MERCY FOR ME RIGHT NOW!

7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

THANK YOU THAT YOU GUIDE ME AND HOLD ME FAST. I AM GOING DOWN A NEW PATH. THANK YOU THAT YOU HAVE BEEN THERE AND KNOW ALL ABOUT IT. THEREFORE I CAN FULLY TRUST YOU.

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

HOW AMAZING IS YOUR DESIGN AND PLAN FOR ME! ALL I CAN DO IS WORSHIP YOU AND THANK YOU.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
LORD, I ASK YOU TO EXAMINE ME AND REVEAL WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON IN MY SELF-DECEIVED HEART. YOU ALONE HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE MY HEART ATTITUDES. I ASK YOU TO DO THAT SO YOUR SPIRITUAL FRUIT WILL CONTINUE TO GROW IN MY LIFE.
I encourage each of you to PERSONALIZE Psalm 139 with your own story of pain and pressure. Then pray it back to God.

May the presence of Jesus be very clear and dear to your heart as you celebrate his birth.
In Jesus’ love, Tom and Anne