Starting a Movement

Hello and welcome back to StrodeDad. I want to say thank you for taking the time to read this today, and whether you're new or a returning reader/listener, I want you to know that I appreciate you. Let's say a prayer and then get started.

Dear Lord, thank you for today. Thank you for giving me the very air in my lungs that allow me to live in this beautiful world you created. Lord, I ask today for your guidance as I write. Please give me guidance and allow me to send the message you want to be sent today. I ask Lord, that you open my readers and my listeners up to the message you want sent to them. Thank you again Lord for the opportunity to get to write today and express my thoughts, opinions, and feelings in a constructive way. In your holy name, I pray, amen.

So this entry is going to be a shorter entry. I've been trying to switch to the podcast medium but that's a slow process and sometimes the hospital visits make it hard to put content out in a timely manner. I still plan on proceeding forward with the podcast however I felt like this could provide me with some additional content in between episodes.

So you have probably seen a few of my posts lately detailing how God answered one of my prayers for Adeline. In case you haven't seen it or missed it here is a short recap. About two weeks ago, the week before Memorial Day weekend Adeline spiked a fever. Normally this would result in an emergency room visit to St. Louis Children's Hospital where they would double-check that she didn't have an infection, give her a dose of antibiotics, and send her home. However, this time was different. This time Adeline happened to be neutropenic.

To explain, neutropenia is when a specific kind of white blood cells called neutrophils are extremely low in her body. This results in a high risk of infection. What does this mean for chemotherapy patients? It means that the chemo medicines have done their job and killed essentially every fast-reproducing cell in her body. However, what this also means is that even something as small as the common cold could essentially make her very very sick.

So, because she is neutropenic, she is considered at high risk for infection and she has just run a fever which can sometimes be a sign of infection. In this scenario, they admit the child to the hospital for monitoring and a litany of labs. What this also means is that Adeline and I got to stay in the hospital for several days while her cells regenerated and her ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count) went up from zero.

During this time we essentially just waited, trying to find things to keep us occupied. Adeline's fever had gone down by the time we made it to the 9th floor for admittance but because she was neutropenic, they wouldn't discharge us without seeing an increase in her ANC. Specifically, they needed to see two days rise of 100 or more or get above 500. So now we played the waiting game and each morning at 4 AM she would receive labs that provided us with her numbers. So we went in on Tuesday night before Memorial Day weekend and waited and waited for her numbers to come up. Each day she seemed perfectly fine yet her numbers would still be at 0.

We spent her birthday there and we all tried to make it as special as we could; the nurses, the doctors, and the child life specialist all tried to help make it special. Erika came to see us and brought presents for her and one to share with Adeline's new best friend and roommate while we were there, Zoe. A cuter pair could not be found. But the days proceeded and we are drawing closer to Erika's birthday. This was driving us all nuts. Adeline wanted to go home and didn't understand why she had to stay when she felt fine. Erika was missing both of us and to be honest, she was pretty tired of her birthday celebrations.

Last year we found out Adeline had cancer two days after her birthday. That also means we found out two days before Erika's birthday that Adeline had cancer. So if you could imagine for a second that this weekend is awful enough as it is because it is a reminder of this terrible diagnosis that shocked us all to the core. But to top it off it ruined any chance of Erika having a good birthday last year, understandably so. And now this year, this year we looked like we were going to be stuck in the hospital for her birthday. So that Friday rolled around and her ANC came back at 46. 46 was good, and it was an increase although not high enough to be counted. The doctor even warned me that it would most likely stay at that point for a few days with little to no increase.

That night I did the only thing I could do, which was to pray. I laid my hands on Adeline and I prayed to God. I thanked Him for providing us with such good doctors and thanked him for the opportunity to be treated at such an amazing hospital. I thanked him for all the good and all the bad because it meant that his will was being done in our lives. I asked him to give Adeline strength and heal according to his will. I prayed for minutes just asking him for this over and over. When I said Amen, I hoped that maybe she would go up by at least 100. Give us our first day of a 100 increase. That still had us staying until at least Sunday but it was better than missing Erika's birthday altogether.

God humbled me the next morning. He told me in His way that my hopes were not large enough. He reminded me that with faith mountains can be moved.

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20, NIV)

And let me tell you a mountain He did move. The doctor walked in Saturday morning. He walked over and asked me if I had seen what her ANC was. I had seen the labs but didn't know how to calculate the ANC so I told him no. "Well her ANC is 1700," he said shaking his head.

1700. I couldn't believe it. It sounds like a moment from a movie but it's the truth. Even the doctor was shocked. He shook his head some more and said, "That's a pretty big jump." I knew it when he said 1700 that God had answered my prayer and humbled me and my little faith in a big way.

I share this because it needs to be shared. People need to know that God does answer prayers. He doesn't answer every prayer and only He can know the reason for that. But I ask Him every day for His will to be done in my life. His will, not mine. People think that God should just answer every prayer but that's not how He works. Heck, it's not how we work as parents. Think of your own kids or maybe a friend's kids if you don't have any. Do you give them everything they want all the time? No, most likely you do not. Because when you do your kids start to expect that each time they want something. They become spoiled. God is our Father; he doesn't give us what we want every time we want it. Even Jesus prayed and asked him to take this away from him but also told him, but your will not mine.

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39, NIV)

What do I hope for in sharing this story? I hope that people will share it. I hope they will turn to their friends, family, or co-worker and say hey do you believe this? I hope that this story will spread around the globe and that others will read what I've written and know that it was God's will being done in our lives that day. I hope they will read it and know that God loves us, each of us, in every way. He loves us so much that He is always there waiting with an outstretched hand for us to take it. He loves us so much that even when we willfully turn away from Him, He is there waiting.

GOD LOVES YOU!

What else do I hope to gain from writing all this? I hope that people read this and say wow, I didn't know that these families went through all of that. I hope they read this and say, man, I wonder what else they have to go through. I hope that when they read this, they start to question and open up to the idea that pediatric cancer isn't rare. Pediatric cancer impacts families all across the globe. I hope that more people start to read what I write or listen to my podcast. I hope that when they do they start to share it to get others to open up and listen. And once all those people start listening and saying wow this sounds so terrible, I hope that they start to ask why we have to go through this. Why do our kids get cancer? Why do the medications that we have to give them for treatment have such bad side effects? Why aren't we researching more?

The biggest and best question is; WHY IS THERE ONLY 4% OF FEDERAL FUNDING GOING TOWARD PEDIATRIC CANCER?

When does this change? I hope that when people read this, that's the question they come to. I hope they learn that just because their child is healthy now doesn't mean they always will be. I hope they learn to stop ignoring pediatric cancer and start doing something about it. Write your congressman, write your senators, write your governors and your mayors. Write letters to the President asking for a change, asking for more, and at the top of each letter write this:

NO MORE 4; OUR KIDS NEED MORE!

If you read this and feel the same way, please share this. Please share this post with others. Please pass it along any medium you can and ask others to do the same. It takes a handful of people to start a movement and right now I believe is the time. Share, reshare, and ask others to do the same. We can make a change; we just have to fight for it.

In the meantime, I ask that you pray. Pray with me now.

Dear Lord, thank you for your love, mercy, and grace. Thank you for always accepting us no matter how many times we have walked away. Lord, I pray for pediatric cancer families. I pray for their child to be healed. I pray Lord that if it is within your will that you heal them or if it is within your will, that you give them strength as they receive their treatments. I ask today Lord that you help each and every family know that they are never alone. Please Lord guide them through this awful storm. Thank you again Lord for being our savior and loving us the way you do. And Lord I ask that the families who are going through this who are angry and don't understand how this could be happening that you forgive them for their anger. I am angry Lord; there are times that I feel you have forsaken us. But I am reminded Lord of your love and amazing power. So please Lord work YOUR will into all of our lives. In your holy name, I pray, AMEN!

Thank you again for taking the time to read this entry and I hope you all have a blessed day. Until next time...