Mile Marker #2

Hello Friends - We have arrived at Mile Marker #2.  

As many of you may recall, we asked for prayers for God's clarity on which treatment path for John to head.  And guess what, God gave him clarity!  We sure love how God always delivers on His promises!  We thought the scripture below was very appropriate for this post, given what has taken place over the past couple weeks.

Proverbs 3:5-6  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight."

First, let's share the path John will be proceeding after considering IL-2 at the James, IPI at Mansfield and a few alternative options.  The option John will be moving forward with is the Get Well Center in Mansfield, who offers intensive and comprehensive alternative treatments.  Here is their website if your curiosity is peaked: www.allgetwell.com.

Now, let us share the really cool part about how God made it clear which path he wanted John to head.  John knew the President of the Get Well Center from many years ago.  John had been in recent contact with her before he was diagnosed and had a reminder to follow up with her for weeks (before he was diagnosed).  Those of you who know John, he never leaves things on a To Do List for that long. He has been looking at the reminder daily for a handful of weeks, which he himself said that was strange.  After John was diagnosed, he called his daughter Megan and asked her to research the Get Well Center and speak to the President to find out more about their approach in treating cancer right there in Mansfield, as he thought they did similar treatments to what Megan's husband had gone through in his battle against cancer.  Again, this is amazing that John initiated asking Megan to research this place.  Based on Megan's prior research, she was told that there were only 2 places in the country that currently administered mistletoe therapy via IV (Namaste - Colorado & Rudolph Steiner - Michigan).  This place was not on most people's radar at all.  Well, it was clearly on God's radar as this place does administer mistletoe therapy!  

At John's meeting on 2/5/15 with the Get Well Center, without John/Jill prompting or initiating anything about God, the President made the following statement about halfway through their meeting, “I believe healing comes from God.  You give yourself to the Lord. No one knows or has the right to say how long you can live, only God.  It’s between you and God.  Patients need to have a good relationship with God and prepare to change the rest of your life.  THIS MEETING WAS FROM GOD, NOT FROM US.”   Wow, WoW, WOW!!!!!

For those of you who haven't had a lot of medical treatment over the course of your life, know that very few Dr.’s ever give God ALL the glory to healing and remove themselves from needing at least some of the credit that they were part of in the process.  The President was extremely humble and removed herself from the equation, giving God ALL the praise for the healing regardless of her part in it.  And at the end of the meeting they all held hands and prayed together.  

The really cool thing about this is that God could have directed John down a path that he was the least comfortable with.  However God knows John so intimately and is directing him to a treatment that will allow him to continue working, be home in his own bed at night, not have harmful side effects, and not lose his hair (lol).  And this was the only treatment that both John and Jill both felt comfortable with.  How loving is that?

So...now what?  Toward the end of this week, John will hopefully meet with the Get Well Center to go over when his treatment at the Center will officially begin.  He began his detox last weekend which involves a SUPER strict diet and detox shakes.  Their goal being to starve out cancer with eating no sugar, dairy or meat.  Even most fruits and some sweet veggies are out of the question and he can not combine eating fruits/veggies at the same time.  Those of you who know John well know this is going to be extremely difficult.  So please pray for his strength in changing over his lifestyle in this area as well as for Jill as she learns to prepare food for John in this whole new approach that is very specific and time consuming.  This will be a long term change, not just a temporary diet that will change in a few weeks, to give him his best fighting chance.

This week the Get Well Center will send John's bloodwork to Greece to have the "Greek Test" performed, which researches the most effective alternative types of treatments for John, not just for patients that have melanoma.  It's very individualized.  That typically takes 10 days to get the results back.  This program will require John to be at the Get Well Center for 2 full months ranging from 3-5 hours a day for a variety of infusions depending on what part of the plan he is in at the time.

How Can You Help?    

1.  Financially - This treatment is very costly and will place a large financial burden on John and Jill, as this is not covered by insurance because it is an alternative option.  As a reminder, the conventional paths offered to John had very low effective rates.  Know that details on fundraising for them will be coming out very soon, so please stay tuned.  We know that so many people want to love and support the Gurney's during this difficult race.  Financially is one of the bigger areas at this point to support funding the entire treatment protocol including a very specific way they require him to now eat.  

2. Prayer - Pray for both John & Jill and family - prayer requests are located on the right hand side of the blog at jgurneyfamily.blogspot.com

3. Encourage - Please do not make them feel badly for choosing an alternative path, as this is the path God directed them down.  We know that many don't understand or haven't had experience with treating diseases alternatively and we need to encourage vs. discourage them in following God's lead.

4. Food - Please try not to make food be the center of your conversation with them unless they initiate it.   They are already experiencing the hard way that our culture revolves around food and not in a way that they are able to participate in at this time.  However, please still include them in living life together!

Thank you again for your love, support and encouragement!   John & Jill are so incredibly thankful for all of the calls, emails, texts, cards, gifts, etc. you have been showering them with.  It means so much to know they have so many supporters to help them through this race.

With Much Love,

The Gooney Gurneys