Praetor

It was a long and tiring road. Along this road we use generally descriptive terms, cancer, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but that does not do justice to what it entails.

We discovered that cancer isn’t just cancer. You get different types, with different degrees of strength. The chemotherapy is adjusted according to the type and strength of the cancer. The frequency and volume of the chemotherapy differs from person to person.

At last the last round of tests were done to see if the chemotherapy did its job. Sonar, clear; x-rays, clear; mammogram and sonar, clear; bone scan, clear. You would think this is the end of the road, but no, more is still to come.

The size and tissue of the tumour is also a factor. All in all my wife’s situation calls for further radiotherapy – a preventive treatment, because cancer has a stealthy way of spreading to other glands in the breast, neck, or to the bone structure or brain.

First of all they have to plan the treatment carefully. The radio treatment is indiscriminate – it destroys all in its path. They have to be careful to miss the heart and especially the lungs as much as possible. To do this they scan the chest once more and the doctor draws the areas to be treated with a black marker. At all the corners they apply a virtually invisible tattoo, which the radiotherapy machine picks up.

The radiotherapy is a dish-like machine, which moves around your body, not touching the body. The bed also moves around, up and own, swivelling around, but fortunately it does not tilt. This is like space travel. The machine and bed is computer controlled, calling out the instructions to get the angles and depth of penetration just right. It does so in my mother tongue (Afrikaans), mind you.

There is another little secret, a rather important one. They place a 2cm thick pad on your chest over the area that needs to be treated. It has a dark mustard colour, and is hard. They pace it on a small towel. The purpose of this pad is to absorb the radio rays so that the rays only penetrate about one centimetre under the skin. Without it the rays will penetrate two and a half centimetres, which will reach the underlying organs.

You have to face this for six weeks, five days per week for about twenty minutes per treatment. But it is not too bad. You lay topless in a nice heated theatre. Initially nothing is visible and no serious after-effects. Later it feels like a suntan gone wrong, still later it becomes somewhat painful.

We are thankful to the Lord Jesus Christ for undertaking, carrying and encouraging us on this road. We are grateful for everybody that has prayed for us. The long tiring road has been short and not so tiring.

Everybody seems very excited about the new hominid fossil that was discovered in SA with more to be recovered. As far as I can gather a hominid is something between a chimpanzee and a man. But I am somewhat confused. What are the scientists really saying to us. Some scientists are saying this is a step closer to the origins of man, others are saying it is the missing link.
Just take a closer look at the scientific name of this fossil, Australopithecus sediba. Australo = Southern, pithecus = ape, and sediba = fountain, spring in Sotho. Are they camouflaging the fact that they think it is actually an ape behind Greek terminology?

Really, if you look at the skull of the Au. Sediba (above) doesn’t it look more like that of an apelike creature in comparison to the Neanderthal man (adjacent) who clearly has a human skull? The saying, beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, comes to mind. You see what you want to see depending on your point of departure, isn’t it?

When it was her time to return for the fifth chemotherapy they tested her blood as usual. Red alert! Her blood count was down (white cells, platelets and haemoglobin). The doctor postponed the procedure for a week. She had a rough time with many guests at the guesthouse so it can be that she is exhausted and her resistance is down. She takes lots of rest, taking health foods and drinks. With high expectation that everything will be OK she returns a week later. No, same problem and once again the chemo is postponed. This time the (same) doctor prescribes ampoules to be injected to boost her blood count, and an extra week’s rest.

I become the doctor administering the injections every morning. She cleans the area, presses her stomach skin together and I insert the needle and inject. Everything goes well. She improves. We see how her energy levels increase. She rests the extra week. Now everything will be plain sailing. No, again it is not right! A third time the doctor postpones the chemotherapy. “Your count is too low. If you get treatment now you will be very, very sick.” “Aren’t you going to prescribe anything doctor?” “No just eat healthy and come back in TWO weeks.” Dumbfounded my wife phones me to come and fetch her.

We go for coffee and she tells me what transpired with the doctor at the hospital. Surely this can’t be right. Since her previous chemotherapy seven weeks have gone by. If we wait another two weeks, the effect of the chemotherapy will be lost. The doctor can’t be serious! Yet, she sent my wife home for another two weeks empty-handed! Nothing, nada. How can a doctor do such a thing? With a shock I realise that the Hippocratic oath has “evolved”.

In order to accommodate abortion and whatever the oath had to evolve. The doctors used to take the oath saying, “I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of over-treatment and therapeutic nihilism.” It must be difficult to find the middle-ground. It seems to me that the oath has evolved beyond the interest of the patient. I try to understand, but I am up in arms. Experience has learned us get a second opinion.

We can’t just let the doctor send her to her death. (That is how we felt at this stage). So my wife phones the head of oncology, a Christian Ghanaian. He wants to see her immediately. He is very concerned about the postponements. They should have consulted with him long ago. Although her blood count is low, it is not too low. She must immediately get treatment. He also prescribes anti-nauseous drugs and ampoules for picking up the blood again after the treatment.

Strange, she never fell ill. A little bit of headache, a little bit dizzy once or twice, but else she is fine. Even though we did not administer the booster until the second day after the chemo.

Cosmologists are desperately looking for water in other parts of the universe. Why? Because water is a sign of life. Water is a commodity we encounter daily, but have you ever given it a thought?

The wonder when you walk out in the early morning and you see the dew on the grass. Why do these droplets form on the grass? Why don’t they just run off? Oh, the splendour of the dew on a spider’s web! It’s like a net of fine diamonds. Are they stuck on the web because the spider’s web is so sticky?

Since man has gone to space we see photo’s of mother earth - a blue hue wrapped in a cloud cover. 71% of earth’s surface is covered by water.  Oceans are 97% of this surface water, glaciers and polar icecaps are 2.4%, the final 0.6 % are found in rivers, lakes and ponds. Look at your body, you seem quite solid. Some of us more than others. Have you felt the hardness of the body builder’s muscles?  To think that it is made up of 70% water! We can survive 40 days (or longer) without food, but we begin to be dehydrated (on a hot day) within hours. Development level of countries are among others determined by the availability of clean, safe drinking water. All living things on earth are dependent on water to survive.

Is it just accidental that our while life system on earth is centred around water? I doubt it. When you look at some of the characteristics of water there is nothing random about it. Water is made up of two hydrogen atoms that bond to one oxygen atom. But the extraordinary thing is that they bond at an angle of 104.5°. This 104.5° is magic. It causes the water molecule to be bipolar in other words it has a small negative charge and a small positive charge and gives water its peculiar characteristics.

Did you know that water becomes less dense from 4° Celsius and colder? So ponds & puddles freeze from the top to the bottom, but before it reaches the bottom, the top layer of ice isolates the terrible cold temperature in the air from the rest of the water below. All the water creatures survive and the Russians, Norwegians and Swedes can make a sport of swimming in the water under the ice cap of the river!

Those of you who play chess will know that any of the major pieces have greater striking ability from the centre of the board in contrast to when they are stuck at the side of the board. Well the dipoles of water also pull the ones at the surface down causing water to have a curved surface in any container. The interaction of the dipoles at the surface are so strong that it gives the water surface a skin effect. The water strider and ants use this characteristic of water to walk on the water. It’s a pity we are so heavy, but you can make a paper clip float if your are careful! Due to the interplay of these properties water can reach the tips of very large vascular trees overcoming gravity! We work up a sweat just to climb up the outside. This surface tension causes the beautiful drops to form on the spider’s web and the grass when it dews.

Now do you expect me to believe that all of this happened through a natural process?? I will believe you if you can prove to me that a delicate, precisely made Aquaswiss or Seiko Premier Sapphire watch or a shining red Ferrari also came about naturally.

We ascribe the making of these designs  to Intelligent Design. I think water also falls in this category, don’t you?

My daughter is 34 years old, but was brain-damaged due to a series of operations within her first year on earth. We were greatly concerned how she would react to her mother’s mastectomy and ensuing treatment. Through much prayer she has taken it in her stride, but I must say we only told her the bare necessities (excuse the pun).

Yesterday morning her mother came out of the shower with just her nightgown on. She called her mom to help her on the toilet. (She is very chubby and needs someone to help her as her arms are too short).  She looked at her mom and asked, “Do you only have one breast?” “Yes”. “Where is the other breast?” “It had cancer and the cancer was removed”. She unceremoniously reached out and drew away the gown and studied the operation mark for a few moments. “Oh. I have two breasts!” was her only reaction. The innocence of a child!
This was a great lesson to us, that a person must not push things. At the right time the children will ask questions when they are ready and then they are also better prepared to deal with the answers.  I had a suspicion that she was wondering about her mom’s breast, but now she knows.

At the change of the year I inevitably think of the Book by Henry Blackaby, “Experiencing God”. He refers to Noah. Doesn’t matter what Noah had planned if God was going to destroy the world through the flood. I inevitably wonder, What is on God’s mind for 2010?

We are all excited about the Soccer World Cup. I am amazed at some people’s optimism that Bafana Bafana is going to win the world cup (in spite of their poor performance to date). We make our new year’s resolutions. We plan for the coming year, but what will it avail to, if it does not fit in with God’s plans?

I was watching a challenging movie last night. (I seem to be watching out of the ordinary movies at new year’s eve - see post of 5th January 2009). It is a movie by Cloud Ten productions called “Tribulation”. It reflects on the persecution and oppression the followers of Jesus will experience in the end times before the return of Christ. That made me think … what if Christ’s return will be this year? How will that affect my agenda? Quite some thought!

People see good or bad omens in unnatural occurrences. Last night there was a moon eclipse that happens “once in a blue moon” (literally). Some people were reading a good omen into it. Then there was an albino deer that was born, also a once in a life time occurrence. White being a symbol of purity, they said the new year will be one that brings purity (or something to that effect). It made me think of Scripture where Jesus answers the question of his disciples namely, When will the destruction of Jerusalem be and the end times? (Matthew 24).

Among other things He says that at the time of his return the people will marry, bury, and go on with life as usual. Many people love the heat of summer, so they immediately notice when the cold of winter is over. But they are not particularly observant of the trees budding and the flowers sprouting decorating nature in a beautiful cloak of colour. The rat race of everyday life preoccupy them. There is no time to appreciate the change in nature or to reflect on it (that you perhaps do whilst on holiday). So the people will not understand the signs of the times and will be ignorant of Christ’s return.
What will 2010 bring us? Will we understand the signs of the times that things are not progressing as “normal”?

The dreaded holidays are here again. Yes, I know it is supposed to be a happy time, a relaxing time, a time of good will. Unfortunately we try to find happiness in a bottle, we can’t relax without the help of liquor, we only show good will to someone who gives us a drink. What is the end result? Accidents! People land in hospital, are maimed and the “lucky” ones die.

The TV is playing its part in this new culture. Since last Christmas the liquor adverts on TV has gone on unabated. The last two months it has picked up. From early to late you are invited to make a choice of your favoured brand. If you look carefully you will see a white band at the bottom of your screen saying that we should drink responsibly, drinking and driving kills, not for persons under 18 years of age. Do you seriously think that makes any impact at all? I wonder if anybody sees it, if they do, do they read it? If I wasn’t so concerned about the impact of liquor adverts on the lives of people, I probably would also have ignored it.

Great was my surprise to see that the ANC Youth League actually agree with me. Surprised because my world-view and theirs differ vastly. The only problem is that they have adopted an extreme standpoint. They want to ban all advertisements and close all liquor outlets after a certain hour, stop all sales on a Sunday. I can live with the last two, but what the Youth League don’t take into consideration is the vested interests of the liquor companies. They are unconcerned about the impact on children and teenagers. They say all the right things, but their action speak so loud nobody can hear what they are saying. If their adverts did not lead to higher liquor sales, why advertise? It would be bad policy to continue an activity at such tremendous cost (advertising during peak time must cost a packet) if it did not bring in lucrative rewards. More liquor sales, more drinking, higher chances of driving under the influence, the higher chances of making (fatal) accidents. The tragedy is that people who do not drink during the year, may indulge during this “festive”  season and fall victim to an accident, a fatal one.

The SABC and e-tv are also more concerned about their profits than the effect these liquor adverts have on the lives of people. Trying to get them to change their policy on liquor adverts is a futile effort. They have Board members, CEO’s and senior staff members to pay handsome salaries. [They try to save money by showing us the same films over and over again. For a change of spice they dig up some (very) oldies out of the archives. You can only watch the same film so many times before it becomes real boring]. So liquor adverts are a very lucrative source of income!

It is quite disturbing to me that few people seem to care about the liquor adverts. They are silent. I have however also learned that the pen is mightier than the sword; the newspaper editor is mightier than the politically incorrect correspondent. They say we have a democracy. Unless you have a platform to speak from, you don’t have a voice in the public media if they don’t like what you are saying.

I trust that in your part of the world things are not so gloomy or do you also brighten it with a cognac.