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| Ben and Lisa Morrell October '11 |
Ben blogged all throughout his cancer treatments, and there is plenty of reading about that in the archives. But if you're interested in the short version of his cancer story, read on.
Ben was first diagnosed with cancer in May 2007 when we lived in Seattle. He then underwent nine months of intense chemo, surgery and radiation. At that point his doctor declared him cancer free. Shortly after that he was offered a job in Colorado Springs and we moved in Colorado.
A year and a half of checkups after the "all clear" the cancer came back and was found in his chest (around his trachea and behind his heart.) He consulted with a doctor in Houston but continued to live and get treatments in Colorado.
Summer of 2010 Ben was offered a chance to get into a clinical trial, but it was only in Houston. We moved again to Houston to be a part of the trial. In January 2011 the trial was found to be ineffective, so Ben started high doses of a chemo drug called Ifosfamide. He received a year and a half of those those treatments. May 2012 was five years of fighting cancer.
In June of 2012 they gave Ben a three month break and when he came back the tumors had continued to grow. His doctor put him on a prostate cancer protocol to see if that did anything to his tumors.
Following his scan after Thanksgiving the doctor took a look at them, and then a look at him and said, "I can't put you back on high dosage chemo because your body won't handle it. At the rate you are going I would say you probably have six months left to live." We prayed fervently for healing, and amazingly, the tumors shrank significantly. It's still a mystery that we saw God's hand so clearly, but Ben didn't receive complete healing.
After one more type of treatment, there were no more options. Ben and I moved back to Seattle to be with family. He had a chance to see many of his family members and good friends before he went to be with our Lord.
In June 2012, Ben shared his story with our Sunday School class in Houston. It's recorded at the link below:
Ben's Talk by Ben Morrell 1