Update on the Update

Everyone -



Our lives are never dull - after Kent had purchased tickets last night to fly to Greece for the week next week, this morning my doctor called to say. "Good news! We've moved your surgery up to Monday night!" We were happy to be able to get the surgery done sooner but Kent had already made plans for things he was going to do in Greece and of course we had bought tickets on line so we worried about getting a refund. However we called and Delta said that since we bought them on the Delta site and since it was within 24 hours there was no problem and they just refunded the full amount. SO thankful! So Kent will not be making a trip to Greece and I will be having surgery this Monday the 19th at 5pm at Good Samaritan Hospital in downtown Portland.



Love, Myrna

Health Update

Everyone,



A lot has happened in the last few days and I am still trying to process it all. I got up Monday morning early so I could go in for my scan. I am going through a bible study called "Stronger" and the lesson for the day was "God is stronger than your bad news". I told Kent on the way to the hospital for my scan - this does not bode well for me. After my scan was over the technician said to me "Do you have an appointment with your doctor right away?" I said "Yes I have one on Wednesday". They have never asked me before whether I had a doctor's appointment - another little sign to me that perhaps things were not going to be well.



The day before on Sunday when we were at church in Elmira I had asked several people to pray that God would give us a definitive answer. Since I had been feeling some better we were in hopes that they would say that the tumor had shrunk or there was scar tissue but we were afraid they might say "Well things look about the same I think we should just continue to wait and see what happens and then we would know what to do about Kent returning to Greece etc.



We got our definitive answer. I was not supposed to get the results of the scan until Wednesday but we had only been home a few hours when the doctor called. He said "The tumors have grown." I said "A little? A lot?" He said "Significantly". He felt it was time we needed to go ahead and do the open kidney surgery and said he would call the surgeon when he got off the phone with me.



Yesterday we saw the surgeon and the news seemed even a little more discouraging. She said that well over half of my left kidney was gone and that the tumor in my right kidney had increased as well. She said that she planned to operate on the left kidney trying to lop of about the bottom third of the kidney. However she said that there was a possibility that she would not be able to find enough good tissue to sew things back together again and if that was the case then she would need to take the whole kidney. This is why she has chosen to cut on the left kidney although it is the more difficult kidney because if I have to lose a kidney better to lose it than to lose the one with more healthy tissue. She said the other concern is that they would seed infection or whatever this is into my abdomen so they were going to try and stay as far to the side as possible and keep me in the hospital with drain tubes for a few day in order to prevent that. She said "I usually go in pretty confident of what I am going to do and I am sorry to not be able to give you better answers but I just don't know what I am going to find when I get in there". She wanted to have a second surgeon in the room as well so because of that they will not be able to do the surgery until May 29th.



One of the hard things about this is that though it is a serious surgery and a six week recovery it does nothing to make me better - it only gives them more tissue to hopefully be able to find out what is eating up my kidneys. My Infectious Disease Doctor says that he only knows of maybe 2 cases ever that are even similar and the surgeon said she has show my scan around to everyone she knows and they are all baffled.



Needless to say this has hit me pretty hard and I am having a few struggles dealing with it emotionally. Although Kent understands and is very sympathetic to this he is going to leave on Saturday and fly to Greece for a little over a week coming back a couple days before my surgery. He really feels that since he will for sure not be able to leave until after our daughters wedding in August, and because we don't know what the future holds as far as treatment if they are able to find what is wrong, this is his one window of time to go back and take care of some leadership responsibilities. Please pray for us both during this time - pray that his time there will be productive and pray for peace for me as I am here doing the pre-op stuff without him.



We don't know where this will lead but we are trusting God that he will show us the way through. Thank you for your prayers and love.



Kent and Myrna Morley
Tripoleos 76
Elliniko 16777
Athens Greece
011 30 210 96 38 625
backhoeboy1@gmail.com
http://kent-uniquelymorley.blogspot.com
To join our Support Team:
Online go to: www.iteams.org select: US, Select: What do you want to do, Select: Give
Or Send to:
International Teams
411 W. River Rd.
Elgin IL 60123
Please designate for the ministry of Kent and Myrna Morley and indicate whether this is a one time gift or monthly support. Thanks :)

Health Update

Everyone -



I know we were expecting to get a scan this week and perhaps have some answers but my doctor wanted to wait a full month to give the medicine time to work. SO I have my scan scheduled for the 12th with an appointment on the 14th to see the doctor and discuss the results. I have actually been feeling better and have not had the fever and chills for the last couple of weeks so we are hopeful that the medicine is doing it's job. I had trouble with my lower lip cracking open and being very sore in reaction to the medication for the first few weeks but after trying some things and making some adjustments to my other medications it has almost cleared. Please pray for us during this time - if my scan shows the medicine is working and the only treatment is going to be continuing on the medicine then Kent will likely take a flight back to Greece as early as possible. I will stay on here both to be sure I am nearby in case of complications during the treatment and also just for financial saving since we need to come back to the states in August for our youngest daughter's wedding. We don't like the prospect of being apart for so long but feel like it is the best option. IF the medicine is not working the plan was to go ahead right away and do the surgery to take a bigger chunk of the tumor and of course Kent would stay for that. I find I am a little emotional lately just about everything - we lost a dear friend in an accident recently (we were staying in their home while they were gone and he was killed while they were away) and it just made me realize how fragile life is and how we need to cherish the time we have with each other.



Kent spoke with Christy who is acting team leader in Greece while we are away and she said thing are going great so we are thankful for that but anxious to be back at work. I have continued to field Short Term Team Correspondence and Kent has kept in touch plus taken care of a few administrative things so hopefully we won't be too out of the loop when we get back. Thank you again for praying for us and for continuing to support us through all of this - we are so grateful to God for giving us such a wonderful group of people like you.



Kent and Myrna Morley
Tripoleos 76
Elliniko 16777
Athens Greece
011 30 210 96 38 625
backhoeboy1@gmail.com
http://kent-uniquelymorley.blogspot.com
To join our Support Team:
Online go to: www.iteams.org select: US, Select: What do you want to do, Select: Give
Or Send to:
International Teams
411 W. River Rd.
Elgin IL 60123
Please designate for the ministry of Kent and Myrna Morley and indicate whether this is a one time gift or monthly support. Thanks :)

Health and Ministry Update

Everyone -



I know it has been a while since I sent an update but we have just been waiting on results. I saw an infectious disease doctor today for a follow up. He is covering for my doctor who is out of town until the 15th. He said the University of WA found some mold DNA in one of my tissue samples. The doctor said this could mean that I have contracted a fungal infection mold can cause although it is more common to see this in the lungs than in the kidneys. He said it IS possible for it to be in the kidneys especially in light of my compromised immune system. He said it is also possible that it is some sort of contaminate that got on my sample and is a red herring. He wants to put me on an anti fungal medication for a period of time and see if it helps. However it is VERY expensive so he needs to line up our insurance coverage and even some help from the pharmaceutical company first. He said it could take months to completely work but that he would like to scan my kidneys in about 3 weeks after I start the medication and see if it seems to be working. If it doesn't seem to have changed anything then we would consider going ahead with the open biopsy at that time. He said if it is working we should begin to see the tumors shrink or see some scar tissue. There are some side effects to this medication - one of which is that he said I would likely see some flashing lights. I was not excited to hear this since I'm finally free of these since I am on the medication for my visual migraines. I have been feeling a little worse lately - less energy and more fevers. I don't know if that has anything to do with the fact that they took me off the antibiotics I was on or not. All in all I am a little discouraged again - it seems like it just goes on and on with no end in sight. I told the doctor today that I wouldn't mind so much if we lived here because life would go on normally as we waited for this test or to see if this worked. Instead our lives are on hold while there is always something looming in the near future that MIGHT happen which would be a big event. I told Kent today that I am so glad he is here with me to navigate around Portland, finding different doctor's offices etc. and just to be a support to me. I know he especially feels a desire to be back in Greece and getting on with what God has called him to there. However he has prayed about whether he should just go back and leave me here (which we assume may happen at some point) but has not felt a peace or a compulsion from the Lord that he is supposed to go now. So for the time being he will be here supporting me, taking care of administrative things by computer and doing what he can to support the team from a distance.



I mentioned the high cost of the medication the doctor wants to give me - hopefully most of that will be covered but I guess I need to mention finances even though it is not a subject I like or bring up often. We are once again being hit with bills above and beyond our deductible until we reach a cap of I think 5000 dollars more. As you can imagine the bills are coming in so we just wanted to let you know if you feel led to give a one time gift toward this it would be greatly appreciated. We have been so blessed by our supporters and God has provided amazingly through you but it is hard when we feel like we are sitting on the sidelines to ask for extra finances. We are thankful for everyone of you and for the gifts that come our way every month.



Please be in prayer for the ministry in Athens especially these next couple of weeks coming up on Easter. There will be some special presentations and a very clear presentation of the gospel. I always think of the two ladies who were watching the Jesus film one day at the ARC and crying during the crucifixion. After the part about the resurrection they said "We didn't know that Jesus came back to life - why did no one tell us this news!?" That news will be proclaimed loud and clear in these next couple of weeks. Pray that it falls on hearts that are ready to hear.



Kent and Myrna Morley
Tripoleos 76
Elliniko 16777
Athens Greece
011 30 210 96 38 625
backhoeboy1@gmail.com
http://kent-uniquelymorley.blogspot.com
To join our Support Team:
Online go to: www.iteams.org select: US, Select: What do you want to do, Select: Give
Or Send to:
International Teams
411 W. River Rd.
Elgin IL 60123
Please designate for the ministry of Kent and Myrna Morley and indicate whether this is a one time gift or monthly support. Thanks :)

Health Update

Everyone,



I had my appointment with the infectious disease doctor yesterday and we were somewhat encouraged although it could take some time to pin things down. He kept looking at my scans and files and saying "This is weird, this is just weird." This is the same thing I have heard from every doctor I have seen. He said the main thing that is weird is that you usually don't see anything like this - cancer or infection in both kidneys, usually it is just in one. He asked me a lot of questions and then said that he wished I had not been taking the antibiotics prescribed by the last doctor because while they would not kill whatever it was they would make it harder to grow in a culture. He told me to stop taking them right away. He said he had three ideas of the kind of infection I might have. I can only remember the name of one of them, it is Mycobacterium bovis and he said it is a cousin to TB. It comes from eating unpasteurized milk or cheese and could be from feta that I had in Greece. I told him that I get my feta at the grocery but Kent reminded me that we eat out even in small villages and don't know where they get their feta. Dr. Crislip said that because of my compromised immune system something that wouldn't make someone else sick could make me sick. Anyway that was one possibility. There were two others but I can't remember their names. He said he was going to do a blood test for one and that he was sending tissue samples from my last needle biopsy up to the University of WA where they have a molecular lab and can do some DNA testing on some of these infections. He said "we might luck out and get a hit but I think we are probably going to need more tissue and that will mean an open surgery to get a chunk of the tumor to biopsy". He said he would like me to be off the antibiotics for 5 weeks before the tests so I have a feeling they will wait until then to do the surgery which would mean beginning of May - wait, wait, wait....He said he is pretty confident that it is not cancer but is an infection however. I said okay so when we find it what do we do? He looked and me and said "WE KILL IT!" I like that answer! He said "if we find out what it is I'm going to find a way to kill it." He said most likely that would be with oral antibiotics but we wouldn't know until we knew what it was. I said "how will we know it's dead?" and he said "that will depend on what it is - we need a diagnosis." I am supposed to call a week from Friday if I don't hear from him - he said "If you DO hear from me it will be a very excited phone call because it will mean we got a hit." He also said he was going to consult with a colleague who had a special interest in kidney infections. So I feel like once again we are on the track but the wheels are turning slowly. If we do the surgery it will be a major surgery rather than a minor laparoscopic surgery and we don't know what the diagnosis will be, so we still feel Kent needs to be here. We have been filling our time recently helping the McCrackens redo their large yard at their new home in Portland. It has been good for both of us. Kent is busy and I have worked outside and am feeling stronger although I DO spend quite a bit of time sitting and resting while bossing Kent and Vic around. We may help out some others with this kind of thing just to keep us out of trouble.



I would like to share just one way God has blessed us recently. A couple in the church at Willamette Christian had generously lent us a car which we have been using for the last month and a half. They found they needed it back and guess what the Lord provided for us through dear friends and supporters - a pickup! Right when we were doing yard work and needing to haul wheelbarrows, and dirt and pavers. It was perfect! God is good - all the time.



Again we want to thank you for taking this journey with us. Many of you have been with us since the beginning. There have been times along the way when we may have been tempted to "hurry" God. In the two years when we were fund raising and longed to be in Greece it was hard to understand, but I look back and know that God brought us to Greece at just the right time. Just last year when they were slow approving our visa - it meant that we got our temporary papers later which made us legal until just the right time for us to return from our furlough. We may not understand this latest detour but God has His own timing and his own purposes and our job is just to "stay the course". Thanks for being on our team - we love you.



Kent and Myrna Morley
Tripoleos 76
Elliniko 16777
Athens Greece
011 30 210 96 38 625
backhoeboy1@gmail.com
http://kent-uniquelymorley.blogspot.com
To join our Support Team:
Online go to: www.iteams.org select: US, Select: What do you want to do, Select: Give
Or Send to:
International Teams
411 W. River Rd.
Elgin IL 60123
Please designate for the ministry of Kent and Myrna Morley and indicate whether this is a one time gift or monthly support. Thanks :)

Health Update 3/10/14

Everyone,



I am sending this because I know many are wanting to hear how my doctor appointment went today as we were hoping to finally have some answers. I cannot even begin to tell you how disappointing the day has been. The doctor basically said "Well we saw pretty much the same thing as last time - inflammation, white cells, puss and dead kidney tissue. Something is eating up your kidneys but we don't know what it is." She went on to say that at this point she didn't feel she had anything to offer us and had spoken with our other doctor who felt we needed to see an infectious disease specialist. She said "if when everyone is done they are saying we don't know what it is then I think we should go in and take a chunk but I think I would want to consider doing an open surgery so I could really see and feel what I was doing and I don't want to put you through that pain or risk unless we need to." She did put me on antibiotics (I think just because she could see how frustrated I was) but said she is not hopeful they will do any good but they won't hurt me. She said she had circulated my scan around to quite a few people and everyone is saying they have never seen anything like this before. I asked her about what she thought this meant long term and she said "I have no idea because I don't know what it is but we need to find it and stop it." SO both the doctors I have been seeing are stepping out for now and I am to call my general practitioner tomorrow to set up an appointment with an infectious disease doctor. More waiting, more tests, more not knowing. I am disappointed, frustrated and scared about my future health if we don't get this under control. I am thankful to be surrounded by my family and friends and to be upheld by so many who are praying. Last night as I lay shivering and having one of my chills and fever spells, I covered myself with a beautiful quilt made by some dear friends from my home church in Elmira. I am overwhelmed by the concern and care that has been shown to us and we appreciate you all so much. We continue to live one day at a time and will keep you in the loop. I will try to send out an update soon with news from Greece. We are in contact with the team there and Kent spent some time on the phone this week with Christy our team mate who is leading the team in his absence. Things are going well but of course they are anxious for us to return. For now we both feel that Kent needs to be here until we see where this goes so we are trusting the Lord to take care of everything else.

We love you all.

Myrna (and Kent)

Latest Biopsy Results

Everyone,



This is just a quick not to give you the latest biopsy report because I know many of you have been praying. Thank you. The news is good - I talked to the nurse today and she said there is NO CANCER but that there IS an infection so I would need to see the urologist again to see how we need to treat that. Whether just heavy antibiotics or if it needed to be drained or something. At this point I feel cautiously optimistic. I will be glad to talk to the urologist on Monday and find out what kind of infection it is, what the treatment will be etc. I have still been having all the same symptoms so will be glad to get on some kind of treatment soon. We still don't know what this means as far as when we will be able to return to Greece but feel like maybe we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Again we will know more Monday - we hope! As always thank you for your prayers and we will continue to keep you updated as we go along.



Love,

Myrna (and Kent)