It’s (past) time for an update on Jim Yeager (3.21.24)
Jim and I are grateful to God that we are enjoying “Bonus Time”! We are truly enjoying life! The reality is, we all live on bonus time- none of us truly know when our last day is! So, Jim and I encourage everyone to live as if they are on bonus time. It’s sobering how many arguments are diffused because they are more menial than we realize. We also have a tendency to work out problems more effectively with this mind set.
The short story is in February 2023, cancer quickly metastasized to Jim’s upper left lung and a few lymph nodes around his lung, heart and aorta. It’s inoperable and two VERY hard palliative chemotherapies were recommended. Jim has done mostly great with the news. Me, up until about 5 months ago, not so much, at least at the subconscious level. On the outside, spiritually and mostly mentally, I was doing good. But it felt like a war in my body, like my body wasn’t listening to me. Thankfully, God, family, friends and my doctor helped me.
As of March 21, 2024, over a year after finding out cancer had again metastasized, God is still keeping the cancer at bay! The cancer went from growing fast to the last check, very minimal growth! We truly give God all the glory! We know God has given us more time with Jim! We know “God is still holding the cancer at bay” and we are enjoying “living” life together! Jim will turn 65 in May and is still going strong and preaching 3 messages almost every week!
To God be the glory! ~Michelle Yeager
The more detailed version follows.
Jim was diagnosed with colorectal cancer on May 29, 2018- almost 6 years ago! He had surgery to remove the cancer and they removed about a foot of his colon and some lymph nodes. We prayed about it and decided to do chemotherapy and radiation. The chemo he took was by pills and multiple types of chemo via port.
In April 2019, after a few weeks break from chemo, Jim had scans to see how the treatments worked on the cancer. Unfortunately, it was found to have metastasized to his liver- while on chemo. This was pretty difficult, but we turned to God. We along with many people prayed for God to heal Jim. He was sent to a specialist of specialist in OKC and the doctor said it was possible for a hard chemotherapy to shrink and prevent it from spreading along with surgery to remove the cancer. We prayed and felt God said to go ahead with this treatment. This chemotherapy was very hard on Jim. In fact, it was so hard, he was unable to finish it all out. Then when tests were run, the chemo didn’t shrink any of the tumors, but he also didn’t have any new places show up, so the doctor felt confident to proceed with the liver resection surgery. He had the liver resection and micro ablation on October 15, 2019. This surgery is usually a 5-7 day hospital stay, mostly for pain management. But Jim has such a high pain tolerance, they released him just under 48 hours! After much prayer, Jim decided he didn’t want to do chemotherapy after surgery, especially since it didn’t shrink the cancer.
In October 2021, Jim decided after 2 years of great results, to get his port removed. We kept going regularly to his oncology appointments every 3 months to get blood tests, watching tumor markers and ct scans every 6-12 months. Remember to pray for cancer survivors and their families, it can be mentally exhausting, every time.
In November of 2022, things changed. Jim’s tumor markers suddenly went into the “danger zone“. The search for cancer began. The many tests began. The horrible waiting began. Jim was doing
good and I was doing ok consciously, but subconsciously I wasn’t. I was having nightmares and not sleeping much. God led me to talk to my doctor and for me to get a team or circle of ladies that I could talk to. I was praying and felt closer to God in many ways than I had ever before.
Finally, in February of 2023 we had an appointment to get some answers. We decided to take a sabbatical days before and days after we had the appointment to hear the plan of action. By this time, Jim had decided if God wanted him to do chemo again, he would. On our sabbatical, Jim led us to pray together and also pray alone. It was a wonderful time with our Lord! God kept giving me the word “live”. And God kept telling Jim “I’ve been keeping the cancer at bay.” And then He said, “I will keep it at bay until it’s time.” This time with God was so good and gave us peace in the midst of our storm.
In the middle of our sabbatical, we met with Jim’s oncologist. He told us the cancer had metastasized to his left upper lung, but also to several lymph nodes that were close to his lung, heart and aorta… and it was inoperable. The only option we had was “palliative chemotherapy”. What is that? Do those two words even go together? The chemo he said he would use was the really hard chemo Jim couldn’t finish plus one that would probably be equally as hard. That was a hard blow.
We returned to our sabbatical to see what God wanted us to do with the words He gave us and the oncologist’s plan of action. We determined that if God said He would hold it at bay, He would hold it at bay, without chemo because taking that specific chemo wasn’t living.
After a while, Jim was still doing pretty good mentally, but I wasn’t doing good, especially physically. It was like my body wasn’t understanding how I felt mentally and spiritually. In October 2023, I got to a pretty low spot. I talked with my doctor and he thought it was time for me to try medication. I’m thankful, I listened. Soon after that, we had some dear friends invite us to a prayer meeting. At the time we didn’t realize we were the subject of the prayer meeting and they prayed for BOTH of us! And Jim prayed specifically over me. I tease Jim and say, I don’t know if God healed you or not, but He definitely healed me! It’s been like a reset for my body to listen to me mentally and especially spiritually. I believe God used the medication also. He still is. Jim also started doing even better mentally, because I was better. Win-Win!
Recently, the oncologist told us that now we know when cancer was first discovered in May of 2018, Jim had stage 4 cancer. I think had we known that then, the treatment plan would have been different. I don’t think they would have done the surgeries and things that have given us more time. God is so good!
Again, as of March 21, 2024, over a year after finding out cancer had again metastasized, God is still keeping the cancer at bay! The cancer went from growing fast to the last check, very minimal growth! We truly give God all the glory! We know God has given us more time with Jim! We know “God is still holding the cancer at bay” and we are enjoying “living” life together! Jim will turn 65 in May and is still going strong and preaching 3 messages almost every week!
To God be the glory! ~ Michelle Yeager
