Jay Ayers

1118 Conifer Court
Jenison MI 49428
jayers55@gmail.com
(316) 323-9107

March 5, 2024

Dear Friends –

I completed my course of 12 infusions of chemotherapy on February 1, just over a month ago. I’ve had several followup tests: a blood DNA test, a CT scan, and a colonoscopy. All three report finding no evidence of any cancer. Thanks be to God! And thanks be to your prayers. It is too soon for the doctors to pronounce me ‘cured;’ just because they couldn’t find a rogue cancer cell anywhere doesn’t mean there are none hiding out, waiting for their chance. They’ll continue to scan me regularly for several years before they venture to say that. Still, this is very good news, and way better than it could have been. I am very grateful.

I do ask your prayers for the neuropathy in my hands and feet, one of the common side effects of the chemotherapy. It seems to have gotten worse over the last month. We met with the neuropathy specialist last week, who said that this is common: neuropathy tends to “coast,” she told us, slowly getting worse throughout chemotherapy and then continuing to worsen when chemo is over, usually for a month or two. Then it slowly starts to improve. Think in term of a year, she said. I explained that that was not the answer I was looking for. The doc nodded sympathetically, and then she said that there is no medicine, treatment, supplement, or exercise that has been proven to be effective in helping the nerve axons heal more quickly. If there was pain with the neuropathy, that can be treated: but I don’t have pain. The nerve axons heal very slowly, at their own pace. Ah, well.

It’s hard to type, because I can’t feel the keyboard properly. Similarly, it’s hard to do buttons. I’m looking into alternate keyboards, to see if those help. I’m also looking into dictation software, to see if I can just talk to my computer and it will type it for me.

I’m also having problems with balance. ( As many have noted, I’ve been unbalanced for years.) But the neuropathy doc said that most or all of my balance problems stem from the neuropathy in my feet: I don’t feel the floor as well as I should. When we walk, we don’t think about how to do it: we just walk, and subconscious signals from our feet tell us when we’re slipping so we can autocorrect. So I am discovering that I can walk if I concentrate on each step, paying attention to how my heel has landed, then the arch, then the toes. Don’t try to walk and chew gum at the same time: focus just on walking.

As you can see, I’m starting to grow some hair back. Micaela said I should grow my beard back as well. As they say, “If you’ve seen the face, you wouldn’t be bothered by the beard.” Thirty-five years ago both hair and beard were jet black. It’s just about all white now.

Things continue to come out on the blog at james-ayers.com. The series Read Through the Bible continues to come out every day; if you follow along you’ll read the entire Bible over the course of a year. I’m also doing some essays on the words of Jesus, spoken from the cross, every Wednesday in Lent. Feel free to come along.

I hope your Lent is going well, and that you feel the sure presence of our Lord, holding you close in every trial and blessing. Day by day, may we all listen to Jesus, and put his word into practice in our lives.

Blessings to you –

james-ayers.com