Glenn's Story

This is Glenn's Story as told by Kathy

At the beginning of this year, Glenn started to feel pain in his stomach. In about May he went to see the Dr. Glenn's father had acid reflux and a heital hernia. This is what we all thought Glenn had, so he was given the prescription of Nexium to relieve the discomfort. Some time in June he experienced a hard time swallowing occasionally. He went in to the Dr. near the end of August, who then sent him to a gastroenterologist. It took a week to get in, then a week later Glenn went in for consultation. September 8th he had a Colonoscopy and an upper GI. The Dr. discovered a "malignant tumor at the GE junction and cardia." That means that he has a cancerous tumor at the base of his esophagus and the opening of his stomach at the sphincter muscle.

We shared the news with our children, Glenn's' boss, who had to share it with coworkers on a need to know basis and our Stake President and 1st Counselor, who then shared that with their wife's and the executive secretary. We were very anxious to contain the news until we had a chance to talk to the oncologist, which we were able to do on Monday the 14th. She confirmed that it was cancerous, meanwhile he had had a cat scan which revealed that the tumor was at a stage 2, which means that the edges were not tight, the cancer cells are active but it is not through the stomach lining, as far as we know. Glenn is very healthy and strong, the tumor is operable and everything is going to be OK.

We are going in for a second opinion and he will have either a pet scan or an endoscopic ultrasound which will give further details. We can go the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Centerr at the University of Washington which is a top tier cancer center with treatments of Chemotherapy,surgery and radiation. They are a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology We are also going to Phoenix, AZ to the Cancor Treatment Center of America next week, They have the three conventional treatments as well as complimentary treatments to support healing.

Last week the news from the gastroenterologist, was pretty grim. We were stunned. We wondered if Glenn was going to die or if he was going to be very sick. We spent a great deal of time on the Internet doing research, we spent a lot of time talking to our children, and a lot of time praying.

Along with trying to process this news, Glenn had an assignment to speak in our Saturday Night Session of Stake Conference. As the second counselor, he was speaking on The Savior in the Preexistence, the first councilor was speaking on the Savior's earth ministry and the Stake President was speaking on the Savior after this earth life. All deep topics. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to focus on agency and the Atonement and we studied for his talk. We were able to study, ponder and accept the Atonement as it applies to each of us as we are called to go through trials. That knowledge of our Savior's love and sacrifice for us has carried us as we have been processing this news and been making plans for treatment.

Thursday morning was Glenn's roughest morning. He found himself very anxious. We went into our bedroom and prayed. He offered a very sincere plea for guidance and strength. When he was done praying, I suggested that he read his patriarchal blessing and I left him by himself and came down to the computer. After awhile Glenn came down and said, "I know I am not going to die, I still have things to do on this earth." His blessing states that he will be known as a man of great faith and he decided that if he was going to be known as a man of great faith, he had better start acting like it. And since that time he has been calm and assured that all will go well.

He calls this his "Liberty Jail" experience, and Danielle says, yes, not Carthage. As he prepared his talk for Saturday night he studied D&C 121. In the first part of that section, Joseph Smith pleads with the Lord to take away that experience. The Lord tells him that all of this will give him experience and that it will be but a moment and that if he endures it well, he shall be exulted and overcome all of his enemies. Glenn's blessing states the same thing in a little different way! So as President Bakes said in his talk on Saturday Night, if we knew that our trials would get us to the Celestial Kingdom wouldn't we say "bring them on." In Glenn's talk he shared our experience with having Clark in our life and the blessings that have come to us through this experience and he made the statement that even if we could take it away, why would we want to?

Saturday morning we went to the Columbia River Temple and it was a wonder uplifting time as we were able to be the witness couple and feel so very close to the Lord. We spent about an hour in the Celestial room just thinking about our family and what all of this means in our life. It has been such an uplifting and strengthening experience. We love the temple and we are so thankful for the blessings we have received.

Glenn would like you to pray for him that this tumor will stay confined to the stomach and not spread to other parts of his body, that the Doctor's will know what to do and be blessed in all they do for him. We are strong in the faith, we have had a wonderful calm spirit. We have been able to sleep at night,and that is a blessing.

Another blessing s that Glenn's official retirement date is December 31st. We went into HR at his work on Friday and found out that he could get short term disability if his Doctor signed the documents. When we saw the oncologist she signed the paper as of that very day, So Glenn will be on the payroll until the end of the year, but he will not be going to work, as he will be in treatments and recovering. Glenn's boss has been wonderful as has every one else at the PUD,

It is a huge job to get ready for retirement as far as SS and Supplemental insurance. We had been told to get our will done before retirement. Although we had started that process, it hasn't been done yet. We have an appointment with a lawyer to get that going. So Cancer treatment and retirement at the same time is just about what we will be doing for the next few months. My brother advised me to just take care of the Alligator that is next to the boat! The best advice ever! Thank you Joe! We plan to continue our callings and won't be taking on any thing much beyond that. We should be back up to speed by the beginning of the year.

We are going to go to Utah tomorrow, We will see some of our family and some friends. Best of all for Glenn, is that we will be going to the Florida State game! Life is good!

For 12 years Glenn has called lines for our High School Girls Varsity Volley Ball. I got this shot of him last night as he called a ball in line! This is discriptive of his hope for his tumor. He wants it to STAY IN BOUNDS!!!!!!

Feel free to leave a comment!

Love to all of you. Kathy