Wayne Dean

This is a blog for friends of Wayne Dean's to keep you updated on his condition. Thank you for stopping by. Leave him a message in the comments section if you want .

On October 14 Wayne was diagnosed with a parietal temporal glioblastoma, a fast-growing, virulent brain tumor. The medical community knows of no cure. Treatment is for the purpose of adding some time.

On October 24 they will do surgery and remove as much of the mass as they can, if they can. We will consider other treament options after that.

This news came as a great surprise to us, as we were thinking that we were dealing with a middle ear infection and hoping to find some relief for the dizziness that Wayne has been experiencing for 4 months or so. To our amazement, that dizziness was being caused by a mass in his brain. The mass had grown significantly between the time of his last MRI in July until his newest one on October 13. (He has regular MRIs because of a benign brain tumor 15 years ago-- completely unrelated to this one.) The rapid rate of growth and the severity of Wayne's symptoms raised the alarm for the neurologist, who sent us immediately to a neurosurgeon.

We stand now with the Valley of the Shadow of death in our view. So today we tell you from our experience that "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me" (Ps. 23:4).

We, the Dean family are all cushioned by grace, held firmly in the loving embrace of our Living Lord Jesus. Our emotions are tender and tears flow freely, but the tears are not from sadness or fear, but from that place from which cleansing, freeing, honest emotion comes. We have the gift of time to say those things we would regret having left unspoken. We have time to say good bye slowly, and it is not morbid or dark, but instead it is sweet and healing.

We know that Wayne's days are not marked out by disease or by fate, but by the God who loves him and who created him. "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." (Ps 139:16)

We know God heals. We know that He rules over every cell and molecule in Wayne's body. We are praying for healing, but we also know that healing takes many forms. One form healing sometimes takes is eternal healing. This is not a second-tier plan. For those who know Christ, death is not defeat and it is not the end. As the apostle Paul observed, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." If you would like to know how we are thinking about prayer for Wayne's healing, please visit my web site (www.prayinglife.org) and click on "FAQ" toward the bottom of the page. Then click on "What about prayer for healing?"

We are not afraid. We are so grateful for the reality of eternal life, and it is eternal life that we are celebrating every day.

I'll write more later, and will try to update regulary. Thank you for standing with us. We are rich in friends.

Jennifer Kennedy Dean