.
Lillyana was born on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009 in Westerly, RI to Ben and Mandi Isbell.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Our latest blessing of a grand-daughter
Mandi and Lillyana Jean in first life moments
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Lillyana was born on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009 in Westerly, RI to Ben and Mandi Isbell.
. Lillyana was born on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009 in Westerly, RI to Ben and Mandi Isbell.
The Truth Your Pastors and Priests Don't Want You To Hear
This morning our dear, close friends and confidants in the truth came from Detroit to visit their son who has recently moved here. Bucky and Debi made our day. They picked us up from the house on this beautiful "winter" day of 78 degrees and clear, blue skies to take us out to eat breakfast at IHOP. (An acronymn that stands for more than just "International House of Pancakes" in my mind...like "International House of Prayer") On the way out of that diner I noticed the typical notice on the front door that most public places have that says "This door must remain unlocked as long as the building is occupied." But I noticed that someone had made a slight alteration by removing the capital 'T' from the first letter so that it read "his door must remain unlocked as long as the building is occupied." I pointed this out to Bucky and said, "This is the epitome of a good exhortation to all of us." If the "building" is a symbol of our planet and it is occupied by even a few thinking people, then those of us who are responsible for possessing the "key" that locks and unlocks "his door" are doing our jobs, we will make sure that the knowledge of the truth is made available to anyone who might be seeking it. Having the "key" that enables one to understand the TRUE Gospel brings with it a big responsibility. Being ready to welcome the "seeker of truth" into the safety and refuge of the household of Christ is not only a joyful position but one that brings with it great rewards of spiritual development and maturity along with many other blessings. If you possess the "key" then you must be sharing it with others. If you are hesitant to share it, then you must ask yourself why. The lives of countless people are dependent upon you opening your heart and then your mouth to share with them your "pearl of great price."
Most of us who have a desire to seek the truth will do so only if we are not inconvenienced or ostracized by our community support group and family. We usually draw the line at the point where we are perceived by our peers as being a little "eccentric" or "out in left field." We prefer to be ACCEPTED by those we value as our "standard of normalcy." We wouldn't want to be labeled as a "kook" or "eccentric." Even though Jesus did say that if they called the master of the house Beelzebub that they would call those of his household the same and even MORE so!!
Matt. 10:25
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?
So who, in their right mind, would want to follow the teachings of a man who was labeled by the respectable religious leaders of his community a "mad man," a "lunatic," and a "charlatan" only to be labeled the same? And if that wasn't enough, his own family reinforced the erroneous view of his religious opponents, the clergy of priests, by stating the same idea.
20Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, "He is out of his mind."
[Stangent:http://nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america/index.shtml]
So if we are all (at least 1 out of 4) afflicted with some form of mental disorder, perhaps we should be more aware of the source and of the cure for the disorder.
The Lord spoke through the prophet Jeremiah the revelation about the mind of the human being.
Jer. 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?10 "I the LORD search the heart and test the mind,to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 10 "I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."
The "heart" is referring to the mind, our reasoning ability, that is so often affected by the chemical reactions occuring from those instinctive desires that flare up within each of us in times of passion and temptations of all types. In other words, proper judgement simply flies out of the window when our desires are enflamed by the adrenalin getting pumped through our bodies and brains. We lose the ability to reason OBJECTIVELY in such events. We reason SUBJECTIVELY and selfishly about the outcome of our situation. We look for our own gain in the outcome. We look for a way to save ourselves, save face, avoid loss, even at the expense of others or our professed "moral code."
The truly sane man or woman is spiritual in their thinking by concluding how they can do the will of God regardless of their own losses. Oh, yes, they also see how it looks to others who aren't thinking in such a way. "THAT'S CRAZY!" people will say. "Why would you want to be so nice to that person who has wronged you over and over?" they might tell us. Well, if the truth be known it is not US who is exercising the divine virtue of forgiveness and longsuffering towards others but rather the other way around. In reality it is the Spirit of Christ exercising US, forcing its divine ways and reasoning upon our minds and hearts through a process of the Word transforming us. Never should others who are observing us think that there is no battle going on inside us. No conflict between our own will and desires and that commandment of the Lord Jesus to manifest his Father's will to others. As long as we are in this flesh and blood state, we will be in a state of WAR against those impulses and subtle influences of our selfish side. Our strongest ally in this war is a constant, daily reading of the Word and commandments of Christ, prayer and seeking to help others.
Most of us who have a desire to seek the truth will do so only if we are not inconvenienced or ostracized by our community support group and family. We usually draw the line at the point where we are perceived by our peers as being a little "eccentric" or "out in left field." We prefer to be ACCEPTED by those we value as our "standard of normalcy." We wouldn't want to be labeled as a "kook" or "eccentric." Even though Jesus did say that if they called the master of the house Beelzebub that they would call those of his household the same and even MORE so!!
Matt. 10:25
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?
So who, in their right mind, would want to follow the teachings of a man who was labeled by the respectable religious leaders of his community a "mad man," a "lunatic," and a "charlatan" only to be labeled the same? And if that wasn't enough, his own family reinforced the erroneous view of his religious opponents, the clergy of priests, by stating the same idea.
20Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. 21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, "He is out of his mind."
[Stangent:http://nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america/index.shtml]
So if we are all (at least 1 out of 4) afflicted with some form of mental disorder, perhaps we should be more aware of the source and of the cure for the disorder.
The Lord spoke through the prophet Jeremiah the revelation about the mind of the human being.
Jer. 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?10 "I the LORD search the heart and test the mind,to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 10 "I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."
The "heart" is referring to the mind, our reasoning ability, that is so often affected by the chemical reactions occuring from those instinctive desires that flare up within each of us in times of passion and temptations of all types. In other words, proper judgement simply flies out of the window when our desires are enflamed by the adrenalin getting pumped through our bodies and brains. We lose the ability to reason OBJECTIVELY in such events. We reason SUBJECTIVELY and selfishly about the outcome of our situation. We look for our own gain in the outcome. We look for a way to save ourselves, save face, avoid loss, even at the expense of others or our professed "moral code."
The truly sane man or woman is spiritual in their thinking by concluding how they can do the will of God regardless of their own losses. Oh, yes, they also see how it looks to others who aren't thinking in such a way. "THAT'S CRAZY!" people will say. "Why would you want to be so nice to that person who has wronged you over and over?" they might tell us. Well, if the truth be known it is not US who is exercising the divine virtue of forgiveness and longsuffering towards others but rather the other way around. In reality it is the Spirit of Christ exercising US, forcing its divine ways and reasoning upon our minds and hearts through a process of the Word transforming us. Never should others who are observing us think that there is no battle going on inside us. No conflict between our own will and desires and that commandment of the Lord Jesus to manifest his Father's will to others. As long as we are in this flesh and blood state, we will be in a state of WAR against those impulses and subtle influences of our selfish side. Our strongest ally in this war is a constant, daily reading of the Word and commandments of Christ, prayer and seeking to help others.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Charlie's House
Charlie is our friend and brother in the Lord. He's lived down the street from us for many years. After his mother died his brother, Gene, moved in and moved in and moved in and....well, you get the idea. Ten years ago Charlie had open heart surgery and then about 3 years ago he had a stroke. Then last year he had another stroke. He's also insulin diabetic. He can barely shuffle around now with a cane, much less get his house in order. So we're trying to help him sell his house by getting him moved into a small apt. and his stuff....LOTS of stuff out of the house and into storage. We're nearly there but his brother's stuff is another matter altogether. It fills the living room, driveway, carport, garage, bedroom, backyard and everywhere. Its mostly trash intermixed with bits of treasure. There is SO MUCH there that it appears it'll never get moved but Gene reassures us he will get it moved. Meanwhile Charlie is having to pay his mortgage AND apt. rent which we'll help with until the house sells. I am learning a good lesson about collecting useless stuff just because I have the room to store it. It can become a burden to others if my health goes down to the point of disability and inability to help move it out, sell it for a profit and get my own house in order.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Letting 'Big Pharma' Back Into My Life...Reluctantly
H
ere it is Friday, Feb. 13th and boy, am I scared!! Ha! Not really. All of our attempts at trying to heal this Hep C are to God's glory.
I'm now on about treatment week 13 or 14 for a research study involving a quicker, more efficient cure for Hepatitis C, Type 1 which I volunteered to be a "white rat" for last April. It is entitled "A Phase 3 Safety and Efficacy Study of Boceprevir in Previously Untreated Subjects With Chronic Hepatitis C Genotype 1." The Protocol No.. is P05216; WIRB Protocol #20081047. The sponsor, or branch of "Big Pharma" is Schering-Plough Research Institute in Kenilworth, N.J., USA. The investigator, or primary attending physician over the study is Joseph S. Galati, M.D., Suite 1990 at 6624 Fannin, Houston, Tx., 77030, USA. The site is Research Specialists of Texas at the same address as Dr. Galati's suite of offices.
My first day of treatment after going through 2 previous years of natural and holistic treatment to cure my "bugs" was interesting. I had changed my diet, avoiding every form of pharmaceutical possible including headache medicines and cold syrups. Which was easy to do since I haven't had a cold or headache since I started eating right. I've lost about 30 pounds and have felt really good since the doctor gave me 18 months to live if I didn't start the AMA recommended 'standard care treatment' for my disease. Well, we went to the specialist for liver disease at Hermann-Memorial NW Hospital, Dr. Victor Yang, who put us through the battery of blood tests, confirmed my disease and type and then told us to sign on to the treatment and my "drugs" would arrive soon at my home along with a nurse to show us how to self-administer them. He gave us lots of reading material which we took home and scared ourselves into backing out of that option due to all of the potential nasty side-effects that sounded a lot worse than the disease itself. We, primarily Windy, started researching the internet and found lots of info on curing Hep C by natural means. There were several on-line discussion groups that were in fierce debate over the various methods offered. We decided to try a few with prayer and a hope of success. Lloyd Wright's book on "Curing Hepatitis C" offered three or four different price ranges of his treatments. We chose a $300 package but evidently my genotype of the virus was resistant to the "economy" version. We found a very good holistic doctor in SW Houston by the name of Dr. Gilbert Manso at the Whole Health Center who worked with us on other methods. Over the next couple of years we tried vitamin C floods by IV, twice as well as alternating IVs of hydrogen peroxide and colloidal silver for ten days. These brought the viral load count down but I've since learned that these "bugs" are extremely good at replicating from very low numbers back up into the tens of millions at really fast paces. So we gained some good experience, a wonderful friend in the medical professional circle and met lots of wonderful people in the IV room at the Whole Health Center with who we shared lots of experiences, stories and knowledge of various subjects. However, in the end we didn't lose the virus.
By this time I would suspect that I had at least 500 punctures by needles in my arm for drawing blood to administering vitamins, chelation, minerals, HP, etc. And to think that's likely how I contracted the virus in the first place. By letting a person talk me into shooting up meth when I was 19 with a dirty needle. So I've had this disease for 40 years! God has kept me healthy as long as I've been doing HIS work of evangelizing.
So here we were back in April of 2008 without a clue of what to do next when the phone rang. It was one of the staff at Dr. Galati's office asking if I still wanted to be signed up for the research study. Windy and I shrugged and said, "Yes. Sign me up." So after being put off for several reasons, not the leaset of which was the devastation of Hurricane Ike hitting the Galveston-Houston area, we began in earnest on Nov. 7, 2008. Windy had gone down to visit her sister, Kathy and I was called to come in on that day for my first injection of Pygelated Interferon with a Redi-pen and first dose of Ribavirin which consisted of three of six capsules I would take every day for then next 4 weeks. After that they introduced either a placebo or the actual drug under study called Boceprevir which I would take three times a day, a total of 12 capsules in addition to the weekly injections and Ribavirin capsules. Making it a total of one injection and 18 pills a day for the next 48 weeks. That first injection they helped me with gave me the worst flu-like symtoms that night of headache, fever, chills, achiness, etc. All night. I was miserable. Ever since then I've only felt just really down and out for three days after the injection. I don't get much done on those days and since I left work back in October of 2007 on a 3 month disability leave followed by taking my 6 weeks of 2008 vacation and then finally retiring on April 1, 2008 I haven't gotten a whole lot done since then. I did take a 10 day trip with my brother, Clint Isbell, on his boat the "Dreamseeker" back in October which was a lot of fun.
My schedule has been pretty systematic since starting the program. It's an international study involving other patients around the world. My team members are very professional and courteous. Kim, Lacy, Herman, Dr. Erin Yates all under the direction of Dr. Galati.
Good news. After only the tenth week my lab report showed "NO DETECTABLE HCV RNA". This is a good sign according to the team. We must maintain the assault against the "bugs" in order to reach a successful conclusion which is a CURE. The drugs may kill me first but at least I can donate my new, healed liver to a recipient after I'm dead.
I'm really tired of typing right now so I'll come back later with more details.
I'll try to keep up with my blog a little better in the future.
Stan Isbell
ere it is Friday, Feb. 13th and boy, am I scared!! Ha! Not really. All of our attempts at trying to heal this Hep C are to God's glory.I'm now on about treatment week 13 or 14 for a research study involving a quicker, more efficient cure for Hepatitis C, Type 1 which I volunteered to be a "white rat" for last April. It is entitled "A Phase 3 Safety and Efficacy Study of Boceprevir in Previously Untreated Subjects With Chronic Hepatitis C Genotype 1." The Protocol No.. is P05216; WIRB Protocol #20081047. The sponsor, or branch of "Big Pharma" is Schering-Plough Research Institute in Kenilworth, N.J., USA. The investigator, or primary attending physician over the study is Joseph S. Galati, M.D., Suite 1990 at 6624 Fannin, Houston, Tx., 77030, USA. The site is Research Specialists of Texas at the same address as Dr. Galati's suite of offices.
My first day of treatment after going through 2 previous years of natural and holistic treatment to cure my "bugs" was interesting. I had changed my diet, avoiding every form of pharmaceutical possible including headache medicines and cold syrups. Which was easy to do since I haven't had a cold or headache since I started eating right. I've lost about 30 pounds and have felt really good since the doctor gave me 18 months to live if I didn't start the AMA recommended 'standard care treatment' for my disease. Well, we went to the specialist for liver disease at Hermann-Memorial NW Hospital, Dr. Victor Yang, who put us through the battery of blood tests, confirmed my disease and type and then told us to sign on to the treatment and my "drugs" would arrive soon at my home along with a nurse to show us how to self-administer them. He gave us lots of reading material which we took home and scared ourselves into backing out of that option due to all of the potential nasty side-effects that sounded a lot worse than the disease itself. We, primarily Windy, started researching the internet and found lots of info on curing Hep C by natural means. There were several on-line discussion groups that were in fierce debate over the various methods offered. We decided to try a few with prayer and a hope of success. Lloyd Wright's book on "Curing Hepatitis C" offered three or four different price ranges of his treatments. We chose a $300 package but evidently my genotype of the virus was resistant to the "economy" version. We found a very good holistic doctor in SW Houston by the name of Dr. Gilbert Manso at the Whole Health Center who worked with us on other methods. Over the next couple of years we tried vitamin C floods by IV, twice as well as alternating IVs of hydrogen peroxide and colloidal silver for ten days. These brought the viral load count down but I've since learned that these "bugs" are extremely good at replicating from very low numbers back up into the tens of millions at really fast paces. So we gained some good experience, a wonderful friend in the medical professional circle and met lots of wonderful people in the IV room at the Whole Health Center with who we shared lots of experiences, stories and knowledge of various subjects. However, in the end we didn't lose the virus.
By this time I would suspect that I had at least 500 punctures by needles in my arm for drawing blood to administering vitamins, chelation, minerals, HP, etc. And to think that's likely how I contracted the virus in the first place. By letting a person talk me into shooting up meth when I was 19 with a dirty needle. So I've had this disease for 40 years! God has kept me healthy as long as I've been doing HIS work of evangelizing.
So here we were back in April of 2008 without a clue of what to do next when the phone rang. It was one of the staff at Dr. Galati's office asking if I still wanted to be signed up for the research study. Windy and I shrugged and said, "Yes. Sign me up." So after being put off for several reasons, not the leaset of which was the devastation of Hurricane Ike hitting the Galveston-Houston area, we began in earnest on Nov. 7, 2008. Windy had gone down to visit her sister, Kathy and I was called to come in on that day for my first injection of Pygelated Interferon with a Redi-pen and first dose of Ribavirin which consisted of three of six capsules I would take every day for then next 4 weeks. After that they introduced either a placebo or the actual drug under study called Boceprevir which I would take three times a day, a total of 12 capsules in addition to the weekly injections and Ribavirin capsules. Making it a total of one injection and 18 pills a day for the next 48 weeks. That first injection they helped me with gave me the worst flu-like symtoms that night of headache, fever, chills, achiness, etc. All night. I was miserable. Ever since then I've only felt just really down and out for three days after the injection. I don't get much done on those days and since I left work back in October of 2007 on a 3 month disability leave followed by taking my 6 weeks of 2008 vacation and then finally retiring on April 1, 2008 I haven't gotten a whole lot done since then. I did take a 10 day trip with my brother, Clint Isbell, on his boat the "Dreamseeker" back in October which was a lot of fun.
My schedule has been pretty systematic since starting the program. It's an international study involving other patients around the world. My team members are very professional and courteous. Kim, Lacy, Herman, Dr. Erin Yates all under the direction of Dr. Galati.
Good news. After only the tenth week my lab report showed "NO DETECTABLE HCV RNA". This is a good sign according to the team. We must maintain the assault against the "bugs" in order to reach a successful conclusion which is a CURE. The drugs may kill me first but at least I can donate my new, healed liver to a recipient after I'm dead.
I'm really tired of typing right now so I'll come back later with more details.
I'll try to keep up with my blog a little better in the future.
Stan Isbell
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