Innocent is fighting with every ounce of strength he has. Each day, he battles severe sickness and struggles just to get out of bed due to the debilitating side effects of his monthly Octreotide shot.

While Octreotide can help some patients by slowing cancer growth, extending life expectancy, and alleviating symptoms, it has taken a heavy toll on Innocent’s body. He is weak, in constant pain, and unable to engage with his family the way he once did. Zenovia has watched his once vibrant life fade as his skin has turned yellow, and he spends most of his days curled up in agony. The latest scan revealed that his liver is now completely overwhelmed by cancer.

Last month, Innocent’s oncologist expressed concern that the Octreotide shots are no longer effective, but recommended continuing the treatment for a few more months, hoping for some improvement. In the meantime, Innocent’s journey takes another difficult turn. On Wednesday, he will begin chemotherapy for the first time. Until now, his doctors have advised against chemo, as neuroendocrine cancers do not respond, nor are patients healed by this treatment. But with his condition worsening, there is a small hope that chemotherapy might reduce the tumor burden on his liver. Innocent and Zenovia are choosing to move forward with this treatment, knowing it may give them more precious time with their children. For them, that time is everything.

Despite these challenges, Innocent and Zenovia continue to face each day with incredible courage and unwavering faith. But they need our help more than ever.

This December, please consider joining us for a day of fasting and prayer for Innocent’s healing and strength. To participate, sign up through the link below and share it with your friends, family, and fellow parishioners.

https://forms.gle/VMbthykoBVgiz5f88

Dear Friends,

We are reaching out to invite you to join us in a special prayer and fasting initiative for our dear friend, Innocent, who is battling cancer. We are organizing a 24-hour liquid fast to support Innocent in this crucial time of need. We also ask that you keep him in your prayers as he continues his fight for healing and recovery.

To participate, please sign up through the link below and share it with your friends, family, and fellow parishioners:

https://forms.gle/VMbthykoBVgiz5f88

Our goal is to have at least 60 people committed to fasting, covering a total of 100 fasting days for Innocent’s journey to recovery. Your prayers and support are vital during this time.

Thank you for standing with Innocent in prayer. Together, we can help make a difference in his fight for healing.

Blessings,

Thomas Silva

Innocent recently spent several weeks in Arizona undergoing another round of intensive treatment. During this visit, he used a treatment called an "Eboo Machine," a process designed to help combat cancer. The Eboo machine is part of a technique known as extracorporeal blood oxygenation and ozonation (EBOO). It involves circulating a patient's blood through an oxygenated and ozonated system outside the body, then returning it to the bloodstream. This process is believed to help detoxify the body, improve oxygenation, and enhance the immune system's ability to target and fight cancer cells.

In addition to the Eboo treatment, Innocent was able to purchase a red light therapy machine using generous donations. Red light therapy has shown promising results in cancer treatments, with studies indicating that it can reduce proliferating stem cells by up to 40% in just one day. It’s important to note that this treatment doesn’t directly shrink tumors but helps reduce the number of cancer-related stem cells in the bloodstream, potentially slowing the spread of cancer.

Dear Friends and Supporters,

So much has happened in the last six months! In March, ten solid tumors were removed from my husband’s intestines (which were causing further obstructions), abdomen, and liver. The recovery from the surgery has been an uphill battle, due largely to the fact that it was very difficult for Innocent to regain enough weight. He spent most of his recovery time helping our children with their schoolwork, as he was too weak to do much else. He has recovered from the surgery now and is continuing his regimen to fight the cancer. On September 25th he will undergo another PET scan, and we are hoping to see improvement, by the grace of God!

Sometimes our circumstances seem overwhelming. We struggle daily to make progress with Innocent's health, but we are also facing the challenges of debts and paying for further treatment. Our insurance coverage has lapsed twice, which has made accessing care almost impossible. We are dealing not only with the everyday household expenses of a large family, but also the crushing weight of medical bills.

Innocent is preparing to return to Scottsdale for three weeks of intensive treatment, hoping it will give him the strength to return to his job at the local clinic—a position he is passionate about because of the critical healthcare needs in our small rural community.

Meanwhile, in the midst of these trials, our family is doing everything we can to stay afloat. As many of you know, we run a small farm with a cow, chickens, five kunekune pigs, piglets, and a kennel of the prettiest dogs. Currently we are selling a litter of puppies and kunekune piglets.

Here’s how you can help:

Support Our Farm: If you are able, consider purchasing one of our puppies or piglets. Every sale will directly assist us in paying off our debts and managing our basic needs.

Spread the Word: Share this post with your friends and family. Your support in getting the word out means everything to us.

Prayers and Encouragement: Your continued prayers and emotional support give us strength and hope during this difficult time.

From the bottom of our hearts, we are profoundly grateful for the outpouring of love, support, and prayers we have received. Thank you for standing by us through this journey.

With love and deepest gratitude,

Zenovia and the kids

On this date a year ago, I underwent emergency surgery to remove a large tumor that was causing bowel obstructions. I had been experiencing these obstructions for about five years prior to the surgery, but I was working so much as a PA in dermatology and primary care, that I did not take the time to figure out my problem until it was the eleventh hour, as it is often said. I was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer that had metastasized to my liver, abdomen, and pelvis. The first oncologist we met gave me a solid five years, but not much beyond that. And UCSF wanted to do what is commonly referred to as watchful waiting, a euphemism for ‘do nothing’, which is not well supported with my type of cancer. In fact, the best prognosis is with early surgical intervention in symptomatic patients such as myself.

I spent the year following the initial surgery unable to eat, unaware that I had another large tumor in my small bowel that was causing chronic partial obstructions. This tumor eluded all the physicians who were involved in my case, while I became more ill in spite of showing improvement of symptoms during my extensive integrative treatment in Mexico and in Arizona.

Shortly after the surgery a year ago, I established care with a renowned NET surgical oncologist, Dr. Eric Liu. At that time, since I had already had surgery, he wanted me to attempt a trial of a medication specific to this cancer, and hold off on more surgery. Yet, I continued to struggle as you all know. On a seemingly random February day a few weeks ago, Dr. Liu, called me, thinking mistakenly that I was on his schedule. Although I was not on his schedule that day, his evaluation over the phone gave him the information he needed to determine that I needed urgent open abdominal surgery, or I would never be able to eat again. On March 6th, I underwent another surgery, which lasted six hours with ten tumors being removed.

Recovery has been very difficult, with weakness and food intolerance being the most toilsome hurdles to overcome. At last, I finally feel my strength returning, and I am now able to eat regularly. I believe the treatments in Mexico and Arizona helped sustain me even though I was unable to eat solid food. Furthermore, it is my belief that the infusions made a positive impact in many ways still unknown to me. And the surgery on March 6th was a definitive step towards helping me feel better while resetting the clock. By reset the clock, I mean buy more time to fight the cancer, and hopefully achieve a symptom-free life. The story is incomplete without offering due praise and thanksgiving to the heroes of this epic journey. I am forever indebted to my wife and children who have endured watching me suffer over the past year without knowing which way this would go. Throughout this immense battle I have adopted the opinion that it is a much greater struggle watching helplessly as a loved one is suffering than it is to endure the ordeal oneself.

I am eternally indebted to everyone who donated to our family, of their time, money, prayer, thoughts, meals, visitation, encouraging phone calls, uplifting text messages, fasts, work parties to help around the house, grocery runs, hospital visits, care packages, housing, meal prep, kind notes and letters in the mail, and everything else I may have forgotten. I would be a fool to think that I could ever repay any of my benefactors, my wife, or my children. However, I can and will use what I have learned through the struggle of the past year to do my best to show love and kindness to everyone I meet. May I never miss an opportunity to do so. This cancer, I now see, has been a gift shrouded in the paradox of joyful sorrow, that has changed me in ways that will take time to uncover. I know that without you all, I would not be here today to understand this very important truth. Please forgive me if this statement of gratitude is understated due to my own ineptitude with words. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you, thank you.

In closing, I will continue to do all I can to keep the cancer at bay,
and if God allows, maybe even a cure is in the future!
With deepest gratitude,

Innocent

This Lent, please join us in completing a 24 hour fast for Innocent's healing from cancer.
https://forms.gle/V3T8RKktyBhZGWXw5

Innocent is eight days post-surgery. It has been a difficult week with lack of appetite, fever, chills, heart palpitations and weakness. Innocent was really suffering with deep pain in the abdomen. The surgeon said yesterday that it is really common to get an abscess 7 days after surgery. He said yesterday that if symptoms were not resolved by this morning Innocent would have to check into the hospital today and stay for two weeks. Through everyone's prayers, Innocent’s symptoms subsided last night and his appetite is back!

Innocent is out of surgery. The surgery went very well but there is some bad news. The surgeon found a lot of tumors. He took out eight of them, the three largest intestinal tumors, the three largest liver tumors, and two in the abdomen. He also left a lot of smaller tumors as he wanted to conserve the GI and liver and not remove all of it. The main tumor in the small intestine was at the site of the previous intestinal tumor that was removed a year ago. In one year, it came back in a large enough size to block the small intestine again.

The surgery a year ago took out the largest tumors but did not eradicate all the cancer. The only medication approved for this cancer is called Octreotide. It is not meant to cure the patient, just to reduce symptoms. However, Innocent felt worse on it and his main-stream doctors told him there was nothing more they could do for him. In Scottsdale, the doctor pointed out that neuroendocrine cancer is particularly resistant to treatment. He said you can blast it with radiation and chemo and it does not respond. That is why radiation and chemo are not treatment options for these cancers. In searching the literature neither Innocent nor I was able to find a single case of cure via main-stream medicine treatments for stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer. However, in discussing stage 4 neuroendocrine cancers with alternative medicine clinics several reported treating and curing a couple cases.

Zenovia and I are confident that Innocent was able to make some headway against his cancer in both intensive treatment programs Mexico (3 weeks) and Scottsdale (7 weeks), via nutritional treatments. I believe that these short programs made headway due to Innocent feeling progressively better during them in all of his symptoms, but that 3 and 7 weeks were not long enough. This cancer may require a treatment that is intensive and long-term.

It is unclear what the future holds, and if costs will be prohibitive. The family asks for prayers for God's guidance as they make decisions in the coming days about what route to take. Thank you for your love, prayers, and support.

Innocent just went into surgery, this morning at 8am PST, today 3/6/2024. He is in Colorado and the surgery is expected to last 6 hours. Innocent has lost a lot of weight lately and been dealing with nausea and fatigue. The surgeon is confident he can get Innocent feeling normal again. The goal is quality of life not to take out all the cancer for this surgery. A future surgery may address the rest of the cancer. The surgeon will remove two tumors in the intestines that were missed before and also take tumors off of the liver. He says there are a lot of liver tumors one or several of which are probably the cause of Innocent’s nausea and fatigue but there is no way to identify which one. There will not be enough time to take out all the liver tumors. 

They are putting a catheter into Innocent’s spine to put in pain meds during surgery. They can’t do an epidural due to clotting risk. The doctor is highly confident that Innocent will feel much better after the surgery.

The doctor has been following the scans since last year and says the cancer is stable. He did not say if the cancer has progressed or regressed with the nutritional IV treatments Innocent has been doing. Innocent is hopeful that he will not need a blood transfusion due to risk of contamination. Innocent and Zenovia would appreciate your prayers this morning.  

Because of everyone’s amazing generosity, my husband completed his seven weeks of treatment, and we have enough financial cushion to buy his cancer medication ($3000 month) and cover the deficit in our overhead for two months, thank God!

Though we still do not have proof of cancer regression through a scan, Innocent feels the treatment in Arizona helped and continues to help, as he feels 60% improved.

His daily routine is a group effort; even little Ephraim helps with all his cute little words and big hugs that he gives his dad. The biggest part of his at home therapy consists of three mistletoe injections weekly, daily green juices, curcumin, green tea extract, mushrooms, high dose anti-inflammatory herbs, quercetin, and infrared sauna therapy.

Innocent is struggling with nausea and fatigue, so we ask for everyone’s prayers for our family that he will find the strength to persevere in this challenge and continue to heal.

We want to thank everyone again for your continued love and support. We thank those who have contributed financially, we thank our neighbors who have sustained us with nutritious meals and green juices, we thank everyone for your kind thoughts, loving words, and your prayers.

We hope that an abundance of blessings will fill all your homes.

Sending our love to you,

Innocent, Zenovia, and the kids

I was cleaning my room today and found this on my husband’s bedside table. I asked Innocent about the picture. He said our son Menas had drawn it when he was in Arizona.

It reads: All I want is you

Thank God for our children. Their love and purity of heart never ceases to amaze me.

With love,

Zenovia

It was a precious reunion.

My husband asked if I would fly out to Arizona to drive back home with him. I had so much going on at home that the night before our flight I told our son it would take a miracle to get me on the plane that next day. I was so exhausted, I was at the tail end of a flu, and I had nothing left in me to give. Late that night I received this text:

Good night
I love you with all my heart and CANT WAIT to see you ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

So at 1:00 am I said I better get some sleep because there’s no way I can cancel now.

The next day I took off with our sons Menas (10) and Nikiforos (6). It was their first time on a plane and I didn’t censor one of their excited expressions of awe as the plane took off.

We arrived in Arizona after a three hour layover in Salt Lake City. Menas found out his dad was outside the airport waiting for us and asked to carry his very heavy backpack himself. He slung it over one shoulder and marched through the airport, full of anticipation at being reunited with his dad after almost two months. The walk was pretty long. I asked him several times if I could take his backpack, and he just replied, ‘I got it’. I must say I was proud.

When we walked outside, the boys locked eyes on their dad and took off running. 

Here is a picture. They didn’t turn out great, but I was lost in the moment.

Thank you to everyone who made our reunion happen. It was a special evening.

With love,

Zenovia

Yesterday marked the strangest Christmas of my married life. While my husband and son were both together spending Christmas at their hotel in Arizona, I was at home in California with our other seven children struggling through probably the worst flu we have ever had since Covid. I wanted to bake for the children, but I was too tired. By dinner I felt I could cook, but no one had their appetite back. 

The evening was delightfully interrupted by some Christmas Carolers and an assortment of beautifully wrapped out of town gifts. Both of which brought much joy into the home. 

We ended up calling it an early night, and sat down to watch Its a Wonderful Life (one of our go to Christmas movies). By the completion of the film my daughter leaned over and said “you know mom, everything is going to be ok”. 

And that’s just it. Everything is going to be ok. 

In just four short days my husband will return home. We remain positive and full of hope that his body is healing; holding deeply in our hearts tremendous gratitude for everyones immense sacrifice in funding his cancer treatment. 

Somehow and in some way, I hope in time, our family will be used as instruments to bless others lives in as much as everyones sacrifice has blessed us. 

Merry Christmas and a most blessed New Year!

Innocent, Zenovia, Sergius, Savva, Fevronia, Maximus, Silouan, Menas, Nikiforos, and Ephraim

At the clinic recently, Innocent was tested for heavy metals, and the results showed extremely high levels of lead, mercury, and gadolinium. Gadolinium is the contrast agent that was injected every time Innocent got an MRI. Because gadolinium is toxic, the doctor suggests waiting until March for a follow up gadolinium contrast MRI to check if the cancer is gone. In the meanwhile the doctor is treating with Calcium EDTA daily to chelate out the toxic metals.

The doctor tested his tolerance levels for the medicines and increased them incrementally. Innocent is now up to 5-10x what his starting doses were. This is much more effective for beating cancer if tolerated well, and is also cost effective because the IVs (he is getting 19 per day), are the same price whether low dose or high dose. Innocent hit the maximum dose a few days ago. Since increasing his doses he isn’t sleeping as well, and lacks energy to do much following treatment each day. The detox effects of beating the cancer and chelating out heavy metals may be a contributor to Innocent’s brain fog, fatigue and nausea. Despite these challenges, Innocent feels and looks much better! The doctor told Innocent that what he has observed throughout the years is that when someone feels better, they usually are getting better.

Cost of treatment:
Innocent believes in this treatment and wants to push through to complete the full 7 weeks of treatment that is recommended by the doctor. Once completed, his 7 weeks of treatment will cost over $160,000 with the labs and hydrogen machine that he will be taking home. Hydrogen is the most important part of the treatment. Since the clinic started offering it a couple years ago, patients have been getting better much faster. After the conclusion of the treatment patients are typically in remission. The clinic recommends returning for a couple days of follow up treatment and labs monthly, to prevent a return of the cancer.

11/29/2023

Three weeks ago to the day, Innocent departed for cancer treatment in Scottsdale, Arizona. As this marks the halfway point for the recommended six weeks of treatment, it is also a good time to write an update. This would have been impossible without the love, prayers, and financial support of all of you.

Innocent’s day consists of 3-4 hours of treatment, some light exercise if possible, and rest. Lots of rest. Something that his body has needed for a long time.

At home, I continue to homeschool the children, while doing my best to complete projects around our property so that Innocent can return home to peace and order. Many neighbors have stepped in by volunteering their time to tutor the children or help with manual labor. Their help has brought much needed relief to my busy day on countless occasions.

I’m not sure if it is the time of year, or if the children are just now realizing there is only one parent in the home, but things are feeling a little more challenging as of late. I’m struggling to keep the kids on task while remaining focused myself on all of the demands on my time and energy throughout the day. Nevertheless, I remain ever hopeful that the treatment will be effective, and upon Innocent’s return in better health, the family will be reunited and things won’t be as difficult.

Thank you to the Scottsdale community who have welcomed my husband with open arms and are treating him like family. We are so touched, so grateful, and so blessed by your outpouring of love.

And to everyone else, thank you for staying with us and continuing to support us. We would have lost everything by now if it wasn’t for you! Our family is forever grateful to you.

With all our hearts,
The Flippen family

Dear friends and family,

It’s amazing how much a simple act of kindness means the world to a person going through a struggle. I have been brought to tears many times over these past eight months from simple acts of kindness (and big ones too!) I’m not big on crying. I try to be tough, focused on the goal. I do my best to place one foot in front of the other. But many times throughout this journey I have been brought to tears, sobbing like a baby, my heart broken, by a kind word or warm smile.

Today I experienced a little health problem of my own. Thank God I was fine, but immediately two of my neighbors showed up to check on me and the children. I felt fine as I went to greet them but as soon as we hugged I couldn’t control my emotions.

I am trying very hard to be strong. My children need me to be strong and take care of them. I also want to be strong for my husband as so much of healing depends upon the power of the mind, positive thinking, positive energy, messages of hope.

My husband has been the best helpmate, spouse, and friend. Since he has been sick I have had many moments where I have reflected on our marriage and our life together and the thing that has stuck with me the most is the simple realization that I cannot live without him.

He truly is the dearest and most beloved person in my life. He brings joy and peace and so much love to our home. He is strong in all the ways I am not. And I help him too! He is my soulmate and in his absence, I do not feel complete.

I want to thank everyone who has helped and continue to help fund my husband’s fight against cancer. My sincere wish is that he will come out on the other side victorious and be able to serve others again.

With so much love and tremendous gratitude!!

Zenovia

Dear friends,

We are asking for individuals to participate in a 24-hour liquid fast and to pray for Innocent.

Please pass this on to your friends and parishes: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7Z3hMsTx-qzGWmH_6dnH19GVzgDmf1bhOfwgBemuLbVdWSQ/viewform?usp=sharing

We would like to have at least 70 people participate for a total of at least 100 fasting days covered. This will be a journey to get better and he needs your prayers!

Funding Update: Of the 42 days recommended for this new treatment, Innocent has enough to cover 22 days. The recommended treatment course is currently at $3,500 daily. Unfortunately we are still 70k short, so I am raising the funding goal.

Thomas Silva

11/6/2023

Today's update is from Niki Flippen:

"I luv Dad but I don't like it. But wee ned 80,000,822 dollars foo Dad. Thac yoo foo yoo help!

The artist's rendition below shows Niki speaking with his Papa. 

The last report from the UCSF oncologist team stated that Innocent's cancer is stable, but progressing. The good news is that Innocent is doing better than any of the other patients at UCSF who have the same diagnosis and cancer stage.

Despite that, it is clear that the intensive treatments that Innocent and Zenovia do at home are not enough to eradicate the cancer, especially with the stress of their home being like the middle of a construction zone (they put their home remodeling project on hold 9 months ago when Innocent was diagnosed). Innocent has been feeling weaker and more nauseous in the last few weeks. Yesterday Innocent could not get out of bed all day with extreme fatigue and nausea. By mainstream standards, Innocent's cancer is terminal, and Sunridge Medical in Scottsdale AZ is offering the best opportunity to beat it that Innocent has found.

This clinic has everything the Mexico clinic that he went to in July offered, plus a lot more. Treatment includes thermal therapy and IV ozone, IV hydrogen, IV vitamin Bs and C, and IV mineral therapy. Innocent is taking B vitamins and mineral therapy already, but orally, at a low dose. He has responded well to these, but it is neither safe nor possible for him to take these at home at high enough doses to beat the cancer. He also has no access to ozone or hydrogen therapy, which studies show make the treatment he is on much more effective. The clinic expects complete remission of Innocent's cancer in 42 days at 60-70% probability and this expectation matches with the studies that have been done on the treatments they offer.

Innocent has an appointment with Sunridge Medical on Wednesday, November 8th. We trust God that the rest of the money will come in, and if Innocent can get to his minimum target he plans to stay and start treatment on November 13th. We will not know exact costs until we get there, but the clinic gave us the expectation on the last call that it will likely cost $98,000 at minimum (including food and travel). Innocent has $65,000 toward this goal, and needs to raise $33,000 to start treatment on the 15th.

Please share the link far and wide.

On behalf of the Flippen family, thank you for staying with us through this struggle.

Today's update is written by Silouan Flippen:

"I love my dad for more reasons than I can count so I will only list a few reasons. My Dad is very sick all the time and cannot egzert himself but he still work all the time with out complaneing and hapily helpin. he also has exreme patients though all his strugles he never complanes and has love in his hart.

God bless you all!!

Silouan"

I spoke to Zenovia yesterday and Innocent today. Innocent is devastated right now. UCSF looked at his MRI that was done in Fresno. They pointed out that not only are the dozens to hundreds of small tumors in the liver still there, but also they have grown in size. Their interpretation is that the cancer is stable, but growing. The chief cancer doctor was very cold. She refused to order a repeat MRI or offer any additional treatment options. She basically said to stop complaining and feel lucky, because he is doing so much better then their other patients.

There is a facility called Sunridge Medical Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, that has had a 60-70% cure rate for cancers that are no longer responsive to radiation and chemo. They use treatment methods that Innocent is already working with at home, but in a professional environment that offers a very high level of outpatient care, and with variousmedicines that make the treatment more effective. The staff expect complete remission of all of Innocent’s cancer tumors in 42 days or less. Please consider donating over these next few days. With the cancer “stable but progressing,” Zenovia and Innocent would like to act on this as soon as possible. 

To everyone who has supported this campaign for healing, on behalf of my husband and all our children, I want to thank you. With all my heart, I thank you.

My husband is hopeful that this cancer will be put in a place of remission by the end of the year, putting him back to work caring for his patients and community by January. At this point recovery that quickly would be nothing short of a miracle, but we are of the mind where miracles happen everyday and all around us. So, if it’s meant to be, that is Innocent’s desire and his plan. May it be blessed!

You remain in our prayers and ask that you will please continue to pray for us.

Fighting the good fight and finding joy in the struggle, we send everyone all our love and a heart full of gratitude,

Innocent, Zenovia, sergius, savva, fevronia, Maximus, silouan, Menas, Nikiforos, and Ephraim

Thank you for your donations, prayers, and letters. Thomas wants me to write an update on how I am feeling. I quantify it by energy levels because there is so much I want to do for my family whenever I have some strength. I had an abdominal surgery in March after which I was at 0% energy. I have gradually improved since then and seem to have reached a new baseline. I am now generally at 50% energy three days a week and on these days I feel alert. I have another 3 days at 25% energy, meaning up for a couple hours with brain fog, and once a week I can't think at all and am in bed all day at 0%. I am learning that I need to get the majority of my calories from juices. I drink some smoothies, but smoothies make me sick. Unfortunately, since I can't tolerate a lot of food I continue to lose weight. Yesterday I experimented and ate a huge breakfast. I thought maybe eating more would help with energy. After that I was sick all day. The brain fog was really bad yesterday. I had all this work I wanted to do but could not process anything. I looked at the whole MRI and did not give it a good read. I saw some discreet lesions for sure and thought I saw the rest, but not sure. A normal radiologist should not be reading these images in my opinion, it should be a specialist. My hunch is that a lot got better, but three of them got bigger. Those three are not adjacent to any vasculature and I can have them removed if we can beat the rest of the cancer. I have no words to express my gratitude to everyone for their outpouring of love, and prayers for my healing. As we go through these difficult times it is clear that we have been blessed with extraordinary friendships, family and community.

Thank you!

Innocent Flippen

Innocent called with MRI results that came back last week. Unfortunately the results are not clear, as the MRI was not compared to previous MRIs. Innocent has compared the two MRIs himself and has been able to determine that the three tumors in the liver have doubled in size. However, despite noting these three tumors, the radiologist does not mention two major tumors, one in his abdomen and the other in his colon, that were present in previous results. Nor does he mention any cancer in the rest of his liver. It may be that this is a sign of significant regression of the cancer, or perhaps the radiologist missed multiple tumors and areas of cancer and the cancer is progressing. Innocent attempted to view the other areas, but his viewer definition was poor. It appeared that in general the cancer is regressing, but he was unsure due to the poor resolution. Innocent is scheduled for another MRI November 16th, which will use contrast and be compared to the previous MRIs. We should have definitive results then on the state of the treatment.

Thomas Silva PA-C - organizer

Dear Papa Dimitri and all of you who have supported us financially, with prayer, and with encouragement,

I am overwhelmed by the generosity of each of you!

I’m fighting to beat this cancer because I want to keep my wife and eight children safe in this crazy world. I want to be here to show my sons how to grow up to be men of integrity and faith. I want to show my daughter how much I love her. I want to see my children start their own families; I want to hold my grandchildren.

Zenovia said a lot about me in her post, but nothing about herself. She has blessed my life beyond words. When we got married in 2002, she made the decision to stay home and raise and educate our children. This came with a price, however, as she sacrificed nursing school in order to support my journey to PA school at Stanford. In fact, we took some of the same courses and her grades were always better than mine! Although I am sick with metastatic cancer, it pales in comparison to the burden she faces of having to get an entry level job as a widow with eight children to feed. I also don’t want her to have to be the Mom and Dad for our kids. I don’t want her to go through the grief of having to bury her husband. It was hard enough to bury our baby son Iakovos. It was so hard, but then we had each other and didn’t have to face the loss alone.

She really is the special one in the relationship who deserves everything.

She showed me how to experience happiness.

She gave me this amazing family.

Since the night when I found out I have a metastatic cancer, I have been fighting. I was ready to take whatever chemotherapy, surgery, or radiation my doctors wanted to give me. But all they have is symptom relief. So, I fought to create an income stream for my family by building our garage into apartments they could rent out. I did this with joy so I could leave them with something. But this project is far from complete. After 6 months of being unable to work and putting everything I had and everything our community gave us into these buildings we ran out of money and energy.

AND THEN YOU GAVE US EVERYTHING!!!

You are all helping a lot and it means so much to us.

My wife has been in tears many times, seeing the donations come in. It has given us a huge boost. I feel so much stress dissipating; I am so grateful to each of you for helping us face the greatest challenge of our lives.

I am eating healthy food, with green juices and smoothies, and taking the medicine from the hospital in Mexico, but don't have much of the equipment for their treatment. The money raised so far is a MIRACULOUS start toward getting some of this equipment and helping to pay the medical bills and family expenses, not to mention the credit card debt accrued just for groceries and overhead. We are already a quarter of the way to the minimum of what it will take to do everything in our power to put the cancer in remission.

No matter how this goes, I want to show my daughter and sons that when cancer came I gave the fight everything I had. I fought hard. I fought for my wife and children. I leave you with this final quote which has helped me throughout the years of many struggles: LOVE THE FIGHT!

Thank you all for fighting with me :)

Ricardo (Innocent) Flippen