Tuesday Afternoon
Greetings to all:
The plan right now is that this will be the last blog published from room 6619 of St. V’s Hospital. Yes, Marty will get the last of a two week course of antibiotics tonight about 11:00 pm and we will get out tomorrow. Marty is feeling pretty good. She is still having discomfort in her neck, which no one has really been able to pin point a cause for. Her surgery site is all doing well, the dressings still have to be changed and medicine put on twice a day, and the stitches will come out the beginning of next week. All indications at this time is, that there is no more infection – Praise the Lord.! And all the numbers are looking good. So, as of now the plan is to go home for a couple of weeks and continue to recover, rest, and gain strength. Then Dr. Lee will do a bone marrow biopsy, which will take about a week to get results, and we will see where we are going from that point. It sounds like there are three possibilities:
1. Go back to the transplant doctors at St. Francis Hospital and talk to them about how things have gone and review the results of the biopsy.
2. If we have remission of the leukemia, do nothing more and see how things go.
3. Do the fourth consolidation treatment.
We have lots of questions about the first one, both for Dr. Lee and for the doctors at St. Francis. We have been praying for some time to discern God’s will, and hopefully now that the decision time is getting closer and closer we will be able to discern God’s will. Seeing that this is a very important crossroad in Marty’s treatment please pray that she will know and do God’s will for her at this time. We remember that it is God’s will and not ours; it is God’s time and not ours; it is God’s grace and not ours. We are so grateful to God for His presence and grace in Marty’s treatment thus far and hope that we will continue to know it and discern it as we move on. Praise and thanks be to God.
The last few days I have been thinking about Jesus and how alert He was to what was going on around Him and how He observed things in the people who came to Him. In so many situations, Jesus knew what people needed, before they even asked. It seems very clear to me that one thing about Jesus earthly ministry is that it is clear that He paid more attention to those around Him than He did to Himself. That is the example we have from the Master Teacher. And as I have thought about this, particularly the last few days, I have again seen and believe we are just the opposite of Him.
The thoughts above have been brought to my attention the last couple of days because of the fact that twice in the same situation and a couple of other situations I have been asked my name. Now that does not seem so unusually, except for the fact that I have had my coat on and there on the top right hand panel my name is printed in block letters – JACK HESS. It has seemed kind of unusual and has made me stop and think: Where they looking? (It looks like at me, but are they?) What are they seeing? (It sure seems like they should see my name on my coat, why don’t they?) Are they looking and asking because of HABIT, that’s the way I am supposed to do it, rather then being open and alert to what is going on around them. Is that how we really function today? In our busy, some times impersonal world, do we function more out of HABIT, then we do out of observation and compassion? How much more could your life be like God wants it to be if you paid more attention to what’s going on around you and respond to it with grace and compassion instead of HABIT or a matter of fact attitude. I encourage you to give it some thought and see how you can make your meeting with people more personal and meaning-ful to the glory of God.
By the way, are your days becoming more “positive”?
May you have a positive evening and God bless.
Marty and Jack
John 3:16
Greetings to all:
The plan right now is that this will be the last blog published from room 6619 of St. V’s Hospital. Yes, Marty will get the last of a two week course of antibiotics tonight about 11:00 pm and we will get out tomorrow. Marty is feeling pretty good. She is still having discomfort in her neck, which no one has really been able to pin point a cause for. Her surgery site is all doing well, the dressings still have to be changed and medicine put on twice a day, and the stitches will come out the beginning of next week. All indications at this time is, that there is no more infection – Praise the Lord.! And all the numbers are looking good. So, as of now the plan is to go home for a couple of weeks and continue to recover, rest, and gain strength. Then Dr. Lee will do a bone marrow biopsy, which will take about a week to get results, and we will see where we are going from that point. It sounds like there are three possibilities:
1. Go back to the transplant doctors at St. Francis Hospital and talk to them about how things have gone and review the results of the biopsy.
2. If we have remission of the leukemia, do nothing more and see how things go.
3. Do the fourth consolidation treatment.
We have lots of questions about the first one, both for Dr. Lee and for the doctors at St. Francis. We have been praying for some time to discern God’s will, and hopefully now that the decision time is getting closer and closer we will be able to discern God’s will. Seeing that this is a very important crossroad in Marty’s treatment please pray that she will know and do God’s will for her at this time. We remember that it is God’s will and not ours; it is God’s time and not ours; it is God’s grace and not ours. We are so grateful to God for His presence and grace in Marty’s treatment thus far and hope that we will continue to know it and discern it as we move on. Praise and thanks be to God.
The last few days I have been thinking about Jesus and how alert He was to what was going on around Him and how He observed things in the people who came to Him. In so many situations, Jesus knew what people needed, before they even asked. It seems very clear to me that one thing about Jesus earthly ministry is that it is clear that He paid more attention to those around Him than He did to Himself. That is the example we have from the Master Teacher. And as I have thought about this, particularly the last few days, I have again seen and believe we are just the opposite of Him.
The thoughts above have been brought to my attention the last couple of days because of the fact that twice in the same situation and a couple of other situations I have been asked my name. Now that does not seem so unusually, except for the fact that I have had my coat on and there on the top right hand panel my name is printed in block letters – JACK HESS. It has seemed kind of unusual and has made me stop and think: Where they looking? (It looks like at me, but are they?) What are they seeing? (It sure seems like they should see my name on my coat, why don’t they?) Are they looking and asking because of HABIT, that’s the way I am supposed to do it, rather then being open and alert to what is going on around them. Is that how we really function today? In our busy, some times impersonal world, do we function more out of HABIT, then we do out of observation and compassion? How much more could your life be like God wants it to be if you paid more attention to what’s going on around you and respond to it with grace and compassion instead of HABIT or a matter of fact attitude. I encourage you to give it some thought and see how you can make your meeting with people more personal and meaning-ful to the glory of God.
By the way, are your days becoming more “positive”?
May you have a positive evening and God bless.
Marty and Jack
John 3:16
posted by Jack | 1:36 PM
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