Thursday AM, March 30, 2007s

Greetings to all!

May the presence, peace, power, love, and grace of the Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – be with you and acknowledged by you now and always.

I am really sorry and ask your forgiveness that it has been three weeks since I have added to the blog. The bottom line is that it has been a very busy time and for most of it Marty has not been feeling very well. I will not give you all the details, but I will try to catch you up a little.

First, an item of possible good news! Praise the Lord! Marty had the second caudal block on May 2nd and it did not seem to help the discomfort in her back and hip. So, when we returned to the doctor on the 21st he started checking some of the muscles in her leg and found them to be very tender. Bottom line is, we are going to try some PT at Huntington Hospital. Actually we have had one appointment and Marty is doing about 9 exercises here at home two times a day. She was to start massage therapy yesterday but that has been postponed until next week. We are sure hoping and praying that this will help that discomfort which we thought was all nerve related, but maybe muscle related as well, do to the changes in her back –her spine is 2 inches off center. God is good – all the time. All the time – God is good!

Now, since the 14th of May, Marty has really been feeling bad: very tired and weak, headaches, stomach aches, loss of appetite, low grade temp, aches, and just plain feeling bad all the way around. Of course, being an RN she was trying to figure it all out as to why she felt so bad and to fix it. We were being told that her blood counts were good for her, and she was getting shots to try and bring the red blood cell count up, but it was still going down slowly as were the others. To make the long, difficult story short, after a trip to ER last Saturday, I got her into Dr. Lee yesterday. (We were not to see him for three more weeks.) He believes that all of the activity the last two and a half weeks has to do with the bone marrow and the MDS/AML. So, today she is to get two units of blood (the first she has had since January) and tomorrow Dr. Lee will do another bone marrow biopsy in his office in Indianapolis, to see exactly what is going on there. If we find that he is right about the MDS/AML then we will have to make some treatment decisions much sooner than expected. The original estimated time table was that we would probably not be to this point until Fall. In the mean time, it is hoped that the blood today will help her to feel better - Praise the Lord! - but in the mean time we have had a real experience of what MDS/AML can be like and do to a person.

What a servant and child of God Marty is! Through all of the past few weeks she has remained a “Martha”. Praise the Lord! She has not missed worship and sang in the choir until last week, when she just didn’t have the energy. She is on the Session and has attended the monthly meetings and has had a couple meetings of her Team. She is trying to get the Team work done before Fall when she figured she may not be able to do it. She has fixed some food to share with others and kept my stomach plenty full. She has her flower garden and tomato patch all planted and waters them about every other day. (When God doesn’t do it for her!) With God’s help she just keeps going, and going, and going! Praise the Lord! I don’t know how she does it. But, she has been doing it for years. Thank you God!

I praise and thank God that as of Saturday, June 2nd Marty and I will have been married for 40 years. Praise the Lord! What a blessing it has been to spend that much time with such a wonderful child of God’s, wife, mother, friend and co-laborer in the Lord’s work. I really feel blessed and thankful. A number of times over the years I have been asked if I realize how lucky I am to have a wife like Marty. And of course, I have answered that no one knows better than me, just how blessed I have been and will continue to be. Praise the Lord! I have no doubt that God brought us together and has been a very important part of our lives and our marriage. God has gotten us through some real difficult challenges over the years, to be glorified in the end, and God will do it again now. Praise the Lord! God is good – all the time. All the time – God is good!

Now that we have some information and direction I will try to keep you informed a little better and a little more often. We certainly do appreciate your support and prayers – thank you all so much.

Have a positive day and God bless.

Marty and Jack
John 3:16

Wednesday Night

Greetings!

It has been a long two weeks since we last published and we are not going to try to fill you in on all that has been going on, but only give a few high lights.

Marty is doing pretty good, even though there is good and bad news from the doctors. First, the coddle block she had done about a month ago only helped a little and did not last. So she had an- other one on May 2nd and that too has not seemed to help. So, the discomfort in the back, right hip and leg continues to have to be handled by pain medication. She can not stand in one place very long or it really gets to hurting her.

Today a CBC was done and it too has a mixed message. The WBC has gone up from 2.1 to 4.3 but the Neutrophils only increased from .5 to .9 and they would really not like to see that any lower than 1.5. The HGB went from 10.2 to 9.2 and that is even with the shot she had two weeks ago to help increase the HGB and the PLT were 60, the same as last time. So, that is how that stands, a mixed bag, but we are thankful it was not worse. Praise the Lord!

For whatever reason, Praise the Lord, Marty has had a bit more energy. We are wondering if the red blood cell shots are at least helping that part of things, even if it is not giving her more cells. We really don’t know why, we are just grateful that her energy level has improved. Last Saturday she and Cheryl went out and got flower, tomato and cucumber plants. I thought she was only getting them for two hanging baskets, but she got some for the gardens as well. Well, praise and thanks be to God that she has already been able to get them all planted. We had good weather for it and she worked and rested, worked and rested, etc, until she got it done. So, we will have some flowers, tomatoes and cucumbers this year after all, praise the Lord.

Even though I got an sinus infection and bronchitis, I did have my knee surgery on Friday, April 27th. It went well and so has the physical therapy, so it is progressing right along. I see the doctor on Friday and we will see what he thinks.

Well, it sure seems like summer has arrived, the grass is green and growing, the woods behind us is leafing out and growing back, the wild life is waking up being very active. It is certainly an awesome time of the year. It certainly reminds me of the awesomeness of God’s creation as well as the new life that God gives us. It seems to me that so many of us are so fixed on everything being the way it always has been, and we sure don’t like change. Yet, here in Indiana isn’t change the story of our lives. How does that saying go, if you don’t like the weather today, just wait for tomorrow because it will be different. Did you ever think about the fact that change has a lot of similarities to the changes that comes in our lives? And I truly believe that if we were more willing to consider and accept some change, rather than resisting it all the time, we would feel better, do better, and live better.

I am not exactly sure why God got me started on this thought and/or where God wants me to go with it because there are so many directions I feel I could go with it. One of course is the way that God is using Marty’s illness to change me and lead me to rely more deeply upon Him. You know how God says that when we trust in Him, He will always be with us. That does not mean that difficult things will not happen to us, but that when those things do happen, God will be right there to help us through them. There has been and is no doubt that God is on this journey with us and I for one have found it so, so, so necessary to rely on Him for so many more things in my changing life. Praise the Lord that He has been there and thanks so much to all of you for your prayers, support, and love. God is good, all the time - All the time, God is good.

Have a positive day and God bless.

Marty and Jack
John 3:16