5-14-06

Main Page • John's Journal (2000-2003) • CLL Information • Contact John • Seattle Cancer Care Alliance • MD Anderson

May 14th, 2006

“Great is the Lord, and most worthy of our praise… "

-Psalm 48

God talks to me in a lot of different ways. Sometimes it is a subtle feeling inside and other times He sends me messages in a very bold way. Friday was a ‘turning point' day for me. I had two very positive turning points in my recent symptoms. First, my platelets increased. They increased from 22,000 to 28,000. They are still low, but it was an increase, and it was an increase without an infusion. Previously, they kept trending downward. Second, I had normal bowel movements without medication. This was my first day without diarrhea in 42 days. These were two huge steps in my recovery. I was and am ecstatic. On Friday evening I was ‘turning the corner' out of my driveway and I looked at Mt. Rainier. Just to the left of the mountain was the most beautiful full moon along with a perfectly formed halo shaped cloud right above it. I slowed my turn and took in this incredible view and pictured an angel. I proceeded to turn the power on to our van radio and the song ‘How Great is My God' was right in the middle of the chorus. It was definitely a ‘God Moment!' It was His way of telling me, ‘John, everything will be OK. You are turning the corner. I will carry you through this.” Since that moment I have had a sense of peace about everything and I know everything will be OK.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."

Proverbs 3:5-6

I am thankful to the Lord for steering me through all of the curves that have been thrown my way lately and for the healing that is taking place in my body. I could not have made it through this without His strength.

Friday was also a blessing in that I had the opportunity to stop and visit a couple of my classes. I have such wonderful students and I have really missed being in the classroom. I look forward to regaining my strength and returning. I am going to try and drop in throughout next week, but still don't feel strong enough to teach all day. I am hopeful my strength will return quickly and I will get the green light to return from my doctors soon.

I continue to go into the clinic daily. On weekends I go into the local hospital ATU for outpatient treatment. I am in for several hours having my blood levels checked and given daily infusions of the antibiotic Vancomyacin. The Vancomyacin is to treat my secondary blood infection. If everything stays on track I will be done with Vancomyacin on Wednesday. There are days where I need infusions of Magnesium, Calcium, and Potassium. Now that the diarrhea has stopped I may not need them any longer. I am hopeful my blood platelet counts will continue to increase and I won't need any more platelet or red blood cell infusions.

I am so glad to be home from the hospital. I am so blessed to be able to spend be with my family. The hardest part of being in the hospital was being separated from them. One of the things I did begin to notice as I started feeling better was that there were sure a lot of things to do around the house. Unfortunately, I have been too sick to do much lately and I have certain restrictions still in place as a transplant patient. For example, I am not allowed to work in the yard (which I love…the farmer in me) because of the risk of stirring up fungal spores that could cause infection. My boys help out a lot, but there is only so much they can do. Well, yesterday our family received a huge gift of service from our church. The church organized a work party to come to our home to do yard maintenance and other miscellaneous home repairs. Michelle had told me the church was going to do this, but I had no idea of the magnitude of this work party. The Lord sent the most amazing group of people here and it was absolutely awesome how much work they accomplished. From painting and plumbing to weed pulling and mulch spreading. They went after everything. I am confident they did in one day what would have taken our family all year. It is very humbling to accept this help, but it was desperately needed and deeply appreciated. Our family is so thankful to each and every person who came yesterday and for the people that donated funds for the various projects. We are blown away by your kindness and service to us. As I watched everyone work yesterday I was reminded of how good God is to us and how He uses His people to take care of one another. Everyone worked so hard, yet they all had huge smiles on their faces. It was such a cool experience. Thank you Our Savior Lutheran Church for blessing our family in such an incredible way yesterday.

“How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?”

-1 Thess 3:9

Over the past month I have sure been through a roller coaster physically, emotionally, and spiritually. (My friend Jeff pointed out that the roller coaster has been ongoing for a long time, and that if one was to look at the last 3 years worth of journals on May 14th, this would be real obvious.) I look forward to things smoothing out for a while and settling back into a more normal routine. Despite it all, I am so grateful for how the Lord has grown my faith through this time and continued to reinforce how He is always there to take care of my family and me. He has also used this experience to remind me again of how important it is to live everyday to its fullest. To show love and spend time with those closest to you and to live life in such a way that brings glory to Him. Whatever time God has left for me, I pray I can make the best of every moment.

“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”

-Matthew 6:27

"For through me your days will be many, and years will be added to your life."

-Proverbs 9:11

For those of you going through difficult trials of your own, you know that getting through them requires faith, support of friends and family, and a never give up attitude. Here's an inspiring quote from my pastor:

“Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way.

And don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.”

-LeRoy “Satchel” Paige

In closing, I want to say ‘Happy Mother's Day' to my incredible wife and mother of our awesome boys, Michelle, and to my wonderful mom, Darles. I hope both of you know how much I love you and appreciate you, not just today, but everyday. I'd also like to send along a happy Mother's Day to my donor, wherever she may be today!

Specific Prayer Requests:

•Platelets continue to increase.

•GI Tract symptoms continue to stabilize and I can resume normal diet.

•Antibiotic treatments successfully clear infection.

•High Blood pressure and high pulse rate return to normal.

•The reduction and elimination of some of my immunosuppression medications will result in a decrease in my CLL (Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia) cells. Recent bone marrow tests showed a very slight increase in my leukemia (7% to 8.5%) and the ultimate goal of this transplant is to eliminate all the Leukemia.

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