Lots of Support and Encouragement

When our pastor visited with us at the hospital a few days ago, I told him that we are receiving so much love and support and attention - like, really a lot! And he said, "Just accept and enjoy God's love and the love of all the people." We feel very loved and cared for and we thank you.

The mail delivery brings treats almost every day. The other day we received a card with a note of encouragement from a cancer survivor and a card from my sister's women's Bible study group in South Dakota. Each member signed the card followed by her personal words of support and encouragement. And I don't even know these women! And they are praying for us! I was thinking it would be interesting to have a world map with a little pin on it representing each person who is praying for us. There would be a lot of pins all around the world and those are only the people I know of!

Almost every time Gerard comes back from church he brings tokens of love and support found in our mail slot. And when we open our e-mail or my blog we find notes like this one that came yesterday... I was thinking of you today and remembered reading Psalm 27 recently... I send it today for your encouragement.

Psalm 27
v. 1 - We find our salvation and strength in God,
v. 2 - evil will stumble,
v. 3 - our confidence is sure ...
v. 6 - confidence even with shouts of joy and singing.
YET
v. 9 - Confidence does get shaken and we pray "Do not hide your face from me!"
AND THEN
v. 13 - We find hope with a calm assurance "I will see goodness in the land of the living",
v. 14 - with strength and courage, we wait for God.

And the other day, look what a friend brought me...

A pot with pansies and pussy willows for the patio! And the tulips are from another friend. I enjoyed them for a day in the hospital and then we put them outside where they have lasted all the rest of this week so far, out in the cold. I love looking out the window of the back door and seeing this springy splash of colour.

So the last few days I've been getting lots of rest because when I lie down I feel fine, but quite often when I get up I get a headache, a predictable side effect of the spinal chemo infusion. Whenever I get the headache, I have no appetite and feel quite awful, so I've been lying down in bed or on the couch and getting lots of rest. So that's a good thing.

But I also thought it would be good to get excercise, so when I felt up to it and the weather was so gorgeous out, I was going for walks - longer ones each time.

Today I called our primary care nurse to ask about the headaches; how long I could expect them to last, whether I may take any pain medication, and for any further advice she might have for me.

Turns out that going out for walks is not such a good idea. And today I heard from someone else who is also in-the-know about these things, that for the punctures to heal and the headaches to go away it is best for me to remain quiet to keep the pressure of the spinal fluid consistent, rather than getting up and down and being active. My primary nurse also suggested I drink salty drinks like ginger ale and Power Ade (they're salty?) and try doubling up on Tylenol or Advil, which weren't helpful for me in single doses before.

So... I guess it's back to bed and the couch for awhile. That's OK with me. I'm comfortable there and don't have all that much energy to do much of anything yet anyway. I've been enjoying some good programming on CBC Radio One and have also been reading, checking things on my I-Pad, chatting on the phone and just dozing off. So I've had good restful days at home as long as I stay in bed or on the couch.

Henry and Melanie went for their first ultra sound today and came home with ultra sound pictures of the baby. On one you can clearly see the head and body of the baby - a typical picture of a fetus in utero, and on one of the others you could see a hand. It's amazing! and it makes it all so much more real. There is a baby on the way!