Bored on Rest Day

Today was my rest day between big chemo yesterday and getting stem cells tomorrow. However, to keep me from being bored in one sense, I got bored in another. Getting me in the program here at Emory was sort of rushed, and they had never done a bone marrow biopsy on me here. They need one as a base line for another a hundred days out (something to look forward to) to see if the cancer is truly in remission or not. Today’s test came with a little sedation, so that made it more tolerable. A visiting medical student from Bangalore did the procedure under several watchful eyes. He told me he had done ten already, and I will say his eleventh one was done very well. He is on my “A” list of bone marrow biopsy givers. Now, it still is not my favorite way to spend an hour or two, but the folks here made it quite tolerable.

The rest of “rest” day has been pretty normal. I went and walked a mile—just 21 laps around our triangularly shaped unit. I usually start questioning my lap count between ten and twenty, so I do an “extra” to be sure I get it all in. I hope I can keep that up.

Grateful! So far no major side effects from yesterday’s big chemo blast. It is sort of strange that it took less than an hour to get it inside me. To reduce the possibility of mouth sores, I ate ice for about four hours. I started thirty minutes before and kept it up at least two hours after. Keeping the mouth cold reduces the blood supply to those tissues, so less of the medicine floats by. Plausible to me! The only side effect I am having right now is hiccups. I have had that before with another chemo drug. They just come and go.

Tomorrow, I will get my stem cells. They treat it like a birthday, and in a way, it is. If I didn’t get them back, and they didn’t start working, I wouldn’t be here long. So I guess it will be my third birthday. First birthday was way back in 1950, the next in 1961 when I received Christ into my life, and tomorrow will be the third. (If they do come in and sing, I hope to have my little point & shoot camera set on go to record the video.)

Please keep the prayers coming. They tell me that day three has the best potential to be a lousy day. Now, day zero is tomorrow (Friday), when I get the stem cells. Today is day -1. That is just how they count it. Day three is a day when some of the effects of the chemo I got on day -2 can show up. Also, counts are dropping and such. So please keep praying.

God our Banner
I have been working through Lord I Want to Know You, by Kay Arthur. It is a study of the names of God used in Scripture. (It is an excellent study, by the way). Today I was reading about “God Our Banner,” or “Jehovah-nissi.” He is the One we follow. We are under his authority. As we obediently follow, we will see Him work, and He will be glorified. Praise the Lord.