Slick Top

When I look in the mirror, there is a bald guy staring back at me. It isn't completely gone, but it has come out rather patchy and so it was more fashion conscious to go ahead and shave the little that was left. So, another milestone, or at least a step.

The Bible doesn't have a lot to say about being smooth on top. Leviticus 13:40 says, "And the man whose hair is fallen off his head, he is bald; yet is he clean." Then there is a rather graphic incident about some young toughs who made fun of a bald-headed prophet in 2 Kings 2:22-24. Let me spare you the details, but making a public mockery of a bald prophet is a very bad idea.

A friend sent me this poem on facebook:
         “God is great, God is fair,
         To some He gave brains and others hair."

Positively, this new hairstyle is very low maintenance. Negatively, I feel every cold breeze on my head, be it ever so slight. Hats are my friend.

Here is a look...

By the way, that basket to my right contains the cards and notes many of you have sent. If I printed out all the encouraging emails so many have sent, the room would be full. Your words mean more than you know, and your prayers, well, they make all the difference. Thanks!

I'll be updating you more about the next steps as we near the end of the week and we go back to Emory.

Blessings,
Tom

A New Schedule

Today, we went to the clinic for blood work, and then received some potassium and magnesium. The chemo and such does lots to imbalance things like this so it was good to get what I needed. Afterwards, we met with the Stem Cell transplant nurse coordinator and my doctor. We signed the consent form for the stem cell transplant after my doctor went over the scary page (all the side effects and things that could go wrong.)

We also got a schedule that is quite a bit different from what we have been thinking. There has to be four weeks between the intense chemo I received two weeks ago and the start of the transplant process. The good news is that we get to go home to North Augusta for a couple of weeks, and then come back for the transplant mid-March. It will be nice to have a break.

Today, as I was receiving my magnesium and potassium, April asked me something about Psalm 139. After answering her question, I took the time to read the whole Psalm and was reminded just how intimately aware our creator is of each of us. He knows how we are made. He knows what we are going to say before we say it. He is aware of every one of us all the time. In spite of what we face in this life, we do not go it alone. He is with me as I go through this treatment and seek to deal with this disease. He is with my wife as she takes on the role of caregiver (extraordinaire, I might add). He is with you no matter what you are facing.

Thank you for your continued prayers. They continue to be the essential element in all of this.

Collection Day

The day started off with a discovery that I have begun to shed (losing my hair). That whole process should not take too long.

At the clinic, after initial blood work, we were told we might not have enough stem cells mobilized, and might not get to do the collection. The more definitive test would take about three hours. So April and I went to the lobby (much more comfortable chairs there) and did Internet (imagine that). I first sent out a request to the prayer chain and then posted on Facebook the need to pray that we could do this today.

After the three hour wait, we went back up to the collection place, and they told me that the test was very good and they might be able to get all they needed (10 million) today! Since it would take about an hour to get the machine and stuff ready, they told us to go to lunch, and we did.

They did the collection, and it took about four-and-a-half hours. We left the hospital at 5:00 or so, and they just called from the lab and said they got seventeen million cells! When God answers a prayer, sometimes he answers very loudly. PTL!

Tomorrow we go for appointments and find out exactly when the next step is and when. April and I think we may be confused on when they will do the transplant. Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to let you know more accurately what is ahead.

Again, thanks for your prayers!

Vulnerable

First, a few pictures. Left, the view from the Emory window last week (2.8-2.12). Atlanta's skyline is in the background. Nice view. Center, similar view on the Friday of the big snow. Right, I still have what little hair I have. It may be gone tomorrow, but for now, it is hanging on. Now, to more important things...

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that His life may also be revealed in our mortal body.”

2 Corinthians 4:7-11

This disease makes me very aware that this body is just a jar of clay. You can talk about “abs of steel” all you want, but nobody really has those. They are an illusion of strength over a very vulnerable body.

Paul is speaking of all the things he has experienced in his recent ministry, much of which I know very little about. But I get the clay jar image. That is the reality for all of us. The key in this passage for me is at the end. I am here so that His life may be revealed in my (very) mortal body. The only way for this to happen is reliance on the Spirit that lives in me to come through. If I am doing this by “Tom’s strength,” that is what will come through, and it likely will not be very positive. I want His life to come through this mortal body and life.

It is a revelation in some ways to discover just how vulnerable we are. In our culture, we tend to believe that we can fix anything, given enough time and resources, but sometimes things really are beyond our control, period. Whether it be a disease, or some life circumstance, it is an opportunity for God to show Himself faithful, if we will rely on Him and trust him to work.


Update:
Thursday I was having lots of trouble with dizziness, and went to the clinic of a regular appointment. The appointment went fine, but they determined I was low on fluid (dehydrated) so after two liters I was re-juice-i-nated and things have not spun around nearly as much. I still have to be careful when I stand, because some of the meds make you a bit dizzy anyway, but it is way better.

We have to make a quick visit to the lab on Sunday morning to check my blood levels in preparation for stem cell collection to begin on Monday morning, but hopefully that will not take much time, even if they have to give me some juice or blood or something.

Prayer requests: Continue to pray that God is glorified in all of this, that stem cell collection will go smoothly and quickly (a couple of days rather than three or four) and that I will tolerate that procedure well.

Thanks! Your prayers are the essential ingredient in the treatment I receive.

Goliaths

A week or so ago, I heard from a pastor friend in another country that he and his congregation were  praying 1 Samuel 17:47 for me. When I looked it up, I found it right in the middle of David’s words to Goliath. The key phrase here is “the battle is the Lord’s.”

We all have our Goliaths. Most of us face numerous ones in our lives. It may be dealing with a relationship, a challenge at school or work, a disease, or some other thing that seems impossible to resolve or work through. But, for the Christ-follower, we have the Lord. This does not mean we don’t do anything and God does it all. David selected the stones, and knew how to use that sling, but the outcome was in the Lord’s hands.

Realizing that we do not face these trials alone is great comfort. It might be nice for God to remove them, or never allowing them to happen in the first place, but it is adversity that causes us to grow (see James 1) and prepares us to be able to help others in similar circumstances (see 2 Corinthians 1). I don’t know about you, but for me, God always has more of my attention when I am in “adverse” or “out-of-my-comfort-zone” situations. It is in those times that I learn most of Him and His ways.

Update:
For me, the chemo, except for the big dose to wipe out my bone marrow and immune system, is done. I feel pretty good today. Joints are a little achy, but they told me to expect that from the injections that mobilize my stem cells from the bone marrow into the blood stream. So far, it is not nearly as bad as they may ache when you have the flu. (That was the worst-case scenario they told me about.)

Today is a clinic free day, so it is nice. I have been able to do a little work, a little reading, and some resting. I have to go tomorrow, and then Monday they start the collection of the stem cells. You can pray that they get all they need in a day or two, rather than three or four. That would either give me a few more rest days before the transplant week, or speed the process up a tad. Either would be okay.

Thanks for your prayers. They are the most important ingredients in all of this.