We’ve set July 13 as the day the long process of ‘stem transplant’ begins. After 3 or so days of outpatient stuff, I’ll be admitted to Emory for approximately 3 weeks. Then I’ll be ‘out of commission’ for about 3 months while my four million stem cells re-build a depleted immune system. This use of God’s creation of my very own cells to knit me back together is quite fascinating — not fun, but fascinating.
This is usually my last writing of the season, as school is ending and camp starts up. Steve, my tech guru, is working on re-hosting our mailing list on his server. This change will get rid of the Yahoo! Groups ads, and I’ll be able to resume sending notes myself rather than having to relay them through Steve.
If there are updates to pass along, I’ll communicate this summer. Susan and the kids and I really do appreciate your support and prayers.
Here’s last week’s ‘story for another time’: The three-day stem cell collection went very smoothly. I got home Friday around 2:00 and hoped to relax and recover. A little before 4:00, I noticed blood trickling down my chest from where the three-line catheter entered my body. This gadget was used to gather the stem cells and it is an important tool for the upcoming transplant. We called the doctor and followed the instructions to apply pressure for an hour. When this did not work, they told us to go to the Emergency Room, which seems to always be busiest on Friday nights. I was high on the triage list and soon we were in a nice room with nurses attending my wound. Four hours later, after going through numerous bandages and gowns, the bleeding continued. Everyone seemed confused. I thought it was due to low platelets, but tests proved otherwise. They put a sandbag weight on my chest and we just sat there. Finally (I’m a slow learner), I said to Susan, “Pray that this will stop! Jesus can stop this bleeding better than these people can.” Susan prayed a prayer of faith. She asked Jesus to put an immediate end to the problem. I thought, “God hears the prayer of my wife. I’ll be out of here soon!” Two hours later, I was still bleeding. The doctor told us it was not life-threatening, so I told him I could bleed in my own bed as well as I could bleed at Emory. We had to be back the next morning anyway, so a little past midnight we drove home.
Of course, I bled all night and as we arrived at the clinic Saturday morning, nothing had changed. God was answering our prayers with a definite: “No.” At 12:30 pm, I informed my new nurses that I had learned that I did not need to be in their presence to bleed. (My nurses don’t think I’m too funny sometimes, but they really do love me.) Promising we would return at 4:00 if nothing had improved, Susan and I went to watch our girls’ tennis team play in the AA State Championship. We played great and came in second in the state. I peeked under my shirt after it was over and saw the bleeding had not stopped so we drove back to the emergency room where a doctor who inserts catheters met us. He was a nice young man and suggested that they hospitalize me two days and put a five pound weight on my chest to stop the mysterious bleeding. Susan and I suggested a better idea: “Pull the catheter!” He admitted that was an option, but he did not have authority without talking to an oncologist. “Do you want to borrow my cell phone?” Thankfully, my oncologist, an incredible but crafty multiple myeloma expert, was not ‘on call.’ The doctor ‘on call’ said he would trust the decision the radiologist and the patient made. Thirty minutes later, Susan and I were walking out of Emory laughing at a great turn of events and thanking God for saying ‘no’ to previous prayers.
If God had stopped the bleeding and the catheter had remained, I would have been begging to transplant as soon as possible (like this week) to get rid of the hassle in my chest (I think the doctor knew what I had forgotten over 8 years.) Without the catheter, I had some negotiating power as we made summer plans. We really did want to finish the school year, start up camp, celebrate an anniversary, go to a few summer weddings, and visit our families before going into seclusion. We think God will help us in these endeavors, but first he had to answer “no.”
I’ll close with the Scripture I’ve used most over these years. We’re all running a race, and we want to run well. This passage follows a chapter that tells us it is impossible to please God without faith. Chapter 11 tells us what faith is and gives many stories to examine. The following verses are rooted in Jesus, who not only is our best example, but who is the Author and Perfecter of faith. He’s also the Finish Line… so run well and keep your eyes fixed on your Lord and Savior.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:1-3