Family

Medically, I don't have a great deal of updating. I finished my first round of chemo and started the new one on 11-26-08. I have finished my 3rd round of steroids and I took my last radiation on 11-25-08. I will go to Tulsa on 12-5-08 to be evaluated for the stem cell treatment. More about that in next Monday's blog entry.

In my last blog entry "I am Thankful" (11-26-08) I talked about my family and how important they have been to me in my recovery. And, this has caused me to seriously consider how important family is for the one who is in the throws of healing... whether it is healing from hurts of the body or hurts of the heart.

Last week Debbie spent a great deal of time in McAlester. Of course her mother has been hospitalized for many days, she has pancreatic cancer, and is not long for this world. I sat in my mother-in-law's hospital room and watched my wife loving care for her mother. Although it has not been medically proven, but there seems to be some belief that the cancer has moved into her stomach. She can't keep anything down, and her she constantly complains of pain in her tummy. Debbie stands by her mothers bed and gently rubs her mom's stomach to try to help soothe her pain. She has dabbed cold water in the wash cloth and kept it on her mom's forehead, and she adjusts the warm pad they keep on her aching stomach. Gentle, loving, and caring. The image of God's servant doing what good servants do.

If I was standing over the hospital bed of a loved one would I be as compassionate? Would I suffer my own pain to the benefit of my loved one? I was the pupil in my wife's "classroom of life" last week and I watched her and I learned from her actions. My wife... the teacher. She teaches 2nd graders during the day, and if I pay attention, she teaches me how people are supposed to behave when she is with me.

Then, the thought crossed my mind... what do people do who don't have family? In my recovery of body my wife has had to do things for me that are indescribable. She has done them without complaining, and she has been as gentle and caring as possible. And, without her help I really don't know what I would have done. For example... last night while peeling a potato I cut the tip-end of my left thumb off. Man... it hurt. Triple antibiotic ointment and Band-Aids were my first line of defense. Then, to double my misery, this morning, while toasting an English Muffin, I burned the index finger on my right hand. And when I say burned it, I mean I brought a large water blister about an inch long on the left side of that finger. Remove the use of the left thumb and the right index finger and see if you can button a shirt, tie a shoe, zip the pants, much less tie a tie. If I didn't have my wife, I would have been less than dressed adequately for church this morning!

Family is important. Don't take them for Granted... love them... do whatever it takes to keep your family front and center in your life. You never know when you're going need help buttoning your shirt.

Grace & Peace,
Bob