Update 3.7

Hi!!

Thanks so much to all of you for the encouragement and prayers. Until now I have never been in a place in my life where I felt like my life literally depended on people's prayers so I value them more than you know.

Just wanted to send a quick update. It has been incredibly nice to have a two week break from chemo. And yet it has also been a reality check as to how long this recovery will really take. Even after a two week break I get incredibly tired very quickly and can only be out of the house a couple hours before I need to rest. I usually need to rest for twice the number of hours that I was out of the house. So even when chemo is done you all are not allowed to stop praying for a really long time! :)

I head into cycle 3 of chemo tomorrow (each cycle includes two Mondays of chemo and then a week off). That means I have wretched chemo tomorrow. Hopefully I'll need only 4 cycles so this is the halfway mark. I'll be meeting with Kent (my doctor) as well so I will get to ask questions about how things are looking and if I'll need a shot to help boost my white blood count. His pathology report from his surgery looked great! However, it is really, really important that the cancer not recur in the first year so we're definitely praying for that.

I must admit that my my exhaustion and pain still overwhelm me at times and I wonder when my body will ever feel normal again. This morning I kinda wanted to crawl into a hole but made myself go to church. Because of the pain and my white blood count I rarely get to go to church and more than anything I miss the corporate singing. So I figured I'd go for the singing and stay as long as my body would let me. Early this morning while looking at the week ahead I prayed, "God, I need a little something extra to make it." One of the songs we sang at church was based off of Isaiah 40:

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

Thankfully He has all the extra I need.

Love,
Kathy