We got the good news Thursday -- we can make up the missed day of radiation and keep to our plan to return home on Saturday, Sept. 2, rather than staying over for one more treatment on the Tuesday after Labor Day.
A bad motherboard in the radiation machinery caused a cancellation last Monday but we pleaded for a makeup. They will do it at 7:15 a.m. Monday, and then I will get that day's regular treatment at 4:45 p.m.
So only five more treatment days -- six actual treatments -- to go!
Some more examples of the blessings from all this:
We have heard from cousins I had lost contact with through my own negligence and their encouragement and love has been a great boost. Cousin Marty fought her own battle against breast cancer and won it with good humor and prayer. She wrote about her experimental treatment that had everyone in the hospital -- maybe even the cleaning lady -- checking out her breast. She also wrote that when she needed an answer she lay in her bed and said: "God, I need your help with this one! Turned over and went to sleep, woke up and got my answer in the evening newspaper. Helped me through a really tough time." The answer she saw in the paper was the Prayer of the Day, from Joshua 1:19.
"Be strong, and very courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go"
Marty wrote:
"I cut that little prayer out of the paper, and at this moment, it is taped securely in the middle of my monitor here on my desk. It's turned yellow, almost grey green and looks yucky. But I am one of the lucky ones who can see that my prayer is answered, literally, every day."
Cousin Doug wrote that he and his wife are praying for a quick recovery "And we will do that in spite of my intense envy over your taking up a wonderful life of retirement in a beautiful place." Doug followed me into a career with The Associated Press. Yet he is still speaking to me.
