It’s now been about three weeks since I had my chemo treatment in Florida. Many people have been asking how I’m doing since the recovery period is estimated to be about four weeks. Here is a blow-by-blow account of what’s been happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On April 1st Georgia, David, and I flew to the Gainesville Florida VA Hospital so that I could participate in a clinical trial. There were two parts to this treatment. On Monday I was injected with a chemical agent that would make my whole body and extremely sensitive to light. According to warnings even a few minutes in direct sunlight could cause blistering and severe burns. This sensitivity could last 31 days or more. On Wednesday, April 4, a laser was put inside my bladder to burn off the inside surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We flew home on April 5th. By that evening the effects of the treatment had become quite severe. I would describe the first week after treatment as horrible miserable excruciating constant pain. Even though I took the strongest pain medications that I could tolerate I was very, very miserable. I didn’t eat a morsel of food that entire first week but I did drink several gallons of Gatorade. The second week was horrible miserable intermittent pain. I left off the word excruciating and stopped taking the strong pain medications which made me ill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the beginning of the third week I was just starting to feel like I was becoming normal again. Since I still need to use a bathroom about every 20 to 30 minutes I can only tolerate a short trip out if necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tomorrow will begin my fourth week of recovery. I’m feeling better than I did a few weeks ago. But to be honest I’m still not feeling all that good. My appetite is better but I still only eat one small meal a day and a few snacks. I only go out when I have to and I need to be near a bathroom since I still need to go about every 20 or 30 minutes. And I’m still photosensitive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that I’m beginning to get a few things done here. I help pay bills, I made a few phone calls, and I’ll probably tinker with the church website today. Throughout all of this time I kept up with my morning and evening devotions. I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to maintain this discipline in one’s life. If my relationship with God was weak then I don’t think that I could have coped with all I’ve been through. I screamed at the top of my lungs as they tried to do a spinal nerve block during that first week. I was in the emergency room twice during that first week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ve been disabled for seven years now. The first time that I noticed any muscle weakness was about a year ago. I work very hard at maintaining my health the very best that I can even with all that I have to deal with. But for the first time in this past year I’ve noticed that I can be come very weary of my constant pain. Pain causes fatigue. So I decided to do something to fight these new problems. I picked a particular verse of scripture to meditate on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, on a regular basis, I will pick a portion of scripture to meditate on for a time. It may be for a few days or even a few weeks. But I have never picked out a scripture that I plan to meditate on for a year. So in addition to the other scriptures that I meditate on, I now have a 2007 Scripture meditation plan. I particularly liked Hebrews 12:3 which says, “Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you do not grow weary and lose hope.” I do not want to grow weary and I deftly do not want to lose hope. So to try to keep this verse in context, my Scripture meditation for this year is Hebrews 12:1-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hebrews 12:2 says, “run with perseverance the race marked out for you.” Since I acknowledge God in all things, I recognize that this new life of disability and pain is the race marked out for me. What I didn’t know was that the Greek word for “race” is “agon<\/em>” which means “difficulty.” In fact, it is the word from which we get our word “agon<\/em>y.” Could the literal translation of this verse be “run with perseverance the agony marked out for you”? Boy oh boy. That says it all for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I find these verses extremely encouraging. I will run with perseverance this agony marked out for me. I will consider the Lord Jesus so that I don’t grow weary or lose hope. God is good and I will worship him. I will praise him in the assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please don’t think that I am anyone special. God has lovingly led me to this place. I am simply exercising faith I have in Him. I have my weaknesses and my sin. It is my desire to trust and obey God fully. It is a process of sanctification that occurs as I yield to God’s Holy Spirit within me. I have my will and my pride but these must die so that God’s life in me will yield fruit. I must decrease: He must increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you for asking about me. Forgive me that I am writing essentially a form letter. I am simply not able to answer everyone directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n UPDATE: See www.wbpdt.com<\/a> and www.wbpdt.com\/bbs<\/a>\u00c2 !!!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s now been about three weeks since I had my chemo treatment in Florida. Many people have been asking how I’m doing since the recovery period is estimated to be about four weeks. Here is a blow-by-blow account of what’s been happening. On April 1st Georgia, David, and I flew...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-disability-pain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":673,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions\/673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rodatus.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}