4th March Chemo Day 11

Walking… something about walking. Not running. Not standing still but walking.

So often just recently we’ve found ourselves waiting in hospital waiting rooms and that’s fine because we know the appointment will happen and treatment either offered or not offered. Analysis and accompanying explanation helps us understand the reality of our situation and get some sort of a handle on the way forward… there’s always a way forward no matter what the challenge, no matter what doctors have to say. We’ve found Jane’s current doctor to be highly trained, with a highly sensitive, supportive and very friendly manner. He’s always prepared to give as much time as we want in consultation and as far as we can see he offers the very best advice and the very best treatment options… but there is a limit to what he can do for Jane. Current medical knowledge has its limits; some conditions are outside of its understanding. But… do we accept the doctor’s report as final or is there another report, the report of the Lord that we need to pay attention to?

There’s a great story we read in Luke 4 of Jesus being attacked by the religious leaders of the time. They were offended with his message and so drove him out of town and took him to a cliff edge intending to throw him off. But the Bible says he simply walked right through the crowd and went on his way. Do we seek to run away from our problems perhaps by denying them or pretending they don’t exist? Do we accept them as unchangeable and give up? Or do we face up to the challenge and walk through it as Jesus did? We have a choice…

Jane has had quite a difficult day health-wise; it seems that post-chemo there is some sort of a pattern developing. Maybe a couple of quite good days followed by some really ill feelings which we believe are caused by the chemo drugs. We hope and pray that tomorrow will see a recovery of Jane’s sense of wellbeing; she is really very weak today although again the specific problems caused by the cancer growths remain substantially improved! We did have some lovely visits today first from a friend of Jane’s bearing a gift of a CD recording of a concert she’d performed playing Chopin. Quite delightful and very relaxing! Then some friends from church called with a rather splendid orchid plant as a gift from the church prayer group. People are so kind!

Luke 7v22 ‘Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.’ (NLT)